It still makes me physically ill to think about. Four years later, and really the moment took all of two seconds. But whenever I recall it, my stomach turns and knots up and I want to puke.
I’m of course talking about a football game. One game. One play, in fact. One second in the sixty minutes that make up a football game that four years later still hurts. Continue reading “Coming Up Short”
Okay, this post will be a little bit different. It’s not a story to tell or a confession to make. I don’t know what it is or why I’m writing it. Could be that I feel like it is important to know and that I could share. Or more likely, I’ve seen enough in my 25 years of life to make things seem more like a Tolstoy novel than the life of a community college employee. Either way, here goes nothing.
Somewhere circa 2008, I had a bit of a reawakening. I was scrambling around, trying to find my footing and worried that my entire future and everything I thought I knew about life had just been taken away from me. It was a time of my life that involved a lot of anger, bitterness, frustration, and more than one moment where weakness took me down to the fetal position on the ground with nobody around to pick me up.
Things kinda sucked. I guess that’s what I’m saying.
During that time, though, there were two particular phrases that I heard that hit me upside the head, along with one unique truth I learned, and those three things changed the way I look at the world. I figured since they hit me so hard back then, I should revisit them and share them with you. So here’s the first one:
Avoid Unnecessary Expectations Continue reading “The Greatest Advice Of All Time, Pt. 1”
This guest post is brought to you by a new Twitter friend, Ben Zajdel. Ben is a graduate of the University of Texas at Dallas, works in a Christian bookstore, watches entirely too much basketball (PERFECTLY okay with me), and has written a few short books you might enjoy. You can keep up with him at his website, or on Twitter, @benzajdel.
I’ve been told my whole life not to hate people. It’s in the Bible, of course. It says there that hating someone is essentially like murdering them, or at least wanting to. My mom would scold me if I said I hated anything, including broccoli. Even my family doctor told me that hate was an ugly word when I informed him that I hated shots.
I understand their point of view. I don’t think I should dislike a person or a thing so much that it makes my chest burn, my eyes water, and my heart race. That’s obviously not healthy. I don’t advocate hating people, races, religious groups, politicians, cats, or Yankees fans, especially to the point of wishing them harm.
But there is something I call Sports Hate. It’s a little different. This type of hate doesn’t want to see anyone get hurt, or arrested, or any actual misfortune take place on a team or individual. This type of hate is much simpler, and a little less violent. When you Sports Hate a team or player, you just want them to lose. All the time. Sometimes it’s for good reason, like if they defeated your team in the playoffs the previous year. Other times it makes no sense whatsoever, and your hate simply springs from the way a guy cuts his hair. There are plenty of ways to develop Sports Hatred, and the longer you watch and play sports, you gain and lose some Sports Hate along the way.
The GBOAT is proud to present the first episode in the webseries Life With Tabs.
Tabs loves you. A lot. She just doesn’t know how to express it.
And now for a brief serious note, okay? Okay.
It’s been a few months since I’ve genuinely cared about my friends. That’s just being honest. I was getting so frustrated at times with ALL the people in my life, I stopped caring like I should have. Then, everything cracked and broke open and I was instantly surrounded by so many who care for me greatly, even though I was the worst to them. Wow. I can’t even begin to understand any of that. Continue reading “Life With Tabs, Ep. 1”
This is another lesson in my HTBASF series. It is lesson 5 or 6, depending on where you list a lesson that is/will be posted on XtraBacon.com.
Always support. Always.
This entire post could probably be summed up just like that, but apparently I’m REQUIRING myself to wax philosophically for the next 1,000 words or so. I’m sorry in advance if this post isn’t quite as tongue-in-cheek as the previous HTBASF posts. I just feel like, with college football upon us now, this needs to be discussed. Here goes:
You want to be a sports fan? You want to ACTUALLY care for and support a particular team? Then be prepared to do just that.
Continue reading “How To Be A Sports Fan: Support and Believe”
I promise I don’t actually care how you feel about me, regardless of how it seems.
Look, I wrote last week about how I want to be all about community and openness and honesty and all that. Well this post is sort of the flip side of that, which is more openness and honesty than it is community. More about me than it is about you, I guess.
As much as I want to be about community, and I do, there’s an aspect of it that is still focused on me, and it’s hard for me to control that. Or rather, it’s hard for me to figure out if I need to control that. I mean, how much of it is healthy motivation and how much is some sort of selfish ambition, right? How much is genuine and how much is “selling out” (for lack of a better term)?
For example, why do I want so badly to write on this blog more? I’m awful at self-promotion because I feel really dumb trying to plug myself a lot. But at the same time I clearly want people to read what I write, otherwise I wouldn’t post this stuff on the internet. So I have to ask myself whether my writing is for my own benefit or if it’s really about building community or if it’s just so you will like me. But I promise I don’t actually care how you feel about me. Continue reading “The Flip Side”
Your Friend Joseph Craven Welcomes You To The GBOAT 