Month: April 2022

My kid is on the way to prom with two of his best friends from his entire childhood. They started together as early as first grade and, in spite of going to different schools in some cases, the three of them stayed locked in. I suspect at least two of them will ride to college together, and that would be nice. It would be a far better site than I dealt with, practically starting fresh until I linked up with a friend from high school who grew to be my brother. I’m so excited to see where life takes my first born. Prom is a rite of passage for many. For some it is about sex. For some is about love. For some it is about friendship. I’m excited to be parent of a kid who chose to be about friendship and let all of those other things fall into place where they may.

I remember my prom night and my date. I honestly do not remember making it inside the prom. We had fun that evening and connected with so may friends. I don’t remember how it ended. I don’t remember ever really having a relationship with my prom date other than the idea that we were supposed to go together and being friends prior to that moment. Time stretches the imagination in ways that change truth to fiction and vice versa. I don’t even remember who I was those thirty years ago. Yet I know I wasn’t a fraction of the man I am today in so many ways. Rite of passage is another way of saying moving into something new. So here is to my first born moving into something new. I hope he enjoys every second of his journey moving forward.

Some Thoughts:

1. Dwayne Haskins, back up QB and once heralded FB star QB, died recently as the result of a car accident. He was hit by a car, presumably while on foot. More details are emerging, but what catches my eye is that in a day where everything on the road felt so enraged it comes as no surprise that someone famous died to that din.

Okay. Take a breath.

I’m trying to figure out in my own mind why everything feels so stressed right now. As I’m listening to my division meeting and letting the accidental ASMR of my college president wash over me I’m realizing I have been quite stressed. About everything. It feels like I am teetering on a cliff at the bottom of which is imaginable misery. I don’t have that answer beyond it just being that kind of day.

Some Thoughts:

1. I need to stay off Instagram. Every time I see it I am tugged back into this world of youth football.
2. Why am I on? I’m trying to track down some of the research I did on Capsule-style beds through that medium. Turns out I am a terribly inefficient researcher.
3. Why Capsule Beds? Trying to create a new and smaller living space for the kids.

Honestly, the title is much ado about nothing. I thought of it, wrote it down, and had nothing to follow it up. If anything I could talk about the way Flores’ Truth Bomb blew up what looked to be a conspiracy to unite Tom Brady with Sean Payton, the Dolphins, and the fastest WR corps in the NFL. Once Flores dropped dime on the NFL (after not getting treated right or not playing along depending on your perspective) the Brady to Miami plan went away… for a minute. Miami hired the whitest black guy in known history and Brady will ride as a Buc yet again.

All of this is meaningless. I’ve discovered that much I trouble myself with in the world is trivial. This is likely because I can have no impact on the stuff that genuinely means something and rationalizing that powerlessness is a lot harder than watching grown men play sports and feeling a specific way enough about those sports that I play a digital version at home.

Some Thoughts:

1. I have 5 boys watching four different shows at this exact moment. Screens are everywhere!
2. I have a giant ‘bible’ of mixed drinks I gave my partner years ago and we’ve yet to open it up. Meanwhile, we keep looking for new drink recipes…
3. Water is the pathway to salvation.

My youngest keeps trying to convince me that his beloved Seahawks will get one of the Giants skill players this year. This week he’s saying Kadarius is going there. He’s not. With the release of Gil Brandt’s hot 100 and MMQBs first 10 taken mock we are legit in the season of the speculation. For me the only real speculation is ‘do the Giants get Ikem ‘Ickey’ Ekwanu. I liked him before but knowing he was offered scholarships to Harvard and Yale makes me like him more. Dude has brains. He was a Fulbright Scholar (Look at the brains on Brad). He’s a smart footballer which means he will be able to develop well as a lineman beyond his base physical abilities. Line is a mind game vs. the guy across from you and understanding how they operate and countering that over the course of a week’s prep. So, I am penciling him in as the pick if he is still there at 5.

Some Thoughts:

1. Writing scene might be heating up for me. Lord knows I need the deadline.
2. Meanwhile, I’m about to download Halo Infinite…

I’m actually running out of things to say again. Strange problem for a writer. Of course, we’ve recently covered that I am not writing. I have a tendency to go through periods of great drought when I don’t have deadlines. I find just about anything else to grasp onto. Instead I find myself sitting lifelessly in front of a keyboard trying to figure out how to spend these ten minutes.

Some Thoughts:

1. I cannot find a single xbox game worth playing more than the Elden Ring I’ve already downloaded on PS5. All the new hotness is scheduled for a post-summer release. That leaves me gameless. Madden is practically dead to me. I guess I can play some Apex, but I don’t want to.

Well, Kansas just won the NCAA ‘ship. They were down by a ton at the half and managed to storm back and overcome the largest deficit in NCAA championship history. Nice. Maybe not the cinderella story we looked for, but we got a story. Sports is always about the story. The story is often as important and at time more important than the skill of the players involved. That is why some expert players aren’t focused on nearly as much as others. We live in story. We believe in story. In story we conceptualize who we could be if the situation were just a little different–if we got to shoot our shot. Part of the story being told here was about Roy Williams having been the HC of both the teams playing tonight. The Roy Williams bowl. Nice, but for our household the story was about Remy Martin finally getting his moment to win the tournament–the moment he risked (and likely missed) his career for. He was a top 10 prospect when he was a sophomore and here he is, a 5th year player and a bench player on the Jayhawks and still the guy who carried them forward at the end. Only, nobody seems to be telling that story. Sometimes stories have their moment and then the moment fades, no matter how more interesting they get.

