What I've Learned

So, here's what I have learned in the last week...

I am a little rusty at on-demand essay writing and a little long winded in some regards. I took my first test in my class this summer and it was the first test since returning to school that involved an essay portion. The one thing I'm happy about is that instead of having to do blue books, she just provided us with some paper to write on. I am stoked about this because I would probably still be writing my essay due to my extreme attempts of being detail oriented and trying to cram as much info in the essay as I could. We were told 3 pages and I filled it up and then some and had to wrap it up with the quickness leaving a bunch of unused thoughts rolling around in my noggin.

I will get better, though. Am gonna have to.

There are points of my week where I think that with this new degree I would like to pursue a job in the sports world, helping the continuance of ushering in the new media age and using my idea factory and knowledge of the technology to help people use this technology properly.

At others, I think I would love a job in higher ed. I would love to be my professor, Dr. Jan Todd and tell the next 3 generations of sports enthusiasts how it used to be and how it is now. I understand that would mean multiple more years left in school, but this journey has been so wonderful thus far, and eye opening, and humbling that I feel I may be doing myself a better service if I choose that direction.

Obviously, these aren't decisions that have to be made today. I have time, but it's up there and I think of being called Dr and that's pretty cool too.

That's about all I have for today, so here are a few links, including one for the Google Ngram Viewer, which is the coolest thing I've seen in a while. All you do is type in a word, and the chart will plot when it was first used. You can use that info to find not only it's first appearance, but in what it first appeared. For instance, 1576 was the first recorded use of the word "Christianity". It's fun to play with.

Here's the Ngram link: http://books.google.com/ngrams

And here's some links about my professor, Dr Jan Todd; Professor, Scholarly Journal Editor, Former Powerlifter, Hall Of Famer
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan_Todd
http://www.usapowerlifting.com/halloffame/women/jan_todd/
http://www.starkcenter.org/history/ - I get to go here to study. You know how awesome it is to get to study in a museum of sports and fitness?!?!

Music for your Face

So, I'm gonna kind of mail this report in. It's been a long day. I don't recommend waking up at 4 in the morning an then expecting to be fresh all day.

Anyway, I said Tuesdays would be about music and here's me keeping my word. The following playlist is a grouping of songs that have been on my mind, stuck in my head, or coming out of my mouth over the last week or so. Songs you may not be familiar with that I feel you should be and why  are:

• Der Conversationaliste by Wax Fang- A song, in my opinion, about the mindless conversations we have day in and day out. Favorite line - "I'm rolling my eyes to keep my head from spinning around"
• Maria by Phil Pritchett- This song never gets old. I've been listening to it for almost 15 years and I will probably still listen to it for 30 more. 
• Heartbeats by Jose Gonzalez- Cover of the Knife song. Really gorgeous take on an already awesome song
• Diane Young by Vampire Weekend- The whole new album is pretty rad and this is my favorite song of the lot.
• Dry Creek by Owen Temple- The best song about the best little bar in Austin, TX
• 10,000 Hours by Macklemore and Ryan Lewis- It saddens me that his other songs about goofy stuff in "Thrift Shop" and songs with great beats that allow the message to get lost like "Can't Hold Us" are the ones getting praise when songs like this one, about the hard work and dedication it takes to succeed at anything in life, "Same Love" and "Starting Over" and many others off his most recent album go unnoticed. These are the songs with messages that need to be heard. About equality and recovery and hard work. I understand that many musicians have made it big with chart topping songs never to have anyone delve into their actual work, I fear that this may be the case for Macklemore but hope it's not. People need these songs. "I observed Escher, I love Basquiat, I watched Keith Haring, you see I studied art. The greats weren't great because at birth they could paint, the greats were great because they paint a lot" 
• To Modern Science by The Black and White Years- A really fun song by my favorite Austin band. A throwback to 80s synth-pop in some regards, just a really fun song.
• Runnin' Buddy by Max Stalling- Just a fun, twangy song about best friends and what happens when one of them finds love. It's like "Wedding Crashers" but better.

Enjoy!

Inside the Mind of a Slumping Baseball Fan

Sports. Background noise for some. Religion for others. As I am learning in school these days, a lot of what happens in the sports world falls on a continuum and the level of ones fandom is no different. The fun part is that this level can sometimes vary day-to-day, week-to-week, game-to-game, etc. 

