I am controlled demolition.

A friend has asked me to write five good things about myself before I go to sleep. They could be about anything, or nothing. They could be ironic. They could be hard to accept. One thing they cannot be, however, is made-up. I have to tell the truth, which can be a little scary this time of night. This time of night, good things are hard to come by. But, in the words of OK Go, here it goes again...

Five good things about Matt Titus:
1. He never wants to sing what is written, but invents his own descant instead.
2. He finds life's answers in the proper mixture of an amaretto sour.
3. He knows when to cheer and when to boo, and to never, NEVER, do the wave.
4. He is 2-2 against Brian Nelson at Madden, and 4-1 against Mark Wegener.
5. There is nothing he won't do for a friend.

Yeah, but...

For me, the "Yeah, but..." is always the kicker. There's a "Yeah, but..." for all five items listed above:

Yeah, but...
1. Nobody likes his descants but him.
2. Alcohol is a pretty lonely place to be finding life's answers.
3. There really is no "Yeah, but..." here. The wave is purely, absolutely evil.
4. It's Madden.
5. Friends don't ask for much.

It's a mental exercise, one that requires years of practice before it can be perfected. The "Yeah, but..." is a device meant to undermine, destroy, and demolish any good that came before it. It's very effective, when done correctly. The trick is to never miss a beat. The moment you betray even the slightest bit of good, you have to quash it the very next instant. If you don't, then you allow the good to win. You allow it to grow. And, eventually, you may even convince yourself that you, yes, YOU, truly are a good person.

But you know better. I know better. If you or I truly were good people, our friends would come to us more often. They would come to us and say things like, "Matt, I have a problem. What do you think?" or, "Matt, don't tell anybody, but there's something you should know about me," or, "Matt, you're really being a horse's ass, but let's go have a drink anyway." These are things a friend says to the good people they know, and the way you know whether you're a good person or not is whether your friends say these kinds of things to you.

There are a lot of things I don't like about me. Maybe I could make them go away if I had the will power, but it's going to take a lot more will power than I've demonstrated so far.

2011 World Champion St. Louis Cardinals!!!!

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!

Here it is, one week after the most amazing Game 6 in World Series history, and that is still as articulate as I can be. Tony La Russa, the manager I simultaneously loathed and admired, is retired. His replacement could be anyone from his own third base coach to a Hall of Fame Chicago Cub to another 2-time World Series champion. Albert Pujols, the face of the Cardinals for the last 10 years, is a free agent. Any one of the other 29 major league teams could snatch him up if they're willing to pay him what he deserves. And yet, with my favorite team in such a state of flux, there is a happy center. No matter how downtrodden or depressed I may appear on the outside, I will carry with me a deep and abiding glow through the bitter cold of the offseason. The St. Louis Cardinals are World Series Champions.

Some good YouTube videos worth cataloging:

Game 6:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=th--PlmGPZY
http://youtu.be/1Mh0FvnOM1A
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJFMYlKdMz8 (season highlights)

Fan Reaction vids:
http://youtu.be/vg_Bxj-7fnc
http://youtu.be/5vGp6-NSku4
http://youtu.be/nnRNo2Avtcw
http://youtu.be/aI_e7AGpiRA (Rangers fans' reaction - Game 6)
http://youtu.be/a2rokgHKgbo (Part 1)
http://youtu.be/KZ3pSVJw_VI (Part 2)

From the Stadium:
http://youtu.be/uHXCGL5HUDs
http://youtu.be/DFnCO00kHjs
http://youtu.be/m-EAVxkT_uc
http://youtu.be/78H3Jqy74Eo
http://youtu.be/INV9pJk3hcg

WINNERS!
http://youtu.be/ZXmErIYcHzk
http://youtu.be/UH60-hKiLNA
http://youtu.be/2pIQlzxGplQ
http://youtu.be/HA927QXTTIQ
http://youtu.be/28-1kb2Jk0s