Sunday, March 20, 2011

My week without sports

March 12, 2011
11:45 P.M.
Since it’s daylight savings time tonight (tomorrow?) 12 PM really won’t happen, so I figured I should probably stop watching sports now. Today some of the conference tournaments concluded, and the rest will finish tomorrow. After the tournaments are over, then the selection committee will announce their decisions, along with Charles Barkley providing commentary. I love Charles just because he’s never half hearted and he never says something that he doesn’t fully believe. Not seeing that part of the festivities tomorrow, though, is not that bad compared to missing the games. UNC vs. Duke is on tomorrow as well, and that means that everyone on twitter and facebook will probably be talking about it and rooting for their team, whether or not they have any affiliation to either school. Duke/UNC is one of those games that EVERYONE has an opinion on, like a uniting factor for college students, working people, and media hosts. I am debating about ignoring facebook and twitter altogether this week since most of the people I follow on twitter voice an opinion about sports often and a lot of the people on facebook will talk about the NCAA college basketball tournament, the NFL lockout, or the sanctions for U.T. We’ll see what happens tomorrow, and I’ll probably set my parameters for the week after that. The good news is that the Arizona vs. Washington basketball game that was on tonight was good so I got some enjoyment before going into exile. (I don’t make a habit of watching Pac 10 basketball, but since Gus Johnson was announcing and it was a close game, I watched the last part of the game.) In anticipation of this week, I’ve stocked up on reading materials and old television shows I want to watch so I can have something to keep me busy. I’m going to be watching a lot of the Wire, I think. Additionally, I should be able to meet up with my friend Ben this week and knock out some movies so I’m not actively trying not to watch anything sports related and I can keep my mind off of it. I’ve got to meet up with my buddy Jason tomorrow, who happens to be big on sports, so that’s my first big test. We’ll see what happens.
March 13, 2011
2:11 P.M.
I keep accidently switching over to ESPN when I change the channel on the television. There’s nothing really on right now, so I’m on automatic, and two of the five channels I check out of habit are about sports. Can’t go to twitter either, since most people are talking about UNC Duke. So I’m reading and cleaning.
March 13, 2011
2:30 P.M.
Still nothing on.  Aside from a comedy involving Nazis on TCM, the only things on are Meet Dave with Eddie Murphy and The Ringer with Johnny Knoxville. I’m not that desperate yet. I hope I never am.
March 13, 2011
10:59 P.M.
I just got back from Jason’s.  It was really hard not to discuss sports. When I stepped out of the car, Jason was wearing his Arizona University athletic shirt. We immediately started a discussion about the game last night. Half way through a sentence, I realized what I was doing and said I couldn’t talk about it. Of course, all I wanted to do for the next ten minutes was finish my thought to him, but I couldn’t. It actually really limited our conversations, because we’d get off on a subject, either movies, books, or Meat Loaf (the musician, not the food) related, and we’d wind up bringing it back to sports, and then we’d have to completely change gears. Towards the end of the night, something popped up on Jason’s phone that made him unhappy, and he said he couldn’t talk about it because it was sports related. It had to be a score or a bracket set up or something. We skirted the sports issue a lot through the night too, talking about things around the games, like the NFL labor policy and the NBA’s culture. In the future I need to avoid this; it’s too close to talking about sports. Once again, though, there’s nothing on television. Jason and I flipped through the channels looking for something that wasn’t sports related to watch, and the only slightly entertaining thing we found was Teen Mom on MTV. Neither of us ever watches MTV, so it was fascinating to see these teenage girls make decisions that had huge repercussions on their children, but it still felt like we were slumming. When I got home there was still nothing on, which seems to be a recurring theme on day one. Actually, while I was typing, the television was on Cartoon Network for a bit, and they had a little commercial where all it showed was the word basketball, bouncing up and down with the sounds of a game in the background. That’s what’s going on in my brain right now, I think. Hopefully tomorrow the boredom and the want to watch will be lowered. I feel like a rat who gets shocked every time he goes the wrong way in a maze. I’m going to watch Hunted with Tommy Lee Jones and maybe an episode of the Wire tonight before I go to bed, since I can’t watch Sports Center to wind down. I might wind up doing laundry as well. I’m really bored.
March 14, 2011
7:40 P.M.
