The Gainesville Trip

After a full 24 hours at my old stomping grounds, I found that Gainesville had changed a lot since I graduated in 1995.  At first, I had uneasy feelings when I realized certain things were gone or had moved.  However, at the end of the visit, I realized that I too had changed.

I went to Gainesville on Tuesday with 2 friends to meet up with another friend and attend the final home basketball game for the Florida Gators.  We opted to get to Gainesville early to hit the spots we remembered so well.  That was when we got most of the news that our old world was gone.

The first discovery was that a popular bar, named the Purple Porpoise, was gone and replaced with a new place called “Gator City.”  Honestly, I had only gone to the Purple Porpoise a couple of times, but my other two friends had gone many times during their time in Gainesville.  They were affected more by this change than I was.  I am sure that many people who lived in Gainesville at that time will miss that landmark when they return.  Below is a picture of a painting the way we all remember it.

 

Other things in that area (which is right across the street from campus) had changed too.  There were no more music stores to buy-sell-trade music.  I figured the e-data age had changed their outlook.  Burrito Brothers had moved (but was closed by the time we got out of the game!).  There was nearly a block of buildings that had been completely cleared off.  We wondered if the university had purchased the land to expand.  There were newer, more hip restaurants up and down the street.  It was strange to see.

We went to one of them for a snack and drinks before the game.  The place was called “The Swamp Restaurant.”  Interestingly enough, the restaurant was established in 1994, but even though I was there through 1995, I have no memory of it at all.  The weather was beautiful, so we took a table on the upper deck, overlooking University Avenue.  We only had the Macho Nachos topped with black beans, but we decided that we would come to visit the restaurant again as that appetizer was delicious.

The game itself was one of the best games of the year to attend.  We follow the Gator basketball team closely, but it had been years since any of us had been to a game.  I had forgotten how intimate the setting of a college basketball environment was compared to the NBA environment.  There wasn’t a bad seat in the house and everywhere you went, you felt close to the floor where the game was played.  The Gators won the game decisively on senior night so that was great to see.

Next, we decided it was time for dinner.  However, as previously mentioned, Burrito Brothers was closed at 9 PM.  We decided to eat at another landmark restaurant called Leonardo’s.  That restaurant had not changed at all.  The pizza was great.

Even though it was a Tuesday night, we wanted to see if there was any place that might have some evening activity.  We walked back to the car and took a trip downtown.  A couple of the bars that we remembered hanging out in were open, so we decided to visit.  One thing that we had not remembered was how smoky those bars were.  We realized that the extent of our bar-visiting now included sports bars or family bars like Chili’s.  Those establishments serve more food than alcohol so we had not even considered the idea that smoking was still permitted in any of those places.  We spent virtually no time in those places as none of us could deal with the smell.

We ended our evening at a place called “The Top.”  We sat in the bar area and chatted for the rest of the night.  I was amazed at the fact that I was able to pull in to a parking place directly in front of the entrance.  In fact, my friends in the passenger-side of the car took about 5 steps from the car to the front door.  It was a little strange as we were used to parking from afar when we visited anything in Gainesville.

At the end of the night, we stayed at a friend’s house in Gainesville.  He did not have family, so it was the best option, considering the fact that we had taken in plenty of alcohol for the night and were a noisy group.  We all fell asleep between 3 and 3:30 AM.

We ate brunch at “The Flying Biscuit” before leaving town.  Only one of us had ever heard of the place and he was under the impression that it was a great little establishment.  The draw for us was that they served breakfast all day.  The restaurant seemed very nice, but the service was very slow.  Two of us got breakfast while the other two got lunch items.  None of us were very impressed.  The signature items were the “creamy dreamy grits” and their biscuits.  The grits were strange and seemed to have a lot going on in them.  I am not a big grits guy, but when I do eat them, I guess I don’t need much added to them.  The biscuits had sugar speckled all over their tops.  I wasn’t crazy about that either.  I did like their chicken breakfast sausage though.

