Elephant Balls Classic

The most prestigious golf event in the Bay Area

"SPORTS!!!"

I was at Kilowatt last Sunday to catch the Patriots and Bills game with Borix and Knapp. With the commotion of the different games going on in the different sections of the bar, the bartendar felt compelled to just start screaming out "SPORTS!!!". I would've thought Kilowatt to be the anit-sports bar, but money talks especially on Sunday's during the fall. I have been wanting to blog about sports in this day and age and thought this was a good title.

Yes, as you all know very well, it was two years ago last night that the Boston Red Sox won the World Series and a confirmation that ANYTHING (including fatherhood) was a possibility. An amazing year all around acutally, that 2004 --Red Sox won the Series, Patriots won the Super Bowl and Lindsay and I got married (not in any special order, honey). While seeing the Red Sox win it all was an amazing experience, the years following this, not only with baseball but also with football have really changed my perception of the relevancy of "SPORTS!!!" in my life

Gordon Edes is sports columnist for the Boston Globe. He wrote an article about Manny Ramirez last month because he felt he was dishonoring "the code". The code that others on the team like Varitek and Nixon would never violate or dishonor. I felt compelled to email Mr. Edes or Gordo about how I felt about this, an except is below:

This code that you noted in your article, "to honor
the code that is an article of faith"? I just don't
see this being relevant in this day and age. Yes, its
appreciative from the fan's stand-point, but honoring
a code doesn't keep you in uniform. It didn't help
Deon Branch and it's definately not going to help Trot
Nixon this off season.

Granted, guarranteed vs. non-guarranteed salaries --I
agree, but this is just another unfortunate example of
the business of sports. Whatever the professional
sport, there are players and there is management and
we are bound to the decisions of management. Even
though I disagree with the actions, if Manny's going
to be able to play longer and make more money by
sitting out, he's going to do it and there's nothing
anyone can do about it. In a strange, obnoxious way,
I kind of like the gall.

If I may: "don't hate the playa, hate the game"

When the Patriots lost to the Broncos this year, after the game Belechick threw his arm around Shannahan and looked like he wanted to plant a wet one on him because of how well he coached the game. It just didn't seem right and did not sit well with me. The game (especially of non-guarranteed money), has become teams of Gladiators fighting it out on behalf of the powers that be. I'm still rooting for the Patriots and not just because I look like Tom Brady, but because I still buy into the "team" aspect, whether or not that includes coaches and player personnal executives. Plus, no matter what happens, its still so fun to hate the Yankees.

Web 2.1

I'd just like to say that this is very Web 2.1 of me --even more so than Borix and the band:



This does bring up a more interesting topic --potentially one that actually deserves a blog. The notion of Web 2.0. You may have heard this term thrown around depending on what industry you're in or even geography if you're in the Bay. Before going into what this term means (and note that experts still can't define it)--I'm calling it Web 2.1 because if I'm actually a part of it then it must have evolved one tic up! Actually, that's a good starting point for defining it --allowing regular shmoe's like me to a part of a larger community thru the use of technology. Whether it be the opportunity to blog like this or the opportunity for a band to showcase themselves on Youtube like THE acoustic Tebucky Jones up top. Heard about a funny Letterman bit from this week that you missed? Youtube.com. Something about a Jet that gets fired from a submerged submarine? Youtube.com. Want to get a quick overview of who Marcus Garvey was? Wikipedia.com (do not however search hemorroids though, forewarned)

There's a great debate going on right now about Web 2.0 and whether this is a good thing or a bad thing. Being that you are reading what I'm writing, I'm biased towards this being a good thing. Chris Anderson, author of "The Long Tail" has a great quote as a proponent of Web 2.0:

"My interaction with Microsoft has changed in recent years. I used to read the
speeches and see the press releases from Bill (Gates) and Steve (Ballmer) and
absorb the top-down messaging from the company. Now, as a consumer, I'm more
likely to read the individual blogs of the engineers involved with various
products I'm interested in"

Or, take Andrew Keen's position: http://www.aftertv.com

Which I believe is outlined nicely by Forbes editor William Baldwin as: "the junk video industry".

Listen to part 1 of 2 for yourself here:

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/sfgate/detail?blogid=5"

And no this post wasn't created entirely to show Washer chummin' on our fishing trip:



Nice.

I'm glad I titled this post Web 2.1 rather than "The YouTube experience". or "I remember the first time I went to YouTube". Even so...one more than I gotta go, if you're a fisherman.



This may or may not turn into The Youtube experience"

Step One

Building a blog.
Being in San Francisco, I really felt it was time to take advantage of the innovation that we have out here regarding the internet and its offerings. I mean, I've been working in the software industry out here for the last five years....I should at least have a blog.
Of note: If you've been selling software for 10 yrs and think 5yrs is nothing, please remember that a monkey could have sold software in the 90's.
The last straw actually came yesterday afternoon at work when I went to 'MapQuest' to map out where a former co-worker was having a 'back to SF' party. Apparently this really is the Google age (they own this blog site too) based on the looks I got --however if you were wondering yes, 'MaqQuest' really does still exist but Google is an option as well (please send checks to my home address Sergey and Larry).

So, I now have a blog...its called 'Daddy needs a drink' right now because of the impending arrival of our sex yet to be determined newest member of the Alex and Lindsay clan. No, no, we're both really excited ---about the fastest 9 months on record. Thoughts?