Today I'll be going on multiple topics because of how awesome my weekend was. My weekends have been great lately but I don't usually talk about it if it's just personal and were at a bar. I'll only discuss it if I meet someone famous or if I do something out of the ordinary. That happened this weekend and I'll talk about it later. Right now I want to get into how big and great twitter is. Unlike most people that I know, I got into twitter before most people to see how good it is. It turned out to be a much improved version of twitter thanks to more celebrities and not too much bad stupidity. I'm not sure if this is proper English but there is a difference between good stupidity and bad stupidity. The good side to it is mainly fake accounts which I enjoy even though I'm not sure if the person that does it has a life. I'll enjoy the likes of fake John Madden or cranky Vince McMahon. That's good stupidity where it may be fake, but they are usually hysterical. The bad stupidity is mostly on Facebook where people don't speak proper English and re post rap lyrics that aren't even good. It can vary but mostly on Twitter I'll enjoy what people post. It also helps that you can unfollow people and it doesn't seem to be a big deal but on Facebook if you remove someone, its like you kicked them in the nuts or called them a whore. Anyway here is the column which is a bit shorter than usual because I got to talk about my fun weekend.
Tweet Nation
Twitter jokes fella.
Despite that mini rant, that's the only negative thing about Twitter. Other than that, I'm consistently on it because I can talk whenever I want without people telling me to be quiet. I can get away with not following with boring people compared to Face Book where if I block someone, it's like the world just collapsed when someone finds out. It's also really cool to follow famous celebrities and athletes especially if you love knowing what is going on with them. It's the new wave of social media and I'm finally admitting that I enjoy it after being hesitant on using it before last summer. Now go ahead and join or continue being whatever you are.
I'm not going to fully define Twitter because I want to explain how awesome it truly is. The website is basically a shorter version of twitter but less complicating. It keeps everything you post on your profile but it involves less work and it's the most professional way to connect with people. That's all I'm going to say writing like that because I sound like a desperate promoter that is getting paid for this. I'm not trying to make twitter sound like this "must join" place because it's not. If you don't like the social network idea, well that's your business. Some people are private and you should respect them for it. That being said, twitter has totally taken over everything since the winter. It was fun being alone for a few months with some random friends, but eventually everyone got on the trend. Some people get annoyed when people get on a trend or bandwagon but I usually don't if I'm a part of it which is rare. Twitter is somewhere where most things are tolerable and are positive. It's rare that I get angry from reading a tweet compared to Facebook where I have to see so many ridiculous things. Then you have people using a hash tag when it has zero effect on Face Book. It makes you wonder why people are using hash tags on Facebook and where did they pick it up from? That's why I don't get why people bash twitter because it seems like a more positive place with so much comedy. I think the rate of laughing has tripled since I joined twitter because of so many random tweets. I mentioned the fake twitter accounts but the fact that celebrities are on twitter makes it so cool. I'll admit I'm a bit of a kid when it comes to celebrities because if I meet them or even talk to them. its surreal to me. Some people could care less about famous people while others go insane in front of them. The fact that I've got to interact with some famous people have been incredible. The most memorable one was probably John Abraham if you read from a few months, we got into a twitter war. Many people were asking me about the situation and couldn't believe that out of all of his followers, he chose me to rip on. Then the fact that he told me to go suck a dick was just mind blowing. It doesn't really bother me and I'm happy he's still a Falcon but he certainly lost some points from me.
It was crazy how people that I knew would make fun of twitter so much. They would make stupid jokes like "I'm thinking of making a twitter, am I gay"? It was just lame jokes like that yet a few months later, people would non stop tweet. I'll admit that I was a bit hesitant to join at first in July but after I wrote my auto biography from last May, people would say that it would be smart. With social media being hot as ever and especially in a role that I'm in where publicity is needed, Twitter was something that became huge to join to promote any kind of work that I was doing. It makes me wonder how crazy it would have been to promote my book on twitter. I can't forget how much people were excited to read my book when I was promoting it on Face Book. People were posting on my wall about wanting a copy and how they wanted to read it. It made me feel so honored which is why regardless of what certain women think about the book, I'm so proud of my work. It makes me want to write a book in the future, but I'll have to wait for the new situation. What I'm trying to tell everyone is that if you're in my position for not just writing but for something that you want to get attention for, you should join twitter. Its great for interaction and can make you meet people global. I couldn't count how many people I know from different places in the world thanks to Twitter. It depends who you are though because some people would absolutely hate to interact with strangers because everyone in the world is a predator apparently. If only people were more interactive and stop wining about everything, I wouldn't be so annoyed with life.