At one point that morning, we drove by a school where my buddy, Wayne, teaches.  We considered crashing his classroom for a surprise visit, but a member of the group was not doing well and would have provided a great example to the students on what CAN happen when you use alcohol.  Instead, we hoped he simply sensed a small disturbance in the Force as we drove by.

As I went to bed last night, I decided that I was comfortable with the changes we encountered in Gainesville.  I was pleased with the trip overall, but in the future will try to steer our activities away from the “downtown” scene.  I never was much of a “downtown” scene guy even when I lived in Gainesville, nor do I enjoy it at this point in my life.  In talking to my friends who went with me, I found out that they actually felt the same way.

Don't Dream It's Over

The last time I posted was a long time ago.  You can find out the exact date by scrolling down my blog page here as I am too embarrassed to discuss the exact date.  In my last post, I talked about changes to Fantasy Insights, a company that I worked for writing and editing work for at least 15 years.  It was no coincidence that the post before this was the last one you would see for a long time as it was only a few weeks before the start of the NFL season.

Anyone that knows me understands that when I decide to do something, I make sure I hold up my end of the bargain.  Well, shortly after the previous post here, I discovered that at Fantasy Insights, I signed up for a lot more than I realized.

During the NFL preseason, the changes became apparent.  The previous owner of Fantasy Insights was the publisher of all of the work everyone turned in and I came to find out he spent about 40 hours weekly performing all of the tasks for the site.  There was a lot that happened "behind the scenes" that I not only did not see, but also was not aware of.  I was charged with figuring out how to publish our work in the various formats that we had promised to our client base over the years.  At first glance, one might refer to that position as "that company's web guy" or "website administrator."  Whenever I tried to put a title to the work I performed over the past NFL season, however, I found that there was no SHORT combination of words that could describe the type of work I performed or the amount of time it took from my life.  At any rate, for the first time ever, my job in the NFL preseason was not JUST to edit the 375 page-everything-you-ever-needed-to-know-about-fantasy-football-in-2010-report.  It was also to pursue the completed work from each writer, format their work and add it to the overall template.  Once the painful process of getting everyone to complete their work close to the deadline was complete, I had the monster task of editing that big bad report.  I called on the help from a good friend who also works for the site and has been a professional editor for more than 15 years.  If you ever require editing or publishing assistance from someone, contact me and I will put you in touch with him as he is the best there is at what he does.


When that process was complete, I came to find that updating the website was not nearly as easy as posting a blog entry or Facebook status notification.  The processes that the former owner had in place were developed over the course of a 16 year history involving restrictive funding as well as slow steps in technology.  Let's just say that over the course of 16 years, when he found a solution that worked for him, he stuck with it.  I love the guy and appreciate all that he ever did for the Fantasy Insights brand, but there are better ways to publish than what we went through this past season.

During the season, another good friend of mine (who also reads this blog) came by my house one evening to take a look at the work that I performed.  He is a technical writer, a wordsmith, and a dabbler in all things web-publishing.  He also possesses advanced analytical skills which usually lead to great suggestions, so I was anxious to get his take on ways that I could improve the process.  He had many suggestions.  Most of them involved rewriting of code embedded on the website pages to make for a more efficient posting process.  I hate to simplify the suggestions he provided, but if I told you about all of the details, this would probably be the last post on my blog you would ever be willing to read.  His suggestions were legitimate ideas that would make the process easier to manage and less time-consuming.  However, the new owner was not willing to hire him for the services at that time claiming that funding was not available.

We did find out that the new owner had a technology guru in mind to make changes in the offseason when funding was available.  Our site has been migrated to a new server with new data contracts in place.  There are apparently developers who have been notified of the work to be performed at some point when more money is available.  Overall, the new owner has many good ideas for the future of Fantasy Insights.

However, today, I made the decision to end my time with Fantasy Insights.  Over the course of the last 2 months, he has devised a plan for the site to start coverage for fantasy baseball and fantasy soccer.  Baseball just made sense as many of the writers on the staff are baseball fans.  Soccer was a business decision because there are very few resources out there providing insights for fantasy soccer.  Pay was going to be minimal over the first few years with ownership profit percentage promised in years to come.

