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     I am by no means old. I am only 28 and still have plenty of life left in me, but I have hit that point where I realized I AM getting older. I have a bunch of nephews and nieces who I am pretty sure are all smarter than me. Friends are getting married and buying houses. And the kicker… shows I used to watch when I was younger are now on Nick At Nite! I don’t want to get older because getting older means change and I have never been a big fan of change, but a couple of things this past weekend have shown me that getting older does not have to be a bad thing. 

     I just finished watching the Bernard Hopkins, Kelly Pavlik fight and I have to say I was truly impressed. For those of you who were unlucky enough to see the fight let me share with you what you missed. An “old” veteran (Bernard, 43) beating the snot out of a younger “tougher” fighter (Pavlik, 26). I have never been a Bernard Hopkins fan. I have always rooted against him. I thought he was too cocky and a loud mouth. ”Who the hell does this old man think he is?!” I used to say. Well this past Saturday night he showed the world who he was. What impressed me about Bernard in this particular fight was the fact that he did not fight like an “old” man which is what he looked like in his last few fights. Hopkins has always been a great defensive fighter, and that is how he has won most of his fights in his career. But on this night when that opening bell rang Hopkins came out on the offensive and dominated for 12 straight rounds. Not just dominating but giving Pavlik one hell of a boxing lesson. Now Pavlik is no slouch. He is the current middle weight champion of the world (they fought at 170 lbs. so Pavlik did not loss his middle weight title) and was undefeated. Pavlik is a young, strong, aggressive fighter who was hoping a win over Bernard Hopkins would be his first step into the boxing elite. Unfortunately for him the “Old Man” had other ideas. Bernard fought not like a 43 year old on his way out, but like a 21 year old on his way up. Hopkins was faster, constantly beating Pavlik to the punch. Hopkins was slicker always circling to Pavlik’s left to avoid Pavlik’s right hand, and to put himself into position to fire with his own. If Bernard was in a corner or against the ropes he would slip Pavlik and fire away leaving Pavlik looking like the “old” man trying to keep up with the ”youngster.” Nobody thought Hopkins had it in him. We all knew he was a tough, tricky fighter, and that it would be a competitive fight. But nobody thought Hopkins could still fight like that. Most of the boxing media thought Pavlik would beat Hopkins with shear aggression and punch output, and Hopkins was a 4-1 underdog. Well after the final bell rang and the decision was given out with Hopkins winning practically every round he simply walked over to one side of the ring where all the press was sitting, and he just looked out at them. Staring each one down as if saying “THAT’S RIGHT! I DID IT YOU M******F******!” Well on Saturday night I officially became a Bernard Hopkins fan and it only took little over a decade.

     Another “old” dog showing it still has some spunk left is my personal favorite FPS, Unreal Tournament. Unreal Tournament is one of the few games that still lets players design their own material for the game. Anything from game maps to character skins to full fledged game modes. Hell, if someone really wanted to they could create an entirely new game. This game franchise used to be the staple of FPS’ but in the past couple of years other games have been dominating. Games like Call of Duty, Battlefield, FarCry, BioShock, Halo, and a dozen others. These are all fine games and they have all earned their spot as the FPS elite. This is a new era we live in and games are constantly adding new mechanics and depth to the FPS experience, and unfortuantly the newest Unreal Tournament, UT3 has fallen a bit short in comparison to some of these newer fancier games. But like the “old” war horse that it is Unreal Tournament is far from dead. Fans of the Unreal series have taken full advantage of the fact that they are still capable of creating pretty much whatever they want in the game. So whatever Unreal may lack, players can simple add it in themselves. Not enough Death Match maps for you? Weeeell just hop on the Internet and…looky here 80 more maps to play on. “Hmm, you know I feel like playing as a gigantic cybernetic bunny. Oh my God! somebody has created just that!” “WHAT! They took out my favorite game mode Bombing Run! Those basta…oh wait someone just created it. Well ok then. I feel better!” It is really hard to count any game out, even one as dated as Unreal, when it is still capable of growing and evolving into something better than when it first started. It may have some grey hairs and a bit of a beer belly, but it can still woop some ass when it wants to.

     So it just goes to show no matter how “old” or “dated” some people might think someone or something is they could surprise you. And trust me you don’t want to be on the recieving end when one of those old codgers decideds to prove themselves. Just because your older it doesn’t mean you have stop being who you are or stop doing the things you like to do. Just say ”To hell with it!” and be you.  To quote from one of the finest films of all time “I didn’t hear no bell!”