My parents always told me that I should surround myself around good people. Usually they rub off on you in some way or another; some are good and some are bad. Luckily, I don't have many friends who freebase and solicit hookers on a daily basis, so I haven't caught on to that phenomenon. Actually, I don't even know if that's a phenomenon, or what. I would say that, as a whole, I have some pretty good friends, sure they all piss me off from time to time, but in the end, I can count on them to help me out when I need them.
All of my friends on MySpace are friends I actually know, in other words, I know each and every one of my friends in some capacity, some I know very well, and others I have kept in contact through high school, college, work, general shenanigans, or bars. This thing is though; I know each and every one of you. Not to sound like a MySpace elitist, but I don't allow random strangers, bands, singers, porn stars, etc on my friend list. That sucks. Granted there are a gazillion bands I listen to and have MySpace accounts, but really, do the Arctic Monkeys really care if I am on their friend list, let alone on their Top 8? I think not. So what does this mean?
Last week, I posted 9 different hypothetical questions about various circumstances, ranging from wizards to lesbian porn, the point of the questions were to gauge an in-depth, and funny, perspective on each of my friends. I got back some pretty remarkable, and unremarkable, answers, with the threat of physical violence if I divulged the answers from certain individuals. Drop kicks to the balls be damned, I wont reveal the answers from every one, ensuring I won't be the Tina Turner to certain individuals' Ike Turner; however, I will reveal answers from mystery posters. But why?
The questions I posed all had moral and ethical implications behind each and every one of them. I tried to think of some of the most over-the-top questions I could think of, some were easier to think of, and others were hard to think of…and then, I completely omitted the question because in light of recent events, I didn't want any bad karma. The point of them was to see how each and every one who you, who did respond, would actually end up responding. At the time of writing this, I wanted to see if I could relate them to one of the bigger stories going on right now, especially locally. And, no I am not talking about the lifting of the ban on sex toys in
I stated earlier that if you surround yourself by good people, chances are good, you will, too, be a good person. You surround yourself by those you allow yourself to; I call this the Chris Rock theory. He said a few years ago that you can't have two separate types of people and have them coexist in harmony. For instance, you can't have a husband who's a crackhead and a wife who's a religious nut; it just won't work out. Same thing applies in friends, which explains why I don't have friends who use smack.
I bring this up because a lot of the answers I received were about the same as mine, which tends to lead me to believe that my friends and I generally think alike, or on a more delicate respect, we have, about, the same morals and values comparatively speaking. Does this mean we agree on everything, or think everything is the gospel? Of course not, no one person thinks exactly like another person, life, and people, don't work out like that; the world would be a lot more boring if life worked out that way. Luckily, it doesn't so we don't have to worry about that.
Ed note: This always puzzled me, specifically significant others: They will be like, "You know, Joe and I agree on everything, it's great." You know what? No it's not, everyone is entitled to their own opinion, that's what's great. I never understood couples who say they agree on everything. Liars.
And this is what I mean by surrounding myself around, like-minded, in some sorts, people who have general views about things in close to the same manner I do.
Looking back at some of the questions, the satanic band question, in particular, we learned that every one of you would have left the band regardless of the amount of money. Some of you said it wasn't worth having all these material possessions if you couldn't really couldn't enjoy doing what you were doing. I got responses ranging from "screw the money" to "if loving Jesus is wrong, I don't wanna be right". Of course, peculiarly, I also got a reply that if "I already reached the big time, I would take my money and run", which leads me to believe that some people have no problem selling themselves out for money. I'll explain this later (you know who you are).
Another question I brought up was the gay porn star scenario. This one was kind of funny because, well, anytime porn is mentioned, I chortle. Seriously, am I the only one who thinks its funny? Interestingly enough, half of the people who answered this question said they would leave the job because their parents wouldn't approve of it, while others said they would think about doing it because, well, girl on girl action is infinitely better than non girl on girl action (Hey, I didn't say it, I am just the messenger). It would seem that these answers would tend to make me believe that if forced to, they would tell their parents but then again, if they didn't have to, they wouldn't. But then again, this is the porn industry, anything goes.