Nothing was in writing and the work seemed overwhelming for my life where it is right now.  I could not see a reason to continue to slave over the project.  I do have some fundamental issues with the business plan (I am a business administration major) so that probably does not help my lack of eagerness to stay involved.  I will miss the opportunity to continue to write and edit with F.I. but there are many positive things that will come of this.

1.  I can post on this blog regularly (as well as the sports site I hastily threw together just in time to abandon prior to this past NFL season. www.passionbucketsports.com)
2.  I can check my email without fear of having 3 dozen messages within a few hours involving Fantasy Insights which would eventually lead to more unpaid work.
3.  My friends said that even though I worked for Fantasy Insights, my personal fantasy football insights seemed to be lacking.  It makes sense.  I was working the tech side and writing generic articles during the season.  I watched only Green Bay and Tampa games, so my knowledge was limited.  That should not be the case any longer.
4.  I can always go back to Fantasy Insights when they can pay for article submissions, or I can apply to other sites with the 15 years of experience I had with Fantasy Insights.  Right now, I don't feel it, so it doesn't concern me.

Now you are caught up to 2 Days Before the Day After Tomorrow.  Stay tuned.

Living the Dream or, at least, Heading in that Direction

Fantasy Insights is a website dedicated to bringing our readers up to the minute information about pro football. The information provided is in the best possible format to help the readers make sound decisions when managing a fantasy football team. Fantasy football is a hobby which has existed far longer than the internet. It is an opportunity for people to get together and "draft" a team of real players from the NFL. These people then use their team to submit a lineup, used in a head to head format, which will compete against another "owner" in the league. Each player in the lineup scores points based on their real-time performance on the football field. It may sound like a silly game where guys get to test out their levels of testosterone. However, the fantasy football industry is one which has grown into a multi-million dollar industry and demands that it is taken seriously. No matter how rough our economy has been people continue to play fantasy football.

For the past fourteen years, I have been contributing to Fantasy Insights as a writer and editor. It was the first site on the web of its kind. That is an exciting fact. However, since the time I began with F.I., more recognizable brands have come onto the scene and have dominated the landscape. This year, Fantasy Insights is taking a turn toward becoming a bigger name. In the offseason, Jim Lenz, the owner of Fantasy Insights had to make a tough decision to sell Fantasy Insights. He put an incredible amount of heart and effort into the organization and brand. The new owner happens to be a contributing writer, Dish Adams. In a sense, the company stayed in "the family."

What is interesting about the change of ownership is how my role has developed in this period of transition. I started at Fantasy Insights contributing to their free part of the site called "Insights Intelligence." Compensation was limited only to accessing some of the premium content on the site. I was always proud to have that access and to be associated with a group of writers who could produce such content. However, as the years passed, my role grew. I contribute to the weekly report during the season in a feature called "The Red Zone." It is simply a topical commentary dealing with the lighter side of fantasy football and advice on decision making. I have also been a contributor to the big monster that we publish called "The Fantasy Insights Pre Season Report." I have had as many as four articles in this annual publication. In recent years, I have been named the editor of the Pre Season Report. It may not sound like much, but it is 375 pages of EVERYTHING you ever need to know about the upcoming season of fantasy football. Yes, 375 pages!

With the transition, I am in discussions with Dish concerning my new role. He has named me the Editor In Chief of the entire operation. This will mean a better payday but he is including a percentage of profits as an additional part of the compensation. This is exciting to me, because it has a strong chance of leading to my ultimate goal of writing and/or editing for a living. The compensation at this time will not allow that. However, many avenues could lead to realizing that goal.

First scenario: If Fantasy Insights grows to become the brand that we envision, it could become something big enough to produce a primary income. Dish has a radio show lined up and is already working on networking to get Fantasy Insights more firmly on the map. He lives in L.A. and has a "grow it" approach to the business. His approach to the marketing side of the business could push us to the next level.

