Bowlful of Crickets

The way one walks is all part of one’s image. Would-be models come on to America’s Next Top Model and either have a crazy walk they’ve invented for themselves, or they need Miss Jay to break them of their bad runway for (or both). George Jefferson had a signature walk- it added to the comedy before Florence ever complained about how cheap he was.

My walk is a slightly slouched, full speed ahead rumble. At 6’4" and hopefully no more than 245 lbs. (I haven’t stepped on a scale for a while and the holidays is no time to change this), I am by no means graceful, but I can move down a busy sidewalk quickly and weave in and out with next to no trouble.

A few things were in alignment a few weeks ago that altered my walk:

1) I was in my black Cole Hahn Shoes (apologies to Patrick Bateman for the product placement) which I don’t wear a ton- they’re a bit sturdier and heavier than my regular shoes, altering the way I take a step.

2) My lower back was a little sore, so I pulled my shoulders back a bit more than usual.

3) My left knee and left ankle were taking turns being tender, slowing me down a little.

4) Work, while extremely busy, was going pretty well. I had my head held a little higher than most days, and an increased level of confidence.

With these four issues combined, I realized as I walked from the train that I was walking differently. I had the early stages of a swagger.

If attitude is everything, the swagger is a way to show others that you have confidence in yourself, even if you are really walking like an extra in a western or a sailor on leave in 1941. The moment you doubt your own swagger is the moment you look like an idiot. Or at least realize you may look like an idiot.

My swagger was cool, I’m sure of it. I didn’t overdo it- just a little slower, a little bit of a strut with my head held high. I may have looked like Foghorn Leghorn in reality, but in my mind, I was confident, cool and perfect for an after-shave commercial.

I soon was in my old shoes again, the joints felt better, work got a little nuttier, and I was back to rumbling in and out of the crowd, shoulders pointing inward. But while I had my swagger, I looked pretty cool, at least in my own mind…

Yes! White Sox!!! Yes!

I took one of those political tests, and apparently, I’m a socialist. I assume I’m now part of some sort of secret government database and my every move will be monitored.

If you are so inclined, take it yourself (I think it’s 50 questions, takes a few minutes) and let me know where you wind up. I think the results will show (as they have in the past on tests like these, from what I’ve seen) that we’re not a two-party country ideologically. I am fairly close to Democrat, which I can’t say surprises me…

You are a Social Liberal (85% permissive) and an… Economic Liberal (16% permissive) You are best described as a:Socialist

I am a White Sox fan, and I’m in hog heaven right now. 2 games up on the defending champs AND I was lucky enough to go to the 14-2 Chicago victory yesterday. It’s probably the highlight of my sports attending life and will be hard to top- unless I get World Series tickets.

All is not perfect in Mudville, however- it seems I share my love of the White Sox with at least a few fouth grade dropouts.

I saw a banner at the game yesterday- and the same banner was on TV tonight:

I’ts Our Turn!

Go White Sox!

Now I will admit I have the benefit of a college education with a Bachelor’s in English, so I suppose I’m bit better equipped than the average bear when it comes to writing and punctuation.

But I’ts? Come on!

And two days in a row? Didn’t anybody point this out to the people holding up the sign?

To make matters worse, it was a professionally printed sign, not one of those sharpie-on-a-posterboard numbers. On a homemade sign, the misplaced apostrophe may have been endearing. Nope, expensive printing machinery was put to waste here.

Note also that the word "go" was underlined and italicized- for emphasis, perhaps. Not sure of the reason, but it’s also an odd choice.

The scary part of it all is no matter how grammatically challenged the sign owner is, he was still able to attend both playoff games.

I’ts a shame. How did he get to go to both?

…it isn’t any more.

Click here to go to Tommy Lasorda’s blog, if you dare to be bored by tales of how great the Dodger organization is. This is part of the official Major League Baseball blog initiative, MLBlogs.com. You can have your very own baseball blog- for $50 a year. I wonder if MLB is going to chase down all the unauthorized baseball bloggers and make them pay- now that the whole steroids thing is well under control (cough)…

I did find a White Sox blog- the guy is a Sox fan/armchair psychic- he predicts the outgome to every game, it appears. He does back up his predictions with baseball analysis, which shows him to be wise. He also predicts the White Sox to win the World Series, which I hope is one prediction he doesn’t get wrong…

MLBlogs needs to have a way to find a blog by the team the blogger roots for-there doesn’t seem to be a complete listing. I found the Sox blog above through the site’s "Look Who’s Blogging" Top 20. Or maybe they only have 20 blogs in this first week of their existence…

I’m thinking of adding a Baseball category to this here blog- good idea? Bad idea? Feel free to vote in the comments…

Not my day to blog. I wanted to link to the Ted Leo cover of the Kelly Clarkson song, but all the references I had to the MP3 are gone.

I tried helping Mikey change some fonts on his blog post, and I wound up deleting the whole darn thing.

I decided that was worth writing about, so I did. This is not that post.

This is the post telling you I accidentally deleted that post…and I couldn’t get it back…

Some days, you just wake up on the wrong side of your blog authoring suite…

To prove what kind of day I’m having update: Ted Leo "Since You’ve Been Gone/Maps"

Yesterday, Phil Mickelson tried a chip shot on the 18th hole that would have forced a playoff with Tiger Woods for first place.

He missed, but his reaction created the shot of the day…

…of my blog. Not as fancy as some, fancier than what it was. I like the fact that I can categorize my posts as there are some of you that enjoy reading some topics more than others. There’s some other benefits, and I’m sure there wil be more changes coming…

But for now, I’m happy with the updated look and feel and hope you are too.

Now, to get back to writing on a regular basis…