Just as I am waxing philosophical about the past, one of youth’s role models goes and dies. Nothing tells you you are getting older like people from your generation dying. But I say this with tongue in cheek - I do not really put the “facing aging” thing in front of a life lost. I do not know what exactly Kirby Puckett did in his later life (there were some scandals), nor do I care all that much. I do, however, remember being a little kid, new to sports (unlike many boys my age), suddenly finding a touchstone to talk with people about: “He climbed that plexiglass!” I, of course, refer to the unbelievable (and now classic) footage of Puckett chasing down a fly ball and leaping to a seemingly impossbile height to snatch the dang thing out of the air. Wikipedia (personally, I welcome our new referential overloads):
The World Series which followed is considered by many to be the most exciting ever. Both the Twins and their opponent, the Atlanta Braves, had finished last in their respective divisions in the year before winning their league pennant, something that had never been done before. Going into Game 6, the Twins trailed three games to two and had to win to stay alive. Puckett helped to hold off a late Atlanta rally with a leaping catch off the outfield wall that stole a sure double by Ron Gant. The game went into extra innings, and in the first at-bat of the bottom of the 11th, Puckett hit a dramatic walk-off home run off Charlie Leibrandt to keep his team alive. This dramatic game has been widely remembered as the high point in Puckett’s career.
Dan: kirby puckett died
Alex: what the
Alex: garbage
Alex: i’m going back to get him
Alex: the role models from our youth can’t die
Dan: i agree
Dan: to all of the above
We will miss you, Kirby Puckett. Your spirit will live on in future role models and history-makers.
Ok, I need to catch up my Harry Potter franchise consumption. I do like the books, for a variety of reasons. (1) Well written. (2) Fun. (3) Provide a cultural touchstone with essentially every child on earth and 75% of college students and some crotchety old people. (4) I like fantasy novels, always will; they are the trashy romance of my book lists. I’ve been feeling nostalgic lately, and reading those books takes me back to high school summers, when I am 98% sure I did not actually have any cares in the world. Seriously. No cares. Anyhow, I think I am caught up on the books (am I? I may not have read the latest slime green one … and I say that with respect to Mary GrandPre), but I do need to see at least two of the movies.
Additionally, Bleed American (I call it by the old title) by Jimmy Eat World is very nearly a perfect album. While I listened to all the old songs on it scattered about before, I finally listened to the songs in their album order and was blown away. Amazing - perfect summer cruising, Friday getting ready, or Monday pick me up album - can’t say that for many musical compliations.
I was going to say something else here. I think it might be that I will be researching chemistry and observing dentistry this summer. The blog will be pretty much saturated with dentistry for … possibly the rest of its existence. If all goes well. Fingers (toes!) are crossed; immature as that may be.
All humans are simmering pots of needs; every person you meet has a unique concoction of needs brewing. Take a baby, for instance: its needs overflow moment to moment in cascades of petulant tears. As that baby grows up, it does not stop literally crying out for things because it no longer want to, it stops because crying out no longer works, surrounded as it is in a sea of selfish people. Over the years, we learn to bottle up our needs, yet they continue to drive us from the inside out.
At this collegiate stage in life, I believe a particularly pressing need is one for direction. The happiest people I know are the ones who are sure of what they are doing: they know where they want to be, what they want to do, and most importantly, what they love to do.
I have a whole pile of things I like to do, but I have not yet been able to say “I love to do X” and follow that love. There are, of course, certain things that I am certain I will not do with my life. For example, if I got paid to look good, I’d be broke. Modelling is not something I love. Thing One removed from the list of Things I Could Be. I guess I chose my biochem path in order to be challenged and to feel that I had maximized my potential … though I know that playing piano for a living could have challenged me in an entirely different way. The second-guessing is frustrating.
It comes down to priorities, I think. You choose to do one thing or work one job in order to be able to do other things. It is the lucky person who gets a job in which they can do some of the things they like or even love within that job. Dentistry, provided I make it into dental school, will allow me to do something I like: get things exactly right. Get the fit of a person’s crown just so. Order, perfection within limits of the practical, cleanliness … all present day-in, day-out in the job I seek. But there’s an all important twist: the purpose to the high standards is helping people. By pursuing the ideal of flawlessness, I do not entertain people on stage (as I would playing piano), but I make their lives better by allowing them to chew, to talk, to live without pain.
I’m just trying to reason this Life Thing out, like most of you, I think.
Reading Plato’s Republic, I called Mykala over to share a passage with her about Plato saying “But I am too stupid to be convinced by him.” I never got there because the “him” was Thrasymachus. Now, while reading the passage, I went with the pronunciation Thrassy-maykuss, which caused both of us to halt a minute or two later. “What?” Mykala asked, genuinely puzzled by my pronunciation. “I was just trying to read through it and get to the point,” I replied. Mykala took one glance at the page and said, “Oh, Thrasimakiss.” Stunned silence from both sides.
Chicago River Dyed Green - I guess they did this for Saint Patrick’s Day in 2005. They got the river incredibly green. Governments should do stuff like this more often.
Don’t get me wrong, I do like WCCO Channel 4 News. It is the number one rated newscast in the Twin Cities, as it well should be. Consider one of its competitors, Fox 9 news, which has reported on (and aired “teaser” portions promoting) such life-changing issues as school bus drivers not showing up to work, rusty fire hydrants, and what your pets do when you leave the house. The pets piece was actually advertised on the radio the day that ground-breaking investigative masterpiece aired. Oh, and if you are wondering how Fox 9 cracked the mystery of what pets do: hidden cameras. Wow.
Regardless, while WCCO’s news about today’s weather in southern Minnesota was not inappropriate (it was actually news), their sense of humor in captions is simultaneously funny and … considering these are the people reporting our news … a little bit disturbing.
The AV Club is impressive - great article about Sigur Ros - This website should be the premiere media review clearinghouse on the internet. Consistently astronimically high quality content. You could learn how to write from these reviews.
Great cheap steadycam - Uses a t-mounted counterweight to steady a camera for commercial-quality stabilizing with a college-student price. Link from Justin. Useful for Nils.
Walking through Ikea, the three of us heard this strange strange announcement. “Would Wanda Sorry please return to Smallworld. Wanda Sorry, please return to Smallworld.”
How can you do anything but laugh after hearing an announcement like that? I mean, this is Wanda Sorry (Mykala thinks it might be spelled Saari) and Smallworld. And she doesn’t have to report to it, she has to return to it. Like, she was once a child and now it’s time … tiiiime for Wanda to go back from whence she came!
Thank you, Saint Thomas, for such scholarly surroundings:
Girl 1: So I was talking to her and she was, like, being such a bitch!
Girl 2: Yeah?
G1: Yeah she’s all like “Stop being such a space-case.”
G2: Really? A space-case?
G1: And yeah, then she was all …
G2: Did you say ‘space-case’?
G1: Yeah.
G2: Is that even a word?
G1: I made it up.
G2: Oh, you and your words.
