I originally posted this on my facebook, but since I don’t have many friends (I’m anti-social, so what), I’ve decided maybe someone willactually read it if I posted it here too.

I’m not sure that I appreciate the idea of the government sponsoring invasive totalitarian measures such as this (and with tax dollars to boot?) Is this creepy or am I paranoid?

Statement issued by the White House

There is a lot of disinformation about health insurance reform out there, spanning from control of personal finances to end of life care. These rumors often travel just below the surface via chain emails or through casual conversation. Since we can’t keep track of all of them here at the White House, we’re asking for your help. If you get an email or see something on the web about health insurance reform that seems fishy, send it to flag@whitehouse.gov.
source: http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/Facts-Are-Stubborn-Things

Forward us the dissenters emails? Really?

There are other concerns that I have regarding these types government propaganda campaigns as well, but that’s a completely separate story.

Just so that I understand this…

The intention of this government White House page is to discredit a video that appeared on Drudge yesterday of a past Obama speech. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpAyan1fXCE

So now that we have established that…

Is the US government really responding to alternative news stories with their own propaganda and organized marketing? Are they paying for it with our taxes? The very same taxes that need to be raised to pay for things like health care, bailouts and brand new top of the line private jets for congress?

It appears to me that the white house video (of Linda Douglas) is asserting that the drudge clip was taken out of context from various speeches and “hobbled together” to give the appearance that Obama was saying something that he never really said. I’ve seen the video and it doesn’t appear edited to me.

WTF - Watch these two short videos in order

I will put the original video (already linked above) together with the White House response below this paragraph, watch them in order and before you make a judgment.

1. Obama Speech: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpAyan1fXCE
2. White House response: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0XCl6OHgiM

Now the second point of these white house films appears to be to provide some type of a plausible deniablity. Something along the lines of, “Those other clips were not only taken out of context, but they are old.”

Am I supposed to believe that just because he changes his public sales pitch today, that his ideals have really fundamentally changed?

HEALTH CARE - Is this the right way?

I understand the need to provide coverage for under-privileged children, the elderly and those otherwise legitimately incapacitated. I also understand the desire to provide catastrophic coverage for everyone, regardless of what they can pay.

That said, I do NOT believe that it is a proper function of the government to mandate my health care or my insurance options. We can accomplish this goal WITHOUT mandating coverage or options.

Not only do I have zero faith in the Federal governments ability to manage a complex system such as health care (think of the DMV or city clerks office, are these really the people that you want controlling your health?!), I am also dubious of their intentions.

Think of the level of control that this grants the federal government in one fell swoop. Databases of your complete medical history, prescriptions and other vital statistics. Databases of whom is on the “private option” and who isn’t. Knowledge of all of your past and future doctors appointments, one can only guess what other info they will eventually track as an effect of this health care bill.

Do the math? (1 + 1 = 11)

Another thing I am not grasping, is that this plan is being touted as a replacement to medicare and will be funded the same way. That’s fine, but medicare funds are set to begin missing target coverage beginning in 2014 and be completely depleted by 2034. Seeing that medicare and this proposed social health care are both funded by taxing those currently employed, how exactly is this math going to work?

Criminalizing Health Care?

Thinking about the section in this proposed bill that mandates health checkups feels mighty Orwellian to me. Think about this, if you miss your federally mandated scheduled check-up, you will be fined. If you fail to pay your fines, you will ultimately be jailed. The same is true if you initially elect to carry neither “public” or “private” insurance. Prison for not seeing your doctor!

The End of Paper Currency?

One solution to eliminate the risk of jail is to mandate government access to citizens bank accounts or to get rid of paper currency all-together in favor of a digital federal debit card tied to your bank.

I am supposing that the government will attempt the later sooner than later and herald it as a visionary break-through that will save citizens time and effort at tax time, but will also “save” hundreds of billions of dollars by allowing the dismantling of the IRS. As a side effect of this debit card implementation your taxes will be automatically drafted from your accounts at specific intervals which the government will market as a plus because it will eradicate the possibility of lost revenue through tax evasion.

