It Takes a Moron

So I was in NY the other week visiting my sister, her husband, and my ridiculously cute nephew who is now 2 and a half. For several months now there has been a group of 10-13 year old boys loitering in front of my families Tae Kwon Do studio. They run up the stairs and yell into the studio. They have set off fire-cracks, thrown in garbage and made a general nuisance of themselves. Well I left the studio to pick up some food and when I cam back there was a group of 7 or 8 young boys standing in the doorway and one of them was up the stairs getting ready to enter the studio and pull some kind of shenanigan. When I showed up they freaked out and the young man at the top of the stairs came bolting down. My arms were full of food and I tried to stop the boy but he got by me. My brother in law Malick (picture 4th degree black-belt from Mali West Africa, 6'1" 240lbs pure muscle) comes running down the stairs in his bare feet and Tae Kwon Do uniform, and tears out into the rainy street, at a full sprint. The boy who was trying to get away was about halfway down the block but didn't stand a chance. Malick catches him, picks him up, and literally drags him back down the steet. The kid has lost a shoe, at this point, and is so terrified that he pees his pants on the spot. Malick drags him up the stairs and sits him down in the office.

The little perps friend shows up with the lost shoe and we sit him down as well. Neither boy will give us the name or phone number of his parents, so we call the cops. One of the neighborhood kids got his own dad and brought him to the studio. This guy shakes his head when he sees the two boys and says he'll go get their parents. Over the next hour the cops and family members of the two boys show up. The parents are chewing the boys out, the boys are crying their eyes out, and the police supervisor decides to have the boys cuffed.

The two boys are standing, hand-cuffed with wet pants, in the studio when the main perp's Dad shows up. First thing he says to his son is, "You shouldn't be cryin!!!" The cops throw them in the van and take them down to the precinct.

A few hours later the dad came back with this son and gave us all his info and told us to call him if anything ever happened again.

Wow. Good times. All I have to say is, how big of a moron can you be? "Hey guys, lets go harass the Tae Kwon Do studio." Why wouldn't you harass the flower shop or the beauty salon?

Morning

This morning I was up before 6am. Hallo!!!! After a night of compulsively watching the last half of season one of a teen TV drama that I don't care to mention, and sleeping for just a few hours, I hit the pavement. Me. It's a miracle. This week I haven't been out of my house before 10.

I have to say that I was amazed at the number of people out on the streets. What is wrong with you people? Is this normal or are you all feeling as strange as I am? People really get up early and grab a coffee and a paper on their way to work? I thought that was reserved for movies or special occasions, like a Saturday morning, in which case it all goes down after 10am.

Ah! The morning. Isn't it wonderful? Birds, darkness, alarm clocks, the advent of a new day. Well, la di freaking dah! Who cares? I surely don't. I hate my alarm clock. I hate the beginning of the day. I hate leaving my bed. I hate the bustle and hurry in the morning. Hate the traffic.

I'm trying to discover the deeper reasons for which I hate mornings. I can't find them. Maybe it's because it's before 7am right now? What I do know is that there exists in me a great dichotomy. At night, the man that goes to bed is full of aspirations, excitement, and convictions for the coming day. Yet, when I wake up in the morning, I'm not the same man that went to bed. Any noble or redeeming qualities have fled. The primitive man has emerged. Generally it takes me at least 30 minutes before I want to consider talking or acknowledging anyone.

That's all the energy or presence of mind I posses at this unnatural hour. I'm out.

Dance Off!

Three amazing dancers. In order of seniority. Remember that some of the classic bits are latter in the videos. Who's your tops?

Michael


Usher


Justin

Free Advertising

This is a boring post. A month or two ago, I received a recommendation from some old timers at work for a local fresh produce market. It's called A. Russo's & Sons. I'd been meaning to go for some time and finally made it today. Superb. The best way to describe it is a civilized Hay Market. It's all indoor. No shouting and yelling. Incredible selection including a lot of foreign novelty items. (ie. Golden Syrup...who sells Golden Syrup. That sweet syrup that takes me back to my british childhood.) The prices are higher than haymarket but cheaper than any local grocery store. They also have a wonderful selection of cheeses and breads. All I can say is that I think this place is a little gem. And it's only 10 min away, in Watertown.

West Wing

This is in tribute to my favorite TV show of all time. Nothing rivals it for me. I own the first 4 seasons. I watch them periodically. Over the holidays DeEtte bought me season 3 so we went on a WW binge. Here is one of my favorite bits.




And here is another great one.



And one on Star Trek

Thoughtless

My negligence in blogging reminds me of a quote from Thomas Paine. It's from The Crisis essay III. Honestly, I love the first three pages of it. It's smashing. I won't quote it all here because I don't wish to bore you all to death. I know what it's like to open a blog and see that the entry is 3 pages long. It's a serious time investment. But please indulge me by reading a couple of quotes.

"In the progress of politics, as in the the common occurrences of life, we are not only apt to forget the ground we have traveled over, but frequently neglect to gather up experience as we go. We expend, if I may so say, the knowledge of every day on the circumstances that produce it, and journey on in search of new matter and new refinements: But...it is pleasant, and sometimes useful, to look back, even to the first periods of infancy, and trace the turns and windings through which we have passed...

"Truly, may we say, that never did man grow old in so short a time! We have crowded the business of an age into the compass of a few months, and have been driven through such a rapid succession of things, that, for the want of leisure to think, we unavoidably wasted knowledge as we came, and have left nearly as much behind us as we brought with us: But the road is yet rich with the fragments, and , before we fully lose sight of them, will repay us for the trouble of stopping to pick them up."

I think that sums it up well. I really don't take time to meditate and learn from my experiences. I expend the knowledge of every day on the circumstances that produce it. I don't take the time to learn from what I experience.

Honestly, blogging and writing in journals, I think, is a powerful way to learn from experiences. So I'm going to begin to think more. I'm going to attempt to pick up the fragments which litter the road.

For those of you who got this far and have a little more patience, here is another little gem from Thomas: "There are certain circumstances, which, at the time of their happening, are kind of riddles, and as every riddle is to be followed by its answer, so those kind of circumstances will be followed by their events, and those events are always the true solution. A considerable space of time may lapse between, and unless we continue our observations from the one to the other, the harmony of them will pass away unnoticed: But the misfortune is, that partly from the pressing necessity of some instant things, and partly form the impatience of our own tempers, we are frequently in such a hurry to make out the meaning of every thing as fast as it happens, that we thereby never truly understand it; and not only start new difficulties to ourselves by so doing, but, as it were, embarrass Providence in her good designs."

Good Old Roger

Here are a couple of quotes for today:

"In heaven when they said brains I thought they said trains, and I hid behind the door"

"I'm willing to offer my summer cabin in Vermont for a honeymoon, should you be exchanging marital vows."