Which brings me to today. I thought I’d be able to get through the day no problem, but by the beginning of the second class, I was completely drained. A large Dunkin’ Donuts coffee, which I got in between classes and finished about five minutes after sitting down helped, but I was still exhausted.

Still, I made it through the day.

The worst part of the day? I like to sit along the wall so I can plug in my laptop when possible, so that’s where I was. I dropped my pen, and when I leaned down to grab it, I slammed my head into the point of one of those little metal things at the bottom of the white board that is like a tray for holding markers. The very end point of it. It drew blood. From my head. During class. Not much, mind you, but there’s a definite scab now on my head. This is awesome.

The best part? When the professor asked what you divide by in the equation for standard deviation when using a sample, and we all sat there and looked at him. “N minus one” I said, taking a shot while still wondering if my head-blood was receding. “N-minus-one,” he repeats, and looking at me — “Come to the head of the class!” he said, waving his arm forward.

So, I’ve got that going for me. Which is nice.

I’m excited for this semester on a whole though. I’ve got a couple of good classes, and I’m getting closer to finishing up my MPA at Suffolk. Exciting!

I’m pretty much done with that. If you want to comment — and I update so infrequently, I don’t know why you would — just register for an account. Then I have to approve your first post. Then you’re all set.

I’m done logging into the administration section to write a blog and seeing 150 unapproved comments, half of which are in moderation and half of which got posted. If you’re spamming my site, you’re wasting my time. I’ve got little to no traffic, even fewer dedicated readers and most of this is here just so I can remember what my ridiculous thoughts are.

It’s been a while since I updated, but I wanted to write something down about this. Something that chronicles how I feel, what I think and where I’m at.

I’ve never loved any sports team more than I loved the 2004 Boston Red Sox. The collection of guys — from Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz all the way down to Alan Embree and Curtis “The Mechanic” Leskanic — were nothing short of incredible. Ortiz, Millar, Damon and OCab kept the clubhouse light. Foulke pitched lights out baseball that maybe cut his career short. Dave Roberts stole the most famous base in baseball history a few nights before the eyes of a nation turned its eyes to the bleeding ankle of a 37-year-old man with a proclivity to make New Yorkers shut up.

But really, the center of the excitement was Ortiz. Here was this guy who had been released from the Twins, and we picked him up in 2003. He played great baseball that year, but it wasn’t really until 2004 — and the playoffs — that he became a folk hero in the Boston sports pantheon that had been reserved for Tom Brady, Larry Bird, Ted Williams, Bill Russell and Bobby Orr. Pull up another chair, boys. We’re inducting a sixth Boston legend.

He had the game winning hit in Game 4 of the ALCS. He broke an epic tie and had the game winning hit in Game 5, sending the series back to New York. I have watched these games, from start to finish, dozens of times. LITERALLY. He was our hero. He was Big Papi. And he was the most clutch hitter in the history of the Sox.

In 2005, he and Manny both shined. I can’t remember the exact numbers, but I remember them being the first pair of teammates since Gehrig and Ruth to go past 40 HR, 140 RBI in the same season. In 2006, he hit 54 homers. In 2007, he was ravaged by injuries, but still hit 35 bombs and carried us in the postseason. In 2008, he was injured, but still had a defining moment — he became a United States citizen.

Ortiz had been our hero, had been our legend. Sports writers compared Ortiz to Brady as to who was the best Boston sports legend of this decade and the debate raged on. I’d go back and forth. Brady had the three Super Bowls, the MVPs, countless other awards and accolades, but he had become a fiercely private person. Ortiz was congenial, jovial, a tremendous ballplayer and a hell of a man. To me, his character stood elevated along with his accolades, as he truly was one of the all-time Sox legends. And he truly was beloved by everyone in Boston.

This is how beloved Ortiz is: his average hovering around .200 and the first two months of the season being a complete joke, it looked as if he may be benched. But Francona kept putting him in the lineup, kept asking him to bat third and expecting a different result. I went to the Sox/Mets tilt at Fenway on May 23rd to watch Ortiz. When he came up in the eighth, he took a called third strike and went to sit back down on the bench. I booed relentlessly. So did other people in the section, except they were booing ME. I’m sorry? We can’t boo this guy? We can’t let him know he needs to do better? No. He’s David Ortiz. A Boston icon. And one of the only ones, along with Tom Brady, who gets our unconditional love.