Sports, to me, is the one area of life that can provide you with instantaneous fear, agony, and euphoria in a matter of minutes. Don't believe me? 

Here's an example from less than 24 hours ago. As a lifelong Rangers fan, I have seen them play some good baseball and some bad baseball. I have been there for the ups, like the first ever playoff game in 1996 and both Game 5s that have been played in Arlington, and I have been there for the downs, basically the 80s and early aughts. As a former employee at The Ballpark in Arlington, I have seen easily over 1,000 games in that stadium alone, not to mention countless others on my tv, computer, phone, etc. I would say I consciously consume 150 out of 162 regular season games in real time each year.

I say all of that to lead into this point: The baseball that the Texas Rangers have been playing over the past few weeks, and almost months, has been disgusting. There are really no words for it. They either can't catch a break or aren't putting themselves in favorable enough positions to steal a break. Sloppy base running, poor execution on defense, really pitiful situational hitting. Everything outside of the pitching staff has been pretty brutal to watch(tell 2000 Jeff that's how things are going and watch closely for the look he gives you, it's not gonna be pretty). But last night sure was fun, entering the ninth down a run and "BAM" homer to right, tie ballgame. Two batters later "POW" homer to left and "Hello, Win Column!"

In our world of sports, we tend to overreact to every little thing. It's in our nature and we've been doing it forever. Tiger Woods wins a tournament one week and the incessant rambling over how "he's back" controls the airwaves of national talk. Two weeks later another golfer plays a magnificent round of golf and leaves everyone, including Eldrich, in his wake and all of a sudden, "He's a Bum! He'll never win again! He should hang them up and take up knitting." Baseball, football, hockey, you name it; when it's good, it's great, when it's not it's agony.

I, on the other hand, try my best to stay in the middle of the road, knowing that (a) these sports I consume so much of are merely entertainment and (b) nothing I say or do will do anything to change what happens on the field so there's no sense in getting so worked up over it that I blow a gasket. That's not to say I don't say an expletive or two when whichever of my teams fails to execute the way I want them to. That's just nature. But I have tried to calm myself when it comes to this, emphasis on the word tried. I fail sometimes in remaining calm when someone tells me that Tony Romo is the main problem with the Cowboys without considering that he's playing with an offensive line where 2 of his 5 'protectors' led the league in missed blocks last year or when someone tells me that the Rangers would be better without Ron Washington and refuse to listen to reason that ole Wash isn't the guy up there throwing the ball or swinging the bats. In both of those cases, I completely agree that these two men aren't free of any ridicule or don't deserve some of the blame, but these are team sports and by definition, you win as a team and you lose as a team. Wanna blame one individual for losing something? Ask Novak Djokovic(sp?) why he didn't win Wimbledon. Even in that case, sometimes you lose because the other guy is just simply better, nothing more.

I don't know where I'm going with this other than to say one more thing, watching baseball is more fun when the Rangers(or the team of your choice) is winning just the same as your job is more enjoyable when your boss is giving you praise and not constantly riding you about a deadline so these past few weeks have been tough to watch, but I have continued to do so, with an open mind and forgiveness for errors in my heart. The string of bad play has also allowed my brain to try to figure out some of the other anomalies of the sports world, such as: (A) is Crossfit a sport? (B) Which sport would be best to have a background in in case of the zombie apocalypse? (C) How hard would it be to be on American Ninja Warrior and exactly how many surgeries would I need following an attempt to find out? 

I may attempt to answer those questions, or they may have been in my mind like that feather in Forrest Gump, here today and gone with the next gentle breeze.

Thanks for listening to me ramble today and my apologies for any disjointed nature of this report, I wrote it at three different times and was hoping for flow. You'll get a better effort out of me next time.

Friday Night With A Single Man

"So," you ask yourself, "what does a fun, handsome, intelligent, and interesting guy do on a Friday night?" Well, hold onto your britches because I have a story for you!!

