Alright, everyone calm down before we have to call in the National Guard

Can you see them over there? I know it’s a bad picture, but there are four protestors “occupying” Trenton across from the statehouse. Four.

One.

Two.

Three.

Four.

That’s it. That is it. Four protestors.

If there was ever an example of how completely blown out of proportion the mainstream media has made a story, it has to be these various “occupations” around the nation. Sure, there seems to be a solid 6,000 or so that are hunkered down in New York City by Wall Street itself and yeah, it does seem like there is something going on in Oakland. But outside of those two locations, there is absolutely no sustained “occupation” going on anywhere.

And that’s why I think this story has pretty much died down over the last few weeks. Thankfully, someone in the media took a step back from this fabricated frenzy and realized that on any given day there are more people protesting to end abortion than there are people “occupying” various places around the nation.

Four protestors in Trenton. FOUR! There have been protests in Trenton during the last year where tens of thousands of people clogged up every road in and out of the city and they only received a passing glance by the media. Yet, there are four protestors who think that they are “occupying” Trenton and this is written up as part of the mainstream media’s stories?

Give me a break.

I know, having a Trenton-based team play in a southern football league seems weird. However… why not? New Jersey is a densely populated state and we have a bunch of different semi-pro and minor league teams around the state. Why not have an arena football team playing out of Trenton in a southern football league? Lord knows we have some amazing football players in this state, so I’m all for having an arena football team in Trenton.

The game itself was very high scoring and very entertaining. And while I don’t remember the exact score at this point, I do remember thinking that there were an awful lot of touchdowns. But I think what surprised me the most was the fact that if the football made its way into the stands – the fans got to keep the ball! That’s crazy! There were a lot of fans that left the Sun National Bank Center that night with a game ball as a souvenir!

Overall, the game was a lot of fun and there was a lot of high impact action. And it’s almost needless to say, but I really enjoyed watching some football again. Here’s hoping that we can all enjoy some football in a few months…

Take a look at the pictures below to see some of the Trenton Steel game for yourself. And thanks to the team over at Prevention First for including these tickets as a part of a thank you package I received for sponsoring a basketball team in one of their recent charity tournaments. Enjoy the pictures!

I work in community development and one of the big discussions when considering how to best develop a community always revolves around the idea of smart growth. In other words, how do you arrange a community such that the people who live there also work there or very nearby. As a related side note – everyone who works in Trenton for the state has a similar discussion, yet most state workers live far outside of Trenton. Weird. Anyway, nothing would make me happier than going to work within a 5 – 10 minute commute of where I live.

For starters, I don’t like this part of the state. I’m not sure what it is about Trenton or this part of Mercer County, but I’m not a big fan of the area. I couldn’t see myself ever living over here. I could live in Morris County because I have family up there and I could live in Monmouth County because it’s where I’ve been for ten years and I like it down there. But Mercer County? No thanks. So moving closer to my office isn’t an option to eliminate the commute.

Also, there is a strong possibility that my office is going to move to New Brunswick in the next few months. I couldn’t live in New Brunswick, either. It’s too congested and the places where a guy like me could afford to live aren’t nearly as safe and secure as where I live now. At almost 30 years old and having rented in a variety of arrangements over the past 10 years, I can’t see myself downgrading my living quarters just to be closer to my 9-to-5. That would be completely ridiculous and a sure way to increase the misery level.

I like my job. My only issue with my job is that they unknowingly hold down young talent so I (nor anyone else my age or younger) have not been able to advance professionally at this place. However, the pay is good and the benefits aren’t bad. Plus, the flexibility at this place is phenomenal. It’s just the miserable commute that gets me – and it’s “getting” me in an increasing frequency it seems.

I’ll figure something out. I’m not sure what I’m going to do at this point, but with less than 6 months left to my 30th birthday and having just “celebrated” 4 years working for this company, I’m not sure how much longer I’m going to keep this silly commute up each day…

In particular, there are three things that I hate about my commute. First, I hate the length of time that I’m in the car because it really is wasted time. Second, I hate the additional expenses in fuel and maintenance costs for traveling so much. And third, I hate the fact that the commute completely exhausts me every morning and every afternoon.

It would be great if I could find a job that was similar to the one that I have now, but located in Monmouth County. However, that’s very unlikely to happen any time soon so I’m out of luck. I’ve always been taught that you typically change careers several times in your adult life and there is a possibility that I could be ready to change careers. Yet, I’m making okay money where I’m at and doing a job that I somewhat enjoy, so I don’t see the need to switch careers at this point. Plus, the only other occupation that I’d rather have right now is to be a college professor. In order to do that, though, I’d need to go back to school and get a doctorate degree and I’m not overly interested in going through that at this point in my life.

