I recently picked up The Real Ghostbusters off Amazon.com a few weeks ago and been trying to make a go at the first season of the seriess. The writing is surprisingly good for a 80′s children s cartoon and the plot at times can be pretty complex. The cartoon was written by Harold Ramis and Dan Aykroyd, so for all intents and purposes, what went on in the cartoon was canon. After getting a few episodes into the series, odd ball questions started popping up in my head about the Ghostbusters. At first, I tried Googling my questions to find answers, but couldn’t find any. I trolled some Ghostbuster fan pages, but didn’t find answers to my specific questions. So I’m just going to lay out my questions and try to piece together a rationale to help me understand the Ghostbusters and how they would exist in the real world. Feel free to put in your two cents.

Question 1: Does Janine Melnitz sleep or better yet, live at Ghostbusters HQ? 

I don’t know. You regularly see the Ghostbusters do night jobs and treat their business as though it’s a on-callfire station (living quarters: beds, kitchen, living area, rec room, etc.). From 1984 through 1991 (Ghostbsters through Ghostbuster: The Video Game) you only see Janine behind the desk. If she does call it a day, lets say at 5 p.m., who takes the calls then? This is more of a question of logistics than anything else.

On top of that, does Janine even have a home? It’s never shown if Janine has a living quarters, but living arrangements for the Ghostbusters were rarely seen in either movie and weren’t really explored till the cartoon series. I would think it would be cheaper for the Ghostbusters to hire Janine on a salary basis and have her live at HQ so she could answer the phone whenever she heard it rang. From my memory however, there was a time when we didn’t see Janine at her desk, that was when Walter Peck first entered HQ and was met by Peter Venkman. She could very well have been on a bathroom break.

Question 2: What are the ethical boundaries of ghost capture?

This could be a topic all in its own. I’m going to just summarize a few ideas floating in my head and try to flesh out some kind of rationale.

First, let me give you a primer to what I think would be the basics for understanding the concepts of ghost capture. One of the big laws of science that’s used almost to a fault in the Ghostbusters universe is the laws regarding the conservation of energy; wh

ich states that energy cannot be created nor destroyed but only be transferred from one state to another. This is why we have ghosts: the body dies and the spirit lives on. This is also why the Ghostbusters cannot “kill” a ghost, only transfer it from one place to another (to the trap then the containment unit).

With that piece of knowledge in mind, let’s get to the meat and potatoes of the question regarding the ethics of ghost capturing. Lets say the Ghostbusters are on a call and capture a bunch of ghosts having their way in an abandoned warehouse. They go back to HQ, put the ghosts into the containment unit and call it a day. The next morning there are picketers outside of HQ, protesting the capture of people’s deceased family members. Whats a Ghostbuster to do? Release them so they can wreak havoc on the city or keep them contained in the grid?

Where does the sacredness of life end? At death? The ghost of the love one is right there in front of you. Yeah sure they don’t have a physical body but you’re able to communicate and interact with them as though they were alive to a certain extent. I’m under the impression that a ghost in the Ghostbusters universe is a culmination of their previous life manifested into a characterture of themselves (Slimer = glutton).  So that would mean that along with bad ghosts, there are good ghosts. Where would the Ghostbusters draw the line of distinction? There would have to be a set of ethical boundaries placed for ghost capture in order to avoid any type of conflict of interest and social taboos.

Case in point. The Ghostbusters fought and won a battle with the invading God Zuul. Even though the Ghostbusters didn’t destroy or capture Zuul, they sealed Zuul from our dimension when they crossed the streams, shutting the door to our world for all time. What if that was Jesus or better yet, Christian GOD. What if GOD came down and had Stay Puff march down 5th Avenue (very OT of him, I know) and the Ghostbusters slammed the door on him from our plane of existence? Where is the ethical line in the sand that the Ghostbusters would never cross?

I guess one question only leads to another…

Question 3: Ghost rights

Ok, ghosts are of us but now dead, that’s understood. If I was a functioning ghost, I would like to not have to worry about being zapped than thrown into a containment unit just because I’m a free-floating ectoplasmic paranormal phenomenon. What if I could still do my job, but never tire. As a ghost, I’m sure I could do other feats that someone living couldn’t normally do (like float). Long story short, ghosts have benefits. This practice is put into use heavily in The Real Ghostbusters with Slimer. Slimer is pretty much the unsung 5th Ghostbuster. Besides occasionally annoying Venkem, Slimer regularly travels with the Ghostbusters and has been, on occasion, assist in ghost capture.