Second scenario: I started a sports blog, only last week, when I started to understand the magnitude of my role with Fantasy Insights. I thought it might be time to develop my own recognizable brand. The purpose is primarily set up to attract readers to the point that one day, when I apply to write for a publication for a living, one of my credentials can include "bringing on board 5,000 followers." That sounds ambitious, but I have no idea how big I can grow my own readership. You can read the blog at www.passionbucketsports.com. The design and layout is still in the developmental stages, but you can see what I am trying to accomplish. Dish has already agreed to plug my blog in our publications as well as our radio show. When we start to do that, readership should get quite a boost.

Third scenario: Recruitment. This happens in all parts of life. It is not far-fetched to think this could happen in this line of work.

My parents will attest to the fact that since I was young enough to pick up a pencil and write, it has been my dream to write for an audience for a living. Throughout my life, my "published" dream career ranged from becoming an architect to becoming a leader in the IT world. Under the surface, I have always enjoyed writing more than any other work I have done. It will be an incredible day when I can say that I truly do what I love for a living. For the first time in my life, that dream looks like the future.

Scenario of the Day: July 5

When faced with the terrible task of finding replacement tires for my car, I looked for an easy way out. The tires I had were 60,000 mile tires and they lasted for 77,000. I figured it would be easiest to just go with the same tires.

Bad choice. Those tires had become significantly more expensive. I asked if it was because people were actually getting their money's-worth out of them for once. That was probably where I went wrong.

"Out the door price on those is $736.00," said the manager of the tire store with a pasty smile.
"Okay, that is quite a bit more than I intend to pay. What else do we have?" I asked.

"We have [brand X] for $722.00."
"You weren't $14 from my goal. I am looking to pay $500 for 4 tires at max."

"How about [brand Y] for $710.00?"
"You are still $210 away from my goal."

Silence for a few minutes while he seemed to have gotten the point.
"Okay here we go. I have some [brand z] for $705."

It seemed as though he could not hear my comments. This dealership usually works with me so I left and called back later to get a different person. They were very helpful and met my goal while providing me with an appointment. Was THAT so hard?!

It reminded me of the standup routine from Demetri Martin where he approaches the shoe salesman and asks to try on a shoe. The salesman says "Sure, what size are you?"
"I'm a 10."
The salesman goes to the back for a few minutes and returns with a box and an enthusiastic look. "I am all out of 10's, but I have 9's!"

Demetri says, "Great! Because while you were in the back, I had a nasty accident where my toes were severed off. Normally I would say you were stupid for coming back with a size other than that we had agreed upon. However, considering my recent accident, you're still hired!"

I felt like being very sarcastic with the guy just like Demetri was with the shoe salesman in his routine. I refrained and still managed to get a good deal there with a sales associate. It turns out that the person I first worked with was the store manager. That figures.

Kinder Fortunes

A tradition like none other is the one where you read your fortune from a fortune cookie and add the phrase "in bed" at the end. Instead of a stale and boring fortune, you now have a much more interesting insight into your future in bed.

Examples I have had in the past:
"Someone will give you something you will never forget...in bed."
"Provide for others as you would want to be provided for...in bed."
"Soon life will become more interesting...in bed."
"A pleasant surprise is in store for you...in bed."

It doesn't always work well. Sometimes you get puzzling insight:
"Nothing is as good or bad as it appears...in bed."
"Action speaks nothing, without the motive...in bed."
"The best things in life aren't things in bed."
"Rest is a good thing, but boredom is its brother...in bed."

But then there are the over the top phrases which will make you laugh out loud:
"You are a person of strong sense of duty...in bed."
"To make the cart go, you must grease the wheels...in bed."
"Your problem just became your stepping stone. Catch the moment...in bed."
"Everybody feels lucky for having you as a friend...in bed."

There is a reason I thought of this today. Where I work, I manage a queue of incoming trouble tickets for technology-related items. Our ticketing system now allows someone to send an email for their non-urgent issues and a ticket is automatically created. However, the messages in the tickets are usually very demanding and unkind. I thought a great activity would be to add the word "please" to the end of every ticket request.