My third favorite question that I posed was how much money you would offer a wizard for a change to upgrade your appearance. Actually, I have to admit, this question I stole from Chuck Klosterman, but the question itself raises a pretty good point that I could relate to this blog. If you had the chance, would you be able to put a monetary amount on upgrading your appearance? With this scenario, how much would you be willing to put up? Obviously, Seal didn't have this opportunity, but he got Heidi Klum, so I guess it's a moot point.
The point is what you would pay in order to get upgraded. I said I would pay no amount because, even though I'm not George Clooney, I'm content with the way I look. Not to sound completely egotistical, but I am fine being myself. Other answers ranged from the entire maximum amount to actually paying the wizard a fixed amount to make friends uglier. I thought this was pretty funny actually; indeed, jealousy knows no bounds, kinda like Nickelback sucking.
Several of the other questions were actually filler, not that they didn't play a role in this because, they were exams of self morals and what people perceive to be important to them, or what they would do if they were put in a certain, fictional, scenario. Because, honestly, what are the chances you get stranded on a desolate island and have to turn to cannibalism, on your sibling nonetheless? I'm pretty sure that has the same chance as Amy Winehouse being sober, which to say, is, uh, well, not looking so good. I swear if you lit a match around that chick, she might spontaneously combust.
My favorite question I asked was who was more impressive, a real life magician (albeit with only three tricks) or someone like Albert Einstein. Just about everyone said Albert Einstein was more impressive than the limited real life magician. Not me. I think the magician would have been more impressive because of what he can do, not because of what he doesn't do. For me, a real life magician who does magic..nis more impressive than someone like Einstein because there is no one else whocan do what he does. Sure, Einstein is a genius, but how many other geniuses are there out in the world? Hell, Will Hunting was probably, fundamentally, smarter than Einstein, and as of this past week, I would throw in Michael Scofield from Prison Break. There are other geniuses in the world but there is only person who can actually pull a rabbit out of a hat.
The last question was simple: Was there any point in your life where you would do something different? Obviously, the answer everyone replied back was yes. Of course, we have all made mistakes in our lives, I know I have made like a bajillion (and I havent been to New Orleans for the bachelor party) That's the beauty of life, we go through all these different circumstances and adventures and we make choices on a daily basis, some profound, others simple. One day we're deciding where we want to go to college and the next we're trying to figure out what to order with our Freebird's burrito. Sometimes we make right the right choices;..nsometimes we make the wrong ones, but one thing we all do is learn from them..nand try not to repeat them, or at the very least try and correct them.
And this is what brings me to the point of what I am trying to make. Bear with me when I talk about his, but I'm talking about Roger Clemens. By now, you have all heard and seen the media coverage of Roger Clemens testifying on Capitol Hill about his alleged steroid and human growth hormone usage. Last week, the Rocket took the stand and faced his accuser amidst a panel of congressmen span. I sat and watch the whole thing at work, like I would do anything else. As I saw what happened, I kept thinking to myself, just admit it you did it and let all this shit go away because the sight and thought of seeing one of the greatest, and my favorite, players go through this was eerily weird, yet really captivating.
The questions asked were all moral implications on each other, and really, at the time when Roger took the steroids/HGH he was making a moral decision too He chose to cheat. He could have gone the high road and passed on them but he didn t, he cheated..nand now he's going through the repercussions, which may result in jail time.
Everyone was talking about it, there was no way around it, hell, even dogs were communicating back and forth through dog-speak (I'm just guessing here).
Ed note: If Roger didn't take performance enhancing drugs, I'll do something big, but I'm just a realist. I'm also still a Roger Clemens fan.