This doesn’t mean slimer has rights. He’s constantlyy reminded he’s a ghost and at any second, will be blasted back into the containment unit. Essentially, he’s a lovable slave on a children’s show: He’s useful, but merely a means to an end.

Ghosts can obviously communicate. Zuul, even though not a ghost but a lesser God, communicated openly to the Ghostbusters. Vigo, only being a shell image of the power which the living Vigo once was, spoke directly to the Ghostbuster, Dr. Poha, Oscar and Dana about his aspirations of world domination. Slimer speaks gibberish on The Real Ghostbusters but his points are conveyed well through body language and emotion. Hell, even the demons that possessed Dana and Louis in the first Ghostbusters used their human shell to communicate about the coming of the destructor and apparently, their want of coffee (yes, have some).

Where am I going with this? If realized that ghosts can serve a purpose and communicate, it would seem that theories and practices would have to change dramatically. the Ghostbusters wouldn’t be able to just take out a ghost because it was inconvenient for the client, there would have to be a set of checks and balances in place to ensure that the ghost was actually doing something bad.

Ultimately I think this would relegate the Ghostbusters to be little legal enforcers than anything else. Their containment unit the equivalent of a jail cell and their job descriptions nothing more than “protect the peace”. I’m sure it’s not all bad. At least they quit getting sued by the city.

Well those are a few questions floating around in my head, what’s your thoughts?

The GF is leaving town this weekend and won’t be back till right before Christmas. I’m heading down to Orlando next week to spend time with family and take pictures of massively obese people on mobility scooters (a hobby of mine). We have yet to put up any Christmas decorations, although we have taken them out of the closet so we can put away Halloween decorations.  When we go holiday shopping, I don’t even notice all the Christmas and holiday displays and have no desire to check out Christmas lights.  I don’t want to shop for presents and I really couldn’t care if I didn’t receive anything either.  Honestly, I think my attitude to the holiday is brought on by a culmination of events that made for a fairly shitty 2010. I wasn’t expecting this year to be terrible at all; quite the contrary, I couldn’t wait for it to start at the beginning of the year (anything was better than the shitty 2000′s).  Now I’m not saying everything is doom and gloom, but rather that I’m just finding a bit hard to get into the spirit of things at the moment.

I don’t mean to bore you, just an observance I wanted to get off my chest. Let’s get back to vacationing in Warren, Ohio, shall we?

The idea of leaving Washington, DC on a Monday night as opposed to Tuesday or Wednesday paid off in spades. We left around 7:00-7:30 and rolled into Warren around 2:00 am, great time. I go to bed and wake up the next morning to speak at Howland High School about the importance of public service and how one manages life inside and outside the so-called Washington Bubble. This activity was brought on by a letter of thanks I wrote to the local paper a few years back thanking a teacher I had Senior year of high school. One thing leads to another and I’m spending a day talking to HS juniors about college, internships, and how life is like for young professionals in the District; basically I just shot the shit with 16-17 year olds for an afternoon. It was a lot of fun and I think I got through to a couple of kids (literally two). Most though, were pissed that I showed up because I postponed movie day till after the holiday break (The movie was American History X and I was assured permission slips were issued).

Afterwards, I went to Sunrise Pizza, ate three meatballs and a pizza and promptly fell asleep on the GF’s mom’s couch.

Thanksgiving was interesting. For the GF’s family, we had dinner at Home Town Buffet at the EWM. The food was good and the atmosphere was very “Warren’ie”. There was a wall that had framed pictures of all the presidents and astronauts from ohio, all surrounding a statue of liberty. Correct me if I’m wrong, but the statue of liberty isn’t from Ohio, nor is Ohio bordering france, nor is Ohio in France, was once in France, nor is France itself.

I saw an inordinate amount of severely obese people in wheel chairs with oxygen masks. Again, just an observation.

What an obese man in a mobility device may look like.

After Dinner 1, the GF and I packed up in my car and drove to nearby Hermitage, PA for dinner 2. Dinner two proved to be a formidable opponent. There was just too much food and I think the stuffing had trace amounts of crack in it. I couldn’t stop eating*!

Afterwards, we went home and called it a day.

Friday was the HS reunion, I’ll get to that in another post.

The GF wasn’t feeling too hot that Saturday, so I made the trip back to Hermitage and hung out at Kranyaks for a bit before going back to my dad’s house for a couple of birthday parties. Not much more to talk about, just that we didn’t leave on Saturday (like we wanted to) and instead left early Sunday.

That’s pretty much my Thanksgiving in a nutshell.

