I don't remember the joke completely. what happened to 9? 7 8 9. something like that.

Victor Claver is a stud muffin, that casey vid of him talking is just great. the ladies will love him - i love him. 

I am listening to Joe Satriani right now. excellent guitar player. Him and Buckethead are the best. Top 3 best guitar players? let's hear it.

Who all is going to summer league? 

Converse, brethren. 

Thank you Dave for spending so much time and energy on us. We are truly spoiled to have such an incredible online community where we can celebrate, respectfully disagree, speculate on transactions, ponder, and converse together. You are my Blogfather.

Thank you Ben for your hard work, your Media Row Reports, your unabashed mancrushes on various ballers (Durant, Wall...), and your kick pix. You're the man.

Thank you Lance Uppercut for starting it all.

Thank you Prez for being so awesome and warmly welcoming me here when i first got started. You have been kind to me since day one. I appreciate your constant positivity and your secret Pasti recipe that you shared with me. bon apetit.

Thank you broyposse for your endless optimism. It doesn't matter if we're down by 19 to the Spurs on the road, you keep tossing out those patented Woot Woots and help us all keep our chins up. Peace. Stay Cool. Forever!

Thank you hossticles for being so dank. You win my "Most Likely To Be A Friend Outside Of The Bedge" award. Big ups.

Thank you Norsktroll for your crazy blogging skills. Your posts are ridiculously interesting/packed with knowledge. They make me happy. Keep it up.

Thank you Mortimer/tominhawaii/92wastheyear/Lizzy Lowblow for the quick wits. I have loled countless times at your guys' posts. i love you.

Thank you AK1984/jksnake99/Timbo for your realistic/anti-homer perspectives. Sometimes we need to be brought back down to earth and you guys provide just that, even if we don't like it/want to hear it.

Thank you Cablinasian for your intelligent banter. You know your stuff and i always look for your posts first if i need to find out about playoff seeding/who to root for, etc...

Thank you Sabonis4Ever for introducing me to mybrute and for being rad in general. i love Arvydas and you.

Thank you DMKPDX for obvious reasons. I couldn't live without you.

Thank you MiledAnimal for your silly images.

Thank you amlmart1 for the foreign flair.

Thank you jscot for your (formerly)daily projection updates and for almost ruling the world.

Thank you #10 for the Nic Batum blog translations.

Thank you LaMarvelous for !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thank you Storyteller for your salary/contracts information. you are my hero. 

Thank you LetsBlaze for your incredible coverage of the Blazers (especially Shav) when they visit the south.

Thank you Sophia, twiggs, Section323, annthefan, jorga, Corvid, Claire, nightbluefruit, and any other female posters that i (surely) missed for kicking our testosterone-induced rants to the curb.

Thank you blazerbeliever97504 for the inspiration to write this fanpost.

Thank you Captain Obvious for being so good looking.

Obviously i can't thank EVERYONE for their amazing contributions to this amazing site so i'm just gonna make a list of shout-outs: Timmay!, Magnum, Blazermaniac Andy, johnv59, QualityPie, TheOdenator, raoulduke, maid tu rek (r.i.p.), tssbro, hurryup09, ifrclone, Nick Van Excellent, EngineerScotty, manzell, ryryslyry, courtsiderrandboy, bow4meow, T Darkstar, premthegrem, Yawnie, Gargen, Sexual Tyrannosaurus, as11osu, brandonmitchell, howlingfantods, NOWINE, iDea, FlyinSouth, joelor, The Tinfoil, The Penguin, haildablazer, Falcao, lanepete, Escrote, Y5k, ignacio, pxilpooshr, DonkeyShins, PTownJake, 50backflips, kartemax, The X-Man, PoliSam, socalblazer, nateinaloha, Sarbonis, MavetheGreat, tevisthe4th, Outlaw Is Rejector, kdfdawg, Portland89, blazers91, GreatOden'sRaven, Black84GTI, Jerb, WhiteRabbit, appel82, SabonisBonus, rockingharder, tweener, haildablazers, RenoBlazerFan, Blazer1342, jonestr, Idog1976, Planet29, idoltime, Garden of ODEN, GustyJ, sergioFTW, diskord, DNP (CD), torridjoe, robrun2, TimG, NEPBlazer4life, Krang, pklym, two4larue, Kitish, Salem Stephen, roynfernandez, Sandberg On Sports, twggyy, CatMan2, T$ 225, einman77, sagebru5h, upper left corner, Eat Politicians, LaoTzu, DaNoose, lazytrail, Philthyanimal, cloudydays, RipCityRoyCity, Tofu Anonymous, JTDuck22, tominrehab, sagcat, DrivetheLane, danevan, inroywetrust, Hulk, trk, southern oregon, Eventine, bforsythe, everett, shamman, Hookah_John, Zaron5551, torsoheap, Honka Playboy, Badalona Baddie, SpyderRyder, dario argento, In Walks Rudy, usmcr3049, ericande, Rudy4Three, L-TrainFTW!, SolGoode, usdblazerfan, o.c.blazerfan, Phizbin, bustabucket, JoeBlazer, keepfryealive, you'vegottomakeyourfreethrows, OCBlazerFan1, TallTimber, Jiggamant, DUCKinNY, collectiveshane, eyeotiger, JordanLeDoux, Blazersaurus, bmxnw, thomasikehara, 22baylor, LeafHawk, ArbyOSU, halfasiansensation, CroRupt, G_Dubs, Zaig, timg56, Royster, riccc_I, The Roybot, skywaker9, Blazer, pualo, Bskey, lee3022, hobobob, BlazersOrBust, Air Norv, two buck chuck, nima, faith, Devenex, cornplant, mittsabishy, hawkblogger, Screen Name, dpnim, parkinglotj, SloppyJoe, nuggz503, rivetz, jazzaholic17, TrentEdwardsHoF2018, rmcdougall, RipCity, bowdown, ratbastird, Bacne, kickbrass, douglast, Portland Dynasty, PDXBuckeye, dvcastle, StocktonNEP, mxpx5678, Bandwagon Butcher, Arby, cafe_civet, leeroyjenkins, dougall5505. Obviously there are still 100s of other users that help make this site the best NBA blog out there. I'm sorry if i missed you. shout me out in the comments! :)

