Wow... what happened to me?

Apparently I haven't made a post in like 9 weeks!  I think that's the longest I've gone since I started this site over three years ago.  I was inspired to write something but I'll save that for later, I'm sure I have some things to mention since I've been out for such a long time.  

I'm also making some updates to the 100 in 1000 list so check it out!

*Uh oh Greg, this may be a long one so I know you're my boy and all but go ahead and flip back to your spanish lessons on tape*

So I'm 27 now... wow late 20's.  I don't feel old at all.  Sometimes I feel like I'm 19 still but when I think back even 4 or 5 years ago and remember what I thought 27 was gonna be like, boy was I wrong!

I went home for my birthday too.  It was great to go home and be able to go out and see everyone.  When I was home for xmas, I got sick and then did the family thing so I never had the chance to hang out with my peoples (Congrats Kevin and Amy!  Congrats Cassandra and Scott!).  It's interesting to see the different paths that we are all taking now.  Knowing what I know about some of these people it's amazing they're able to dress themselves in the mornings, let alone be productive members of society.

As for stuff around here, I'm doing lots of yard work trying to get the house the way I want it to be, and I'm slowly getting there, but for some reason the list doesn't get any smaller.  And Beau is basically the best dog ever, we are able to run a mile around the neighborhood now and he is completely off the leash and stays by my side (well except for today when he came from nowhere to tackle a cat in a puddle in the street... wow) 

Now on to the topic that motivated me to start writing again.  A couple nights ago I watched Michael Clayton a very interesting movie that came out awhile back but being that I'm not too big of a movie buff I just now got around to watching it.  To me, it was a movie about deceit, greed, delusions and illusions brought on by humans.  So I got to thinking, we are a pretty pathetic species aren't we?  I mean we do things in our everyday lives just to ruin someone else's day or to make sure that we have everything and they (whoever that may be at the time) has nothing.  As an economist -like to throw that in there every now and again- I was taught that "more is always better".  Mathematically and graphically... yes more is definitely better.  But is it better in everyday life?  Can't we just be happy with what we have?  What is it about how we are wired that makes us try to have more of everything.  For example, you can argue that athletes get paid too much, well stop going to the games then.  Because you want to watch more football, they get more money... and they should.  If you're willing to pay the price to watch them play then they deserve a piece of that... I digress.  I just seems like it is so hard for people to be genuinely happy in life.  And that's a shame.  

For the first time in my life I have been able to take my foot off the accelerator of life and, damn it feels good.  I just go to work and go to the gym (I'm doing Ab Ripper X, youtube it and do part 1 and 2... it's dirty!) then come home walk my dog and eat dinner and then relax.  And I'm the happiest I've been in a long time, if not ever.  I don't have a project or test to get done, I don't have another semester of school to worry about, I don't have the pressure of buying a home to worry about, I'm not searching for a job (even in this economy).  So I can just relax.  Now this doesn't mean that I don't push myself to be the best recruiter at work or that I don't push myself to have huge bulging muscles in the gym, one can hope right?  But in the overall scheme of life, I'm kind've content.  I hope that this doesn't lead to me limiting my progress or my future by this level of contentment, but for now I think it is quite refreshing.  I have some big events coming up in the near future and maybe that will spark some fire under me but until then, I'm chillin!

I leave you with these lyrics that popped into my head without hearing the song in years... must be a sign.  I'm just adding the chorus because that's the only part I knew anyway haha.

We were meant to live for so much more

Have we lost ourselves?

Somewhere we live inside

Somewhere we live inside

We were meant to live for so much more

Have we lost ourselves?

Somewhere we live inside

Your move Burt!

Let's play a game called Guess What This Is

64 Squares, 32 players, many directions being pulled, thousands of possible moves, black and white, slow and strategic, and definitely with a time limit.

If you said a game of chess you are correct but boring...c'mon be more creative than that. Okay well how bout this?

Life!

Yes, that's right I think life or at least mine of late is like a big game of chess. A novice chess player, I know a bit about the game and last night started thinking that all these decisions and moves I have to make are so similar to those a game of chess would contain. I'm not too sure at what point in the game I am (part of the problem), but what I do know and fully understand is that it is my move.

You've heard of master chess players that will play like a hundred people at one time and just go up and down the line moving their pieces, you've heard of that right? Well imagine you're that chess player.

The whistle blows and you start with your first game, easy right? You move a pawn forward or a knight up and in, something basic. You probably do a similar move in the next 99 games. Now you're back at the first game and the opponent has countered your opening move, like you, they probably just moved a pawn or something like that. These simple moves continue for oh, maybe like the first 4, 5, 6 moves. In life this equates to the simple decisions; when to eat, when to sleep, going to grade school, you know the stuff everyone does.

