A disgusting habit

I thought of this a while back, but my current circumstance reminded me. I'm considering a smoking habit. To say it better: I'm thinking about developing a smoking habit. I don't mean one of those three-packs-a-day addictions, but something more along the lines of once a month or so. And I'd rotate. This month I'd sit down some evening with a nice cigar and burn away the stress that's been building. Then, in a month, I'd have a couple nice cigarettes. The month after that I would stuff one month's worth of worries in my pipe and smoke it – along with some fine tobacco. No one in my family liked this idea very much when I told them.

My present circumstance made me remember this because I'm sitting outside It's a Grind, reading Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, and partaking first-hand in my current vice – coffee – and second hand in this proposed new vice – tobacco. I'm enjoying the combination immensely.

I put this video up instead of a picture of It's a Grind. The 33 second mark is the part that has to do with the post, but sometimes I feel like I'm part of the whole thing, just from being in California.

Oh, and if there are people who read this because they want to read about sports, which had been my main topic for a long time: my apologies. Maybe I'll write about the Jim Zorn departure from Seattle soon, or spring training for the Braves, but since the Blazers have been down it's hard for me to write about them, and they're my favorite sports subject.

Mad Dog

When I saw the headlines today about Greg Maddux re-signing with the Padres, I had caught a quick case of nostalgia. Somehow I missed the "Padres" part in my initial reading of the headline, and I wondered if he would be heading back to Atlanta to re-join Smoltz and Glavine. And I was really excited for a few seconds. Then I realized that the story was about him signing the deal with San Diego, and then I realized that it's probably better to not try to just relive the '90s. But for that second, I was ecstatic about the thought of having those three guys in the rotation with Hudson next year, with all the young guys battling for the number five spot. Well, unless Hampton actually comes back. Then we could have the best rotation from the turn of the century.

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I only have a few things to say about the Oregon game on Saturday. The first thing that struck me was how much better I thought we looked against Cal and USC than we did against ASU. Maybe that's not true, but that's how it looked to me. The second thing that struck me was how dominant our offense was when we got into a rhythm. That offense looked unstoppable when things were going right. Sure, most teams would probably say that. But it reminded me of the Seahawks attack in 2005, back when Tobeck, Hutch, and Walter Jones just decimated defenses and Alexander was able to run all over them. Of course, that opened things up for the passing attack. That was exactly what it felt like watching Dixon and Stewart march all over the Sun Devils on Saturday. The last thing that struck me was how truly annoying LA fans are. I was watching the game at a sports bar here in Long Beach, and it was excruciating. The USC fans were really obnoxious as they watched the Trojans steam roll Oregon State. It made me wish even more that I was either at Autzen, with my family, or watching anywhere else in the world.

I don't think those things actually struck me in that order, I just listed them in order of importance.