This will give the government complete control and access to every aspect of your private life. Any item you purchase will be tracked. Big brother will know what you bought, where you bout it, and when.

The Quality of Care Factor

In France (which Obama has mentioned numerous times) doctors salaries are capped at $55k. Do you expect that the best and brightest people really will gravitate to a field that pays less than say a Marketing person with a communications degree? I would expect that the brightest minds will look to other fields instead, like finance, engineering and sciences. I postulate that the quality of physicians would drop significantly.

Also, what happens if and when the “public” government option puts private insurance out of business for good? Is it OK for the government to foster anti-capitalistic monopolies in America?

Another item that everyone always seems to mention is the World Health Organizations Health Care ranking summaries by Country. Apparently, America is # 37 overall.

Let’s try to dissect these figures…

1st let’s note that these rankings stopped being calculated in 1999, so they are 10 years old.
Let’s move on to braking the ranking down by category.

Category 1 - HEALTHY LIFE EXPECTANCY

America is ranked 24 in this category. This is the ranking of longevity. Japan is #1 with an average life expectancy of 74.5 years. America’s average is 70.0, not a huge gap there.

This number is a bit misleading though. The average life expectancy isn’t higher in other countries because they have better health care, it’s because they have far less auto related deaths and far less homicides. America leads the world statistically in both of those categories, which lowers the number when averaged. Remove those 2 factors from every country and America would rank #1 in longevity.

Category 2 - Health Performance Rank

America scores an overall ranking of 72 here, ouch! that’s bad right? But look at the breakdown, America is ranked #1 in Responsiveness and #15 in Overall Goal achievement. Again, let’s keep in mind these numbers are 10 years old and medical innovations in America have matured significantly since then.

Category 3 - INFANT MORTALITY RATE

America scores in at #33 here, Iceland is #1, France is #12, Canada is #23.

The thing about this factor is that there is no common formula to the ways the numbers are aggregated varying by country.

America for instance records any infant death regardless of age or weight. many of the other countries do not. Some countries for instance do not count miscarriages below 26 weeks, others will not count infants less than 1 pound. America includes all of those, so the numbers should be generally higher. We have more detailed accounting measures in our system than most of the other countries in this regard.

I am not a number, I am a free man!

Does anyone really believe that the government gives a flying fuck about your health? Really?
At the end of the day, you will be just another number. If you develop some debilitating disease you will become just another number in the governments database; a basis point on some appointed officials report or power point presentation.

And let’s not forget Obama himself said live on national TV that hospitals and doctors will NOT be paid by the person, they will be paid by the “individual level of health care provided to the group” (Whatever that even really means). I interpret that as meaning that the doctors will have NO incentive to treat you expeditiously, after all they are making the same amount whether the treat 1 or 100 people that day.

I have rambled on for long enough, I doubt that anyone will even get this far; but if you did, Fuck Yeah!

I was hoping that collecting my thoughts in one place and expressing them would help me feel more comfortable with this initiative, but I don’t feel any better at all. I feel worse. Helpless to have my voice heard. Afraid of having my ability to persevere and succeed in this country stifled by debilitating tax policies that by design or not will have the effect of enforcing a class hierarchy, just like in France.

Last but certainly not least,

if this plan is so fucking awesome, why is Congress EXEMPT from having to participate? WTF?

Last week I decided I would hit the local IRS to see when my amended tax return would be here. I expected a very painful experience, instead I received a decent story I thought I would share with everyone.  After driving around a strip mall for around twenty-five minutes I finally realized that the unmarked building with darkened windows had to be the correct place. I get out of my car and walk in through the front door and immediately I realize this place is no joke.  They have a sign stating no hand guns allowed inside the building. Hmm…..you know I think if I drove around another five minutes or so I could see why someone would consider taking a hand gun inside the building.

