Are There Games On?

September 4, 2019September 5, 2019 ~ gatornation2008

A few final pictures from our trip to Manila and Vietnam highlighting some of our transportation differences:

The one with the foliage deserves a second look. No, it’s not the outdoor department at Home Depot. There’s a scooter under there:

Anybody need a fern?

The one thing I took away from this trip is that the world is definitely getting smaller, as the Popeyes in Vietnam airport illustrates, but it still takes a hell of a long time to get there.

We found a lot of great souvenirs to commemorate our trip, but it wasn’t until we arrived at the Manila airport for our return flight that I found a souvenir that, while it has absolutely nothing to do with Manila, will bring me great joy for many years. Enjoy!

Scoring it to Maroon 5 felt right.

So I heard there were some football games on last weekend! It sounds like the SEC struggled mightily, which brought great delight to millions who hate the SEC. Because, well, you know, SEC fans are fairly obnoxious. But more importantly, also because we are now apparently a country that actively roots against sustained excellence.

What’s the deal with that, anyway? Why do we LOVE the underdog, but as soon as the underdog reaches the top we give them about fifteen minutes to enjoy it and then start rooting for them to fail? Excellence is fine, but sustained excellence? No thank you! That’s boring. We want you to succeed, just don’t you dare do it for too long or we’ll all be rooting for you to fail.

Anyway, the SEC struggled, and all the non-SEC fans are happy. Which brings me to another question. What’s with this insatiable desire to make everything about us vs. them? Why are we desperately trying to find an enemy, typically where none exists? The media is constantly bombarding us with the notion that enemies lurk around every corner, and they can be classified by innumerable criteria. Political affiliation, nationality, race, wealth, gender – you name it – if there’s a differentiating characteristic to be found, you’ve identified a potential enemy.

And college football is no different. You’re an Alabama fan and I’m an Auburn fan? Well clearly you’re an idiot and I’m enlightened. We can’t both just be college football fans. We need to identify with an entity larger than ourselves and then actively support that entity and tear down others to reinforce our superiority. Without someone else to be lesser, how can we be greater? But what if we could be greater, just by embracing our commonalities instead of our differences, and reveling in the fact that while you may be a Tennessee fan and I may be a Florida fan, we’re all football fans? And sports fans? And human fans? Can you imagine it? What an incredible world it would be. All I’m saying is that we’re all in this thing together, so think about that the next time you’re about to rejoice in the defeat of an imaginary enemy.

Speaking of Tennessee, did you see the giant turd those losers dropped on their home field on opening day??!! You guys lost to Georgia State!! They’ve had a football program for about ten minutes! HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! I hope Peyton Manning has a flood insurance policy with Nationwide to cover all the damage from the tears he shed on Saturday night from watching his sorry Volunteers lose to Georgia State. And did you see FSU blow an 18-point lead and lose to Boise State? Even after the game had been moved from Jacksonville to their home field because of the hurricane? And now their coach is blaming their conditioning on the collapse? Because they’re not used to the heat and humidity in Tallahassee, but Boise State is?

Florida State and Tennessee both lost their home openers? What a bunch of losers!!! Is it December 25th? Has Christmas come early? I’ve been saying it for years, but I still can’t decide which makes me happier – watching Florida win or Tennessee and FSU lose. Go Gators!!!!

Remember guys, we’re all in this together.