Well...this is interesting. I have decided to try and keep a blog for several reasons. The first is several of my friends, let's call them Mr. T and Chow, are addicted to reading blogs and need a new fix. It's sick and twisted, but hey, it could be worse. They could be addicted to watching Joe Millionaire. The second is the fact that I recently kept a journal for my vacation this year and enjoyed it more than I had any right to. It's been years since I wrote anything of substance and it was almost like putting on a comfortable pair of shoes; it felt natural and relaxing. Sort of like therapy for me to vent my usual brand of nonsense into a solid form that I could look at later and gage my sanity. The third reason is I fear my writing skills may be deteriorating as we speak. I seem to have trouble spelling and resort to a childish vocabulary to get my point across. Me no like. I figure if I'm going to practice expressing myself, I might as well have an audience.

This will be my journal 2.0. For the record, my life isn't exactly exciting. In fact, my last journal was probably far more entertaining as I was in a foreign land seeing extrodinary things; my usual day is a lot like the Weather Channel. It's interesting for about 10 minutes to see what's happening, then you want to flip on over to that Girls Gone Wild commercial or an episode of the Simpsons. Well, I don't plan on writing every little thing that occurs in my life in here, as that would be sad and depressing for all involved. No, I'll just bring up the events that attract my attention. Maybe you'll enjoy it, maybe you'll think I'm a complete tool; either way, at least I'll get a reaction. So here goes, my first entry into the blogosphere.

As I type this, I'm supposed to be watching the Lakers playing the Mavericks, but I'm actually more engrossed by Joe Millionaire. That show is killing me; the guy is some strange cross between Woody Harrelson and Owen Wilson. From what I understand of the first one, which I didn't get to watch (seriously, I'd probably watch it now if it's anything like this one) the first guy was a total fool and only worthy of being liked by the money he supposedly had. This guy on the new one is actually pretty charming in a goofy, school boy sort of way. The women are nothing to write home to mama about though. I was just in Europe and it is chock full of gorgeous, sophisticated women and this is what they brought to the show? It's a travesty, really. I know they want to mock the foreigners in this particular show, they wouldn't have chosen a "cowboy just like President Bush" if they hadn't want to make these women go completely against their morals, but they could have grabbed a couple that didn't look like they just came out of a brothel. It's an interesting concept; making women look like money grubbing bitches, but isn't this show just a microcosm of men and women relations? Men do their best to look important and successful enough to attract a woman that they think they deserve, and women generally gravitate towards important and successful men. Even females who are millionaires usually are looking for a man even more successful then they are; it's just hardwired into our brains, I suppose.

Ahem...Anyways, back to the Laker game. First of all, I'm not a Laker fan; actually, I grew up a Boston Celtics fan and really still do pull for the Truth Pierce to get his team past the other underachievers Eastern Conference teams every year. Still, I live in L.A. and this is the most successful franchise in the city and as everyone knows, L.A. loves a winner. The game isn't particularly interesting at the moment; both teams have recently done a complete roster overhall and have no idea what their offense is supposed to be yet. It's going to be like this for at least another couple of weeks and the only thing keeping me interested at this point is my fantasy basketball league. No, what's been very interesting has been the Kobe-Shaq feud that's burning as brightly as the San Bernardino hills right now. Shaq has always taken cheap shots at Kobe over the years, many were deserved, some were just piling on. Kobe, on the other hand, has always tried to be little Jordan and kept what he said under control and has always carefully chosen his words so not to express any opinion that wasn't completely dull and uninteresting. Yeah...we know you want to win and give 110 percent and all that crap, but seriously, what are you thinking? Well, we found out this week. What with this little rape case hanging over his head and his marriage, career, hell, life hanging by the accusations of a maid from Colorado, he's finally decided he just doesn't give a crap. He came out full blast on Shaq and called him everything he probably did privately for the past several years. He called him a fat ass, a whiner, that he shucks responsibility, even that he has a low pain threshhold. Personally, I think this is pretty healthy. It's finally out there, like a big zit on the nose, screaming to the world,"Look at me!" Now they'll have to deal with it one way or another; either a trade or an agreement to just play the damn game and win. I don't know what will happen with Kobe, whether he'll be able to be the great player he was last year or even if he'll stay out of jail, but I think this is probably the first step to his actual maturity. Jordan was able to lock it all down for some time, but even he snapped and had to take a couple of years off from being Mr. Perfect and even had to deal with his own gambling demons. It's time for Kobe to stop pretending he's the best thing since Tivo and just deal with being a very talented basketball player.

Wow, I really babbled on in this first post. I better get back to watching Joe Mill...er, the Lakers. Wow...Payton really still is the man!