My best man and I fancy ourselves intellectuals. Much of our youth was spent pontificating on the state of the world. Lately our conversations have centered around an apathetic public that has allowed itself to be spoonfed lie after lie, a complicit press corps, and the overall fragmentation fo the attention of the American public.
The basic contention is that there is so much information and distraction available for the population we have collectively lost our ability to focus on what's important. Our economy is in shambles. Despite the most advanced health care system in the world, we prevent those in the greatest need from having access to it. Last but not least we are mired in an ill conceived, fraudulent war that is crippling our ability to defend ourselves and our position on a global stage.
America has lost focus. We are all so busy struggling to survive we stopped caring about each other. We haven't had a thing to come together about in a long time. 9/11 was seven years ago and the aftermath became a twisted heap of collective grief and not something we could all look to as something positive.
Last night I played poker at the Marietta Billiard Club in Marietta, GA. I play there quite often and have marvelled at the odd cross section of humanity that joins me at the tables. From a demographic perspective you cannot find a more diverse group. With a group that diverse you will find a variety of interests and opinions. Last night however, there was a singular focus. That focus was on the far wall where a projector usually shows the Falcons, Braves or NASCAR. Last night the massive picture showed 6'4" half human, half dolphin Michael Fred Phelps and when he and his band of reknown hit the screen everything stopped.
No cards were dealt. No pots were splashed and no one complained of the infamous bad beats you take when you play free poker. The focus was on the 22 year old human fish from Baltimore and his quest for the improbable. The crowd roared when Aaron Piersol hit the water. Piersol's leg was strong and Hansen, who has had a rough Olympics really held his own giving Phelps a real opportunity to pull ahead. Phelps first 50 meters was just ok and for a moment he fell behind the Australian. Then, in the second 50 he surged ahead, each stroke pushing him further and further in front. When the American anchor, Jason Lezak hit the water the crowd's individual chants had morphed into a continuous repetitive cheer. GO! GO! GO! When his outstretched hand touched the wall and Phelps and America were once again champions the crowd erupted as one.
Michael Phelps' excellence unified a bouillabaisse of people last night, bringing their focus to something positive and helping people that have little in common connect. It was beautiful and in a small way gave me hope.
No 1 of Consequence
Showing posts with label Georgia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Georgia. Show all posts
Sunday, August 17, 2008
Tuesday, January 08, 2008
Further evidence Georgia, well, sucks
The Georgia Supreme Court is currently discussing the constitutionality of banishment. This is far more important of course than discussing the in effectual, illegal, and un-Constitutional teaching of abstinence only curriculums in the schools. Apparently crossing into Georgia immediately transports you back to the time of Napoleon I. I always wanted to visit Elba.
No 1 of Consequence
No 1 of Consequence
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
The Georgia education system is atrocious
I am going to write about No Wife a bit today because my anger has reached a point that I may have a stroke if I don't get this out into the world.
My wife is a social studies teacher. She is a summa cum laude graduate of one of the finest universities for educators in the northeast. She has won very presitigious teaching awards from the State of New Jersey as well as been nominated for the Teacher of the Year Award sponsored by a very prominent corporation. Her lessons are engaging and collaborative. She has significant experience at top rated schools in a state that consistently ranks among the highest in public education. Yet here in Cobb County, Georgia, in two school years of looking she has been unable to secure employment. This is ludicrous.
In a state like Georgia which is supposedly dying for teachers. she is consistently passed over, not only for jobs, but also for interviews. In a state like Georgia, which has an appallingly ranked educational system, how can any principal justify passing her incredibly impressive resume by? In a state like Georgia which is populated by military families and numerous bases, how is it that a veteran of the United States Army with impeccable credentials and an amazing ability to reach even the toughest students doesn't get asked to serve her community?
Our phone should be ringing off the hook. She should not be sitting at a computer shaking her head as one perfect position after another comes and goes with nary a phone call. The middle and high schools in Cobb County Georgia are robbing their students of opportunity on a daily basis because of what appears to be an "old boy" hiring policy. (I have no evidence of this, but nothing else makes sense when you measure No Wife's credentials against the positions available.)
No Wife is a rock star at the front of a classroom. Who is going to step up and give their students a real chance to not only learn something, but love the process of learning it?
No 1 of Consequence
My wife is a social studies teacher. She is a summa cum laude graduate of one of the finest universities for educators in the northeast. She has won very presitigious teaching awards from the State of New Jersey as well as been nominated for the Teacher of the Year Award sponsored by a very prominent corporation. Her lessons are engaging and collaborative. She has significant experience at top rated schools in a state that consistently ranks among the highest in public education. Yet here in Cobb County, Georgia, in two school years of looking she has been unable to secure employment. This is ludicrous.
In a state like Georgia which is supposedly dying for teachers. she is consistently passed over, not only for jobs, but also for interviews. In a state like Georgia, which has an appallingly ranked educational system, how can any principal justify passing her incredibly impressive resume by? In a state like Georgia which is populated by military families and numerous bases, how is it that a veteran of the United States Army with impeccable credentials and an amazing ability to reach even the toughest students doesn't get asked to serve her community?
Our phone should be ringing off the hook. She should not be sitting at a computer shaking her head as one perfect position after another comes and goes with nary a phone call. The middle and high schools in Cobb County Georgia are robbing their students of opportunity on a daily basis because of what appears to be an "old boy" hiring policy. (I have no evidence of this, but nothing else makes sense when you measure No Wife's credentials against the positions available.)
