Devil’s Night

The Phillie’s won the world series – and the secular world rejoiced. Throughout the Tampa Bay Ray’s meteoric rise to the AL Pennant, the subplot of their removal of “Devil” from their name was always a nice humorous tidbit. But a part of me was really scared. I mean, what if exorcising the Devil was the secret to their success? What if the reason that the Yankees didn’t make the playoff this year was because he found a new favorite team? I mean – Tampa is full of old retired New Yorkers anyway. Could this mean the magic for the Yankees is over?

Well, the magic for the Rays ultimately ran out – and right before Devil’s Night. A coincidence? Probably….but perhaps the Devil did have something to do with this. After all, I’m pretty sure someone had to sell their soul to Satan for a team from Philadelphia to actually win…

Book Report

Lately, I’ve been buying/reading a lot of books. You can write me a late pass, but I finally started to use Amazon.com’s used book program. I was able to buy 5 books for under $5 after shipping and handling.

The book I’ve become enamored with is “Naked Conversations” by Robert Scoble and Shel Isreal. A book on corporate blogging, it’s been the perfect reference for everything that has been occurring in my career. I have a few more books coming my way on the subject, and I’m excited to take something new from each one.

The next book I’m reading is “Catcher in the Rye” by Salinger. I obviously read this when I was in high school, and a few times in college, but rereading it now is a very interesting experience. It’s one of those books that changes as you change – the ethereal feelings it once conjured up no longer exist – instead replaced with subtle hints of judgment. I would imagine this to be a sign of growing “old.” The last time I felt this type of change is when I reread “On the Road” by Kerouac.

I haven’t started reading anything else, but I’m sure I’ll pass along an update as I dive into them. With sunlight fading earlier and earlier each day, I have a feeling that I’ll be reading a lot to avoid the cold harsh winter winds.

l33t

I am an “Elite ’08″ Yelper!

I don’t know why that matters, but it’s kind of cool to be recognized. Finally, my overly verbose nature pays dividends! Check out my reviews here and sign up for Yelp!

Pumpkin Carving Party

Here’s a Flickr slideshow from the Pumpkin Carving Party at my house the other night.  I didn’t carve a pumpkin because I’m horrible at it, however I was a judge.  The one that I thought was the best, an homage to The Nightmare Before Christmas, is below:

Diving In

I was just in a relationship for about a month and a half. It wasn’t a very serious one – but it ended on Sunday. I had a hard time understanding how I felt. In many sense, it was a month and a half – that’s nothing. I’ve dated girls for much longer. I’ve had casual relationships last longer. So what was so weird about this one?

I guess it was that I was ready to dive right in. I was bouncing on the proverbial diving board, ready to take the plunge in what would have been the first relationship I have had in a while. Things were good. She expressed reservation but her actions seemed to indicate there was a future. And as I was there, bouncing, bouncing, bouncing – someone shouted “THERE’S NO WATER IN THE POOL!” I stopped. My body twisted up awkwardly. But I stayed on. Things felt weird as I tried to regain my balance – but I can look down and be thankful that I didn’t crack my head in the empty pool.

Relationships come and go. This one never really got started and it’s bittersweet as I miss the thoughts of “what could have been.” The reality is that none of that stuff could have been. She wasn’t who I thought she was. She was troubled, co-dependent on someone else, and lost. But then again, so was I at 23. It’s not a judgment on who she was, but a comment on the most important thing about relationships: timing.

In the end, maybe I have learned a bit more about myself. I have had an interesting 48 hours – during which I haven’t slept. I still feel those twinges of awkwardness, the longing to communicate with someone or something about this roller coaster of emotion. But, overall, I am happy. I didn’t dive in, but I was ready to. I haven’t been able to say that in a long time…

Everyone has a story…

“Everybody has a story, and the most effective way to tell it is in a series of silver frames.”

~Michael Kors

I haven’t been able to work in my bedroom over the last few months. I felt crowded – the feng shui of the room being totally off. I decided I needed to purge my room of unnecessary stuff – so my bookcase full of DVD’s was brought into the common area, my room rearranged, and space again prioritized.

The coup de grace of the room is my new collection of photographs in silver frames. After reading this quote by Michael Kors and seeing his collection in his NYC apartment, I decided I wanted to do this. It serves a few purposes. The first is that I love the way that it looks. It really brings a personal touch to my room that I didn’t really have before. The second is that the theme behind each photo are that they are my favorite photos that I personally have taken I am the self proclaimed “Worst Photographer Ever” but coming through my Flickr account, I uncovered a few gems. These will serve as inspiration for me to take more photos, knowing that I can take a good photo from time to time.