So I walk in the front door and there is no one else in line. They have two tellers and there is only one of me. Surely I can figure this out instantly no pain no fuss. I walk up to the teller and state in a very happy tone, “Hello I would like to see when I can expect to see my amended tax return in the mail?” The lady looks at me without missing a beat and says, “Sir please take a number and have a seat.” I look around for a minute trying to figure out what the hell she is talking about. She finally decides to help me out because I obviously have no clue what to do. At one point I actually felt like my good buddy Doug Fabrizio. Something unexpected always happens to him. And it just seems like he has a big giant sign on the front of him stating, please take a dump on my chest. Which I think has actually happened in the form of Bird poo.

Anyway, I grab my number from the number machine and I turn around and look at the pleasant female that just helped me. An uncomfortable silence falls over us for about fifteen seconds or so and I finally decide to take a seat. After a few more seconds she clicks this thing that makes a strange noise above my head. I turn around and see a sign you typically see at the Bureau of Motor Vehicles. The teller calls out number four! I look down at my number, look left no one, look right no one, look straight back at the lady and she repeats NUMBER FOUR…..Sir NUMBER FOUR. I look at her and say, “Well ma’am I am number five so I guess I am after number four.” She gives me that I wish you would rot in hell look and clicks her button and lo and behold NUMBER FIVE!

The story is pretty much over at this point, I find out I am getting my tax return around May 15th. The teller slides me this survey about customer satisfaction. I had no idea the government who taxes the hell out of its citizens would actually care what I had to say about my customer experience at the IRS. I thought it was pretty much a given that I hate the IRS and so does 99% of the country. But, I fill out the survey and slide it back to her. She reaches out to grab it and for some reason I think she is trying to shake my hand. So I shake her hand and she gives me the rot in hell look again, I put my head down and just exit stage left. This is another typical day in my life. At least I have a wife that loves me and a cat that is ridiculous.

Since the early 90s, EA sports games have always been one of my favorite video game series. Lakers vs. Celtics is the first basketball game I played.

Win or Lose, I would receive a beating after every game from my best friends older brother. Now you would think the correct thing to do would be to give up and not play. Looking back on my life I always seem to do the opposite of what I should do, and for the most part it has worked out 50% of the time.

I am a die hard Pacer fan, so in my eyes the best time to be a basketball fan was during the mid to late 90s. My friends brother who use to deliver the beatings stopped beating us and focused all his energy on hating the Knicks. People would walk up to him during the series in Indianapolis and pose for pictures. From what I could see no one could resist a picture with a drunk college kid wearing a, “I hate the f@$*ing Knicks” t-shirt. My personal favorite was his “F%$* SHAQ-FU” t-shirt. But that is a entirely different story.

During the 90s Reggie Miller put on a clincic when it came to clutch shooting in the playoffs. For this reason alone I decided to purchase the new NBA live game every year, just so I could destroy the Knicks and save the planet from John Starks. On a serpate note, the thought of John Starks makes me want to punch a baby. The only other person I dislike as much as John Starks was Anthony Mason, I just could never see why he was put into the game. Passing, scoring, or rebounding these are all foriegn concepts to Anthony Mason.

Around 2001 Reggie started to fade and in came the era of Jermaine O’Neal. On the game Reggie’s stats and shooting ability decreased and to me there was no reason to purchase the game.

A couple weeks ago a buddy of mine decided to pick up NBA Live 2009, he challeneged me to a game and I felt the competitive edge come back into my life(very sad and pathetic I know). So I drove down to my local gamestop, put the game in and instantly I had no clue who 90% of the players are. As I am browsing through the game I see the Cleveland Cavaliers. Ok good, I have heard of Lebron James and he has some good stats I can live with this.

My buddy Adam decides to use the Pistons(that sick feeling returns to my stomach), he may as well have picked the Knicks. I must appologize ahead of time since I have been to Detroit a few times and I am convinced there is nothing good in the entire city. Hold on, now that I have read that last sentence I am reminded that Windsor is on the other side of Detroit. That is the only good thing about Detroit. Booze, strip clubs, and casinos are in windsor and you only have to be 19 to enjoy in the festivities. At least you can get to Windsor via Detroit, that is the only upside to the Detroit area. St. Louis is considered the gateway to the West with the Gateway Arch. Detroit in my mind is considered the Gateway to pre 21 exposure to booze and boobies.