* I should mark as a disclaimer that if the GF reads this, her stuffing is better and out of the two, I would pick hers.

I’m in complete media fatigue. When I dial up NPR this morning during my commute to the office, I rolled my eyes when Morning Edition started off with ”The New Conservative Congress”. This is probably the five-hundredth time since election night NPR ran this piece. I’m not bitter that conservatives won, heck, I’m a Republican and that’s just dandy. I’m tired of the media beating the shit out of a dead horse.

It kind of like when you go to a friends house in February and their Christmas tree is still up.

For some reason, I naively thought that after Tuesday night, the media would back off and I’d be able to listen to some other news besides what John Boehner had for lunch. Yes, I know he’s got a uphill battle rounding up newely elected Tea Party Canidates and yes, I know he loves golf, but why do I have to hear about it from every view point known to man. It’s tiring.

Yeah, that's why the Administration as been the most gun friendly in the past 50 years. Don't worry, NRA will say otherwise.

I wanted to start with that so I can segue into my other topic; people c0mpletely missing the point in rational statements, then taking what they believe they heard as gospel. For instance, some of you reading this probably think I’m tired of hearing about the Republicans victory because you think I’m some kind of libruul. If you thought that, you’re missing the point. I’m tired of the media coverage drowning out all other news, not the election itself. Did you know there’s a hurricane hitting Haiti today?

(Ok, rant mode)

That kind of deafness to actually understanding the subject matter was all over the fucking place during this election. Facts were replaced with impassioned rhetoric, policy was replaced with quippy catch phrases and buzz words, outright lies replaced fact checking, and independent research of the issues was replaced with commercials with bullet points. Both sides of the political spectrum and special interests are to blame for this, but most of all, I blame the voter.

“Well Hannity said Obama is ruining America, so Obama must be ruining America. “

“Obama hasn’t done ANYTHING since getting into office.”

“So-and-so votes with Nancy Polosi 4000% of the time and personally licks the shit off her ass when she poops.”

“Death  Panels.”

“I’m not saying the Census is bad, but the Nazi’s has a census to find all the Jews before the Blitzkrieg”

I thought she was hotter when she was on "House".

“Aqua Buddha”

“John Boehner will ruin Amercia and re-institute all the regulations that will cause another financial meltdown”

You see how far-fetched these claims are? Believe actually believed this shit! People out there actually thought that Rand Paul considers himself the Aqua Buddha and therefore, is unfit for office.  A whole lot of people believed that Obama would institute a “death panel” to kill your grandma.

Many people ate that shit up and voted based off that. Yes, they did.

Item 1: People Abdacating personal responsibility to independently learn about the issues and/or candidates by taking the cues of pundits and/or the media.

This isn’t what kills me, what grinds my gears is the over-the-top ridicule one gets when trying to dispel rumors with facts. Did so -and-so vote 4000% of the time with Nancy Pelosi? Probably not because Pelosi can’t vote because she’s speaker of the house. I know that’s a moot point, but it shows a major fallacy in the argument without getting too far into it. I’m sure many of those votes are procedural votes such as naming of post offices, flag christenings, procedural votes, and other mundane things. My old Ohio district’s congressman is Tim Ryan, he voted for Health Care reform. He voted for health care reform because he publicly stated that he has a overwhelming proportion of constituents in his districts that go without health care or are unable to have access to health care. To him, this bill was good for his district and the citizens he represents. What he didn’t do was vote for healthcare reform because Pelosi told him to. I don’t know how many times I would look up my local paper online and see comments from people saying such ignorant statements that Tim Ryan is in bed with Nancy Pelosi, Tim Ryan is Pork as usual, A “DEMOCROOK”, Doesn’t tell the “people who HIRED HIM” what he’s doing. Ryan had to cancel a town hall meeting last summer due to death threats to him and his family. He was called a “Nancy” and told to “Grow some Balls” in the local media.

I didn’t vote for Tim Ryan when I lived in Ohio, I didn’t like him. But now that I live outside NE Ohio I have a outside looking in point of view and I see that he really works hard to the valley.  I’d still probably not vote for him, but I will defend him when he’s met with completely made up allegations. I’d do that with any representative in whatever district I live in. It’s simple, get to the facts and do you’re own research, don’t be part of the buzz word brigade.

“Waa! My congressman never tells me what he’s doing!” Did you try looking online on his website for that info? I’m pretty sure he has a facebook page and/or Twitter feed as well.

Item 2: Using buzz words when they don’t know what the word means.

