Archive for May 24th, 2007

I Miss OKC

So, I am supposed to do this blog thing for TheLostOgle.com.  Nothing major, just every once in awhile I inject some perspective related to the metro area.  That was the agreement I made with Pat.  Of course, I learned today that I’ve been shirking my duties because apparently the site has been up for weeks (which in internet aging equates to approximately eons), and some guy named Tony has been churning out articles at the same rate that Starbucks puts up new stores.  I’d have some choice words, but obviously if I didn’t know the site was running, I’m not in the know enough to understand the profanity policy for TheLostOgle.

Truthfully, I would have shirked my duties anyway.  You see, I’m in Hell.  About a year ago, I learned the company I worked for, which had been an Oklahoma City institution for 75 years (they took out a full page ad in The Oklahoman to celebrate this accomplishment in which my name could be read if you had a really strong magnifying glass–my parents were so proud) had sold to a Houston based energy company in order to make the wealthy CEO an uber wealthy unemployed guy.  So, to keep my job, I would have been forced to move to the city I have affectionately referred to as “the armpit of North America” since college.  I passed.

Instead, I took a job with another company explicitly stating that my objective was to keep earning a living good enough to keep feeding my family while staying in Oklahoma.  After a month on the job, I got assigned to the one out of state client the company possesses, and they are located in…wait for it…the place I accepted the position in order to avoid.

The first week out here wasn’t bad.  We caught an Astros game.  The weather was beautiful.  And most importantly, I wasn’t the one who had to drive.  That all changed in week two.  The Astros were out of town, the weather has cycled between “unbearably muggy”and “heinously humid”, and my attempts to navigate the highway system in the boat provided by Budget Rent-a-Car were anything but Magellanesque.  By the way, Houston drivers can charitably be referred to as (once again, I’m not sure of the profanity policy), and they are hardly forgiving of an out-of-towner who doesn’t know when a highway is going to suddenly usher him in an entirely different direction.  On the bright side, I have trained my ear to recognize the horn tones of cars that cost more than the GNP of most African nations.

Tomorrow I will return to the beautiful place I call home, at which point I will hopefully be inspired to write more OKC-centric blog entries.

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Russians invade Stillwater, no one notices

The 2007 US Chess Championship finished up yesterday in Stillwater, finishing an 8-day event that captivated the world. That sound you hear is no one knowing that this was happening. Actually, since it’s the US Chess Championship, I guess it was just a lot of Russian descendants that invaded Stillwater. In any event, there were a hell of a lot of people at Eskimo Joe’s with names that ended in “-ov” and “-insky.”

What’s fascinating to me is that in attempting to find out information about this event, I came across this post, which includes this quote:

Michael’s second home can actually be considered Stillwater, Oklahoma. He has played so many tournaments there and he’s basically a part of the Stillwater chess scene.

Wait. What? There’s such a thing as a “Stillwater chess scene?!” I’ve spent a fair amount of time in Stillwater over the years, and I have to say I don’t remember seeing an inordinate amount of chess boards around town. What’s next, I’m going to hear about the underground Parcheesi movement in Watonga or the Purcell Chinese Checkers scene? Apparently Stillwater really is a fairly big chess town, which I find somewhat fascinating, though I’m not sure why.

Oh yeah, and see this kid?

This kid’s name is Ray Robson, and he is thirteen years old. He participated in the event over the weekend, winning three games and drawing in one. He holds the rank of National Master, which is apparently very good. I know we’re all supposed to be amazed by the stories of kid genius, but frankly I hate hearing about them. I cannot tell you how depressing it is to realize that a kid half your age is twenty times smarter than you and has already accomplished more in his life than you ever will.

I’m getting more and more used to this conversation…

Friend: “What are you doing these days?”
Me: “Oh, I’m making petty observations on some blog about Oklahoma City.”
Friend: “Cool. Did you hear about that 12 year-old girl that is helping map the human genome?”
Me: **muffled sobbing**

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Mike Morgan Has Not Aged

After watching this video from 1990, I’m not sure which is scarier. The fact that Mike Morgan hasn’t aged, or the fact that weather tracking equipment was this unsophisticated.

Maybe in 1989, Mike found a genie lamp at Lake Overholser. Maybe instead of wishing for more wishes, he wished to never age, for better radar equipment and to get to move over to Channel 4. Stupid Mike. Little did he know that Gary England is more powerful than a genie, and that he is the person who grants them their wishes.

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