So far today, I have dodged four radio shows, three emails, two questions from friends, and one television special about filling out a bracket. I should also mention that none of these things came from a sports outlet. I’ve given up watching television at this point, since there’s nothing on, unless I want to watch Judge Judy or reruns of Scrubs. I’m probably going to rely on movies and TV shows on DVD again tonight. Since I went in to work today, I’m tired and need to wind down. I might wind up doing some more work later tonight around the house since I’ve got nothing better to do. I’ve considered redecorating my room just for the heck of it at this point, because honestly, I can’t imagine much else popping up for excitement. I can’t meet up with Ben until Wednesday and most of my other friends are either working or out of town. It’s just me and the dog tonight, so I guess I’ll play with him while I watch the Wire. He seems to enjoy it more than when I watch sports. I get too invested in sports a lot of the time, so I’m screaming at the television about the Vols, or whoever it might be, to guard the open man, or to not take a bad shot. Apparently, I believe that by shouting at the television loud enough, they’ll hear me and respond. This has yet to happen though. I’ve also noticed I’ve become a lot expositorier in my thought processes, for whatever reason. I think it might be because I think and dwell on things more, since there’s not a lot going on. When I watch sports, everything happens quickly, because one play follows another, and then when everything is finished, the examination begins. Now, I’m just sitting back, examining what I see a lot more. I should probably play video games or something, I guess, but I just don’t really enjoy them. I’ll probably have a lot of my books to read knocked out soon though. And, I can watch Better Off Dead with John Cusack, since I’ve never seen it. Still trying to find the silver lining at this point.
March 14, 2011
10:40 P.M.
I just accidently clicked the sports page on Yahoo.com. Also on twitter, people have been talking about the NBA game all night. The internet has turned against me. While watching the Wire, I saw them play an NBA game. I think everything is mocking me. It’s not paranoia if they really are out to get you.
March 15, 2011
1:17 A.M.
There’s. Still. Nothing. On. Honestly, at this point, I’m wondering why I have cable outside of sports. The closest thing to anything that I find entertaining, educational, or enlightening is either stuff on PBS or a few things on TLC, but they’ve decided to pump this show called Sister Wives about polygamy, so I’m not really touching that. And, as much as I love the Wire, there’s only so much of that left, and I’m only on my second day, so I can’t rush that. It’s boiled down to me catching up on reading some books and listening to Al Green, Tom Waits, Lyle Lovett, or whoever else is on the random player on my computer. I considered looking into a Netflix subscription, but haven’t done anything yet. On the Brightside, I’ve got some cleaning taken care of, and I’ve got clothes for the next three weeks thanks to my laundry habit. My grandmother would be proud.
March 15, 2011
5:07 P.M.
I just got back from work. Turned the television on for about a minute before shutting it off. I’m too tired to read or to clean, so I’m just going to lay here until I finally get hungry enough to go get dinner. I can’t really do anything that requires too much engagement at this point, since I’m basically fried. That means no games, books, or movies. I’ll probably play with the dog for a bit. I’ve got to go in tomorrow and look at an internship, and then I have to go into work early as well. I need to figure out a way to wind down that doesn’t involve too much effort. Can’t really take a nap, since I’ll have stuff to take care of soon. I kind of want to punch something really hard.
March 15, 2011
8:16 P.M.
I started watching an episode of Glee. I don’t know what’s going on. I think one of the guys in a suit likes another guy in a suit. Maybe they’re in a private school. They’re upset about a bird dying. Just saw a commercial from Kroger about March Madness. I want to break my television. Luckily, Glee came back on. (That’s something I never thought I’d say in my entire life.) Now the two guys are now making out. I’m kind of uncomfortable. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, it’s just not my thing. It feels like I’m peeping in on a private moment between two people. Also, these people look like they’re old enough to have mortgages. I’m going to turn off the television, until I put in a DVD or something. I want to break it right now.
There are multiple postings online that I have avoided, and I feel like I’m out of the loop. I haven’t been to The Big Lead or Deadspin in two days, and I feel like everyone else has this secret that I’m not in on. Anytime I go to type in an address on the internet, I have to stop myself from checking out the sports blogs and websites. Guess I’ll just read a book.
March 16, 2011
1:52 A.M.
Knocked out another book. I think the worst part about this so far is that the tournament hasn’t really even started yet. There’s very little out there now than there will be when I get to Thursday. And, seeing as I’ve only got one movie, five episodes of the Wire, and about six books left, I think it’s going to get close as I edge closer to the weekend. Honestly, the way most people react to me, though, after they hear about the project makes me feel like I’m a monk or something, like I gave up something tremendous. It’s been difficult so far, but at the same time, I don’t know that it should have been. While I can’t do all the things that I’d like to do, I also don’t think that sports should have such a huge prominence in my life or in my down time. There’s plenty more for me to be doing, despite what my recent activities have been. I just think I should be doing more with my life than watching or talking about sports all the time. But I guess the problem comes from the fact that sports, at their best, are an expression of humanity and emotion, for at least a little while, and the cycle is always turning. If you’re out of the loop long enough, it takes a while to come back in. I guess being out of the loop right now is a big deal. The other point I’ve noticed is how cultural the NCAA tournament has become. For the past three days, I’ve been subtlety and actively bombarded with messages connected to March Madness, coming from emails, tv spots, and conversations. It seems unavoidable. Even when I go to twitter, one of the top tweets concerns a player returning to play for Duke. The only people who should really care about that are Duke fans. But not in our world. I don’t know, maybe I’m being too analytical about this. Just seems like this is something everybody wants to talk about. But that might be because I can’t.
