So I had originally decided on the previous two blog posts to be a part of a huge update, but I guess once I started writing them I blabbered on and on and basically forgot everything I had planned on talking about. I guess I really should have paid more attention in 11th grade English class and trained myself to use outlines when writing; rather than spending my time laughing about the lonely bastards in 1776. Either way, there were two more thoughts that I need to throw out there.

Soccer
It’s rained almost every weekend, so I haven’t had much chance to use my new outdoor shoes. I’m not sure if I hadn’t bought them yet or not, but I ended up going with the greatest soccer shoe ever made - Adidas Copa Mundial. I had been anxious to get them broken in so I started using them for indoor soccer (because we have the new superturf like they have for professional football these days). So, they haven’t been working for me. In six games I maybe scored two goals. I think a part of it is just the mental block of using outdoor shoes for indoor soccer, but no matter what they haven’t been working for me. After determining that the new shoes were adequately broken in, I switched back to the good old Adidas Sambas. The result? In four and a half games, I’ve scored 12 goals and who knows how many assists. Yeah. I don’t care what kind of turf they have out there, I’m going to stick with my flatsoled shoes.

The illness
As if I didn’t already feel like I had too much to do, I got ridiculously sick last Friday with the flu. I now have a new appreciation for the flu. Every year the media makes a ridiculously huge deal about the flu shot shortage. I’ve had the flu a thousand times and I’ve yet to see the benefit of getting a flu shot. I mean, you run a fever, your body aches for a few days and then you’re fine again. Well, now I finally understand why the flu is so dangerous. I spent a solid five and a half days with a 102 degree fever. No shit. Sick like I’ve never been sick before. This wasn’t hang around the house and have a good time lounging around kind of sick, I’m talking lying in bed like a zombie writhing in pain while alternating between freezing and burning up. FOR FIVE SOLID DAYS. It was a new level of suck. Most of the time I couldn’t even play poker because my mind wasn’t working right. I spent a lot of time staring at my ceiling fan. I need to dust it. I honestly used to believe that people were faking it when they had the flu for a week. I figured that it was just like when I got it: feel bad for a day or two and then right back to normal (maybe with some residual coughing). I just figured that people who took longer wanted some extra time to sit around the house and watch reruns of the Golden Girls. But now I know.

I did manage to get a couple things done while I was out for the majority of the week. Between waiting around at the doctor’s office and two pharmacy stops I had plenty of time to read Bringing Down the House, the MIT blackjack club book (no relation to the Queen Latifah/Steve Martin movie). It was an extremely fast read. Overall I have to say I really liked the book. The author really did take some liberties to make things more interesting. There are some parts of the book where the author didn’t interview the participants of a situation, and as the story he insists that they never told anyone. I want to see how the movie turns out. I also finished Grand Theft Auto San Andreas. I wasn’t even disappointed with the last mission. I took me six tries to get through it. My only real complaint with the game is the co-pilot shooter missions. Those were definitely the worst of everything. Even having to eat every so often wasn’t as annoying as I thought it would be. The last mission involved a part with the co-pilot shooter; luckily, I’ve finally gotten good enough at them that I can get by. But overall, the game is so good that I’ve continued to play it even after finishing it and that’s saying something, considering all the games in my collection now that I haven’t touched since finishing them.