- The reason for the title of this blog entry, the "shooting" edition, has nothing to do with guns or actual violence. What I'm talking about here is something that has to do with professional wrestling. A "shoot" in wrestling refers to any unplanned, unscripted or real-life occurrence within an event, usually inferring that it's not part of the show. It could include an unplanned aspect of a match, a remark that goes off the rails, or even some unplanned fan interference. It's something that America's wrestling big leagues WWE and TNA as well as others frown upon greatly due to those organizations' incessant need for tight conformity to company standards. About a week and a half ago, a shoot occurred on an episode of WWE Monday Night Raw. CM Punk, a wrestler whose contract ends this upcoming weekend, started tearing into some of the real-life aspects of his WWE experience, including Cena being a suck-up, the ineptitude of several higher-ups in the company, direct shots at CEO Vince McMahon, his daughter Stephanie and son-in-law Triple H, the shoddy treatment of talent within WWE, and was about to go into a rant about the anti-bullying initiative WWE recently became a part of before he got cut off. Being a heel for the past couple of years, he started getting mad props on the internet after his shoot and a couple of nights ago on Raw he got cheered like he was a monster face. The truth of his comments has been verified by several from within and outside the company. CM Punk has stirred up a hornet's nest with his rant and understandably caused a lot of friction with upper management regarding what he said. This weekend is supposed to be his last with WWE with a title shot at the Money In The Bank PPV. It's going to be interesting this weekend coming up, to say the least.
- I want to announce now that after the next edition of Random Thoughts sometime in August I will be taking an undetermined period of time off from blogging. The main reason I'm doing this after that time is because it looks like I'm going to be going through and making a lot of changes in my life starting around then. I can't really get into much about this because I'm not sure what exact changes are actually going to happen or how many of those will be related to this new beginning of mine I've been working on (the one I've been praying on every day). In any case, it looks like I'll be going through a transitional period, one of potential major upheaval and one that has been a long time coming. I'll be honest...I'm nervous and scared about this because I don't really know of all the changes that are going to happen in my life, only that there are changes coming. Once this transition settles, I will return to blogging. It also seemed an opportune time to take this extended break because the return of the blog will bring about the 100th edition of Random Thoughts. That particular edition (hopefully) will herald a transformation of this blog into something no one will see coming, with new ideas and concepts that have been brewing in my mind for a long time now and changes in the layout of this blog to accomodate this transformation. This extended break will give me time to get and do what I need to make this happen. The only thing I can really do at this point is pray for the brighter horizon.
- I'm gonna get my whine on here for a moment so bear with me...with all the stuff that's been going on, I have been going through one of the roughest periods of my life these past couple of months physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually. It has been challenging for me, to say the least. The ankle I twisted early last month still bugs me at times. After being off my feet for a month because of it, my legs got really tired and sore while walking around Red, White & Boom and I had to sit down multiple times. I had to reload my operating system on my computer last week after a crash and I'm still dealing with computer stability issues. I just got through a week where only a quarter of my cable channels worked. I've barely been social with people online and off, only on very few occasions. My depression and anxiety have been getting the better of me as of late and has been rather difficult to fight off. The transition coming up has only exacerbated that stuff. I try not to talk specifically about my troubles because I'm not always in a place to do so and I've already driven away enough people, but there are times I just need to get this stuff out here in the blog...not just to help me deal but to remind myself that I'm human, that I'm fallable, that I can hold myself accountable for my failings, and that in the future when I look back at this, I remind myself that not everything was idyllic and all coming up roses (as some have accused me of doing in the past). The only things I can ask for without too much hassle from people are prayers for me to just get through all this. At this point, all I want is for things to get better. Okay...turning off the whining now.
- Changing the tone, I had a decent time on my 4th of July adventure to Ohio State and Red, White & Boom for 2011. If not for the aforementioned walking issues it would have ranked up there with last year's trip. Like last year I do have some things to report from my trip this year, so here we go:
- Unlike last year there was nothing really noteworthy riding the buses this year. I didn't mind because I hate dealing with trouble on buses.
- At OSU I visited a lot of old haunts, notable locations, and old places where I used to live. I took a lot of pictures of my adventure this year, about double last year's total. I posted a photo album of the trip on Facebook if anybody wants to check that out.
- At about a quarter after 3 on the main Oval at OSU, I witnessed a couple of guys tossing around a football. The football ended up getting stuck in a tree. It was funny watching them toss up multiple objects to try to get the football down including a water bottle, a backpack, and a shoe that also ended up getting stuck. Their attempts were drawing a pretty sizable crowd of onlookers, mostly new students going through orientation, but it made for an interesting distraction.