I live near ground zero HURR and DURR. I work just off K street in DC and right around the White House. I see WHARRGARBLE on a daily basis. I’ve seen Posters of Obama as Hitler, Stalin, and Chairman Mao. On tax day 2010, I walked out to Freedom Park to check out the tea party protests and saw reinactments of Obama killing grandma and posters calling NBC,CBS,ABC,CNN,NPR and MSNBC as PRAVDA. At the time I didn’t know what Pravda was so I asked. The protester didn’t know either. It wasn’t until I got in front of a computer to look up Pravda and read that it was the name of the state ran media during Soviet Russia.

Ok, who made this sign for this guy? Was it some libruul plant? Probably not. I saw a lot of signs that said the same thing, so adding two and two together I went to the Tea Party Express website and TA-DA, right there.

It’s perfectly fine to believe one news bureau has a bias on certain subjects than others. What isn’t fine is to lump all media that doesn’t fit into your distorted point of view and label is as state ran media. It’s not rational or even remotely logical.

—

Without turning this into a thesis, I just wanted to illustrate that I believed there was a WHOLE LOT of this going on this election cycle, and because of that real messages along with facts and numbers were completely drowned out. I had a facebook friend tell me that political ads are the “resume for the candidate because there’s no other way to find out about his personality”. Two things 1.) WHAT!?! and 2.) Personality? What about the issues, voting record, stance on hot button issues, or what they’ll bring to the table if and when they’re elected? You’re using political ads as a “resume” for your basis as to which candidate gets your vote? What the hell is wrong with you?

I’m sure I’d be called a libruul sympathizer for even bringing up that political ads are the worst source of information for choosing which candidate you want in office.

But life goes on. My candidate stayed in office because he does a good job for the district and is a brilliantly smart man with an eye for details, not because he’s a democrat.

Let me leave you with the most over-the-top political ad I can think of. It’s so bad it’s funny. It was a political ad from Paul R. Nelson back in 2006 against congressional incumbant Ron Kind. Wait for the end, this “Paul R. Nelson” has the funniest voice in the world. Enjoy!

I’m sure most of you that already know of this game, played it, or are on the fence on picking it up has probably read a review or two and have a pretty good idea of what Mario’s new adventure is all about. I’ll try to skip all the basic stuff in most reviews and get right to the nuts and bolts; most importantly, will you be entertained enough to want to play through the game AND THEN pick up all the green ‘Luigi’ stars.

Short Answer: Probably.

Little bit Longer Answer: Probably if the harder stages don’t drive you away from platformers for good.

Feature Length Answer: There’s 120 stars for you to collect (nothing new about this since Mario 64). Once you beat the main quest, you’ll be offered to go back and fetch any stars you missed. After that, 120 more stars open up for you to scrounge around and pick up. After that, you get a nice new ending of sorts and another stage that’s apparently pretty fucking hard (I’m not there yet). After that, you mastered the game and it’s now your bitch, good job! If you got the time and the patience to go back to the same levels over and over and over again; to see the Game Over sign over and over and over again, to die by over jumping the same god damned platform over and over and over again, to do another FUCKING SCORE BASED CHALLENGE FROM THAT FUCKING MONKEY OVER AND OVER AND OVER AGAIN, then you have what it takes to completely finish the game.

I think the average person would probably only go for the minimum stars needed to complete the main quest (70 stars), finish the main story, then put the game back on the shelf or trade it at Gamestop. At 70 stars, it’s a fun as hell game that’s at the just right length for a Mario game (If you’re going for the medals and maybe a few challenges, you’re clocking in about 10-12 hours to complete). Hell, people can beat Super Mario Brothers in 12 minutes and I remember warping my ass through Super Mario Brothers 2 to completion before Mac and Cheese is off the stove; 10-12 hours is plenty of time for a Mario game, especially with all the ‘epic-ness’ packed in. Once you start going beyond the 70 stars, you’re going into hoarders mode. There’s really no stopping you at this point. There’s no reason for you to go past 70 unless you’re going for the full 240. For that I say “God speed and good luck!”.

In other reviews, you’ll read about how you have new powers and Yoshi is floating around several stages; I don’t feel I need to rehash that here. I’ll just say that Yoshi is a som’bitch to drive when he’s hopped up on hot pepper power up.

What’s awesome

- Super Mario Galaxy (1) was 30 types of all kinds of fun. Nintendo went waaaay out of their way to make the game the signature title that everyone with a Wii should and must own. Super Mario Galaxy 2 is just more of that with a little bit of meth mixed in. The levels are larger, harder, and trippier than before.