That love now, my friends, is gone. Ortiz is a fraud, a fake. He’s a joke. But really the joke is on all of us. Because he made us believe. He made us believe a guy could go from being cut one year by one team to being another team’s folk hero. How could I have been so naive to think that Ortiz wasn’t juicing? I want to know when he started. And I want to know when he stopped. And anything short of that will be an even bigger disappointment.

David, please come clean. Tell us what you find out. Tell us everything that happened. Tell us when, why, how much and for how long. And tell us why you felt the pressure to do it and tell us not to make the same mistakes you made. It’s something I’ve heard from athletes far too many times now, but right now, you’re up there with McGwire, Sosa and Raffy. You’re up there with BONDS.

I want to put you up there with Andy Pettitte. I want to put you up there with Rodney Harrison. Did you cheat? Yes. But give us all the facts and tell us why. Don’t sweep it under the rug and don’t ignore it. Make that “No comment” you gave The NY Times the last one we hear from you on this subject. Talk about it until you’re blue in the face and talk some more. Embrace this as an opportunity to educate not only us in Boston, but also those in the Dominican, about the dangers of steroids and the crippling effect they can have on your body.

Do all that, and while it will be tough to earn my respect again, maybe — just maybe — you’ll have my forgiveness.

“24 hour protection!” the bottle screamed. Wow, I thought. Use this once, and I’m good until the next day!

But then below it: “2x a day - Use every 12 hours.” Here’s the picture:

While writing this blog post, I looked for a picture of this online, and it seems the Wall Street Journal wrote about this a year and a half ago. So I’m not on the cutting edge, but at least I’m not the only one who realized how absolutely ridiculous this is.

Why not just put “TWO YEAR protection” on the bottle, and tell consumers to “2x a day - use every 12 hours for two years.” Or Lifetime Protection! “2x a day every 12 hours for the rest of your life.” I bet I’d buy more Listerine if it had a Lifetime Protection. Hell, I’d have to. That little bottle isn’t lasting forever.

An 83-year-old Malden man is facing charges of negligent operation after the 12:26 p.m. accident at Old Cambridge Road and Russell Street, said Woburn Police Sergeant Robert Giannotti. Police will also ask the Registry of Motor Vehicles to determine that the man is an immediate public safety threat and revoke his license.

Giannotti said the man and his 84-year-old wife were in a Toyota Camry that was coming out of Old Cambridge Road onto Russell Street. The car hit a Chrysler Sebring driven by a 78-year-old Woburn woman who was driving west on Russell. The collision was “not head-on but nearly head-on,” said Giannotti.

The Woburn woman was taken to Massachusetts General Hospital with life-threatening injuries. The Malden couple were taken to the Lahey Clinic in Burlington. Giannotti didn’t have any information on their condition.

How many people are going to have to get injured before the legislature passes this through to the Governor? Please, let’s move this bill. I know elderly people vote, but this is becoming an epidemic that needs to be stopped.

I’m watching a news report on television about the state taking away a license from another elderly person. A 86-year-old driver hit and hurt an elderly pedestrian badly this past week. This is the fourth such accident involving an elder operating a motor vehicle in the past month.

From the same story:

Two weeks ago, the state revoked the driver’s license of an elderly Canton woman after she allegedly struck and killed a 4-year-old girl in a pedestrian walkway in Stoughton. The driver, Ilse Horn, was cited by Stoughton police for motor vehicle homicide by negligent operation.

On June 2, a 93-year-old man drove his car into the entrance of a Wal-Mart in Danvers, injuring six people when he hit the gas pedal instead of the brake. The next day, seven people were injured in Plymouth when a car driven by a 73-year-old woman jumped a curb and ran into a crowd gathered at a war memorial.

