It's been more than six months since my last post and wonder where did things turn? That's not to say that my life has been in ruins the last half a year, but there are days when that;s just the way it seems. Back then I was waiting on two really sexy paychecks, had something to occupy my time and rarely went without seeing my friends multiple times a week. Not so much these days, I'm broke as hell, started an internship (yes, another one), see my friends less than regularly (all broke too) and pretty much blindly send resumes out to not even get an automated email saying they received it and it's under review to determine whether I'd be suitable for the position. In less than two months, it will be the one year anniversary of the proudest day of my life and I'm still trying to make the next one happen.

On a brighter note, it's great to have a friend from school moving to the city. It's still fun to bar hop (even more fun with the little cash I still have). Finally got to see British Sea Power, which subsequently led to my ears bleeding (totally worth it). I also discovered that if you want to talk to a girl on the subway, just say something about her purple pants.

-Mikhail

This summer has really had very few things to write about. Well not really, but I think the way things went it was that when I had things to say I was too busy and when I didn't I just had no will to write. Today though, easily has been one of the best days since I have come home. Yesterday I started an internship at a sports parody site, which is pretty fun and they put me to work. This morning while I was capturing the footage I would spend the entire day on, I get a call from my lovely friend Marisa to let me know she was coming to the city Tuesday for job fair and that I should come along, yay! Then I find out the pretty chick from work just graduated from the University of Alabama, so I possibly have at least one other person I can see the game with, yay! On the way home I see one of Vadhil's friends from a couple weeks ago that works nearby and had a little chat, yay! Went to Jake's and David was finally at the bar with us, then we won two games in beer pong, yay! On my way out, I notice one of the fans that were on the Fan vs Wild special last night and had a chat with him, yay! Some random old guy told me a joke about dogs with no tails, yay! Saw Louis CK's Hilarious at the IFC Theater and entertained us with an amazing (truly) Q&A session, yay!

Seriously a fantastic day.

-Mikhail

After a week of nearly full-time work, this is third day out of the last four that I have not gotten out of the house. It's odd because it doesn't feel at all like the way I was in the beginning of the summer, when I just didn't do anything at all. I felt like I earned the time off, though today I spent part of that applying to paying and (ideally) more permanent work. Though while I wait to hear about my next job, I've got concerts to look forward to next week The National with Beach House (I'm more excited about that having already seen the former) and The Black Keys, though I could also possibly see Modest Mouse if the price is right. One of my good friends from school is coming to see them so I may get to hangout with him, which will be awesome. I also won free open bar on Thursday, so I'm getting fucked up!

-Mikhail

I neglected to mention this in the last post, due to its off-handedness, but I did start to work some place. I mean it's another unpaid internship, but it's something to do at least and they're actually putting me to work. I find it odd that I have to try and rationalize my choice to work for free as opposed to working in something unrelated for money or just not doing anything because I should just enjoy the time off while I can. My first six weeks at home were mostly spent watching tv and going to the bar with little money to spend and tht just made me feel like a waste of space. Now though, I'm keeping my skills sharp and just adding to my resume, which never hurts though. On the other hand, I am still looking for something paid and I have two other jobs that one of which I was really interested in since before graduation and the other just somethings cool sounding. It'll be nice though this week to get to work for money and see a concert, score.

-Mikhail

This usually isn't my venue for venting on sports in general (unless it's one of my teams fucking up miserably), but I have to make this point available in text somewhere. It's fair to say that a period of two seasons of apparent meaningless basketball may have finally come to an end with that guy making his long awaited announcement. The details are not really important and don't particular affect my point so I'll leave them out there for others to revel or agonize about.

Sports coverage has changed a lot over the years, certainly a lot in my time as a spectator of sports. ESPN once had an interesting idea, a channel that covers sports all day...everyday. I remembered when you would pretty much only see highlights of the most recent sporting events, tantalizing statistics, standings and a top ten list. Not so much these days, sports coverage (especially for the Worldwide Leader) is about analysis, chatter and speculation. While no sport violates this as much as football does (do we really need to have daily episodes of NFL Live talking about the upcoming NFL Draft when one happened days earlier?), but with the NBA summer of free agents that we're witnessing is just sad. Did you know that the Lakers won back to back titles? That's fine, ESPN forgot about that once *ahem* experienced another early playoff exit. In that same light, what about CC Sabathia having to answer question about someone not even in the same sport as he, while he's on his way to another Cy Young and another ring (hopefully).

It is sad that the actual sporting events have taken a back seat to off-the-field business like free agency, contract negotiating, drafting and of course the personal lives of athletes. While every fan of a team or athlete will always share the desire to know about what is going on in their day, it really should be up to the individual fan to seek out that information and not for a national broadcaster to be saturating our lives with athletes that they think we should care about. If only we could get back to where sports coverage was limited to just scores, great plays and being blown away by statistical anomalies as opposed to which former quarterback (also a name never to be mentioned on this blog ever again) got busted for sippin on some sizzurp or how teams will clear up cap space to land free agents that have multiple years remaining on their contracts.

-Mikhail

First time in weeks that I have to get up early for something and of course now that I'm trying to sleep early, I of course can't. I'm reporting for jury duty for the first time and I am somewhat relieved since it will be something to get out of bed for. While things have been getting rolling of late with my first couple of career launching interviews done, it still has been more of the same ol waking up at 11:30AM and not getting out of bed until 1 or 2, then maybe go out to the bars and hangout. The last couple of weeks had some fantastic moments such as seeing Plants and Animals again on the same day as seeing one my lovely little Penn State friends; completely impressing one of my potential employers by the quality of my work; seeing an epic matchup of CC Sabathia and Roy Halladay thanks to stubhub; going to Radio City Music Hall for the first time to see The National for the second time (phenomenal show by the way); watching an entire bar live an die by the bucket during game 7 of the NBA Finals; and finally the first family bbq of the summer.

As the first half of 2010 comes to a close (damn, already!?) I look forward to a July where I hopefully have an internship and/or something paying, the big time family reunion for my grandfather's 85th, seeing The National for the third (with Beach House, finally!) and maybe even a fourth show. Now if only I can get this summer truly started right, by being alert for my civic responsibilities.

-Mikhail

I've held this post off for long enough, but I guess now is a good chance to do it since I doubt I'll be going out tonight. I am a Penn State graduate. My Bachelor of Arts in Telecommunications is proudly hanging in the living room no one ever goes in under a picture of the lion shrine (that is when the picture stays in the frame). This is day 4 of real life and so far I've spent it digging around craigslist and sending in resumes, watching TV, making my player in MLB 2K10 an elite pitcher, finding the bar with the best special that night (minus the $7 shot) and watching possibly the worst movie ever: The Room. I'm hoping that it isn't a horribly long wait before I find some work, whether in media or just something to get money in the bank. Should be a great summer though, settling back into home life and catching many of my favorite bands for the 2nd and 3rd times.

-Mikhail