March 16, 2011
5:27 P.M.
At work today, a coworker named David talked all day about sports from UFC and boxing to the NBA. I didn’t say anything, I just let David talk. It was a bit aggravating, since, as much as I like David, he usually only repeats what he hears others say and rarely voices an opinion that’s…knowledgeable to be polite. I wanted to say something to him about it, about how he should watch more and discover what he thinks about something, correct him in his assessment of boxing vs. UFC (“in a real fight, you’re not going to have boxing rules!”) and so on, but I didn’t. I remained quiet aside from a few “uh-huhs” and “yeahs.” Now, I am far from an authority on the subject of sports, but I do think that I am informed (or at least I would’ve been a week ago) about what goes on. It’s interesting to be unable to correct someone when you know they’re wrong. That’s happened to me before, and I’m sure it happens to everyone, but it still isn’t comfortable, because you can’t have an actual conversation, you have to just bite your tongue. Going out with Ben. Hopefully we can avoid talking sports. I think I might break soon.
March 16, 2011
11:46 P.M.
Meeting with Ben went well, for the most part. We talked about life, love, God, and Better Off Dead, and only slipped into sports once, when he asked if I knew anything about the NFL work stoppage. Unfortunately, I got a few texts from a buddy, where the only thing we really talk about is the NBA, so I had to politely dodge that. Tomorrow, the tournament starts in force, and already, I feel a bit excluded from a lot of the groups I usually hang out with. Luckily, I didn’t have that many issues tonight, since Justified was on, and Ben and I had a movie to watch. In any other situation, though, I would be concerned about my success rate on a dead Wednesday night. The other problem has been twitter mentions of sports, which has been consistently dogging me. I’m wondering if I should just give up twitter all together. It’s going to be a rough few days.
March 17, 2011
1:31 A.M.
The good news is that I’m working for a while tomorrow. The bad news is that I’m going to want to wind down after that and I’m running out of supplies. Only four episodes of the Wire left in stock, and I don’t know that I have enough time to really crack open some books. I’ll figure something out, but at this point, I’m kind of feeling like a junkie who’s got a short supply.
March 17, 2011
5:23 P.M.
I didn’t even bother turning the tv on when I got home. My boss started talking about some of the NCAA games today while I was working, so I had to work quietly, and keep everything to myself. Twitter is nothing but tournament talk. I’m going stir crazy here. I should, though, be able to watch come Sunday. That just seems so far away right now. Everything has been exacerbated today. I couldn’t even eat lunch in peace because the restaurant had the tournament on. I avoided watching it, but it still sat there, mocking me. I am becoming a study in moppishness.
March 17, 2011
11:13 P.M.
Everywhere I turn, there’s a score, a comment, or a link about sports. I’ve got three episodes of the Wire left, I’m going to watch one tonight and probably two tomorrow. Saturday is going to be the big problem. I’m going to be at home, alone, with nothing to do except read and read and read. When the televisions on, I keep flipping through, looking for something, to make sure I’m not missing anything, and even when I pass over the sports stations, I linger a little longer. Ugh. It’s like I’m a loser who got dumped by a girl and can’t get over it. I have become Howard Hughes.
March 18, 2011
12:56 A.M.
Now, not only can I not watch the tournament, it’s mocking me by moving back other shows that I would’ve watched. Now, instead of Craig Ferguson, the best option available to me is Jimmy Fallon interviewing Howard Stern. Fantastic. What’s weird about all of this is that I don’t necessarily feel that bad about not watching the sports, I just feel bad because that means I can’t really watch anything. I finished another book tonight (that’s 4 down in 2 days,) and even that’s not doing much for me. Unfortunately, I can’t really get anything in from Amazon until after Saturday, so my reading and watching lists are going to take a hit. I would say that the good news is that I can go to bed early, but I really can’t, since I can’t get to sleep. I’m going to have to find something to do that won’t take too much energy, time, or money, or else I’m just going to be staring at the wall for a good long while. Tomorrow’s another day, though, and hopefully, I can get some rest and wind down pretty well. I’m bouncing off the walls, and I don’t see much of an end in sight.