My job is somewhat flexible in terms of the commute in that they let me work from home each Friday. This is a great feature because I can run errands in the morning and do tasks in my home in the afternoon, but it still means that I’m wasting more than 8 hours each week by sitting in a car. And it’s not like I can even be productive during those 8 hours because the cell phone that I currently have has a broken 3.5mm ear jack port. Sure, I could use a Bluetooth connection, but it seems to me that no one can ever hear you clearly on the other end of those things.

So, if you have any tips on how to hate my commute less, I’m all ears…

As if this wasn’t bad enough, last night’s deep freeze has rendered those snow covered roads to be ice covered. Great…

When you put all of this together with the fact that I’m now driving a Honda Civic instead of a Chevrolet Blazer, you can see why I’m more restrained about making the hour long trek across New Jersey from Tinton Falls to Trenton. Ain’t happening today.

And let’s be real – I definitely do not get paid enough to put my safety on the line to get to an office where my work is more “appreciated” than valued. Seriously. If I had a dollar for every time someone said thank you or that they appreciated my work, I’d double my salary! I don’t want to start down that path right now, though…

So I’ll be working from home again today while the folks in this development try to dislodge their heads from their asses and figure out how to make the main road drivable!

The first comment that I have about the show is that the crowd was HOT! They were going bonkers over every back body drop and punch that was offered by the wrestlers. I’ve never been in a wrestling crowd like that before and I’ve been to RAW, Smackdown!, WWE’s ECW, SummerSlam, and a variety of independent shows. One of my roommates who was with me commented that the crowd was very similar to an old ECW crowd. My only complaint is about the trio of morons sitting behind me who felt the need to let everyone in the immediate vicinity know their wrestling knowledge. For example, at one point one of the wrestler’s threw on the crossface and the dopes behind me immediately started chanting, “You’re not Benoit!” Yes, dummies. We know that Benoit used the crossface. Congratulations, you know a wrestling fact.

It only got worse when they started chanting “Joe can’t sell!” during the Booker T./Samoa Joe bout. Yes, idiots. We understand that Joe has been working hard to make his opponents look better in the ring. Congratulations, you read websites like mine. I wouldn’t have been so upset about these guys if they weren’t sitting directly behind me screaming the worst chants ever at the top of their lungs for the ENTIRE night. My right ear was ringing all day Monday because of them. Speaking of people sitting around us in the stands, my roommates and I were pretty sure that the guy sitting next to me was asleep the entire time or that he had one eye (probably the latter). The poor guy jumped square out of his seat during the opening pyro which, I admit, was incredibly loud. The kid sitting at the other end of the row was from Brooklyn and came to the show with no ride home. His first question to us as we sat down was if we could give him a ride home (no way!). Also, this kid was a major WWE fan (complete with replica spinning belt) and hated on a bunch of the TNA guys. He was comical because whenever a “TNA! TNA!” chant broke out, he would quietly speak-chant “WWE. WWE.” Weird.

By the way, would you go to Trenton from Brooklyn to watch a wrestling show of a promotion that you don’t even like…with no ride home?!

Final comment before the match reviews – Ice T. was advertised as appearing with F.I.L.T.H.E.E. and he was no where to be found when the rap group opened up the show.

TNA X-Division Championship
Petey Williams def. Consequences Creed
– The crowd was hot for Williams in this one, which may have surprised the TNA folks as Creed had been billed as the face and received huge love from the crowd two days earlier in Asbury Park. Williams is an amazing wrestler and Creed has a great future ahead of him. This match featured lots of chants of “Let’s go Petey!” and a great cheer/boo segment with both competitors trading blows. I don’t do “star” rankings because I’m not that pretentious, but this was a great opening match. To show you the fickleness of a wrestling crowd, as soon as Abdul Bashir came out, the fans were behind Consequences Creed. Don’t you love it?!

6-Knockout Match
Gail Kim, ODB, & Taylor Wilde def. Awesome Kong & The Beautiful People
– Unlike a WWE Women’s match, this was not a throwaway event. ODB has enormous crowd support, but Awesome Kong had just as much. By the way, even though we weren’t too close to ringside you can tell that The Beautiful People really are quite stunning. Gail Kim performed pretty well, but I thought that Taylor Wilde could use a little bit more time rehearsing some of her spots. All in all this was a good match that the crowd was into for the entire time.

At this point there was some type of vignette with Team 3D in the rafters (these were all pre-recorded because the thousands of us in attendance kept looking to the rafters during these segments and saw no one). The only comment that was audible in the arena was about a black bat, though not Brother Devon’s black bat. Thanks Brother Ray.

