Month: January 2017

When being right feels gross

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

For the last week, I feel like I’ve been the only person who had this niggling feeling that Alabama was going to lose to Clemson.  Perhaps I just need to know more people who actually like sports.  Prior to the game, I was the only guy in my department that picked Clemson to win the National Championship.  I predicted a final score of 38-30.  I wasn’t that far off.  So I was right in my sports predicting, which is a little validating, but the end result of it is still Clemson as National Champions, so it does leave me with some slight nausea.

But seriously, whether it was ESPN or other national outlets, workplace proximity associates who like to pretend like they know things about sports, or even the mythical girlfriend, just about everyone I’d heard from since the field was set seemed to favor Alabama over Clemson.  And justifiably so, Alabama was undefeated going into the National Championship, and they’d already proven they could beat Clemson by having done so in the previous year’s National Championship.

Regardless, I just had this feeling in my gut, that feeling that comes from having watched an exorbitant amount of sports throughout my entire life, that Clemson was going to win the game.  Their QB was pretty much the ultimate bridesmaid, having come so close the year prior, and having been snubbed for two straight Heisman Trophies; and at literally his last collegiate game, he had absolutely one shot to immortalize his entire college career, before he’ll inevitably be making gobs of money in the NFL.  Needless to say, a graduating Deshaun Watson with a chip the size of South Carolina on his shoulders against an 18-year old true freshman in Alabama’s Jalen Hurts, regardless of his immense talent, just didn’t seem like a favorable matchup for Crimson Tide supporters.

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I really don’t feel like writing

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

Therefore, I am making myself write, because it’s the times that you don’t want to do something are the times in which you have to do them, otherwise a downward spiral of failure becomes eminent.  Don’t feel like exercising?  Prepare to have to budget for some larger clothes, fatass.  Don’t feel like cooking?  Prepare to have to budget for some larger clothes, lazy. Don’t feel like working?  Prepare to have to update your resume when you get shitcanned; and budget for larger clothes when you inevitably start to eat out of depression.

I don’t want to have to budget for larger clothing because I don’t feel like writing, and it will depress me, and then I’ll resort to food.  Everything resorts to food, seemingly.  Food is wonderful, and I’m fascinated just how often people turn heel on food on shows like My 600 lb. Life on TLC, blaming a wonderful thing for why they’re so fat and useless.  It’s worse than people turning heel on Ronda Rousey, because she lost her return fight, and now suddenly she’s an overrated has been that everyone has hated for a long time because of some controversial statements she made about homosexuality that have nothing to do with her body of work as a mixed martial artist.

The thing is, a lot of people wanted to believe that when the arbitrary change from 2016 to 2017 occurred, things would miraculously start getting better, more optimistic.  Sure, I don’t buy into it, but I didn’t want to be one of those assholes who bemoaned the entire practice and shit on peoples’ mechanisms to remain optimistic and have hope, but it turns out that as far as my own little world is concerned, things don’t really seem to be getting much better.  Those around me are still going through some rough patches, testing their morale, resolve and their strength, and my family is still in disarray and no matter how much talking and mediating I try to do, still looks to be on a path to a worst possible situation.

Honestly, because I’m apparently so empathetic towards the woes of those around me, it’s difficult to go on with my relatively simple life knowing others are grieving and dealing with bad things in their lives, and despite the fact that I just said my life is relatively simple, the problems that I do have myself aren’t necessarily small ones.  That being said, there are times in which I feel like I’m being stretched pretty hard in numerous directions, and it’s when I feel the most powerless at being able to cope and help and deal, that I feel the brunt of emotional distress bordering at the potential for some depression.

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The Ft. Lauderdale airport shooter looks like Brandon Belt

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

Inappropriate, given the tragic loss of multiple lives at the Ft. Lauderdale airport, but when I saw the mugshot of the gunman, I couldn’t help but notice the striking resemblance to San Francisco Giants first baseman, Brandon Belt.

Sure, he’s the player I identify as the guy I dislike the most on the team I dislike more than any other in Major League Baseball, which I almost want to say that he’s the guy I dislike more than anyone else in MLB, which isn’t entirely accurate, because that dubious honor goes to Melky Cabrera, but even I have to feel kind of bad for Brandon Belt that he’s such a dead ringer for a guy whose face has been, and will probably be flashing all over the news for at least another week, as a guy identified as a mentally ill, PTSD-addled example of the shortcomings of veteran care and mental health knowledge.

Seriously, when I first saw the mugshot, I immediately thought that Brandon Belt had done something illegal and gotten arrested or something. 

I hope one day when Brandon Belt is inevitably exposed as being the overrated hack he is and is designated for assignment, and has to take his talents to Asia in order to keep his career going, Asian fans will make signs using the Ft. Lauderdale shooter’s mugshot with Brandon Belt’s name.  Like when Taiwanese fans used a photo of Johnny Cueto on a sign for Manny Ramirez, because All Look Same.

This is why humanity is going downhill

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

Impetus: France, joins 51 other countries as countries that will no longer allow corporal punishment.

Meaning: There are currently 52 countries in the world that don’t allow children to be spanked.

Reality: There are currently 52 countries in the world where children will grow up to be undisciplined shitheads and become pussies in life.

Irony: Despite using Arnold Schwarzenegger from Kindergarten Cop as the hero image for this post, Austria, was the fourth nation of pussies to ban corporal punishment in 1989.  Sure, the timing is a little off, but Austria bans discipline, Arnold leaves Austria, Arnold becomes a global mega star – coincidence?

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Attempting to kill The Killing Joke

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

Over the holidays, I took a little bit of time to watch the animated rendition of Batman: The Killing Joke, widely regarded as one of the most memorable Batman comics ever made.  Despite curmudgeon Alan Moore’s best attempts to discount its merit, there’s no denying that it’s a genuine classic that puts an exclamation point on the dark undertones of the series, and shows a very serious and vicious rendition of The Joker and a storyline that distances it miles away from the safeness of The Animated Series and the campiness of the 60’s Adam West show.

When the film debuted over the summer during Comic-Con, there was a lot of buzz in the negative sense about its execution; something about an artificially added storyline, damaging of female empowerment, and a very non-canonical relationship.  In other words, typical nerd outrage over something that a lot of people didn’t agree with.  Although the details of these particular elements did sound a little suspect, I didn’t really want to come to any conclusions without seeing it myself; after all, with the return of Mark Hamill and Kevin Conroy to reprise their TAS roles, maybe this could be an epic retelling of an epic comic story.

Well, after watching The Killing Joke, put me in the camp of comic nerds who believes it was overall crap.

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Oh, Atlanta #1,017

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

TL;DR: Shell casings found in various Atlanta locations indicate a concerning number of incidents on New Year’s Eve involving celebratory gun fire.

You know what’s a great idea to celebrate things?  Discharging lethal weapons.

I mean seriously, I’ve heard of plenty of incidents of there being celebratory gun fire in parts of the world before, but usually they’ve been like, Islamic terrorists firing AK-47s into the skies, screaming Allahu Akbar or some shit.  Or like rednecks really celebrating their second amendment rights, in the backwoods and/or their white supremacy compounds.

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