- The music makes you feel you’re on the climax of a level 5 orgasm all the way through the game. There’s no other way I can describe this.

- The hub world system is gone, sort of. In the first SMG, you had to collect so many stars and defeat a boss to open a different part of your hub world in order to play new levels. In SMG2, there’s a linear progression to the worlds you can explore, but once you complete them, you can go back and forth. What makes this similar to the hub world is that there’s some places in the game where you can’t progress until you get a certain amount of stars. It’s really not a pain in the ass though if you’ve been diligent with getting the 1-to-2 stars in each galaxy. Ultimately, SMG2 makes for easier and much faster navigation through the various galaxies in the game because everything is pretty much on one screen (no needless running around a hub world to get where you need to go).

Fuck you hub worlds.

- No new controls. I know you’ve played SMG before, you don’t even have to look at the manual. Just pick up and play.

- Second Wii controller can be used to pick up star sprites so you can focus on ass kicking.

What sucks

- Would it hurt Nintendo so much to give Mario a fucking emotion once in a while? If you’ve ever seen a cutscene from any Mario game, you know what I’m saying.

- You’re trying to get a star in a “Prankster” galaxy (they’re like challenge stages that are usually timed and or very hard), you get a Game Over, now you got to get a lecture from this fat fuck star sprite telling you should take a break from the Wii and go outside. It’s riGODDAMNEDdiculous! On top of that, you got to go back to the galaxy screen, watch the “PRANKSTER COMET DETECTED” animation, THEN go through another screen to get back to the stage. It’s a pain in the ass that really takes you out of the game. Oh, and every time you get a game over, you’ll get a lecture about your playing too much and should go outside….every time. It’s enough to drive you up the fucking wall.

- Boss stages = teh easy

- If you’re soloing through this game, sometimes managing star shard collecting and maneuvering can be quite a hassle. Sometimes it’s either one or the other. Adding a second player pretty much negates this gripe.

- The game is gives you completely useless information in regards to how to control Mario WELL after the half way point in the game. You’re on World 4 and the game is just getting around to telling you how to do a long jump; mind you, you’ve been doing this all throughout the game before this in other stages that required you to do so.

- King Koopa is just a bitch with a dick.

- Bring back the Koopa Kids and kill off this Baby Koopa thing. The Koopa Kids had street cred……..

…..fucking street cred, man.

In Summation:

Great game; a complete must for any Wii owner. You’ll probably not go for all 240 stars, but you don’t need to have a good time. The story is totally forgettable, but so is every other Mario game. This IS Nintendo at it’s finest.

Spring’s coming around and you know what that means?

Tornado season is coming back to town.

I love tornadoes. I love chasing them, watching them on local television, and looking at what they did after they’re gone. In high school, I had a camera that I would wrap in a grocery back (poke a hole out for the lens for waterproofing purposes) and would chase dark clouds that I thought would produce the next F5. I would get into my car and drive down country roads with my arm sticking out of the window; getting pelted by hail and high winds in the process, for the hopes of getting great video of a tornado. Sadly, I never got good footage. Instead I took some great footage of high winds, hail, lightning, and lots and lots of heavy rain.

Mind you,  the movie ‘Twister’ sucked. Let’s not even discuss that abortion of a movie.

Why do I find storm chasing so fascinating you ask? Simple, I was part of the GREAT TORNADO STORM OF 1985. North east Ohio was slammed with a series of tornadoes and one massive F5 tornado on May 31st, 1985.  Entire towns were uprooted, commerciall business districts were flattened,  rumors that dead people were flying through the air when a tornado hit an cemetery were spread about, it was  a tremendous mess.  The F5 tornado, apparently looking to start some shit, started taking out big chunks of Niles and Newton Falls; throwing trees, cars, probably a person or two, all over the county. Ther F5 really tore Lordstown/ Newton Falls a new asshole. That tornado took a two storied farm house, uprooted it, and sat it gently on it’s side. What the fuck, right!?

What was even more fascinating was how the storm came about.  From the brief history I read to refreshen my memory, we were given warnings about a possible thunder storm coming through the Mahoning valley from the west. One this storm pattern past overs over Cleveland, it pretty much exploded into 41 Tornadoes by the time it hit Trumbull county. There was really no warning besides knowing that a thunderstorm was coming by that evening. The furthest advance notice of a tornado touching down was in Newton Falls and that was only 60 seconds. People were going about their day like it wasn’t a big deal. That’s why there’s so many eye witness reports of that day, parking lots are full and there’s a LOT OF PHOTOS OF THE TORNADOES. Out of the 41 tornadoes, 14 were “killer” tornadoes, that means they came packing.

