Yes, dogfighting is bad, but...

I caught an article on Yahoo Sports today that reports how Michael Vick came out against an Android application called Dog Wars that allows users to raise and fight dogs.

First off, this is absolutely the thing Michael Vick should do. He still has work to do to repair his image with a lot of people, and taking this kind of stand only helps him. Additionally, it's a perfectly reasonable stance to take. Animal rights activists, animal lovers, and even just decent people will feel similarly about dogfighting.

I came away with two things here, though. First, it's a video game. Video games offer an overwhelming number of opportunities for players to engage in illegal activities: murder, battery, robbery, prostitution, and aggressive driving, plus plenty of missions in Warcraft and other RTS's that force you to engage in treason or even genocide. Part of the draw of playing a video game is being able to synthesize an experience that you'd never have in real life.

The second interesting bit is this line from the article: "Humane Society President Wayne Pacelle said, however, the game could be used as virtual training ground for would-be dogfighters." Not really though, right? I mean, we don't think there are dogfighting recruiters out there who see this app and think, "Finally, a digital way for our industry to appeal to the masses!"

Besides, that game already exists anyways, and kids are already playing it by the millions. It's called Pokemon.

In the Moment

One thing you hear all the time but probably never appreciate or take seriously is the idea of "living in the moment."

I think we all believe that we live in the moment from time to time, but the reality is that we're always looking forward. We think about what work we have to do tomorrow, or what we're going to eat for dinner, or which video game we should play, or if we should call that pretty girl from the party last weekend, or what we should do this weekend, or a thousand other ways we think we'll be happy in the future.

I know I'm as guilty of it as anyone. For 99% of my life, I'm thinking about how much better things would be if I were (thinner/more motivated/more focused), and I spend every waking moment thinking through every possible contingency for every little decision I want to make. If I go to this party, who will be there? What other events will I be missing out on? How will I feel the next day? Can I still stay below my calorie goals? I may be a little more introspective than most, but I'm sure a lot of you can relate to my whirlwind of thought.

The reason I bring this up is that last night, for the first time in I don't know how long, I had a moment that I just lived in. I had left my house for an evening walk, and I came to a T in the sidewalk where I had to decide which way to go. I looked left, then right, and back again, and I took a deep breath. I started to just look around, and I remember distinctly thinking to myself, "This is nice."

There was nothing particularly noteworthy about the situation or the scenery; if anything, it was a little drab and wet. But for a few seconds, I just stood there, not thinking about which way would be better for my walk, not thinking about anything, just relishing the moment for the sake of relishing. It was probably the happiest I've felt in a decade, albeit brief.

I've got to chase that feeling.

The Boombox

So a couple weeks ago I ordered a boom box from MidnightBox.com. It was probably overpriced, and it's refurbished so it may very well crap out in a couple months, but in the meantime, I'm quite pleased with my purchase.

It took virtually no time to set up. Just hooked up the speakers, plugged in the power, and away we go. It took longer for me to find an actual music CD to test the machine. The system actually has a hookup for an iPod, but as I do not own an iPod, that function will remain unused for now.

The CD, you ask? Well, what other CD could it be but Under The Table And Dreaming, the first CD I ever owned (okay, technically my friend gave me his copy of Dookie like two weeks before, but nobody counts Green Day anymore...in any regard).

Anyways, the CD brought back a lot of nostalgia from some of my greatest high school and early college days. I remembered a lot of old friends I'd forgotten about, as well as a few I'll never forget, but lost touch with. Good nostalgia. You can't go back though, you know? Those connections you felt to those people in high school, those are just shared memories by some now very different people. It's a shame, but that's life. People come and go all the time. The ones who belonged in our lives are the ones who stuck around anyways.

This is my way of saying, while it would've been great to keep in touch with Thyda, that was never going to happen. And we could see each other today, and I'm sure it'd be nice and friendly, but at the end of the day, we'd go our separate ways. On the other side, it's no surprise that Chip and I are still in each other's lives to this day. We weren't ever going to be able to get rid of each other. And believe me, we've tried. :)

Here's track 8 from the album, the last song I came around to like:

Reinvention...Ninth Time's The Charm

As I do every 3-6 months, I'm going to take another stab at blogging. This time, I'm going to go more towards "conventional" blogging. That is, shorter posts, more "in this moment" kind of stuff, more links, and hopefully more frequent posts.

We'll see.