One thing I do want to say about Twitter is that it shouldn't determine life relationships. People get social networking connected with life which is fine to a certain degree. It seems like if you don't follow someone on Twitter, it means that you hate the person. That's something that I never understood because people have the right to follow whoever they like. Once again people are forgetting that Face Book and Twitter are totally different. It's different where you only have to read about five statuses a day on Face Book compared to fifty tweets on Twitter. If I'm your friend and I follow you, I'm only going to tell you if I have a legit problem with you. It may sound shady but it's really not because it should prove that it's nothing personal except that your tweets suck. The one thing that can get bad with twitter is when you have women that tweet about how much their life sucks and they complain about every little thing. I have deleted so many women in the past few months that some women don't even talk to me anymore for that. You would think that they would consider what do guys care about. Do I give a damn about hearing how you hate school every single day of the week? Some guys have patience while people like myself are sick and tired of hearing lame tweets. I'm on twitter to interact about interesting things and not pointless topics like that. Now people could say the same thing about me and how they don't care about much sports that I talk which is fine. I don't care who follows me and who doesn't because at the end of the day, I know I'll have my people to chat with. It really irritates me when women (yes just women because I've yet to have a problem with a guy about it) take Twitter as something that measures a friendship. It shouldn't because this isn't Face Book where they count as "friends". This is something where you want to read and interact with what people have to say and what you want to hear. You can take it however you want, but it baffles me how I'm supposed to continue to read about the lamest things without being affected. I get annoyed easily so either start tweeting jokes or actually funny real life situations otherwise I simply don't care. You could be my closest female friend but if you're lame, I'm not going to follow you. I'll go ahead and follow another Falcon player or another writer that I love reading about. Twitter isn't something to rate people on that you love, it's a place where I want to read things that interest me or make me laugh. If you don't get that message, well then simply don't follow me.
Despite that mini rant, that's the only negative thing about Twitter. Other than that, I'm consistently on it because I can talk whenever I want without people telling me to be quiet. I can get away with not following with boring people compared to Face Book where if I block someone, it's like the world just collapsed when someone finds out. It's also really cool to follow famous celebrities and athletes especially if you love knowing what is going on with them. It's the new wave of social media and I'm finally admitting that I enjoy it after being hesitant on using it before last summer. Now go ahead and join or continue being whatever you are.
Weekend Of Awesomeness
Now the second part of the column will discuss a pretty random weekend. I'm not going to talk about Friday because I don't have any funny bar stories from Friday night. All I did was see the Knicks dismantle the Wizards and other nonsense. The fun started Saturday where a huge UFC event was being held at Brother Jimmy's. This is a bar and grill in the city but I did have some trouble at first to get in. Despite the huge promotion, you had to be 21 which had me worried. Eventually the boss knew that I was a huge fan and knew about the promotional event so they were kind enough to let me. The promotion never said you had to be 21 to get in but it didn't surprise me. The big promotion for the event was the best (he has the awards to show it) MMA writer in the business in Ariel Helwani. Ariel was the big draw to come to this event which drove me to go. This wasn't a Pay Per View event so I could have watched this at home but Ariel is someone that is up there with my five favorite writers in the world. We are in this huge basement with like fifty people but I somehow sneaked my way into Ariel's reserved table. I came alone for this event and I'm always aggressive when someone famous is being so open. The table is set with his wife and his brother along with a few other random people. It was pretty mind blowing as the event started. The guy that was in front of me was really picking Ariel's mind which had me jealous. He was a cool guy though and knew way more than me about UFC which is shocking. I'm not going to give the play by play about the card because they're weren't many big names. It was a pretty exciting Pay Per View with only two fights not ending in a knockout or submission. Brian Stann was the huge fan favorite because he's this all American guy that prides himself to be a role model. He had a knockout within three minutes which was impressive. Eventually I got to talk to Ariel a bit and it was pretty surreal. He brought up Mirko Cro Cop on the one guy that he would love to interview that he hasn't interviewed and it was my spot to say I'm Croatian and that guy is like a hero to me. We started talking about Cro Cop and how even though he was a bust in the UFC, he's still a legend. A cool question asked from the guy next to me about what was the scariest interview that Ariel did? If you're a huge UFC fan, you would remember how much Rampage Jackson would act like a complete bully to Ariel and always act like an a**hole. Ariel doesn't mind Rampage though and said he's calmed down since he's been taken down a few notches. The only interview that had Ariel worried was with Nick Diaz which doesn't surprise me. The interview was about the Nick Diaz-Paul Daley fight. Nick didn't like how Ariel was creating some heat between them and said something that you get slapped for pulling stunts like that. Ariel had no idea what was going on but admitted that he thought something was going to happen. Everyone knows that Nick Diaz is a nut job and can't be trusted so I don't blame Ariel. A few other topics that were brought up was that Ariel hasn't missed a show since September 2009. He was excited to become a father and wasn't too bummed out missing out on Jon Jones versus Rashad Evans. The other thing that I found interesting was how similar we were in terms of mindsets. We both feel like these next few months for UFC are going to be huge for buy rates and bringing in so much buzz to the sport. With Brock Lesnar leaving and the last UFC on Fox being disappointment, UFC hasn't been too hot lately. Eventually the place really started to get packed so Ariel began to walk around and talk to people. Eventually when the main event happened which I thought delivered with excitement. I've liked Alexander Gustafsson for the past year and love his potential. He was fighting in his own home town of Stockholm, Sweden. He was facing a returning Thiago Silva who looked like possessed from his build. Silva never got going though which was disappointing because he looked physically imposing. Gustafsson almost knocked him out in the first round and had everyone yelling but eventually toned down because Silva was defending for his life. The fight ended with a decision win for Alex which should move him up the card. Ariel picked Alex mainly because Silva is past his prime and Alex is athletically superior to him.