I remember that day pretty well (for a 4 year old that is). My parents took me and by brother to Children’s Palace (loved that store!) in Boardman. We lived in Leavittsburg, right off the West Market Street exit on route 5/82 at the time, so taking 422 to 680 wasn’t an option; we took back roads through Lordstown and such to get there. On our way back, the weather started getting really bad, like really really bad. I remember my dad picking me up and rushing the family down to the basement to my sisters room. At this point my memory gets a little fuzzy (again, I’m 4), but I believe the electricty was out so we couldn’t turn the tv on downstairs to see what the hell was going on with the weather. I remember at one point my sisters room wasn’t safe enough (it was a basement bedroom so it had those small windows that stop a third of the way down from the top of the wall) so we were herded to a smaller basement storage room type place. It’s was incredibly loud outside. I don’t remember being scared so much, but annoyed by all the loud sounds.

Later we find out there was a few dozen tornadoes that ripped through our neck of the woods. We were saved from the worst of them, but a few came pretty close.

That storm really was a freak of nature and today is one of Ohio’s top rated storms. Nothing has been even remotely close to it ever since.  That F5 that hit was the only F5 tornado in the nation in 1985.

I’m sure other people of recollections that are way better descriptive than mine, drop a comment and tell me your story. That was a hell of a day. Apparently the tornadoes zero’d in on a roller rink in Niles.  Below is a picture of the roller rink after (at least Frogger survived).

There’s even a website dedicated to the storm here.

Normally, I don’t like talking about myself in great depth. I find keeping my cards close to the chest to be the best policy. Sometimes though, there’s just too much items of interesting going on in or around me, I just need to vent of a little steam. I’ll try to keep this as brief as possible without getting into too many gross parts.

-Recently I was kicked out of Elementary. The rationale for my sacking was just. They were going in one direction and apparently I was going into another. Instead of forcing me to conform to their tastes, they let me go. No punches were swung, no skeletons were brought out for defense, and there were handshakes and pledges of continued friendship at the end of the night. Don’t get me wrong, I feel like shit. I poured a lot of emotional capital into Elementary, as I do any project I work on. I have a high attachment rate for the band and their music and will I be jealous next I see them on stage with another drummer, fuck yea I will. But ultimately, it’s for the best. I’m working things out now and hopefully I’ll pick up where I left off and create/play some really fucking awesome music.

-I need to get off my ass and finally prep myself for some post undergrad education. As for where I’m going and what I’m going to do when I get there, it’s still up in the air. Law seems like the next logical step. I could go for the umbrella masters degree (MBA), seems you can go just about anywhere with that. I could say “fuck it”, move back to my home town and run for Mayor. What I am sure of is that I need to prep myself before I go back to school/ take over municipal politics. I’ve always had a sneaking suspicion that my brain has a tendency to get stuck in 1st gear so I’m going to get tested for dyslexia and ADD next month. I’m 28 years old and FINALLY going to get tested to see if I have a learning problem. My rationale is, if I’m going to run myself into 6 figure student loan debt for grad school, I better have a mind that’s able to handle an education so I can get a job to pay off said 6 figure student loan debt. Who know’s this’ll probably explain a lot of quirks I have.

- I don’t have one, but two high school reunions to attend Thanksgiving weekend. From Kindergarten through Junior year, I was enrolled at Labrae School District. I practically emancipated myself and went to Howland my senior year. Because of this, I’m going to have to bring two suits to Warren.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m excited. There’s a lot of friends that I plain lost touch with over the decade; Labrae especially. Getting back in touch with the handful or so individuals that didn’t treat me like shit would be grand.

Because my high school reunions are coming up, I had a though; I wonder who is the most successful out of that class (lots of doctors and lawyers from my Howland class so I don’t even want to compare). From Facebook, looks like a good 90%-95% of my class stayed in Warren. That’s no indicator for success or failure, but it tells me that lofty ambitions of moving somewhere else was never an issue either.  Warren is a cozy city, I don’t mind the place but I also know that I would die a slow death of alcoholism, meth and/or depression if I had to move back there on a more permanent basis. Many old class mates that friended me recently on Facebook (apparently there was a rumor that I was dead) have pictures of their children as their profile picture. My first reaction was “wow, you’re having kids!?!” but then reality comes back and I realize I’m 28 years old and that’s a perfectly normal age to have children. Some people are also more settled in their lives and have the opportunity to start families, not so with my lifestyle (I tend to find people my age starting families weird, but I acknowledge that my feelings towards that isn’t considered to be mainstream sentiment).