"I need Excel 2007 as soon as possible, please."
"My monitor is displaying its image upside down and I need this fixed, please." (An actual ticket I resolved yesterday, by the way.)

Sometimes it doesn't work, because the clients do not even provide a sentence of request, they simply state the problem:
"I don't have the templates in Word."
"My keyboard is broken."

"What can you take from this?" you might ask. Here is a message to take with you that will make the world go round happier than ever if everyone adopted it.

"You must find a kinder way to ask for things...in bed...please..."

A Small Hiccup

I am not a morning person. I never wake up before my alarm clock makes its first attempt to force me out of my slumber. Last Monday, however, I woke up 30 minutes before my alarm clock. My eyes opened as I realized I was in pain. The right side of my abdomen had an acute pain which did not feel like it could have been mistaken for bad gas or other stomach issues. I knew something was wrong.

Kelly called in a substitute for her class and she retreated back to the house to take me in to the emergency room. The pain was constant and pretty unbearable. I was glad I got Kelly before any of her classes started so she could help me through the situation. When we pulled into the parking lot at the hospital, a strange thing happened. The pain completely went away. I was almost afraid to tell Kelly because I knew she would give me that look. She wouldn’t mean to give me the look but she did anyway. I knew she was wondering if I had jumped the gun on heading to the ER. She probably wondered at that moment in time how severe the pain was. I was frustrated and really did not want to wish more pain upon myself. However, I knew what I felt and knew that even though the immediate pain was gone, there had to be something wrong in there.

We eventually made it in to the ER after some discussion and as the pain did return. We learned quickly that if you HAVE to go to the ER and want quick service, it appeared as though Monday morning is the morning to have an emergency. There was only one person in the waiting room when we arrived. After a CT scan and some X-Rays, the doctor determined I had a large kidney stone. They prescribed pain meds, lots of fluids and gave us the name of a urologist and Kelly was able to get us an appointment that very day.

I was given a choice by the urologist. Neither option was a desirable option. Either we schedule a surgery immediately and sound blast the stone into smaller pieces so I could pass it or I could try to drink an abundant amount of fluids and try to pass the stone as it was. He said I had a good chance of passing the stone, so I opted for no surgery.

During the whole ordeal, we heard many people compare the pain given by kidney stones to pain given by labor during child delivery. The part the Kelly and I could not get over was that we heard this several times from mostly male caregivers. We immediately decided it was our mission to find out from women who had experienced both.

Over the next two nights, I experienced what I could best describe as pain as close to labor pains as I could ever imagine. Kelly recognized the signs and agreed that it was pretty bad. She called the urologist on Wednesday and asked if we could take the other option. Thursday morning, I went in for X-rays and found that the stone had moved very little. Long story short, they got in there and did their business.

I am now left to pass several small stones. The pain has not been anything like those two nights. However, it has been a rough ride. My wife has been amazing and has been the best help through it all. At any point, when she sensed a caregiver was not providing a reasonable response or timely service, she stepped up and said what had to be said to get their attention. She stayed pleasant throughout the process and continues to help me.

We have continued our polling process and have found about 50% results to show that women who have experienced both labor pain and kidney stones feel that stones are more painful. We came to the conclusion that there are many variables, most obviously, the extremities of either case. At any rate, I don’t think I could ever compare my pain to labor pain. How would I ever even know for sure?

Today has been an average day as I continue to drink fluids and hope to pass the pieces of stone. I have had hiccups nearly all day and I can tell you one thing for sure. Hiccups and kidney stones do not mix well.

T-Ball Follies

Toby was involved in a season of T-Ball at our local YMCA. Unfortunately, the program had issues. I spent some time putting together one of my world-famous strongly-worded letters and I know it hindered the posting of at least two possible entries on this blog because of time restrictions. At any rate, below is the letter I wrote. It outlines all the shortcomings of the T-Ball program.
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Hello

I hold a family membership to the local YMCA. One of the reasons that our family agreed together to join the YMCA was to participate in the youth sports programs. Obviously, the YMCA has made a name that to this day, speaks for itself.

