Archive for the 'Uncategorized' Category

Tiger Woods

Published at February 19, 2010 in Woods, Tiger Woods, Tiger, Current Events, Being a Man and Uncategorized. 2 Comments


So, I watched Tiger Woods’ statement earlier today. I will give you my thoughts although (I must be honest here) they do not matter in the slightest.

I thought that it was obvious that he had put a good deal of thought into his statement. He struck me as sincere, but in control of his emotions. I dunno if that’s a good thing or not. People, in general, are slow to forgive. They are especially slow to forgive when an apology isn’t perceived as heartfelt. One indicator of heartfeltedness (I made that word up just now, by the way. I know, I’m intelligent & creative like that.) is the degree of emotion or passion with which the apology is made. I imagine that he wasn’t weepy & shaky enough for some. However, let’s think about this for a sec.

He became an international superstar by being the absolute, hands down, best golfer in the world. He accomplished this by being in almost complete control of his body & mind. Part of that is controlling your emotions. Note that I’m not saying that you don’t have emotions, merely that you don’t let them get out of control. Any good golfer will tell you that you can’t start getting emotionally out of control during a tournament. If you play that way, you usually make a lot more mistakes. So Tiger Woods has gotten where he is because he has spent his entire life, quite literally, turning himself into a golf machine. When you train & work as intensely & frequently as he has for the vast majority of his life, you don’t simply “turn it off” whenever you want.

When he makes a mistake on the golf course, he gets frustrated initially & then gets it back under control. He then assesses the situation, inputs the known & unknown data into his golf machine brain, & chooses the most likely path to success. He has worked insanely hard to make this process automatic. So, when he made a mistake in his personal life, he did the same thing. He got frustrated & withdrew for a few months & now he has made a move to get back on the road to success. Knowing this about him makes me believe he showed a great deal more emotion & passion in his statement than I was expecting & certainly more than he was comfortable with.

So I watch Tiger Woods’ statement & I see a man making a sincere, well thought out, & yes, a heartfelt apology. I also see a man who has an almost inhuman ability to control his emotions tearing up & speaking with a bit more passion than he ever has before. If you watch it again, you’ll notice that he still maintains almost complete control over his voice & body, but he tears up. All of this leads me to believe that he meant it & he meant it with all of his heart. But then again, I’m an insanely optimistic person.

Did you watch it? Do you even care? What do you think?

Words Are Funny That Way

Published at May 30, 2009 in Uncategorized. 1 Comment

I’m a big fan of people. I find them very interesting on so many levels. I’ve been noticing lately something that a friend of mine pointed out a few weeks ago that I had never noticed before. Throughout my life I’ve had the good pleasure to participate in entertaining people through many different venues. I like to sing, dance, & act. In doing these things I’ve worked with all kinds of different people over the years; lots & lots of them. I have enjoyed performing with almost every one of the men, women, & children that I’ve done different shows, plays, & songs with.

Lately though, I’ve particularly been noticing these traits in the men that I have performed with & those that I’m performing with now. We’ve all noticed, even if we haven’t said it, that the performing arts tend to attract a certain type of male participant.

Now, before we go any further, I’m not trying to make any type of statement or insinuate anything about sexuality in this post. I merely want to observe personality & behavior in this post.  

Now that that’s out of the way, let’s continue, shall we? The performing arts tend to draw men who are slender, & very expressive with their hands, arms, & faces. When being portrayed stereotypically, lisps are usually involved. In my experience, this is sometimes accurate, but not as much as one might think. When moving from place to place these men will oftentimes walk with head held high & chest out, placing one foot directly in front of the other & arms moving freely with the motion. One might call this “sashaying.” When talking with others these men tend to sensationalize things that are going on socially.

On the flip side of this, I definitely want to point out that, most of the time, these men only have one or two of these traits. I have only worked with a handful of men that brought all of these traits in full force.

These are traits that we usually refer to with the word “effeminate.” So basically, I’m saying that males that are drawn into the performing arts are “effeminate” men. In my experience, this is true most of the time. I have worked with several men who were not effeminate, but this is usually an exception.

I realize that many in our culture, when describing a man as effeminate, do so in a negative & mocking way. I want to make it clear that, in no way do I share those people’s negative intentions. Some of my favorite people, and some would say myself, could certainly be described as effeminate.

So now, back to what my friend pointed out & what I’ve been noticing is so true. These traits that earn a man the label of “effeminate,” meaning feminine or female in their nature, aren’t really feminine at all. I don’t know very many women at all that I could qualify as “effeminate” on these terms. Lately I’ve been watching the “effeminate” men that I work with & comparing their behaviors with various women on the cruise. They just don’t match up.

In conclusion, I’ve decided to question anybody who describes a man as effeminate as to whether they actually mean “like a female” or not because this has really gotten out of hand. 