I’m concerned about the double standard here. When a Green Line train crashed and injured passengers because the driver was texting, all kinds of new laws and regulations went into effect. The city of Boston banned texting in city vehicles, the state took up legislation to ban texting while driving, etc. From one incident on a train, we have a whole host of new laws and regulations for those driving cars. Meanwhile, four elderly drivers get in car accidents in one month, and nothing happens to elderly drivers.

To its credit, the state is meeting today to discuss having drivers 85 years and older be tested. I disagree with the age limitation — I would push for 75 and over — but I’m happy we’re taking steps to put this law on the books. I’m just confused as to the double standard; if someone driving a train is texting and is in an accident, we have all kinds of laws being proposed and things happening almost immediately for those driving in cars. After four high-profile accidents and the death a child, this legislation is only today being heard by committee.

The cynic in me has it figured out: young people text, old people vote. But I’d like to think that’s not a factor. Have there been other crashes caused by texting that aren’t as high profile? Sure. You can find countless examples all over the internet. And I’m not arguing against the ban on texting while driving. But we need to do something about elderly drivers as well.

It’s the toughest decision a family has to make, and can we really rely on them to make it? My aunt was an awful driver, but we didn’t do anything to take away her license. My grandfather is still an amazing driver; I’m sure the man would ace a driving test no problem. And he probably wouldn’t have a problem with taking one either. My grandmother still has her license, but she hasn’t driven in years. She has no intention of driving. But should she give up the license and get a state ID card? Why not? What’s the harm in that?

If families can’t have the hard conversation — and I can’t imagine ever telling my mother or father that the time has come and they need to stop driving — the state needs to step in and intervene for the sake of public safety. We should depend on the judgment of these families — they’re often the ones driving with the elder and observe them frequently in high-stress driving situations — but that conversation is just very difficult to have. I’m glad this hearing is happening today, and I’m hoping it leads to better regulations in licensing senior drivers so all of us throughout the Commonwealth can be safe on the roads.

I’ve never gotten into vampire shows. Didn’t understand the Buffy craze — in the movies or on the television — and I have no idea what the hell Twilight is about. But TrueBlood has great writing, great characters and even though Anna Paquin sometimes gives laughably bad performances, the show is very good on the whole.

Seriously though, during the summer season without much on, give TrueBlood a chance. It’s always one of the most action packed half hours on television. Love it.

The Magic traded for Vince Carter.

The Celtics insulted Rajon Rondo.

Are we the third-best team in the East now? I still like us ahead of Orlando IF (and it’s a big IF) they don’t resign Hedo. But Shaq and LeBron on the Cavs? Might that be what they need to give their perimeter shooters a little more room?

We need to sign somebody, and I don’t want to see this team with Kidd for a MLE unless we can swing that Rondo & Allen for Stuckey, Prince and Hamilton deal we were talking about with the Pistons. If we can do that trade with the Pistons, and pick up Kidd, I’d like that team. We bring back Pierce, Garnett and a much-improved Kendrick Perkins. We add Kidd and Rip to the starting lineup so we’re going Kidd, Rip, Pierce, Garnett, Perk. We can bring Prince off the bench for Pierce, Stuckey off the bench for Kidd.

It should be easy enough to resign Leon Powe, and if we can get Eddie House, we’ll have backups at all the positions. I’m nervous about Baby and how much he’ll cost as a RFA, but if we can bring him back at a reasonable cost, we have our first and second units set. Granted, I don’t know if Detroit would ever reconsider that deal. But it could really set up the Celtics and give them 20 million of expiring contracts into the “Summer of LeBron.”

It’s a strange time to be a Celtics fan.

So, if you want to see what’s really happening, here’s three links for you.

Follow me on Twitter
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But it’s on a much smaller scale, one where LeBron and Kobe have already succeeded many times over: Google suggestions.

You know how if you start typing in the Google box, it will suggest what you might be looking for? When you get to “Bill Yel,” it assumes you’re looking for me (after four other options, including Bill Yellowtail, a politician from Wyola, Montana, *and* Bill Yelverton, a concert guitarist and a couple others). Yes, I know that’s most of my name. And most people don’t have a last name starting with “Yel,” but I’ll take what I can get.