Club SEBU

There are times when I wish I could get the phone numbers of every telemarketer and call them back as many times as they call me. I would tell them that I don't want what they are selling, nor do I care, and in the event that I want something, I will call and ask... Stop calling me. I understand that everyone has bills to pay, and telemarketers are just doing their jobs, but sometimes I get frustrated with their calls. Correction...all of the times I get frustrated with their calls. But I was thinking...what if it's me? If I can confidently conclude that it is solely their job, and they have metrics to meet just like anyone else who is employed by someone...why does it bother me so much? What is the underlying issue that makes these telemarketers so irritating? Is it because they are interrupting us while we are doing something extremely important? Is it the pushiness of their sales pitch? Is it the fact that we thought it may have been someone calling from

One thing you probably won't catch me doing again is refereeing... I was a young middle school student and was asked by a former coach if I could referee a game of elementary school basketball. Green behind the ears, of course I obliged.  I was excited to get my feet wet in another aspect of the game I love, and to learn as much as I possibly could. I made my way down the street to the gym and greeted my coach.  He gave me a few brief instructions, a whistle, then let me loose. Pretty confidently, I went to the center circle to toss the ball up and begin the game... For those of you who are Club SEBU regulars, this game took place at the same gym where I was Posterized at.  A lot of "great" memories on that court... Anyways, the game began and I figured it would be easy because the kids were so young.  They were all smiling, laughing, and just having fun.  None of them were taking the game too seriously; they were just out there going through the motions.

I park my car somewhere virtually everyday, so I am pretty familiar with this process. That being said, it is almost guaranteed that every time I come out from wherever, I will not know where my car is. I don't know what it is, but I can never find it. To make matters even worse, I will not use the alarm or the lock/unlock buttons on my key, because naturally once I have lost my car (again), my pride kicks in and it becomes a challenge/game.  I typically walk around aimlessly for several minutes, and have no idea where to start the search.  It would be great if I could have a GPS locator for my car... Furthermore, I'm generally too stubborn to use GPS while driving, so consequently I probably wouldn't use a GPS locator to find my vehicle in the sea of cars anyway... Once the "not again" realization settles in, I always tell myself "you are smarter than this car Richie...just think...you know how to do this". Thankfully, I always find my ca

There's no such thing as a dumb question. Or is there? That's a great question. I do enjoy the freedom of asking any questions that I would like to ask, but when on the outside looking in, it is terribly annoying. I was a fly on the wall of a conversation, and heard "that's a great question" at least 40 times and thought to myself ..."We must not be hearing the same questions...", because there was no way that all of them were even 'good', let alone 'great' questions. Hearing people say "that's a great question" for everything cannot be real. When I was in school, sometimes I would intentionally ask stupid questions, just to hear if teachers would say "that's a great question".  It was a research experiment that I was conducting for my own entertainment. Did it work? That's a great question. Sometimes it did. What I found out though, was when my shameless attempts to be funny were identi

I made some poor decisions when I was a child... When I say some, I mean a lot...  Don't judge me. Usually these decisions resulted in me breaking something. As a young boy, playing outside was a staple of my daily routine, and when the summers hit, I obviously spent a lot more time outside. This meant I was probably going to make a lot more ridiculous decisions. As I was shooting hoops one summer day, a friend of mine came up the street to enjoy some time together. "Hey Richie" he said. "Hi Friend" I replied. As he approached, I recognized that he had brought up his lacrosse stick, which I had no business using.  He was really good, but I was really bad. Anyways, he put his lacrosse stick down, and we started shooting some shots with the basketball. Naturally, we made our way further and further from the basket, even though we were not making any of the close shots. In time, we were across the street, trying to heave one armed cannons fr

This one is for the basketball fans out there... Does everyone know what it means to be 'posterized'? Being posterized means you've been dunked on in a game, and if someone were to take a snapshot of the event, it would make a great poster for someones room; hence the phrase 'posterized'. As a basketball player, these types of things can happen to anyone.  Most of the time, if you were the victim, you will try to find every excuse to deny the dunk ever happening. With that, I bring you my excuse... I could not have been over the age of 16, and was playing in one of my first summer men's league games. At the ripe age of about 16, I had a healthy dose of confidence that some would call delusion.  Either way, I was prepared to bring havoc to the court. When I arrived to the game, and we approached the center circle for the jump ball,  I scanned the other team, player by player, to determine which person I was going to destroy that night. While scann

Sir Charles Barkley has always been a polarizing figure. Throughout his playing days, and into his broadcasting days, Barkley has never been one to bite his tongue.  Love him or hate him, Barkley consistently speaks his mind in a straightforward fashion. As I was fumbling through YouTube for a few moments, I came across some NBA Playoff videos that naturally caught my eye. There was a Game 4 post-game recap, which included Sir Charles. He and his co-hosts were discussing Game 5 of the Finals. While going back and forth about the game, Sir Charles decided to reveal a particularly personal plan for the summer on national TV. Once the co-hosts gave him the opportunity to speak uninterrupted, Barkley let them know that he was planning to go to a ' Fat Farm' . Clearly, an unscripted addition to the show, the co-hosts were tentative to engage in the conversation.  Given the sensitivity surrounding the topic, the reluctance was evident and Barkley assured them that he was