March 19, 2011
12:24 A.M.
Today was a disaster. Everyone talked about the Tennessee game, or around it. There was no reprieve from sports, at work, online, or out to eat. They were everywhere, and I couldn’t do anything to stop them. Even when I got home, I didn’t even read or watch anything, I just worked on the computer, and even then I had to deal with the games. Tomorrow will probably be worse since it’s Saturday. I hope I don’t get mad and hit someone.
March 19, 2011
12:26 P.M.
Well, went to my first day for an internship, and almost slipped into sports talk, just as an ice breaker. There were three guys there, including myself, so we kind of danced around the topic a bit. As more people came in, they talked about the UT game last night, and went on about the Lady Vols game today, with the game on in the office. I felt cooped up, but I couldn’t leave, since it’s, you know, work. Ugh. Hopefully the day will get better.
March 19, 2011
8:22 P.M.
The day didn’t get better. Everyone’s still talking about this game or that game or what an athlete said or what a coach did. It’s driving me nuts. I haven’t turned the television on since I’ve been home. Knocked out another book, waiting on a pizza to get here, since I don’t want to go out. I’ve got work to do tonight, so maybe that’ll keep me busy for a while as well. I’m ready for this assignment to be over. I’m going to finish the season of the Wire I’m on tonight as well. Between that, reading, and work, I should be able to manage without turning the regular television on at all. I still feel stir crazy, though, and the main reason is that to do what I want to do while I relax requires much less brain power than anything I can do at this point. I just want to turn on a game and relax. Tomorrow, though, this will be over. Almost there.
March 20, 2011
2:27 A.M.
Well, after eleven hours of the Wire, 7 books, 5 movies, and a lot of work, I made it through. I think the most difficult thing about this wasn’t the not watching sports aspect, but rather the boredom and isolation that came along with it. I’m going to catch up with what’s happened this week by reading the big lead tomorrow, but honestly, just being able to watch a game with friends is going to be the most fulfilling thing for me. It felt like I didn’t have my right arm a lot of the time. I might consider dropping cable in the future as well, if I can keep up online with sports. It’s been a heck of a week, and it was a lot more difficult than I anticipated, but I’m glad I did it. I’m also glad it’s over.

Thursday, March 10, 2011

The Wire and The Economics of Drugs

I started watching The Wire recently. I’m through the first season, and so far I really enjoy the show. Since I can’t watch the NCAA basketball tournament this year (long story) I’m relying on it to entertain me a lot in the following week. The show explores the different points of view of the drug business in Baltimore, including the police, the dealers, and the junkies. And while there’s a lot going on in the show, like character development, subtle social commentary, and showing the horrors drugs bring about, the most interesting aspect of the show to me so far has been the discussion of drugs as a business.
                     The show discusses everything from the treatment of customers to inelastic vs. elastic products to the financial dependence of families on the drugs to supply and demand. The most striking part of this entire discussion to me has been the perspective of the young men in the service of D’Angelo, an up and coming drug dealer. The three main assistants highlighted are Bodie, Poot, and Wallace.
What I find fascinating is that for all three of these young men, the possibility of education is never realistically considered. Wallace mentions it to D’Angelo once, but aside from one conversation, none of them ever really think about it. They have accepted their roles as the pawns in the organization, and while they want to move up, the idea of getting out is completely foreign to them. D’Angelo mentions how he and his family were born into the trade, and we see how much each of the young men have to fight to support their families. That, I think, is one of the pieces most people forget when they talk about the war on drugs or about fixing the community or any other high minded ideal: why would anyone choose to spend four years in high school, on the off chance of being able to go to college for four years to get a job that earns five figures if they could earn six figures selling drugs? Especially when they have families they have to feed and they’ve been raised around that culture for their entire lives?
When you’re born into that environment where drugs are as common as a sun rise, more often than not the choice is either to become a seller or a user. And because of that, because people will always need money or want an escape, drugs will never go out of business. The idea that legal constraints and heightened police action can eventually end the drugs or the violence is asinine for one reason: the cash. Regardless of any other factor, drugs are still big and will continue to be so unless demand goes down. Now, I’ve said before that I don’t want to talk politics on this blog, so I won’t, but I do think that a lot of the demand and violence would go down if drug laws were eased up a bit, and I think that the government would save itself a decent amount of money from not funding these initiatives either. But that’s a discussion for another day. The point, though, is that until the drug problem is solved, community enhancement is probably a pipe dream. And solving that problem will be almost impossible. “There is no ‘War on drugs’” one character states, “Wars end.”