Sorry, Lia...

Got hung up over the last two days...LONG story. Here are my answers! You gonna let me give you some questions? :)

1. What are you most afraid of?

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.” - Marianne Williamson, Return to Love. I find little substantial value for my life in much of the rest of Williamson’s work, but I find this quote to sum me up quite well.

2. What is one aspect of your true personality that you don't normally share with people?

I have the unfortunate tendency to get extremely jealous, especially around those who are in love. When couples are getting all lovey-dovey around each other, I often have to bite my tongue.

3. What is your favorite smell in the world?

When the season is just changing between winter and spring, and you get that first day where you can just sense it in the air that spring and summer are truly here…that’s a great feeling.

4. What aspect of your self are you most TRULY proud of?

Honestly, my ability and instinct to self-sacrifice. It has caused me a great deal of trouble over the years, but I am damn proud of the fact that when faced with difficult situations emotionally, I have been willing to be hurt myself before I would cause pain to those who I care most about. I sometimes find myself racked with self-doubt about my emotional position as a nice person, and when that happens, the knowledge that I have been willing and able to make such stands has helped me get through such moments. I am proud of who I am and that people who I love have not had their happiness impeded by my occasional emotional states.

5. Where do you want to be in 3 years?

I want to have my own apartment. I want to have a job which earns me enough to be comfortable. I want to be able to see the people I care about. I want to be doing things which make me happy and glad to be alive. And I want to love.

An Open Letter to ESPN Radio

RE: Colin Cowherd

As a reasonably mature and intelligent adult, one who does not live in his parents' basement, has not eaten a "booger" since the tender age of 4, and who also happens to be a wrestling fan, I would like to thank Mr. Cowherd for his nonsensical, ignorant, prejudicial, incoherent, condescending and amazingly wrong-headed speech given on yesterday's program.

For if he can make such sweeping generalizations about a fairly good sized chunk of the American populace with little if any regard for the potential ramifications of being wrong on the issue, it makes it abundantly clear that his opinion on other matters must be equally unfounded.

It is thoroughly within Mr. Cowherd's rights to hold and express such opinions about wrestling fans. That's what makes this country great, is that we all have the right to say whatever the heck we want in whatever forum we choose. But we must also be prepared for whatever consequences may result if our opinion is not supported by such trifling circumstances as reality.

Are there wrestling fans who fit the description Mr. Cowherd put forth? Absolutely. Every societal group has members who perpetuate the stereotypes imposed upon it. But there are also a great many who do not. In my own immediate circle of friends, I count a great many who are wrestling fans, none of whom even come close to fitting the description Mr. Cowherd has imposed upon all of us in his rant.

There are steroid and drug problems related to professional wrestling. This is without doubt. As a fan of wrestling, and what's more, a fan of the performers involved, it saddens me to know this fact, for what I love about the business has nothing to do with the size of the participant's biceps, nor the general shape of their physique. What I enjoy and appreciate is the actual performance of a wrestling match, a theatrical presentation that is unlike anything else. I enjoy seeing athletes perform to the utmost degree in an effort to entertain the crowd. And history has shown that wrestlers who add to their muscle mass actually DECREASE their ability to perform effectively in this role.

When a performer I enjoy adds muscle mass to a ridiculous degree, I presume at some level that he has decided to use steroids. It also saddens me greatly. As a fan, the LAST thing I want to see is these performers, who I enjoy watching so much, risk their lives by using a drug which will only hinder their performance, not enhance it.

But I am not deluded. I recognize that wrestlers will continue to use these products as long as they still think that fans care about their physique more than they care about their performance. That's why rants like Mr. Cowherd's actually hurt the issue more than they help. By condescending to fans and making them the target of ridicule, he is only helping to reinforce the stereotype of what wrestling fans are and why they watch. And that will lead to more wrestlers taking their lives in their hands in order to please that hypothetical section of audience, which is actually much smaller than it seems.

So, to Mr. Cowherd, I would merely like to suggest that the next time he feels like making such sweeping statements about the nature of the wrestling fan base, he should take the time to truly examine that fan base before he attempts to condemn them en masse. That would be a truly "grown up" thing to do.

And to ESPN Radio, I would like to suggest that you have now officially lost a listener.

-Jeff McGinnis
Bowling Green, OH

Yes, I'm still alive...

I've just had a busy few days. I'll try to update both this and All Audiences in the next couple days. Meantime...Interview Me (Again)!