Now I am off topic, I will try to focus. Adam started the game off well he was driving with Iverson and kicking out to Hamilton. He shot well from the field and I was down early. Early in the 2nd quarter I decided to move Lebron to point guard. From that point on I would bring the ball up drive to the hole and dunk or lay it in. With a few mins left in the 4th quarter and down 23 points Adam finally decided he had had enough of Lebron and quit. Final score 68-45. Lebron lead the way with 62 points.

I am now addicted to playing basketball online again, but I do have a few gripes with the game. There seems to be a rubberband effect when you are guarding people from the inbound. Other players will bring the ball up and I will be in “lockdown mode”, all of the sudden you are sling shot half way up the court and the other player drives the lane and scores. Lebron James and Kobe Bryant are pretty much unstoppable. I get it that they are the best in the game right now, but they don’t avergage 50-60 points every night. Maybe I just suck but it seems that way whenever I play online.

My last gripe is that there are no Legends in the game. Gone are the days of Larry Bird, Michael Jordan, and Reggie Miller(yes there are better players but I am writing and you are not). If I could play dynasty mode with some of the old players I would enjoy the game a great deal more. I am aware that you can create players and use them but it just isn’t the same.

All in all this game is a great buy, I have read the reviews and it seems to be around a 6.5 rating. Good thing I look at video game critics the same as movie critics. I agree with them around 50% of the time. Halo 2 and Halo 3 both received rave reviews and I would gladly use the games as toliet paper if I ran out.

NFL Parlay #2

Conference Championship

We are down to the final 4.  Yes I understand they use that term for college basketball but let’s not criticize.  I wonder if I am in a good mood today because Bush is finally out of office.  It makes perfect sense to feel positive about Obama, now let’s hope he can get the stock market back up.  By the way I just checked my bodog account and I instantly became angry again.

I must confess. I made another stupid bet this past weekend.  Ever since the playoffs started I’ve been trying the “get rich quick” scheme with sports betting and it has not been working out as planned.  I noticed early in the week that I could get amazing odds on a 2 game parlay if I took both underdogs with the money line.  For those who aren’t familiar with sports betting terminology, money line means you are picking a team to win and eliminating the spread.  If I remember correctly I was getting 7 to 1 odds and I only needed two things to happen, the Arizona Cardinals and Baltimore Ravens must win.

So the first game starts off way better then expected.  The Cardinals look unstoppable, and Larry Fitzgerald just dominates the Eagles secondary.  Im sorry but Jim Johnson should have done a better job trying to stop Fitz.  He was the only player on the field that could beat you and you let that happen.  Why am I complaining, Cards are up 24-6 at halftime.  I was so confident in this game that I went out to eat and missed the 3^rd quarter.  As I soon returned I noticed that the Eagles are now winning by 1.  I was mad at first but then realized that this NFL season has been so ridiculous that this game is only following suit.  4^th Quarter comes around and Kurt Warner shows you why he will be eventually inducted into the hall of fame.  Can you believe this guy is a free agent next year?  I feel bad for Matt Lienert, well not really because this means he can get even more tail from Hollywood next year.  The Cards end up winning and now advancing to the Superbowl for the first time in history.   This game meant a lot to me considering I also placed a future bet with 6 to 1 odds on the Cards winning the superbowl.  That bet alone can get me back to even.

Now the next game basically starts right away.  I was hoping for a blizzard because that was probably the only chance the Ravens had winning this game.  The game starts and the snow stops.  At this moment I realized my parlay was done.  You are not going to the superbowl on a rookie quarterbacks shoulders.  History does not lie and since it has never happened before I think we are safe to say history was right again.  Then I realized that history was just made last game with the Cards going to the superbowl.  Betting on football makes me feel bipolar.  As I started to get excited again Flacco threw his final interception and the Steelers scored the last touchdown and the game is officially out of reach.  Flacco looked like a rookie today and my bank account currently looks like someone who went undrafted and is working at McDonalds. 