I also thought about how the bullies of my past fared in the past decade. Did they drop dead and go to hell? Probably not. Maybe they settled down and are not as assholish as they used to be. Maybe that guy that slammed me up against the bathroom wall in 9th grade telling me that if he sees me riding my bike down his street again he would slit my throat, or that other kid that punched me in the gut every day in 4th grade because he didn’t like me being on the same bus as him, or the kid that shoved a pen through my calculator because it was funny are actual human beings now, doing actual normal human being things. Maybe the bitch cheerleader is normal now, maybe the jock is fun to hang around with. There’s a lot of anxiety just thinking about it, but I’m sure I’m hyping it up way more than it needs to be. It’ll be fun. I’ll have a few drinks, reminisce about teachers, events, things, and get the 25 second catch up conversation with some people I spent just under half my life with.

The decade wasn’t a complete wash (as the picture illustrates). socially, I grew up, moved out, got a job, and started the adult thing. It’s all the small shit in between that was the pain in the ass. First real relationships, make and losing friends, people you know all your life up and dying all of a sudden. Those are the things that you’ll remember, and sometime, remember when they happened.

I tend to like to bundle memories up around the date that they happened. Whether it be a year, or a summer, for just a few weeks; it really helps me preserve the memories for later on in life.

2000

I graduate highschool (Howland) around 200th in my class (out of 300 something) and start my college career at Youngstown State University that fall. I’m initially a music performance major, but after some soul-searching, I change to business, then accounting, then general business, then criminal justice, then pre law, then finally settling on political science. 

2001

Besides joining Phi Kappa Tau (Gamma Pi chapter), this was a very unremarkable year…. except for that little tiny tower thing.

2002

I get into my first full-time serious relationship with Stacci Kilgore. I also move to Cleveland to start my internship at law firm that my sister is an associate with. I transfer to Cleveland State University and keep on with my poli sci degree. 2002 was the year of the West Nile Virus getting a lot of news. During the summer, some friends and I traveled to Paramount’s Kings Island (near Cinci), I was dog sick. We slept out  in a tent at a friends relative’s back yard. I would put my socks up my nose at night to keep the drainage from waking me up. I was 100% I was dying when we were at the amusement park. Because of that, I had a blast.

My best friend died on Februrary 28th. When I went to his calling hours, I noticed he was wearing a t-shirt that he borrowed from me when he was alive. Talk about awkward.

2003

Broke up with Stacci around Easter, leaving me pretty much a bitter person for the rest of the year.

I started instructing with the Military Band this year. It was a god send for all the bullshit going on in Ohio. leaving work, exes, friends, and family for 6 weeks was the best thing to happen to me this year.

2004

I join NCAA Div 1 fencing and do quite well. I made it to regionals in Chicago and I get 11th place after losing to two Olympians. I’m food poisoned twice by chili dogs from Sheetz. I’m in a band called Earth to Julie, it will be another 2 years before we play our first show. I date a girl name Michelle for two months.

In December, while working at my holiday job, a woman comes into the store. I immediately come from the back and greet her. She’s absolutely beautiful. We chat for a while and she leaves with someone. A few days later she comes back, this time telling me she works at Kaufman’s (now Macy’s). The next day, I use up my lunch break to wait in line just to say hi and ask if she wanted to “grab something to eat” after work. She says “yes” and we meet up at Perkins. We talk for three hours.  When I take her to her car she makes out with my face. That was the beginning of my Relationship with the GF.

2005

Last tour with the Military Band, I’m now Senior percussion staff. Drove to Niagara Falls for spring break. I graduate college in December.

2006

I’m working full-time at the law firm in Cleveland. I live down town with a few room mates. We have an apartment on the 14 floor of a highrise with an awesome view of the city skyline. I spend a lot of time at the rooftop pool. My parents move to Florida and work part-time at Disney World. My trip down to Florida will be the first of many times that I go see Mickey.

While playing a show with Earth to Julie, a woman approaches me at the venue and hands me a cd of her husbands works. I listen and immediately like what I hear. The musican’s name is Nate Sullian and his wife that approached me is Taryn Sullivan. I immediately start my phase out, out of Earth to Julie and Nate, Jason (somebody we met later) and I form Streets Ahead.

2007

The GF and I decide we need to get the hell out of Dodge, but can’t do much until after she graduates (I’m a cradle robber). The most I ever drank my entire life happened in the summer. I was hung over for two days, but I still made it to the Indians game for the CC Sabbatia bobble head giveaway.

