Everything is Obvious After the Fact

Thanks to the hard-hitting, incisive journalism that has long been the hallmark of SI.com; we now know that Tom Brady enjoys having sex with his Brazilian supermodel wife, Giselle Bundchen. Sure, I know we all suspected but now we know. So, what is that? Reason #1,821 for Jets’ fans to hate Tom Brady? Yeah. Reason #1,821.

A Glimpse of Hell is Proof of Heaven

I am an IT Professional by day (and yes, a masked crime fighter by night) and spent the last week at Microsoft’s TechEd conference in Orlando, Florida. At least, this was the advertised purpose. I suspect it was really a sociological experiment in which thousands of introverts are gathered together in an enclosed space and observed as they are forced to interact with each other in meeting rooms, at the cattle call breakfasts and lunches and the permanent queues at the men’s rooms. Orlando is, by my calculations, the Las Vegas of the East, with theme parks in place of casinos; unbearable heat, overpriced drinks, $40 entrees and air conditioned air redolent with desperate attempts to buy even a few moments of happiness. To cap the four and a half days of presentations and discussions about technologies, architectures, markets and trends, we were treated to an evening at Universal’s Islands of Adventure. It was here I caught a glimpse of Hell as I realized that if Hell exists it must certainly be a personalized experience. Mine would be a place where I am surrounded by thousands of people riding roller coasters.

Optimistic

As a New England sports fan, I am genetically pre-disposed to pessimism. This, despite the fact that I was not born here. Perhaps I moved to New Hampshire sensing it was a place where like-minded people would be accepting of my feelings that doom is the natural end-state for all human beings and that life is all about preparing us for that. Still, we are not merely simple mechanisms that repeat the same patterns of behavior and reiterate the same words until they ultimately become the thematic catch phrases of our individual lives. We are complex, non-linear beings and even someone as unsentimental about the state of the world as me occasionally succumbs to unbridled optimism.

And yes, that’s easy to say looking out the front bay windows of my three bedroom house as the spring rain does its very best to green up my front lawn.