TNA Tag Team Championship Match
Beer Money, Inc. def LAX
– Though I was surprised by the outcome of this match, I found it enjoyable. At one point the crowd was slowly wavering away from the match, but when Hernandez threw Homicide over the top rope on to Beer Money, Inc. the place erupted. The beer bottle shot to the head was heard crystal clear throughout the arena. Good work on everyone’s part. I didn’t particularly care for the LAX entrance with F.I.L.T.H.E.E. It was a bit much, though watching Salinas dance around was sweet.

Tuxedo Chain Strap Match
Jay Lethal def. Sonjay Dutt
– Well, if you watched this on pay-per-view I’m sure the “Fire Russo” chants were as clear as day. What an abomination. On the one hand, I admire Lethal and Dutt for putting up with this crap, but on the other hand it might be time to get Russo in check. A tuxedo strap match? What a waste of two incredible talents. Early on the crowd wanted to get excited to see these two go at it, but the stupidity of this match was clear and present. There were also loud chants of “Boring” which is a shame because I think these two could really tear the place apart if given the opportunity.

Jersey Street Fight
Rhino & Christian def. Team 3D
– This is the match where the internet reviews have pissed me off the most. Not only was this a good hardcore match, but the crowd was completely into it for the entire duration! The comedic spots went over well live and the high spots went over even better. When I read dummies on the internet write about how the crowd fighting got boring after a while I cringe because it definitely was not boring. The crowd was electrified to begin with – this match only turned up the juice a bit. Christian Cage is an even better wrestler in person, though Rhino may want to hit the gym a little bit. The Abyss run-in went over huge with the live crowd, too.

Last Man Standing Match
AJ Styles def. Kurt Angle
– I want to say that this match was perfect, but there was one problem – the Last Man Standing rules! Most of the people in the crowd were confused about the pin/submission followed up by a standing 10-count. Does WWE own the rights to a generic 10-count Last Man Standing Match? One of the kids sitting next to me made the point that it should just be a 13-count. Why not? In any event, this was the match of the night complete with high spots and great technical wrestling. The dopey online writers may not give this match the kudos that it deserves, but this was the best live match that I’ve ever seen. Crisp movement in the ring, a hot crowd outside of the ring, two of the best wrestlers in the world fighting it out – you can’t go wrong. The crowd popped for Sting before realizing that he took out AJ Styles.

TNA World Heavyweight Championship
Six Sides of Steel with Weapons
Samoa Joe def. Booker T. w/Sharmell
– I don’t think I’ve ever seen a cage match live before so this was sort of special. As a quick aside, did you know that they hold the TNA steel cage together with zip ties? Amazing, huh? Both of these men put on a good show, though it felt a little anti-climatic to not have a Sting appearance at some point. Anyone can see that Russo is going for a Sting vs. the new generation of stars type of angle – or at least that’s what it is now. Knowing Russo he’ll change the entire thing next week if he reads that one person has figured out his angle. Booker T is really a lot better in person than I thought he would be (I’m not a big fan). Samoa Joe did a good job of keeping up with Booker, though I thought that we would see more of an aggressive side from him. The guitar shot at the end of the match was alright, but I can think of better ways to bring Jeff Jarrett back into the show.

As I said earlier, this was the best live event that I’ve ever attended. The next time TNA is in your area I encourage you to go and check them out – the next time they’re in New Jersey, I’ll be there!

For 162 pictures from the show (including some of the people sitting around me), click here. Enjoy!

The show wasn’t too highly attended, but the fans that were present were passionate. The convention Hall can hold a few thousand people and I’d say there were between 400 – 600 people at the show.

Johnny Devine vs. Curry Man vs. Kaz
Winner: Curry Man

Abdul Bashir vs. Consequences Creed
Winner: Consequences Creed
* The crowd LOVED Consequences Creed, by the way.

Roxxi & Traci vs. Velvet Sky & Jackie
Winer: Roxxi & Traci

LAX vs. Team 3D
Winner: LAX
* After the match, Brother Ray thanked the crowd for coming out and dedicated the match to Bam Bam Bigelow.

Intermission

Rhino vs. James Storm
Winner: Rhino
* Rhino didn’t move around too well in this match – he needs to hit the gym.

Kurt Angle vs. AJ Styles
Winner: AJ Styles
* Amazing match with Styles performing all of his signature moves. Excellent!

After the show was over, Kurt Angle posed in the ring for pictures with the fans. Also, Curry Man, Earl Hebner, Traci Brooks, Consequences Creed, and Kaz came out to the ringside to give the fans free autographs. You’re not going to get that in WWE, folks. I was very impressed with the show and even though the place wasn’t packed, I hope that TNA strongly considers coming back to Conventional Hall in beautiful Asbury Park!

For pictures from this show, click here!