Quick Thinking: Defining Moments

I'm learning more and more that people's opinions of me are not based on who I actually am but, rather, who that person needs me to be relative to their own worldview.

Let me give an example. 

This weekend, a close friend's wife made a telling statement about why her husband isn't "allowed" to socialize with me very often. (Something about "getting drunk until 4 in the morning" was mentioned.) My response was as immediate as it was simple, "Sounds like displacement to me." 

I didn't try and educate her or "prove her wrong." It would be a fool's errand. The truth of the matter is I need to be the villain for her worldview to make sense. 

She needs me on that wall. She wants me on that wall.

For the record, I drink twice or so a month these days...maybe less. Sometimes months go by and I don't have one drink. Partly because my life schedule is dictated by my 6-year-old son but, even more importantly, because alcohol simply isn't a big part of my life anymore. 

Not by mandate or anything, but by choice. 

I find life more rewarding when I'm not throwing away money going out all the time or wasting time nursing headaches the next morning. 

But that reality doesn't work for my friend's wife. If she viewed me for who I really was today, as opposed to who I may have been in the past, she couldn't come up with an easy, blameless reason why her husband "can't go out tonight." The realities must remain mutually exclusive, of course, or her actions wouldn't be seen as a "wife making responsible decisions" but one who is a finding pleasure in controlling those around her. 

And that's certainly not something she could ever admit to anyone about herself.

Talk about irony.

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-- Quote of the Week goes to Connor McGregor for responding to Draymond Green's "we rocking with Floyd bro not you, take that off bruh" quip by saying, "I don't know or give a f*** about basketball. I bounce heads off the floor. Not a ball."

-- Win or lose, Connor is an A++ self-promoting trash talker.

-- Reminds me of Ali.

-- Or is it Will Smith?

-- Either way...

-- ...the champ is here!

-- Editorial Note of the Week: Photobucket, the image storage app I've used since this blog's inception, has decided to charge almost 500 bucks a year for photo storage and third party linkage. As a result, all my past blogs will have a broken link where an image once lived. Sorry for any resulting confusion.

-- The best song you don't know about right now is Navajo by Masego.

-- Alt Shift X keeps killing it with his analysis of all things Game of Thrones. His episode 1 breakdown is as good as it gets.

-- Speaking of Game of Thrones and being as good as it gets...did y'all catch Missandei in episode 2?! 

-- I found myself rewatching her scene with Greyworm over and over.

-- You know, because those tricky writers hide so many hints, easter eggs and foreshadowing in each scene. 

-- And I can say, with absolute certainty, that Winter isn't the only thing that came this season.

-- HEYYY-OOOOOOO!!

Quick Thinking: Game Theory

So I'm playing basketball again. And, admittedly, that statement in and of itself is certainly not newsworthy. I mean, the NBA draft was weeks ago. 

I missed my window.

What is newsworthy, however, was the immediate feeling my 40-something self recognized so quickly after lacing up a pair of high-tops for the first time in 7 years and trying to compete with the 20-something crowd: I'm too old to play.

There, I said it.

My wits on the court are still fully intact, of course. With the exception of some instances where my competitive fire trumped sound decision making, I've always been a "high basketball IQ" guy...a thinker. 

[SIDE NOTE: START]

Outthinking the competition started at a very young age for me. I couldn't match the physicality of my older brothers and their friends when I was younger (and undersized), so outthinking them was my only chance to be effective. 

Battling older friends and family as an undersized youth is also where I developed that chip on my shoulder and my sharp tongue, but that's another story for another time.

[SIDE NOTE: END]

The sad reality is this 6'4" frame isn't athletic enough to contribute effectively anymore. Not even close. Some may find this hard to believe, but my first-step quickness, athleticism, and jumping ability were a big part of my game -- a BIG part -- and their absence has made my margin for error too small. 

Luckily, the vivid memories of being faster than most of my competition or being able to easily dunk a basketball don't cloud my thinking to overcome the current reality that I can't do either anymore. They simply serve as a healthy reminder that any thoughts of the past live exactly where they need to: in the past. After all, Father Time is one competitor I can't outthink.

Mother Earth, on the other hand...

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-- Big ups to HBO for being innovative (read: pretending to be Netflix) and releasing every episode of The Defiant Ones on their streaming services HBO GO & HBO NOW.

-- The 4-part series, chronicling the careers and relationship between Dr. Dre, Jimmy Iovine and how they sold Beats by Dre to Apple, Inc. for 3 billion dollars, is worth the watch.

-- And as binge-worthy as it gets.

-- The best song you don't know about right now is Gettin' Old by 6LACK. 

-- R.LUM.R's Frustrated is a close second.

-- The toughest part about getting older is the whole getting wiser that comes along with it.

-- Trust me.

-- Of the two, I'd take my youthful ignorance over my youthful body any day.

-- You know, because Viagra.

-- Speaking of Viagra, Wild Thoughts, Rihanna's latest collaboration with DJ Khaled, will undoubtedly be the jam of Summer 2017.

-- Doesn't hurt that it samples Maria Maria, one Santana's best from Supernatural.

-- The accompanying video also solidifies Rihanna as the sexiest woman in show business right now.

-- Not to be mistaken with the most beautiful one, of course.

-- Who is obviously Gail Gadot.

-- Try and disagree. 

-- I dare you.



-- Wonder Woman, indeed.