See you after the Superbowl.  Lets go Cards…

Although I may sometimes look like it, I am absolutely no MEATHEAD. I don’t do steroids, I don’t grunt and yell, I’m not aggressive and I would rather play guitar then chug a beer. Of course I’m sure the first step in being a meathead is realizing you’re a meathead…and my name does sound like something a caveman would grunt, but no - I’m no meathead.

That being said - I certainly DO know my way around a gym. I’ve spent many years, and tons of time reading about nutrition, working out and how to make improvements with my body. I studied to become a certified personal trainer, before sleeping through the exam (hmm sounding more like a meathead every minute), I’ve spoken to athletic trainers, played sports and been around intelligent fitness people all my life - so I have a clue what I’m talking about.

The reason I mention the above is because it makes my opinion on what I see every day in the gym more valuable.

The opinion of course being - Personal Trainers do not do their clients justice, and seem to be more interested in keeping themselves employed long term rather then actually teaching  how to work out properly. I understand it from a business perspective, but come on….

The problem I see is trainers seem to adopt a cookie cutter approach to their profession. I see at the gym clients ranging from pre-content bodybuilding condition, to 100 pound overweight women all doing the same movements. Typically this is a big pronounced stretching routine which spans across the entire gym floor, and makes the client look like a fool - only, it’s okay since they have the trainer by their side. They will then move into some extremely light weight lifting, with one foot on a balance ball and the other doing leg kicks while they attempt a standing military press gone into a front raise at the bottom…..you get the idea

Basically, ridiculous stuff that is only useful or even feasible to attempt when a trainer is by your side. These guys are in effect showing the client an extremely specific way to work out which they are certain will only be repeated when being supervised by a professional.

I can appreciate these people trying to work out and make improvements in their life, which is why on the whole I wish trainers would do a better job teaching them fundamentals and progressing upwards every week, rather then very kind of silly and involved movements.

You show up at the gym and ask for a trainer. What should happen next?

This is how I feel it should progress

• Discuss goals - Are you trying to lose weight, put on muscle, tone up, get ready for a marathon?
• First session primarily spent going over your diet and nutrition program. Nutrition is almost 75% of the fitness equation
• Develop a written routine with checkpoints set up in terms of weight change, as well as strength or flexibility increases
• Light stretching and other movements to assess the clients tolerance with different muscle groups
• Begin the written routine. In my opinion this should start by teaching the basic compound movements. Do sets of body weight squats, learn how to do a pushup, etc….form is critical so teach the client the proper way to perform each move
• As the client becomes comfortable with the movements themselves, begin the process of progressively increasing weight as to work the muscles more each week

If you are paying for training and continue to find yourself looking like a fool doing some crazy ’stretch twist on one leg and reach for the ceiling with the other’ then you may want to think back to this article and consider the alternative….make it a hobby, educate yourself and ask others who you see and trust at the gym….it will be worth your while - not to mention you’ll save a boat load of money

Basically, I do alot of stupid things. I make alot of bad choices that end up backfiring - in general, the safe thing to do is take what I say and do the exact opposite. This is the first in what will probably be a series of articles highlighting some of my more memorable decisions. This one relates to gaming and my history with halo.

Okay so I’ve written an article on my introduction to halo, and how deeply involved I got into it. Well once again, there will be future articles on this - but what I wanted to say here is that eventually I found myself on a national gaming circuit called Major League Gaming. The format was one 4 man team plays another, and my team (STK) rose to the top of the heap.

Major League Gaming took  a grass roots underground hobby, and was in the process of becoming mainstream. They had deals in the works with television, ads all over the internet and a website with thousands of active users….so the company was booming and so was our team. And once again - we were the best. It was funny, in a weird way you were like a mini-celebrity. At the events kids you’d never seen before came up to you asking “are you the real strangepurple”, or how do you do certain things…sometimes even for autographs.

I was on a team with what would become the most legendary players on the circuit - the Ogres. Two ridiculous twins from Ohio who basically dominated for years after this story takes place. They were the hottest thing in halo at the time, every single person idolized them, wanted to team with them because they could virtually carry the other 2 team members to the top. Luckily at the moment - this was me.