Here we go: Say the PED is the wizard, and this wizard, instead of making you more attractive, will make you a better athlete. Would you take the chance? Would you be willing to pay for the chance? Evidently Clemens chose to do so, which is why we are all caught up in the media firestorm. You have a wizard (McNamee) offering you an opportunity to make yourself appear more attractive (becoming a better and stronger pitcher), what decision would you make? The decision I made was none: I wouldn't pay anything to the wizard because I would like to believe I am content with myself and don't need any more help. In some weird way, Roger chose to take a chance on the magical wizard and, well, this wizard ain't exactly like
I guess in a roundabout way, you can say he sold out, which brings me to another question that I posed: The satanic band scenario and would you go against your morals to have more of a materialistic life? Looks like Roger had no problem selling his soul to the devil in order to gain more, professionally and financially, and really can you blame him? Judging from some of the answers I received, no you cant. Some of you told me you wouldn't take the money, or be in the band with the chance to earn all that money, you couldn't agree with what you did or what you do in order to make money. It's a cheap form of whoring your values around. Like I said, interestingly enough, some people also said they would leave the band only after they have made a substantial amount of money. If that's the case, I cant really blame Roger for doing what he did, well I can, but I cant at the same time…even some of you would have crossed some imaginary boundary if give the chance. I say I wouldn't but really, would I? I honestly don't know, I've never been given the chance, but if there's a satanic nu-metal band coming out, let me know; on second thought, never mind. I am a big fan of some Jesus Christ.
I could sit here and argue back and forth about how each of these questions I gave out are related to Roger Clemens, because, really they all come down to your morals and doing what you think is right for you. I said a while back, we all have different morals and values, but as a whole, just about all of my friends have the same morals and values I have, granted some may not like to drink as much beer as I do on a Sunday Funday, but still, we all are about the same. Not to say we are all exactly alike because, I really don't think the world, much less my work, my friends, and my family could take another Steven, let alone thousands of them like Mr. Smith's in The Matrix. I have my little brother Anthony, and that's about the closest we'll ever come to having another Steven, which is probably for the best.
With the over-the-top questions I posted I wanted to see how people would react and what they would say in regards to them being in certain situations, would they trade everything they have known in life in? Would they sell out? Would they cross moral lines? Would they eat their sibling? I was just being curious because, as much as some of us are one in the same, we are also all different in our ways even more.
The Einstein question relates to who I think is more impressive: a magician who can do small wonders or someone who is infinitely smarter than me. Honestly, I am more impressed with someone like Alex Rodriguez who can't hit a baseball traveling over 95 miles per hour 400 or more feet. That is way more impressive than someone doing a chemistry experiment. Is it more practical than someone finding the cure for cancer? No. Now if someone does find a cure for cancer than I will, without a question, change my mind, but until then I am more inclined to go see Roy Oswalt pitch than someone figure out how to merge atoms, I think you would too. When was the last time you went to a science project? When was the last time you saw a football game? I rest my case.
The last question I posed was the easiest one to answer: Would you change anything in your life? Everyone said yes, I know I did. That's the beauty about life, our chance to make corrections and changes in our lives and learn from the mistakes we have made in our lives. Looking back to last week, I cant recall how many times this ran through my head as I watched Roger squirm at the questions he was being asked and what he thought Andy misremembered (my new favorite word).
Knowing the shit-storm that all of this scandal has brought, do you really think Roger wouldn't have taken the PED in hindsight? I'm willing to bet you he wouldn't have taken them, look at what has happened to him in the last week or so, he has lost all his credibility and has had his legacy tarnished because of a decision he "may have not" (read: yes he did) made. Looking back at his own career, he has to be thinking what if, what if he didn't use the PED. This is probably the hardest thing to imagine in life, "what if", undoubtedly when we are talking about professional athletes, this comes into play. What if I told the truth?
Andy Pettitte is a prime example, of course being a devout Christian all of this ate at him a lot more, but I can guarantee when he pitches at Yankee Stadium for his first start this year, he will get a standing ovation. As much as Americans are mesmerized by celebrities failures, we are also gravitated towards their triumphs; America is a very forgiving country, well, except for OJ Simpson, and Andy is about to find out how forgiving we can be as a country. Did he fuck up? Yeah, he did, but he owned up to his mistakes. Did Roger fuck up? Probably. Do I still support and love Roger Clemens? Yes and absolutely. Does this diminish the three seasons he had with the Astros? Fuck no. Those were some of the greatest seasons I have ever witnessed. What he has done won't take away anything from my eyes.
When I was in college we had a Latin motto for our school, Veritas Vos Liberabit. You may have heard it before, if not you have heard the English translation for it. I think it applies in this situation: "The truth will set you free" Just come with it Roger, you'll feel a lot better and things will work out, at the end of the day when its all said and done, you're still one of the best to ever play. We're a lot more sympathetic to someone who admits their faults than someone who doesn't. Just do us a favor next time, don't make the same mistake.
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