The show is over and eventually the place starts clearing out. I'm listening to the post fight show with Mark Munoz and Chael Sonnen. I'm not sure what was more shocking how open Ariel was or that Chael didn't cut a promo about himself. I'd like to point out that I felt a bit out of place talking to some of these guys. I'll admit that football and basketball are my main sports but UFC is starting to become a huge part of me. Still it was blowing my mind how these guys knew everything about everyone. It was tough to hold my own but I didn't look too bad in front of some experts on the table. Eventually after listening to one of Ariel's assistants explain to me how he got the job which was really basic. It was really cool and he kept saying how important college was which made my brain fried. Eventually the place is finally clearing so I got to talk to Ariel alone. Some people don't know this but Ariel is a huge wrestling fan. I had my CM Punk shirt on to catch his attention because Ariel has interviewed Punk twice and it sounded like two friends just talking. Eventually I got in this mode where this guy is my buddy and were just talking for ten minutes about the business and experiences. He admits that he doesn't watch it weekly because he's busy but he ordered Wrestlemania because he knew how good CM Punk versus Chris Jericho. The one major question I had to ask him was the Brock Lesnar Undertaker face off. Most people would remember this from last year, Cain Velsaquez beat Brock Lesnar for the championship which led to Brock all bloody and not knowing what was going on. He is walking out of the arena while Undertaker is getting interviewed by Ariel. They had the face off and Ariel admitted he had no idea what was going on. He was in the middle of two giants that might get into a scrap. We talk some more about the business and how it seems to be on the rise but he's still let down that they watered down the CM Punk rebel character. The last cool thing Ariel mentioned was that he had a radio station based on wrestling in Montreal in the late 1990's. People might think that's not major but it really is since wrestling is like a religion in Canada. It's also the 1990's where Bret Hart was considered a icon in Canada. It blew my mind when he said he was at the Montreal Screw Job and still believes that it wasn't a work which means that the entire thing wasn't scripted. I still think it's a shoot regardless what people think because both Bret and Shawn Michaels really hated each other.Ariel was an overall stand up guy talking about both companies which some people think are rivalries. I'm really appreciative of the event and it was cool to see a writer that covers UFC but still is a fan of wrestling because most people only like one sport. I've met a decent amount of famous people, but nothing has topped off meeting Ariel. I'll probably recap all the famous people I've met someday and the experience, but the fact that I got to talk to whatever I want with Ariel was cool. I wish all of him the best in terms of being a father and his writing career. His wife was really nice even though it still shocks me that she can watch such a brutal sport. She didn't look like the hardcore chick that would be into UFC, but she seems very supportive of Ariel. Overall this was a memorable experience and Ariel said this hopefully won't be the last. I wish more famous people would be more open like this and not be so plain with answers to questions. It has happened most of the time but you will get some people that are so open and cool. We took a picture and I headed out to see my friend from England. Thanks again Ariel!
Happy adults that love real and fake violence!
Before I finish up this edition, I want to give a few shout outs. My buddy Matt from England came to New York this weekend and I met up with him. He's a really cool dude that's down to earth and was a joy to hang out with for a few hours. I was pretty burnt out from traveling all day and taking so many subways, but I wanted to hang out with him. Another shot out is to A.J DiVanna who is a friend of mine. We don't see each other much, but he always seems to be excited when he sees me either in real life or on the internet. That's always cool and I always liked him from drinking experiences. The last shot out is to the softball team that I'm a part of. I don't really play because I'm not very good at hitting or playing the sport. The team needed me against our bitter rivals so I played in jeans and my new jersey. My jersey number is number one because only idiots wear number one in baseball so it fits. We get blown out 14-5 in a really brutal game with errors everywhere. I'm so out of placed as catcher and I'm completely dreading the 2nd game. I'm only one for four hitting but the game is close 4-3. With two men on base, it was my time to shine. I hit a laser over the short stop and now I'm a hero. Out of nowhere, I have two runs batted in and the entire dug out is clapping for me. They are absolutely going insane which has me speechless. It led to a five run inning and now everyone is praising me. The game ended in a tie because the extra innings only get one inning. It was an exciting way to tie with our stud center fielder Alex Chateau throwing a laser from the outfield to get the runner at home out. I didn't have to make the catch or tag because our pitcher Will C (his last name is too long) made the catch and tag. He saved me so many times because I'm a misfit and I have no business playing in a big game like this. I'm excited for the softball season even though I hope I'm only going to pinch hit once in a while for now on. I'm very awkward with a baseball glove in my hand. That's all for now but I'm sure their will be more stories about the world's favorite s***show team known as the Deadly Alliance. Until then, hope you have a great day and here are the plugs below to contact me. I'll be back on Friday with something new. I'm not going to spoil it but it won't be sports. I'll be doing a huge NBA playoff preview next week so I want to hold off on sports discussion. I'm aware that UFC is a sport but it was a memorable experience that I couldn't keep quiet.
Plugs
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