So we keep on winning and things are going great….then comes MLG Chicago. After spending a week before the event over in Ohio playing with them and some friends (and getting totally demoralized by a certain SOMEONE dominating me the entire time), I was in no shape for Chicago. As you may expect, I put on a horrendous performance and we lost our first event.  Of course, if you look at it realistically it wasn’t ALL my fault, but that’s how I took it.

Dejected and embarrassed, I told the twins this would be my last tournament with them. They asked me to stay and not worry about one mess up, but I was sold on the idea that I couldn’t hack it anymore.  So I quit the team….I eventually joined up with some other groups of guys and we usually performed great, but I was not in the spotlight anymore like I was with the twins.

Now back to why this was a Dug Decision…..As I said, MLG was blowing up. Events kept getting bigger and more professional, new sponsors were rolling in and the money was growing. I don’t remember exactly the time frame, but not long after I had left the team….the prize money literally tripled, the twins got $250,000 sponsorship contracts just for showing up and placing well at the events, the fanbase grew so much so that it became ridiculous, and they continued on in ways that we could only have imaged a few months before.

I’m in no way unhappy or bitter about any of this, actually I think it’s pretty funny. But now here I am, writing this blog - while they are still top tier players with a consistent team, own multiple properties, hundreds of thousands of dollars and spend time traveling around the country hanging out with celebrities!!!

THIS is a Dug Decision …. and there are plenty more of them

Another blog posting from Pat, about Doug:

next time you hang out with dug, take a look above his left eye. you will notice that he has a scar there, i will now explain the origin of this scar.

obviously by looking at both dug and i, you can tell that we are absolutely JACKED. well this is not something that happened over night folks. that really doesn’t have too much to do with the story, i just thought i would throw that in there to massage my shattered ego a little bit.

well one christmas, dug gets this bar with a big spring in the middle that if you grab each side and bend each end towards each other, it works out your chest. well dug decides to jump right into it and get a quick workout in ASAP. he does not put the wrist straps over his hands and bends. one of his hand slips off the bar, and the spring propels this end back into dug’s face. it nails his glasses, and dug needs stitches. to this day, dug still cannot properly develop muscles in his chest. hence the nickname…Sans Pecs

My Children Will Do it Differently

First I would like to state that I do not have any children.  This is probably the safest and most convenient time to write about things my children will do differently then there father. 

My Children will do studying differently.  When it came to homework and studying, it was the last thing on my list of things to do.  Whether there were sports, girls, television, video games or just plain scratching my ass, something was always more important then studying.  When I look back at my education it leads me to believe this is why I’m here today writing this ridiculous article.  When I was in high school I felt I was to cool for school.  I would often think that only the ugly not so popular kids were getting good grades and that just wasn’t me.  I wish they taught you in school that good grades will earn you good jobs and then you can just buy whatever women you want.  My son will study hard and get good grades and my daughter, well let’s just hope I have a son first.

My Children will do sports differently.  When it came to sports I was always a natural.  I figured I could be lazy in practice because I was already the best on the team.  That mentality has me writing this ridiculous article today.  I stopped playing sports and dropped out of college because to me they went hand in hand.  The only reason why I would go to school was to be academically eligible to play sports.  To this day sports is a big component in my life, you can catch me watching re runs of sportscenter on a daily basis.  My son will hopefully understand that natural talent can only get you so far. 

My Children will do drugs differently.  When it came to drugs I could tell you what, where, when and how much.  Going to college in New Jersey was an experience I will never forget.  I was a straight edge growing up because I was so athletic and didn’t want to ruin my chances of going pro.  I didn’t even smoke my first cigarette until college.  My experience with drugs is very similar to a girl who goes to an all girl’s catholic school growing up then ends up at a co-ed college.  She has probably been fucked as many times as I got high.  I am too high right now to remember why I’m writing this ridiculous article.  I can not tell you what my son will do here.  It is just one of those things where society can eat you alive.

These are three things I will watch closely when I have kids.  After going through 28 years of life you seem to catch on and after writing this ridiculous article, I wouldn’t change a damn thing about my life.