- In my last year at OSU, the athletic center was a rinky-dink building called Larkins Hall. After I left, they started building a new athletic center. I checked it out and the entire complex was ten times the size of Larkins Hall, with outdoor tennis courts and soccer fields, a huge building replacing the old one, and a swimming complex just behind that which was huge itself. The place was enormous!
- It's not the only thing that's changed. The first dorm I lived in, Stradley Hall, is now being linked with neighboring Park Hall with an 11-story connector, turning it into one huge dorm. On top of that, they removed the parking lot that was next to Stradley and are apparently turning it into something else...yet another part of my college days that's now completely different.
- With all the construction going on in the past 20 years, I'm surprised the official name of the Ohio State University hasn't changed yet to Construction State University. There's just been so much of it going on there.
- At Red, White & Boom, I took a pic of a guy on top of one of the concession stands dancing like a fool. He looked really stupid doing it to boot.
- I tried to watch the fireworks from a somewhat vacant spot and was asked to leave by a group of people claiming they were saving the space for people that were supposed to show up. After some back and forth I did leave but I did check up on them from time to time and nobody else showed up. I can't tell you how irritating it is to see people saving large tracts of space, supposedly for friends who were "supposed" to show up, and being rude and disrespectful about it only to find that those so-called friends never showed and were probably never going to. I understand first-come, first-serve, but that was ridiculous. I would think the city would want to crack down on such obnoxiousness, but knowing the city nothing would be done about it. Just my luck.
- I did have an interesting conversation, if you could call it that, with a mute while waiting for the bus. Never had one of those before. I got a lot of what he was trying to get across with his hand-signing, but it was interesting communication, to say the least.
- I went to see the first showing of Transformers: Dark of the Moon on the Tuesday before the official opening. I saw the Real 3D version of the movie. The most apt description of this movie was "awesome." I don't use the "A" word often for movies...only in great circumstances, so take that for what you will. This film is not for the really young or weak of heart because it is rather graphic in some parts. This was the first Transformers film to take story beats from the original 80's Generation One cartoon series, specifically the classic storyline "Countdown to Extinction" with the Decepticons trying to bring Cybertron to Earth and Patrick Dempsey playing a "Dr. Archeville"-type role as a collaborator. The 3D effects were effective for the most part, not spectacular. This movie was easily the best in the bunch: it referenced Generation 1 continuity, had a couple surprising twists (one I definitely didn't see coming) and used targeted humor. Professional critics who reviewed this movie poorly must have been watching a different movie or were wasted or something because this was a great movie. I am planning to go see it again if I get an opportunity.
- Speaking of movies, there will be a sequel/soft reboot of G.I. Joe. They got Jon Chu (Step Up) to direct and have Channing Tatum (Duke), Ray Park (Snake-Eyes) and Lee Byung-hun (Storm Shadow) returning for the film. I wouldn't normally talk about movies this soon if not for something interesting about it, and in this case it would be the casting. They have casted The Rock (Dwayne Johnson) as "Roadblock" (so I guess Rock is short for Roadblock now), Adrienne Palicki (she was almost Wonder Woman) as "Lady Jaye," the RZA from Wu-Tang Clan as the "Blind Master," and Ray Stevenson (the Punisher in the movie Punisher: War Zone and voicing the same role for Marvel's Super Hero Squad cartoon) as "Firefly." The title of the film is supposedly "G.I. Joe: Cobra Strikes" but that is apparently tentative. This is shaping up to be a good movie based on the casting alone and supposedly better than the first one...and I liked that one.
- Song on repeat: "They Won't Go When I Go" by George Michael. A song from the 1990 album "Listen Without Prejudice Vol. 1," it marked a stark contrast for George Michael as he tried to take the focus off of his image and put it on his music. This album was one of the few where I liked every song from it. Back in the day I would listen to it for hours on end. This particular song is haunting yet comforting for some unfathomable reason.
- SLP to the following: Holly, Aunt Sandy, Bob, Lynn, Isaiah, Debbie, Dave, Pastor Cory, Ernest, Tammy, Griff, Art (happy birthday), Aunt Sue, Stan, Maggie (happy birthday), Kristen, and Paula.
That's it for this edition. There's stuff I have to get to so I'm gonna go ahead and take off. I hope everybody is doing alright and I pray for those of you who are troubled or going through stuff. Until next time, folks. Take care and God Bless.
DJ