2008

Moved to Virginia right near Washington DC. This is the first time I ever moved in with a significant other. I’m jobless for about a month and a half. It was, by far, the most scariest time of my life. I voted for Barack Obama on the premise of Change. I think he’s done a good job living up to that.

Nate and I meet up in Virginia, this time with another guy named Steve and a femme name Arwen and we form Elementary. Good times.

2009

Lost my job on inauguration day. I’m unemployed for about a month and a half (again, it’s the most scariest time of my life). I land a job downtown, and immediately make friends with some of Washington’s elites (Carla Hills calls me “Family”). The GF and I get a pug. I found out that I totally fail a gardening. I started P90X. The GF and I celebrate our 5 year together in the Yucatan.  I finally start reconsidering going back to school to get my masters or a JD.

Well, that’s my decade in a nutshell.

I swear to god I’ll get to writing again very soon…

I was living at a Fraternity house in Youngstown, Ohio but I was staying at my mother’s house for some reason or another (free dinner the night before?). I didn’t have class that day so I didn’t have to get up early. By the time I got up, both towers were already hit, but not down yet. My brother had a small television on in the dining room, showing the spectacle in NYC. I asked what happened and he replied with “I don’t know, something happened to some buildings”. I think I might have said something along the lines that I thought those were the same buildings that were hit up in the nineties. I think it might have been a half joke to me at the time, but I seem to remember thinking “Ohhh you terrorists, you’ll get us eventually” with faux fist shaking motion in my head.

I make some coffee, make some breakfast and continue to watch the news as the first tower came down. To me it was amazing. All that dust and dirt coming at people at 100 mph was something I wasn’t expecting. This big huge billowing cloud of dirt and dust totally engulfing a city street and everything in it was something to take pause with. This is something you see in movies, not real life.

It didn’t take long for the dust to settle and right there on tv, a scene that looked almost surreal. Everything was caked in dirt. It looked like a dirty winter time. It just looked… quiet. People that didn’t find cover were completely caked in the stuff from head to toe. They were walking around dazed looking, with really no direction for their movements. Everybody looked like they just went 10 rounds and were told to go walk it off.

Then the second tower went down. More of the same after that.

That evening I went back to the fraternity house to watch the presidential address. After that I went to go fill up the car with gas. News reports all day were mentioning a run on gas, so I thought it would be a good idea to fill up. I went to a Shell station in Howland, there was a line down the street. I remember vividly that gas rose to $1.39 that day, I was convinced that the gas station was participating in price gouging.

That was my day in a nutshell.

—

Thinking back on it now, seeing the towers go down really didn’t affect me as it did some other people. I’m not in NYC nor in DC nor in a field in PA, what’s this have to do with me? It seems too far removed for me to get any real emotional attachment to it. Whatever that was going on in NYC, it was all condensed to a news cast on a small television in my mom’s dining room. I think the first time I actually noticed anything immediate happen by direct result of the towers going down was the lack to sound coming from airplanes. NE Ohio is a pretty busy place for Airplanes. There’s a friggen Air Force base nearby, so you’re always hearing big loud planes go by. Any with Pittsburgh, Akron and Cleveland airports near by, there’s always planes overhead. None of that existed for at least 2 weeks after 9/11. It was eerie.

Everything seemed to go on hold for the next two weeks after the attacks. Nobody knew what the hell was going to happen. The president gave a so-so speech about what America needs to do and the VP just up and disappeared to an undisclosed location (which I think turned out to be the basement of the VP mansion). Nobody knew if we were going to war or who was at fault here. Right after the attacks happened, I remember the newsman naming a shortlist of a few organizations that took credit.

The Eastwood mall closed at 5:00 pm  so people could go home to their families. Most (if not all) schools closed at noon. The FAA, over live television, called for the immediate halt and landing of all commercial and non commercial airplanes flying over US soil.. If you didn’t land, you were seen as an enemy of the state and were pretty much open game to F-16s. People went outside to see if there was anything else that was going to fall from the sky. The whole country went from 0 to TOTAL WAR in a matter of hours. Everything else shut down.

Sorry, quick post. I couldn’t pass this video up. I’m sure most of you don’t frequent the Consumerist like I do. You should, it’s an excellent site about the customer fighting back against terrible customer service/ insane retail practices. Anyway, there’s a video on their home page for a product called “Winkers”. Without getting too far into it, I’ll just let you watch the video. Enjoy!