Some Thoughts:

1. I am, for lack of a better term, addicted to story. I just have been spending tons more time listening to and playing through stories than I have been telling my own. As the years flutter by I need to be thinking about telling more of my stories while I still can.
2. One of the stories I still feel I need to constantly tell is the sports stories of my kids. I guess it makes me feel involved.

I want to take a few minutes to digest the disparity between what is happening with Redskins Owner Daniel Snyder and what is happening with new Browns QB Deshaun Watson. This is not about race and this is not about me believing in Watson’s innocence. This is about money and how someone as powerful as Snyder is enabled to skate while Watson faces intense media scrutiny.

To sum up the situation Watson has 22 civil cases against him for sexual misconduct. Snyder faces scrutiny after reports surfaced of years of sexual misconduct and harassment. The difference here is financial. In fact, the NFL basically slapped Snyder on the wrist and moved on (after he suddenly decided to rebrand the team… like a good sport?). Meanwhile, the Watson protests and negative press is endless. The only thing being said about Snyder lately is that he may have cheated other owners out of money and, if true, that could mean the end of his ownership.

So, create a culture of sex abuse in the organization and you good. Steal and you done. At least the NFL is consistent. Jerry Jones, Robert Kraft.. both have been caught up in difficult sex-driven situations and the league says nothing. It stands to reason that the NFL doesn’t care about women as much as it does about revenue. If it turns out that Watson is bad for business, he may end up out of the picture a la Kaepernick.

Some Thoughts:

1. Stewart’s The Problem With this week was excellent as was Oliver’s newest Last Week. Both struck chords about capitalism in a way that should resonate with everyone. Stewart tackled race in a way I felt was really eye opening.
2. Birds Aren’t Real… Just go look for yourself.

Decided to extend our trip. We transited from San Diego to LA. I’d never been to LA until now, and the lady felt it was high time for me to see the sights. We did see some of them. We drove up the (highly unsafe) winding road to Griffith Park Observatory. We went to Chinatown. We ate plenty of good eats near our swaggy hotel. The best part of an impromptu extension is the uncertainty/freedom of not having any real plans and doing simply what comes to mind and what feels right in the moment.

Some Thoughts:

1. The coach K story isn’t going to end with a national championship… or final 4 win. In fact it ends the same way the last home game ended–at the hands of UNC. So, I suspect UNC v. Kansas will be without the drama.
2. Trying Life & Beth. Show is interesting and weird and honest. I like it a little bit but not and incredible amount just yet.

I haven’t played Elden Ring in days and as a result I’ve played nothing else. Well, Clash Royale but that is barely anything (yes, I know that crap adds up. ANOTHER BLOG!). I don’t want to play other games. I don’t want to play Madden or anything else in the face of such a large and beautiful game. This is a good thing and a bad one. I feel like a game like this does in some ways raise the bar for other games. I’m low on games I stick around for. I don’t play much Apex anymore unless a new legend is dropped and then only for a few days before I check out again. I cannot really get into Madden any longer. It feels poorly made in comparison to, well, everything. All in all, I find myself loving the one game and, while not being good at it, yearning to figure out ways to get better.

How do I get better? The chosen method is grinding my way to the highest possible level. Given the number of levels I already have, I should be better than I am, but my build is weak. So I get better by learning about better builds and beyond that shaping my character to the weaponry I want to exploit. Presently I use the nerfed sword of night and flame and I am learning I need a better blade. So, step one: figure out the weapons for the build. Step 2: respec to the best possible build. Step 3: dominate. Of course, I’ll grind for hours more along the way to get more stat points so I can build as many stats up as possible.

Not a lot of Giants news. Lots of speculation about the upcoming draft. All I can say is: DO NOT DRAFT THIBODEAUX. Heck, trade back if that is the case. He is not the guy. All of his numbers and comparatives measure up as yet another Jadaveon Clowney. We don’t need that. Seriously. Go another direction–secondary maybe? A second dominant lineman? We are projected to have the 28th best line in the league if we start the top 5 guys we have now. That argues a need for better players. At least one of the two picks needs to be directed there.

That’s all the pro talk I have. The Youth Football game is, well, over for me. No better time. I took a glance at some of the NYS madness and saw yet another Maricopa team. The argument here is this: Youth Football is an ego game and that aspect has overwhelmed the teaching aspect entirely. Glad to be done. Not expecting to follow scores this season and hoping to channel that energy elsewhere. Presently it is channeled into becoming a better hurdles teacher for the two hurdlers in house. One is a top 5 sophomore in the state and still has plenty of space to grow. The other, a 7th grader, is quite literally the only varsity hurdler his school has. Rough stuff right there.

Some Thoughts:

1. This Will Smith Drama is going to play out for a long time. The news orgs got a hold of it and definitely politicized it into an us v. them split of hollywood. Thanks for that.