Ah, who am I kidding?! I am sitting here updating my blog after watching a disappointing Rangers game, swinging by a going away party for a friend and grabbing a bite to eat. I have also crushed some candies, put together a pretty extensive list of books to read in the near future, put together a time management spreadsheet and sales planning guide for August, and crushed some more candies!

It's almost time for bed, too. Actually, it's past my bedtime. Getting up at 5:20 every morning has a tendency to make you sleepy by 11.

Had you told "2 years ago Jeff" that he would be headed to bed at 11 on a Friday night, he would have probably laughed in your face but been excited for you at the same time. What's funny, though, is that all of those years spent up all night servicing the party animals of North Austin have really put a damper on having a Friday night off. I mean, I don't know what goes on on Friday nights, save special events like concerts or something like that and, honestly, after spending the better part of 16 years working Friday nights, I quite enjoy the time in.

I have also done a bit of thinking, planning and strategizing about this today, too. Here's my plan:

I have a few major areas of interest in my life, Music, Movies, School, Fitness and Sports. Pretty typical, right? So what I am going to do with this blog is cover all of those areas. My initial thought structure is to write 5 days a week, Monday through Friday and have a topic assigned to each day, as follows:

Monday: Sports related rambling
Tuesday: Music- could be old or new, could be off the wall or super mainstream, but I want to talk about music
Wednesday: School related- A topic we are discussing or have discussed, or something thought provoking for my "audience"
Thursday: Movies- Same as with music but I have more of a structured plan. I want to do one new release since I generally see a movie a week and at least one older movie, generally something on DVD or Netflix and will definitely take suggestions for what I should watch.
Friday: Something fitness-y

Obviously, there may come a time where there's not a school topic of note or something remarkably fitness related, so those days will turn into more of a scattershooting, clearing out the cobwebs type session.

Well, it's nice to have a plan for this finally and look forward to hitting the ground running Monday morning with some HSOs!

Drink lots of water this weekend and do something nice for someone because the people that are trying to make the world worse aren't taking any days off.

A New Beginning!

Okay, I would like to first say thank you to all of you who have been involved with my previous incantations and attempts at blogging. I feel as if I have been moderately successful and I have always appreciated the amazingly nice things that you all have said in my direction regarding my writing and the like. It is because of that that I am determined to make this one a more sustainable venture.

What I mean by that is that my last two attempts at blogging have fallen short because I was too focused in my scope. That will definitely come in handy in the future if I decide a career as a writer is what I want, but now there are only so many things I can give you all regarding school and/or running.

So, let's clear this up right now before we get too far into this version of my brain: Yes, I'm still running. Not as much as I was when I started writing, but am still knocking out a few miles a week and looking for that spark and desire to hit me again to train for another full marathon. Also, school is going wonderfully. I finished my first semester back just 2 points shy in one class of straight A's. I made an A in my first summer class and am a week into my second summer class and really starting to enjoy this area of study which I have chosen. I will delve into both topics in more detail moving forward, but this is just the introduction...

So, you may ask, what is the Bachelor Subculture going to be about? Where did the title come from? I'm going to answer the second question first. The Bachelor Subculture, as I have gathered, refers to the time in the mid-1800s right after the Civil War ended when young, single men returned home to start lives of their own. Many of them moved to or lived previously in big cities at the time like New York, Boston, Philadelphia, etc and many of them moved to certain areas of these cities to start lives of their own after the war with all of their extra free time. The men started hanging out in groups at pubs, early style gyms, and the like and the Bachelor Subculture was born in America.

For more information, follow these links: http://historyroll.com/?p=277
http://www.firstthings.com/article/2007/01/the-age-of-the-bachelor-creating-an-american-subculture-35

The answer to the first question is much easier to answer. The Bachelor Subculture blog will be one about any and everything that pops into my brain. Somedays it will be sports related, it will contain movie and music info, and sometimes it may just be clearing out the cobwebs with some scattershooting. The reason I chose the name "Bachelor Subculture" is not because I view myself as a quintessential bachelor or that I want to be a bachelor forever, it just seemed cool. When it was brought up in class, my professor said that she had a grad student once that said it would be a cool name for a softball team and I thought it would be a cool name for a blog.

With the scope being broadened out to infinity, you can expect a lot more updates from me so be prepared and thanks again for all of the love and support.

Until tomorrow...