Another excerpt as written by pat:

so back a couple years ago, dug and his family was staying in the seaside area and I went along for a couple days. so after a night of cruising the boardwalk, playing some games, and meeting absolutely zero chicks. dug and i decide to call it a night and head back to the rental house.

as we are walking off the boardwalk, we notice this dude and these two chicks walking a little ahead of us. they seemed to be pretty drunk and started talking to us. turned out that they had a place with some friends down the street, and asked us to come back and get wasted with them.

this is where dug’s true nature shined through and i got to see how bold he really was. we come to a street corner and they were walking a little ahead of us. dug stops at the corner, turns to me and says, “pat, lets run away now and get away from these people”.

well luckily, i convinced dug to simply change his tampon and suck it up. we ended up going back to this house, which when we walked in, everyone instantly loved us. it was like 2 or 3 dudes there that were actually really cool to us, and then like 10 pretty good looking chicks. we ended up being fed any alcohol we wanted, getting wasted, and having a really good time. i also got to steal a pack of cigs that was just sitting unattended on a table.

we finally got back to dug’s rental house, where apparantly his mom, brother and sister were up waiting for us because we had been gone a really long time. i was wasted and instantly passed out and started snoring in true sl0bz fashion, while dug had to stay up and get yelled at by his mom.

the next morning i got to wake up and throw up in the outside shower while dug distracted his mom. it was a good time.

Anyone who knows us, knows we hold a special place in our heart for Halo - the xbox game from 2001 that’s alot more then just a game to some of us.  What eventually became a part time career, and a lifelong hobby once started as a Christmas present…..and this is the introductory story of that time period

As I just mentioned - Halo originally was nothing more then a christmas present to me, my brother and sister when I was about 20 years old, back on 2001. As often happens in life, you do something on a casual basis - and before you know it, it’s taken hold and become a major activity…such was the case with Halo.

After playing for a while in the living room, we moved our gaming online - after moving online - we got to meeting other gamers and eventually this spiraled into a real life tournament at a LAN center 20 minutes from our house.

Now I will just say, I wasn’t exactly good at this point - I was maybe 3rd best in my house, worse then my sister and just barely better then my dog. Somehow however, I ended up advancing out of the first round of this tournament - and soon after landed in 2nd round action being featured at a gaming center in Brooklyn.

At the time it all seemed surreal….First of all I’m a suburb kinda  guy, I’m a terrible driver, I’m bad with directions and I can’t parralel park. So I find myself driving into the heart of brooklyn, with no idea where I’m going, no clue what games I’d be playing….and a family who had left for vacation while I decided to foregoe based on this opportunity. It all seemed ridiculous to me at the time, and even more ridiculous - I ended up Winning the event in Brooklyn. I still remember driving home … there were potholes everywhere, people honking, more street signs then I’ve ever seen in my life and I’m completely overwhelmed - yet I’m sitting on the phone talking to my brother who’s on vacation in upstate New York.

The real kicker here was not just that I had won this event in brooklyn, but what happens next. I should have mentioned this sooner - but the event I was in was called the Halo National Championship. It was a national (duh) tournament, where local winners kept advancing for a final in California - to be featured as a special TV show on G4 networks. So having just won the brooklyn event, I was now invited for an all expenses paid trip to Cali to compete in the national finals……all things I considerered fairly amazing, because at the time I didn’t even consider myself all that great at the game and found it very strange to be getting so deeply involved so quickly…little did I know that was going to be the story of the next 4 years of my life.

You don’t really need all of the details of the finals, because among other things I SUCKED! But it was interesting being on a television show, seeing the cameras, the stage, the (homosexual) hosts, even being told what to say when the camera got on you - it was all very weird.  You know what else it was? Hot! I should mention that I’m italian, and as such - sweat much more then most people, but DAM! This stage had to be 85 degrees minimum, combine that with the nerves I inevitably felt since I was playing for the national championship and you had one smelly 21 year old.

All in all it was an incredible experience, something I never saw myself doing or even holding an interest in - and like I said before, it was the foundation for the next 3 or 4 years of my life…all of which will be documented in painful detail later on in this blog

Here’s one more of me, and the finest halo players the world had to offer circa 2002