 I just wanted to thank everyone for their contributions that have made my experience here so spectacular. Thank you Blazer's Edge and go Blazers!

TiR convinced me to start a junk drawer about an essay i just wrote about individuality and identity. This essay was based off of an excerpt from a book by Kwame Anthony Appiah called The Ethics of Identity. Appiah himself is a homosexual and discusses how society recognizes/reacts to/treats minorities and stereotypes. He also discusses how we find out our identities and our journey towards becoming who we eventually will be in life and when we do, how not to make that identity a straightjacket.

"The final responsibility for each life is always the responsibility of the person whose life it is." No matter how social the individuality of a person is, they are still the one who calls the shots in their life, they choose their 'plan of life', their path (although Appiah goes on to discuss how the things around us can sometimes play a large role in our identity). Self-contradiction is also mentioned: we want to ace that anatomy exam, but we don't want to study for it on a sunny afternoon.

Hard work, family and friends, lifestyle, upbringing, and many other things factor into who we may become individually. If your dad is a lumberjack, you may become a lumberjack (or not). If you are raised in a Christian home, you will most likely attend church and read the Bible. That's just how life is.

In todays society, race, religion, sexual orientation, etc.. all are still used as collective social scapegoats and crutches that some people sadly still use to place blame on and look down upon others. All men are created equal, right? Why do people got to be hatin'? I have a beard, some people call me out for it, saying beards are gross and that they smell. No. They are cool and are a universal logo of wisdom.

Society generally dislikes discussing "controversial" or "rough" topics like this, like what Appiah discusses in his book. Today is a gameday and I don't expect people to want to discuss the ethics of identity or individuality on this site. I'm just appeasing Toms appetite for varied discussion and thirst for controversy. So now I ask you what Tom asked me: do you think identities (race, gender, etc.) constrain our ability to be individuals, or enable it? I'm sorry that this is poorly put together and probably doesnt make sense, i whipped this together in like 45 minutes. I'm all over the place tonight and am very tired. good night and GO BLAZERS.

No school tomorrow so I'm up late watching the Australian Open. (1) Nadal vs. (14) Verdasco. Nadal's in a battle with this guy, things been goin on for 3 hours and theres still a ways to go. Probably will go to bed soon though. I hadn't watched tennis hardly at all, probably never actually, before last night when I watched Roger Federer defeat Andy Roddick (apparently Federer has Roddicks number, dudes like 19-2 against him) and it showed last night. So I guess I like tennis now, it's really fun to watch. 

Daves blasephemous (real word?) speculatory (real word?) post on the acquisition of Shaq "the Diesel" "Shaqa Clause" Shaq Fu" O'Neal has me thinking. What IF we just rented the big fella for a year or two? We get a silly mentor for Gregory. SOEC > RLEC for next year. AND one of if not THE best center in NBA history. Yes he's not really in his prime BUT I think he's still got a year or two left in him, he could squeeze another ring out here in PDX before he retired, while we wait for Greg to develop INTO THE NEXT SHAQ AND DOMINATE THE LEAGUE FOR THE NEXT 16 YEARS NOT TO MENTION WINNING A CHAMPIONSHIP IN 13 OF THOSE  16 YEARS!!!!!!!!!!!! IOSJDFIOFOGO !!!@#$RBjf. i mean if we get Shaq b4 the deadline we would get to the finals this year and SHAQ WOULD EAT KENDRICK PERKINS ALIVE FOR BREAKFAST. wait we would have to go through the Lakers to get to Boston. THATS OK SHAQ WOULD BE PLAYING HIS HINEY OFF AGAINST HIS EX-TEAM/EX-WIFE THE L*KERS AND KOBBBBBEEEEE. and he would show Bynum how a real center plays the game of basketball. maybe even crack HIS rib and collapse HIS lung, see how that punk likes it. 

point is i like tennis and i can handle the idea of Shaq in a Blazer uni for a year or two if it gets us to the promised land. i apologize if this post offends anybody, it's really late/early and I don't even know what im saying, all that stuff up there ^^^ is just my sleep deprivation shining through the clouds. see that statement didnt even make sense. good night.

The Bush's family cat, India, died yesterday.

I have a date Thursday with an attractive girl that i met in my writing class last term.

I fell down my stairs yesterday. there are only 2 stairs though.

Carmelo has a "probable" hand fracture. Good luck with that. on opposite day. ooo Melo need some ice for that? (the burn i just laid out not the fracture)

The Naturals wife gave birth to their second child.

Dave's reassuring piece on Darius gives me giggles.

I'm going to bed. <3