(Lia reposted this, so I figured I'd give it another shot...)

1. Leave me a comment saying, "Interview me." (Or something along those lines)
2. I will respond by asking you five questions.
3. You will update your LJ with the answers to the questions.
4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.

Greedy or No Greedy?

As a game show nut, I am hooked on NBC's "Deal or No Deal." But I'm noticing something odd about my reaction to it. Normally, on a game show, you root for the contestant. If someone is working hard and using their knowledge and skill to amass a huge amount of winnings, you cheer for them. I'm noticing, however, that a lot of the time on "Deal or No Deal," my reaction is the opposite. Often I find myself hoping to see the contestant fall flat on their face.

Why? A few reasons. First, the game requires no skill whatsoever. No knowledge needed, you're not competing against anyone else, it's just you and the banker. As such, it's a win-win situation. No matter what, the folks who walk on that stage are gonna walk out with more money than they walked in with.

That said, I have not seen a SINGLE contestant who didn't get rediculously greedy. Someone with an offer on the table of 100,000 dollars who turns it down because there's a one-in-10 chance that their case has 750,000 gets NO sympathy from me. It was 100,000 bucks. More than I have earned in my entire life, basically. And they were just HANDING it to you. And you said no in the face of rediculous odds. Why? Not because you were confident in your abilities to play the game - the game is 100% chance. You said no because you were greedy and figured that the offer would go up even more. So when that next case opens up and it's the 750,000 one, and the offer suddenly gets busted down to under a grand, well, sorry, but you reap what you sew.

Last night, there was a woman who reached a point where the bank offered her nearly 200,000 dollars. Enough, she proclaimed, to pay off all of her student loans. And she turned it down. She got lucky, her next case was a small amount, and the offer went up to about 400 grand, and that's where she stopped. Bully for her. But it ticked me off to no end. She came on proclaiming that she wanted to earn enough to erase her debt, she was faced with just that option, and she went on. That, my friends, is just plain stupid.

In a game of chance, sometimes fortune favors the stupid. More often, however, the odds catch up with you. That's why watching "Deal or No Deal" has become somewhat of a cathartic experience - there's an exact moment where a contestant stops being a sympathetic figure who's trying to earn some cash, and starts being a greedy b*stard. And when that moment comes, you just watch and wait for the train to jump the tracks.

That may make me a bad person. But I can live with that. :)

A few notes, wrestling and otherwise...

-Congrats to Rey Mysterio for his title win at WrestleMania on Sunday, the lone reason why I regret missing the show. Yep, I conciously skipped WM for the first time in nearly 20 years. I'll probably write an essay here eventually about why, cuz there are a few things I wanna get off my chest.

-On a WWE-related note, I dunno what the heck has happened, but WWE has suspended Randy Orton. The only word we're getting is it's because of "unprofessional conduct," which basically could mean anything at this point. All we know is, the odds on Sunday were that he was next in line for the belt, now, who knows.

-Oh, and for the record, Vince McMahon is nuts. How nuts? This nuts.

Yes, they're actually promoting a tag team match with Shawn Michaels teaming up with God against Vince and Shane McMahon. One wonders if God's willing to do the job anymore than Shawn is.

-And to talk about actual GOOD wrestling for a change, TNA has posted a preview of the single most awesome wrestling DVD ever concieved. But we have to wait until JUNE 6TH. ARRGH.

-Thanks to Heather, just caught up with the rest of the free world and finished "The DaVinci Code." I'll spare you an extensive review (for now, anyway), I'll only say this - when the primary thing I can say about a major novel is, "It reminded me of 'The Goonies'," there's a problem.

-And next on the literary block is "Game of Shadows," the Barry Bonds and steroids opus. I read the excerpts in Sports Illustrated and found them incredibly interesting, and Matt picked up the book this afternoon, so I'll probably be tearing through it tonight. My basic thought about the controversy, by the way, is that I love baseball, I always will, and the game itself will never be harmed by all the broo-ha-ha. But the people involved, the players who used this junk and the officials who turned a blind eye, NEED to be held accountable - for the game's sake and for their own. For more extensive thoughts on the whole scenario, I can just direct you to a commentary from way back in December of '04...

-And keep your eyes peeled on All Audiences in the coming days. I'm working on a few new articles, as well as some new articles from some new writers (hopefully)!

-Oh, and one last thing...HAPPY SESQUICENTENNE-MAIL, STRONG BAD!!!!