Our first actual experience with the YMCA youth sports programs happened just recently through the local branch. What happened is noteworthy and needs to be corrected as soon as possible before more seasons in other sports are ruined the same way ours was.

My wife signed up our son for the T-Ball program. We were told that the season would begin in April. 2 weeks into April, my wife stopped by the desk at the YMCA facility to see what had happened to the season as we had not heard from a coach. She was notified that the season was in progress. In fact, 2 games had already been played. When my wife asked why we were not notified, she was told by the program director it was because she did not insert an email address on the application. The phone number was there. We are members in your database with alternate options for communications, but we were not notified simply because there was not an email address on that form. He simply told her that they do not make phone calls for that sort of thing.

I volunteer for other organizations and also grew up involved in youth sports. I know that if a parent pays money to take part in your program, you are obligated to notify them when the program that they paid for begins. A phone call is a reasonable method of notification if email is not available. There is no excuse for that negligence.

However, we rolled with the cards we were dealt and attended the next game day. We were shocked to see the lack of organization and worst of all – there was no coach. In other organizations, the program director makes offers that parents cannot refuse to help out. Most of the time, when you discuss the issue with the parents, you do not even need to make an offer. Other organizations have been known to provide a free season for the child of a parent who volunteers to coach. There are always ways to get parents involved.

None of our kids knew who to turn to. They did not know who directed them to a batting order. They had no idea who was assigned where on the field. Most of them stopped attending practices and games. Many times we only had 5 to 6 players show up on game day.

Each time our players took the field on game day, we either faced the same team every game or we were placed in a mix with players in the level below our kids where there were obviously 3 teams scheduled for a game on the same field. Our poor players were constantly told by adults they were not familiar with to let the smaller players get the ball once it was hit. All of the guidance our parents did try to provide was thrown out the window on game days as we had no idea what to expect or even what the rules for our kids would be.

Add to this the fact that our kids did not have uniforms until the 4^th game and you have a program that normally could not possibly be mistaken as one from the YMCA. Who could blame the parents that did not bring their kids to games toward the end of the season? The program leaders were not taking their patronage seriously.

I had no idea what the roles were of the representatives who came on site other than to make sure the game started and the kids stayed safe. Every person I encountered represented the YMCA well with respect to that. There was only one YMCA representative that seemed a bit distracted as we were trying to get a game started. It was last Saturday, he answered a phone call right after he first called in all three t-ball teams ranging between the ages of 3 and 6. We waited patiently for his conversation to complete as we tried for several minutes to keep the kids busy yet still nearby.

I think it is important to take a look at what has happened and to make arrangements to correct it immediately.

1. Communication to the parents needs to be constant and flexible.
2. You cannot start a season without a coach. That part of your program will fail without a coach.
3. Your on-site representative needs to have all eyes on the kids. The intrusive phone conversation was irresponsible and honestly, a liability. Consider the fact that you have three t-ball teams full of kids with full access to bats.
4. Have a second person check over the schedule to make sure three teams are not scheduled at the same time on the same field.
5. Any of these shortcomings could have been handled with grace by simply communicating with the parents ahead of time. The best overall solution would have been to provide the scenario to the parents. Let them decide whether or not they want to get involved with a league of only one team. Perhaps they could have divided the kids up into two smaller teams so that each game day they would have a special game with fewer players on a team and more opportunities. They even could have practiced together to keep the organization of the two teams simple.

Parents appreciate honesty. You can expect most members of this Christian organization to be understanding and willing to adjust as needed. You JUST have to work with them. During this season, there has not been someone there from the YMCA to make sure this program has been working properly. You probably do not have any idea who the guy was in the picture with our team.

It was me. I decided to provide what time I could to help these kids. The fact that I volunteered unofficially to help is beside the point, but I wanted you to know that I witnessed this season first-hand. As the paying parent of a child who was in your program, I am completely disappointed and will not return any of my three children to your youth sports program until it has decisively corrected these issues. I truly hope that you can make these changes and provide a better service to your paying community.