I feel I'm in 2006 form to be honest. I hear a lot of comparisons to 2004, but I never changed. Last year was a struggle but I've worked hard. . . I'm not going back, I'm going forward.
I think people are going to like my new shoes. I like them. I had a lot of success with the one last year, but this year's shoe is going to be a little different, but at the same time it's going to be a little spin-off on last year's shoe.
We're not going back anywhere, we're going forward, we're going forward in democracy, we're going forward in participation, we're going forward with ideas.
I don't think that comedy is going to affect or change anything. I remember back in 2004 people were like, "How does it feel knowing that you're going to be part of the shifting tide in the political system?" And in the end nothing changed, and we weren't part of anything. And we're not happy anywhere. I think we're kind of hoping, obviously, but it didn't really have a great impact on people.
I said in 2004,in fact a group was sent to me from the White House to try talk to me, because I was getting a lot of publicity.I said it in 2004, you're going to destabilize the Middle East, Iran is going to take over Iraq... and somebody else is going to help and that turned out to be ISIS. It's an exact.
I've had so much stress in the last year so it's really a struggle. I never hide, when I walk down the street, someone's going to take my picture, that's what I look like.
In 2002, a lot of the pundits didn't get the off-year elections right. In 2004, a lot of people thought I was going down eight days before the election.
I've flown in space four times now, so it's going to be hard in that respect, but I certainly look forward to going back to Earth. I've been up here for a really long time and sometimes, when I think about it, I feel like I've lived my whole life up here.
When you're a younger company, you struggle, struggle, struggle with, 'How are we going to pay the bills, and how are we going to hire people, and how are we going to get a bigger office?' Just managing the company is so hard.
The sport has changed so much since 2004, it's incredible. If you look even at me, the way I'm fencing now compared to 2004, it's a completely different sport. They've changed so many things just with what [the referees] are calling, they've changed the timing of the [scoring] lights. You always have to be evolving as a fencer. The Olympics is interesting because it's such a small field compared to what we're used to. This world championships, I think we had a hundred and something [athletes]. The Olympics is going to be less than 32.
I took a little break - I was coming back to work and the last thing I was going to do was take a step backwards, so I knew that if I was going to take a feature it was going to have to be taking a step forward.
We have worked very hard to accommodate the requests from the Mayor and the Council that changed the terms of the agreement that brought the Montreal Expos to Washington. Because we believe in the future of Baseball in the nation's capital, we have signed a lease that honors the 2004 agreement, while conforming to the emergency legislation that the Council passed last month.
There's a lot of hyperventilation that takes off before the [Sundance Film] Festival, a lot of buzz. Every year we hear, this is going to be the new this, this is going to be the new that, and it never is. The buzz just doesn't mean anything. I'm glad it doesn't. Because I think the festival shows that what succeeds is content.
I'm going back to the old Shaq. I was normal last year - I was an earthling last summer. I had to go back to my alien roots.
That's the NFL: Not For Long. First year's a welcome year. Second it's, What are you going to do? Third year's like, Well, you didn't do much last year; give us something or you're going. That's the way it is. They'll trade you or they'll cut you.
I'm never a believer in going back in anything. You move forward, so that's my whole mentality, you make moves to go forward not back.
Well, I think the turning point, in my opinion, has to be 2006 as in that year we came under BCCI. With that a lot of facilities were provided to us, a lot of things changed for good and better.