The strange allure of professional wrestling

I like professional wrestling.  There, I said it.  For some reason, there is a stigma associated with actually admitting that.  I'm not some toothless redneck living in a trailer park.  I do consider myself a reasonably intelligent and well educated person, and believe most are inclined to think the same.  I do admit it isn't the most sophisticated of entertainment choices, but at least it's better than reality television.

Yes, it's "fake."  How do I know...well that comes later.

Professional wrestling has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember.  It has been around just as long as comic books, Star Wars, and Ghostbusters.  How can I be sure?  My favorite toys when I was a kid were my old eight-inch LJN WWF figures and G.I. Joes.

I went from there, to watching World Class Championship Wrestling and the Global Wrestling Federation out of Texas, along with the National Wrestling Alliance, which eventually became World Championship Wrestling.

I took a break from watching as my teenage years began, but picked it up years later when the upstart Extreme Championship Wrestling offered a violent, adult-oriented alternative to the completely ridiculous characters the big federations were pumping out at the time.

ECW and WCW also featured a great deal of international talent, which coupled with the emerging World Wide Web, move my interest overseas to Japan, where matches were based on athletic merit instead of story lines.

Somewhere in there, I became friends with a pro wrestler, who opened me up to the oddly addictive world behind the scenes of the wrestling organizations.

Those days sadly passed, but so much was gained from them.  I learned how to run a business, as well as began experimenting in webpage design.  It isn't a stretch to say that my journalism career started in professional wrestling, as I often wrote columns and covered events for the webpages I created.

Eventually, it was time for another break, which brings us up to the present time.

I caught the occasional show on TV, and followed Ring of Honor for a little while when it was televised on HDNet.  It was simply amazing, as they adopted the aforementioned Japanese wrestling style, which was unheard of in the United States.

However, several months ago I returned to the WWF (which is now called the WWE).  WCW and ECW were both bought out by the WWE, which left one big federation.

Do I like what I see?  Yes and no.  There are definite bright spots in the WWE, but the product itself seems a bit stale.  At some times I can watch a match between CM Punk and Daniel Bryan (new main eventers) and be astounded with their talent.  Other times I see a lot of the same old thing in "bad guy management" angle.

Will I continue watching?  Who knows.  Will I offer my opinion while I do?  Absolutely.

Wallpaper: Smoking the Universe

Found on Reddit, of course.

Camping, it's amazing

Sorry, I don't have any information on who took this picture or where this amazing place is located.

Formula 1 is coming to Austin!

Formula 1 racing is coming to Austin, and I, for one, am psyched!

Of course, the form of racing hasn't really attained the proper popularity in the United States yet, which doesn't surprise me as the driver's seem to do more than simply turn left every few hundred yards.

I jest.  Surely the NASCAR drivers have a bit more going for them than simple left turns, right?  

Honestly, I know nothing about cars or car racing.  I have fond memories of watching Formula 1 while Michael Schumacher was the top paid athlete in the world and driving for Ferrari.  After a quick search, it turns out that he retired into an advisory role before taking up driving for Mercedes since 2010 (Note:  Read more about this later).  

I don't know what the allure is.  I'm not one of the typical "car guys" in that I drive one of the most economical, gas-saving car I could find.  I don't necessarily want to go fast.  Maybe it's the extreme feat of engineering each one of these cars actually is.  Just a simple F1 steering wheel contains more technology than I could handle while driving.  Knowing me, it would be that the races are something that is popular everywhere else in the world except for here.  It could be that I know nothing about the races other than the most basic of information.  

Surely tickets will hit the market for Austin's US Grand Prix soon.  I'll be waiting in line eagerly, looking to get my first taste of live racing action (that isn't on a dirt track).

The following editorial, entitled "Lasting Tribute to War Dead" originally appeared in a 1968 edition of the Los Angeles Times:

In 1868, three years after the end of the bloodiest and most traumatic conflict in the nation's history, the commander of the Grand Army of the Republic ordered that the graves of the late Union dead be suitably decorated on May 30 as a mark of remembrance for the sacrifices they had made.

Thus began the custom of Memorial Day. In time it evolved as a commemoration for the dead of all the nation's wars, and is today observed in nearly all states throughout the land.

Few holidays, secular or religious, remain static in observance. The respectful simplicity of the early Memorial days has grown into a time of speechmaking and parades, of brief paid vacations for most Americans, of an opportunity for picnicking or beach-going or whatever, punctuated at public gatherings perhaps by a single minute of silent tribute to the nation's war dead.

We note these obvious facts, removed as they are from the purpose for which this day was first proclaimed, not in any spirit of sanctimonious condemnation.

The personal grief felt by many thousands whose relatives and friends fell in time of war does not require any special day for expression. For millions of other Americans the deaths of their countrymen on foreign fields is something of an abstraction, not inviting of sustained, mournful introspection. Tacitly, we all accept this.

But a Memorial Day commemorated in the midst of a war is particularly deserving of more than pro forma observance.

The last few weeks in Vietnam have witnessed the highest death tolls for Americans since our initial involvement in the conflict began seven years ago. The President speaks somberly, and no doubt accurately, of planned accelerated efforts by the enemy to inflict further civilian and military casualties and widening damage on the allied cause, in hopes of creating political and psychological pressures that will gain at the conference table what is unattainable for him on the battlefield.

At the Paris talks, the facile predictions of foreign and domestic critics of U.S. policy, who proclaimed for so long that if only the right American concessions were made the Communists would show themselves to be reasonable fellows willing to work for an honorable compromise, have thus far proven erroneous.

Instead we are once again face to face with an obdurate opponent who has proved himself ready to sacrifice the lives of combatants and innocents alike to realize his odious goals.

We do not know how much longer the struggle in Vietnam will go on, or how it might end. All that seems predictable, if we can use the past as a guide, is that future Memorial Days will, sadly, serve to commemorate many who have yet to give up their lives in their country's service.

We would suggest that the best remembrance, the greatest tribute, we can pay those who have died in their nation's wars, and those fated to do so, is not simply to institutionalize their sacrifice on one day out of the year. Rather it is to live our own lives as citizens of this Republic, and conduct our affairs as a power in the world, according to the higher goals in whose name these sacrifices are made.

That would be tribute indeed, and surely little enough to ask.

It began with a Dalek wallpaper