Sports Heaven? NFL Playoffs and B-ball. Television and What It Means To Me.

My diatribe is unoriginal and my viewpoint is probably shared by many. That being said, I'm still going to spill my silly, caustic, unoriginal thoughts...

Do you like violence? Crazy people plastering each other with bone-crunching hits? Seemingly pointless violence all in the name of some fictitious glory? If so, then the NFL playoffs are for you!!!

Yeah, you need to grapple with the irony and contradictions and silliness that mar professional sports. Especially professional football. But once you get the irony, the silliness, once you get past the fact that these grown men are willingly punishing and torturing their bodies all while trying to manipulate a ball so that the little orb does their bidding and they can 'win' a game... well, once you get past that it's very easy to enjoy the game, and believe in this magical realm of heroes and heroic plays...

Did I say heroes? Heroic plays? Well, I have a feeling that my heavy-handed sarcasm has already given you an idea of how tired I am of sports announcers, reporters, and many others who go on and on about how some player is such a goddamn hero. This player, this person, he plays a 'game' for a living, makes millions of dollars while doing it, seriously, I hate how the term heroic is tossed around in the sport's world with such flippancy. Anyways, that said, I do have a decent amount of respect for a lot of these athletes. Many work very hard, and have pretty amazing talents.

It's too easy to rip on professional sports, but televised sporting events have been a great diversion for me during my illness. Believe it or not (probably not) after my spiteful diatribe... I even find some inspiration in the sports world... I guess I just have a split personality when it comes to sports, a love hate thing going.

I think the main thing that angers me is this: had I been healthy I wouldn't have been wasting my time with television and sports. I never watched tv before I got sick, so in a sense the unwitting tv symbolizes my illness and weakness. Poor tv did nothing to me, it's actually helped a lot, but it stands for bad things to me, namely my being too ill to do anything over than watching television. Sure, I know what you're thinking, Sebastien, just don't watch tv, rest in your bed or something. I did that, trust me, for months and months... but I found that the television fills a vacuum and distracts my mind, distracts me from pain or fatigue or both those things... And there's this vicarious thing I got going with sports, it helps me dream...

I know. I'm coming across as overly bitter and frustrated. My head's just hurting a bit at the moment, but you know, I am seriously thankful to just be alive. Nothing like remembering all the pain I've gone through and just being thankful, thankful to breath this air and able to see the world and be with people I love.

Anyways, we got some good games today! Colts at the Ravens, oh boy oh boy! I'm cheering for the Colts (I spent a good part of my youth in Indy)... and then we got the Eagles at the Saints later! Go Saints, I'm cheering for them because I like the city of New Orleans, and Reggie Bush, that guy is great. Tonight, we even got some b-ball on tv, Magic at the Suns... Wow, this is like serious overload, and tomorrow, Patriots at the Chargers, now that is gonna be a game!

What a great sports weekend.

A Monarch Butterfly, Grocery Item Reviews, My Connection to the NFL, Japanese Simpsons Commercials

• Little Creature: I saw a beautiful Monarch butterfly as I was eating lunch outside. It's always uplifting seeing such dazzling little creatures fluttering about!

• Grocery Item Reviews: LA over at My Looking Glass has a post on something that sounds like it could be as addictive as crack. This new addiction? Grocery item reviews over at Amazon. Follow her links to the reviews, and I think you'll understand the greatness that lies within these grocery reviews.

• Random NFL Thing: Listening to an NFL game yesterday, Packers vs. Rams, I kept hearing the same name over and over again, Noah Herron. It turns out he's a running back for the Green Bay Packers, and he had a really good game, going for over 100 yards and scoring a touchdown. Well, it finally clicked and I realized that this was the same guy who lived down the hall from me in college, and with whom I also played basketball with in quite a few pickup games over at Northwestern. Very random...but it was exciting watching someone I knew doing well in an NFL game!

• Too Much Spider Talk: Please stop freaking me out with all these crazy spider stories. These creatures are quickly rising in my list of things to fear. I even think I saw a black widow in our yard yesterday!

Japanese Simpsons Commercials!