I'm a terrible blogger

Wow I suck. It's been over a week since the my last blog post. Add to that the fact that I still haven't gotten a decent mp3 player for the podcast and the general laziness of the blog staff and it looks gloomy for saysthings. In attempt to not have this blog die the death of so many of my other life goals and aspirations, I'm going to make it a personal goal to write more on this blog. That and I don't want to do problem sets.

And now I've hit writer's block. What great knowledge contained within me (ha) could I release to you, our humble readers? Really, I don't know. There's general fare for the blog. Terps are goin' to the LIG, Rockband is awesome, music is neat, movies are cool. I could also go Yoko on this thing and make a completely introspective and retrospective post (really?) and create concept posts and abstract writings. I could also stop being a bitch and write about something you give a damn about. So I shall.

So here's my best shot, I guess, at something that isn't a Top Whatever list.

I hate sports. I absolutely, completely despise them. That is to say that I love sports. Perhaps too much. Why am I saying "perhaps," of course I love them too much. I'm too involved. And yet I'm not even as engrossed in sports as much as other people are. I don't take games as hard as others do. And no, I really can't ramble off stats and facts like some sort of machine. I have the internet for that. But all of these things may have made my second point a fallacy. But whatever, this is my blog. If you have a problem write your own, dammit. (And get off my lawn while you're at it.)

Seriously though, why should I care so much about sports? Why is it that every win brings elation and every loss brings heartbreak. It's all to varying degrees but these feelings always happen. A fantastic game is recounted over and over while a crushing lost can only be talked about amid utterings of "I don't want to talk about it." Why? Why does all this happen. Frankly, I don't know. Why do we attach ourselves so strongly to a team and ride the emotional roller coaster of wins and losses?

The best answer I can guess is one that isn't even my own. Sports and athletic competitions have replaced wars and battles. That's a good thing. Sports and especially teams allow us to identify with a group. We're part of something as we root on our favorite team. It's not, "did the team win?" or even "did our team win." Almost always the question asked is "did WE win?" And certainly it feels that way. It's an insult to you when the team is derided and praise to you when they are lauded. But we didn't do anything. We aren't the people playing the game. We don't have the athletic abilities. We aren't coaching. We don't plan. Even as fans in the stands, how much does our yelling and screaming really do? Are we going to cause an opposing player to miss a free throw or drop a pop up or miss the snap on 3rd down? No, we aren't, though we'll tell ourselves that we are.

So why do we get so involved? Why are we so invested? It's really not good for us. An up and down game can give some one heart palpitations. Who wants that? And why should we be depressed after a loss? Why should a bad football game ruin us for a week? Why do the Orioles make the little kid inside of me cry and die a little? Why did I rush the court when the Terps beat UNC last year at home? I didn't do anything. I never do. All I do is root, root, root for the home team. But is it such a shame if they don't win?

And this is why I hate sports. It destroys me on the inside. I'm not a normal person. No one is. Sports are, in reality, very meaningless. After the college level (and even including it), sports is really just entertainment. I'm never this involved in a movie. Like hell if I get that jazzed up over Harry Potter. Never have I spent days talking and obsessing over The Simpsons. But here I am lamenting over sports. I should feel this way about people, not events. And so I hate sports. I hate what it does to me and how it makes me feel. I hate the ways it twists and turns me insides. Mostly I hate that I care.

But will I keep watching?

Of course.