It Was Inevitable

Published at March 11, 2009 in Uncategorized. 3 Comments

beasty.jpg 

I don’t know why I didn’t see it coming. I’ve been preparing for it my whole life. When I was a child I performed cheesy renditions of “The Streak” by Ray Stevens for anyone who would listen. In elementary school I was perhaps the only 5th grader who could’ve pulled off playing a drunken french trader in Ms. May’s class play about Sacagawea without ever having seen either a frenchman or a drunk person in real life. In jr. high I annoyed everyone in my youth group by making any and every wisecrack that came to mind on the (very) off chance that I’d get a laugh. Heck even a chuckle was fine with me. In high school I quit the football team my senior year to be in the drama program. Not to toot my own horn, but one of us won a state championship that year in storytelling, and it wasn’t the football team. (toot toot). In college I did theatron, Spring Sing, You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown, and Beauty & the Beast. The next logical step in the progression was to get a job performing on a dinner cruise boat. You’d think I would’ve realized it sooner instead of beating around the bush teaching rugrats for 3 years. Either way, I finally came around & locked up a job with the Spirit of Boston as a singer & a server. If you’re in Boston anytime soon, you should definitely come out with us for an evening dinner & entertainment experience that you won’t soon forget. I’ll be singing “Friends in Low Places,” “Desperado,” and “Country Boys & Girls Gettin’ Down on the Farm.” (Can you tell that they’ve type cast me as the southern guy?) But I could care less, I mean 3 solos! Take that Spring Sing. I’m excited, to say the least. I now have a job that will allow me to be really cheesy & sing in front of large groups of people. And they’re paying me! I’m just tickled pink.

25 Random Things

Published at January 27, 2009 in Personal Update, Fun, Family, Humor and Uncategorized. 2 Comments

People have been doing this on facebook & I wanted to do one so here goes.

25 Random Things About Me:

1. I wanted to do this because at the very core of my being I truly believe that people want, or should want, to know more about me.

2. At the very core of my being I realize that the vast majority of the people on the planet don’t know, & have no desire to know more about me. This I will never understand.

3. As odd as it sounds coming after numbers 1 & 2, I really am a very humble person. I honestly believe that I am only valuable to the world when I am working to make others realize their true & amazing value.

4. When sharpening a pencil at an old school pencil sharpener I count the revolutions that I make on the hand crank in my head. I stop & check to see if the pencil is sufficiently sharpened on the number 20 exactly. If it is not sharpened, I start over again at 15 & count up to 20 again until it is sharpened. Why? Because that’s the way I’ve always done it.

5. I have a very, very frequent recurring dream that I am auditioning for American Idol. The song is different every time. The outcome is the same every time. Simon calls off the entire season & declares me the American Idol on the spot. (I promise that I really am humble.)

6. I have tried out for American Idol 3 times with no such luck.

7. When rejected by a girl in Junior High School, I offered her a guarantee. She would date me for a week & if, after that week, I wasn’t the best boyfriend she’d ever had we could part ways for good. No harm, no foul. I was legitimately confused when she refused.

8. Christmas music is wonderful & sacred, & I am very strict about it. It must only be played between Thanksgiving & New Year’s Day, & during that time it is the only music allowed. I judge very harshly people, stores, & radio stations that do not adhere to these guidelines.

9. I quit the football team in High School to pursue drama. 

10. I am a gifted natural athlete, I’m very strong, & I have excellent hand/eye coordination. With hard work & training I could’ve played college football for a pretty good team, but I still believe I made the right decision.

11. I was the drama state champion in storytelling in 2000. The football team never made it past the first round of the playoffs. Who’s laughing now? (Okay, I guess you probably still are, but I’m still proud of it.)

12. I use cheat codes & shortcuts on video games. I’ve never legitimately beaten one. 

13. I justify this by telling myself that I own the game, it does not own me, but we all know the truth. I’m just not patient enough to wade through the process of beating the game.

14. I have always really, really wanted to be a stay-at-home dad. I pray every day that my wife will write a best selling novel so that I can be.

15. I once bought a textbook on neuropsychology & read it over the summer because it really interested me & I really wanted to.

16. I want to write a book before I die.

17. Sometimes I realize that I’ve been singing out loud on the subway & people are looking at me. When this happens I start singing a little louder just in case some people weren’t sure.

18. Making this list isn’t as easy as I thought it would be.

19. That last one was cheap & I know it. Guess what. So is this one.

20. I am anal about the bills in my wallet. They must be ordered sequentially from lowest to highest & folded correctly. When receiving change at a store I annoy my wife because I really don’t like to leave the store until the new bills are correctly assimilated. 

21. I’m very much an idealist. I have very little patience for older people who laugh & patronize by saying, “Oh, I used to feel the same way. Just wait until you’re a little older.” I truly believe that that may very well be the root cause of everything that is wrong with the world.

22. I wish that I could be really, really funny & really, really deep & insightful. One of my biggest fears is that I will not be taken seriously because I’m “the funny guy.”

23. I really like being the funny guy too though.

24. When I was in 2nd grade my teacher said that there would be “no more talking.” I took her very seriously. I didn’t say, or even attempt to say, a word even though I really had to go to the bathroom. I peed in my pants. Even after I did it, I didn’t say a word. I just walked up to her & waited until she noticed.

25. I began crying during the opening credits of the movie “Because of Winn-Dixie.” I’d never seen it or read the book before. To this day, I’m not sure why it happened.

This Just In

Published at September 30, 2008 in Fun and Uncategorized. 2 Comments

Sorry to interrupt the whole Palin discussion, but this is just sick. (Old people translation “sick”=”really really cool”).

 You need to a flashplayer enabled browser to view this YouTube video