Then the time comes when you need to start deciding which pieces to attack. In chess it's simple taking their rook when they're going to kill one of your pawns no big deal right? Making an aggressive attack up the middle, while your opponent just moves his knight in funny 'L' shapes along the sides. Who cares if that crazy 'L' shape ends up taking your queen or worse...(insert scary music here) THE KING! It's chess they are just pieces, so what. Unfortunately in life who knows you may need that pawn later on down the line.

Alright now you're at move 20, the room is smokey, your brain is throbbing at the intense focus needed to maintain these 100 separate games at the same time. The clocks are ticking the seconds away waiting for your move, the man across the table from you has the most ridiculous Burt Reynolds mustache you've ever seen (didn't see that one coming did you?). Your hand grabs the piece, you've got your move, the perfect one, wham you set the piece down and grin confidently at the Reynolds impersonator. As you turn your back and head to the next table to make your move there, you see the guy at the last table immediately counter your move and take a key piece. You go back to look--of course why didn't you think of that? You're supposed to think a few moves ahead of the current one right? So you continue on, but now you second guess your decisions, the clock's tick seems to echo in your ears, when at a particular table you are constantly thinking back five, or six tables ago...was the move the right one, has he already countered? Now the boards are getting confused in your head and it all begins to unravel. Luckily enough you are a skilled chessmen (I assume that's what a chess player is called) so as you may have lost some of the games you still have plenty left, and plenty that you've already won.

Now I think this is the point I'm at. I've won several games, lost several, but the majority of them are laid out in this big ominous line that seems to give me tunnel vision every time I look down it. As the rounds progress each move is riskier, each thought is more complicated, and each mustache is bigger and darker than the last (I'm in tears making myself laugh about these mustaches). So what's my next move, the pawn, the rook, the knight, ooohh how bout a castle with my rook and king? Who knows all I know is that I'm up and this damn clock keeps ticking in my ear, so I gotta make my move before my timer runs out.

It's not all bad though right? I mean how complex can my life be if I make mustache jokes in my blog? So I guess I'll continue to grab the pieces and make moves, not knowing if they're the right ones or not. Who knows maybe next year you can call me a chessmen!

I will leave you with a song I made up while making my sandwich for dinner tonight.

My bologna has a first name,
it's K-R-O-G-E-R
My bologna has a second name,
it's V-A-L-U-E
Oh I love to eat it everyday,
And if you ask me why I'll say,
Cause Kroger Value has a way with C-H-E-A-PEEEE!

Can someone write the next chapter please?

Told you I did some neat stuff, check this link
http://www.udallas.edu/advancement/pr.cfm?NewsArticleID=3374&Cat=FA



So umm, what am I supposed to talk about now? Uh geez. So I came out here I bought a house and now I'm done with school , yeah what else am I supposed to do again?

I'm sure I've talked about "the next chapter" type stuff (if I haven't just humor me). I'm always like all "yea I get to turn the page to a new chapter of my life...it's gonna be so exciting, hooray!" What the F$CK was I thinking?

[He raises his hand emphatically] "ooh ooh call on me!"
[The blogger looks confused that someone has a questions for him] "Yes Ricky what would you like to say?"
"Um yeah I take back this whole 'getting my own life stuff', lol, I want to be 14 years old and only have soccer tryouts and geometry (the math class way way way before calculus)"
"Sorry Ricky you're --well for lack of a better word -- you're screwed!"


Sorry for the dialogue that was really just an internal monologue...confused yet? Good cause I am too. Sure all that writing a new chapter in your life stuff is true I'd love to see what my book of life has in store for me, but I just wish I was a faster reader, haha. I think I wanted a few blank pages in between school and whatever else there was in store for me. Well once again I've proved myself wrong. That whole 'nothing to do is awesome' bit was nice for a week or two, but I'm like "Shit there's nothing to do!"

It's not that I'm bored it's more like I feel stagnant. When I told my parents in late 2005 that I was going to go to Dallas "to get an education, buy a house, and work for a professional sports team" My parents seemed taken back, but in only two years I did just that. Okay great but what am I supposed to do now! Now I'm not talking about putting up rain gutters at my house (which look great, good job Ricky), or painting a room, I'm talking about big stuff. What's my next big goal?

So how bout this...I'll just sit here blogging and realizing even though I watch sports center 3 to 4 times a day I don't know anything about sports (Direct Ricky quote from a few weeks ago "It doesn't matter what seed you are this year in the playoffs everyone is so close that it's gonna be a crap shoot" -- What actually happened? 1-4 seeds advance to second round in both conferences...Screw Chris Paul). While that happens someone out there needs to hurry up and get to writing, write the next chapter of my book dammit! I have an MBA you have to listen to me now! Write...oh yah and throw in a cute blonde girl somewhere...

p.s. When did they make the weights heavier at the gym? Damn those guys!