No Wife is a rock star at the front of a classroom. Who is going to step up and give their students a real chance to not only learn something, but love the process of learning it?
No 1 of Consequence
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
Sunday, August 05, 2007
Fishy fishy in the sea.
On my way to the Atlanta Zoo today I rode behind a Saturn Vue. This particular car, like many cars in GA, had a Jesus fish stuck to the back of it. Something was written in this particular fish and my naturally inquisitive nature tried to decipher it. Finally, I thought I had figured it out and read something so baffling that I laughed out loud.
"What?" asked No Wife of Consequence.
"I could swear the Jesus fish on that SUV says gefilte in it," I said with as much shock as I could muster.
"You're an idiot, it doesn't say gefilte," she said, "It probably says "gives life" or something like that."
I was forced to agree it was unlikely it said gefilte. As we pulled into the zoo parking lot, the Saturn was a couple of cars ahead. My wife was forced to pull very close to them as we entered the parking lot.
"Yeah, that's a Jesus fish that says gefilte in it," she said.
We parked very close to family that had the gefilte Jesus fish on the back of their car and I went right up and asked them where they procured this delightful little novelty. The husband told me he found it somewhere on the net.
Guess who's ordering a gefilte fish for his car? You bet your tuchus I am!
By the way, Pandas are super cute. I mean ridiculously cute. You almost can't determine a cuteness level they are so cute. If you don't believe me, click the Atlanta Zoo link above and load up the panda cam.
No 1 of Consequence
Wednesday, March 28, 2007
Sometimes you have to laugh
I love to play poker. Anyone who knows me really well knows this. I am a solid, if unspectacular player and my only failing is that I really don't play enough to be really good. This past Saturday the wife and I saw an ad on the net that intimated there was a live game at a local club that skirted the gambling laws. Being the outlaw gamblers that we are we decided to give it a try. Did I mention this was a big time redneck club? They have a website... here it is.
Now for me to be in a place like that to begin with? I don't drink or smoke. I also don't like loud music as I suffer from tinitis and this exacerbates my symptoms. So stepping in the door of this place is out of character for me, but I moved my wife to this ridiculous state and sometimes you have to bite the bullet. Also, because I like to play poker I figure the night won't be a total loss.
Unfortunately it was just an ad to bring people in. After paying the cover we found that there was only one poker table and you could buy chips, but not cash them out, so you were basically renting the seat and you could play, but not for money. Playing poker for anything other than money is stupid. However, we already paid the cover and figured we would play for awhile and hang out.
After about an hour I was bored out of my skull. My ears were ringing, my eyes were burning from the smoke and the general amusement I get from people watching had worn off. My wife, who doesn't have a general aversion to these places the way I do was having a good time. She doesn't get to go out much to places like this, so I didn't say anything. I tried to enjoy myself. I did enjoy the live they had. The singer was very talented and while I don't particularly like country music I would have to classify this more as southern rock and I like rock music. Unfortunately the volume was just too high for me.
Finally as we got up to leave the highlight of the evening took place. A seat opened up next to my wife at the poker table and a very tall blonde woman sat down next to her. She leaned over and began chatting up my wife. I couldn't hear much of anything at that point so I had no idea what they were saying. Turns out she thought my wife was pretty hot and wanted to take her home. So the highlight of my evening at the most rednecky place I have ever been was that a blonde redneck lesbian tried to pick up my wife. It was almost worth the ear pain.
No 1 of Consequence
Tuesday, January 16, 2007
Bad luck in Atlanta
If you are a regular reader of this blog you know I am a HUGE fan of the Georgia Aquarium. We had season passes last year and would definitely consider them again in the future. I can't say enough about the place as detailed in my original review here. Unfortunately two of the most popular animals in the aquarium have passed on in a relatively short amount of time. Gaspar the Beluga Whale and Ralph the whale shark have both died in the last month. Gaspar had been significantly ill before he ever came to the aquarium so his death was not a huge surprise, but Ralph's death was sudden and has thrown the aquarium staff for a loop. Here are a couple of pictures I took of them last year.
Tuesday, December 26, 2006
Does homeowner's insurance cover this???
When searching for a house in Georgia we had a lot of fexibility. We had a small bi-level in NJ and because we lived in a fairly deisrable neighborhood with good schools, when we sold the house we received a significant premium over what we paid for it.This allowed us to get a house that would probably be worth close to 800K+ if we had purchased it in NJ and if it was in a more desirable locale than Sussex County where we resided (Mendham, Livingston, etc) it would be worth well over a million dollars. However, since we are living in Georgia we payed a good deal less than we sold our little house in NJ for.
One of the reasons I loved our house in NJ is because there was an actual river running through our backyard and I really enjoyed looking out the kitchen window and seeing the river or spending time on the deck and enjoying the view and the sound of the gently rushing water.
Here in Georgia, everything is broken down by subdivision and since we have children, living on a lake was pretty much out of the question. However, the house we decided on has a koi pond. We found this pretty appealing. The pond is located right outside the kitchen windows and when they are open you can hear the little waterfall that splashes into the pond. Also, when you look out the window you have a great view of the fish swimming around and I found myself routinely looking out at the fish. The first summer we were here there were frogs that had taken up residence in the pond as well and this was amazing.
There were two frogs and they would sleep in the waterfall, apparently enjoying the water rushing over them constantly. On very sunny days they would sun themselves on the rocks that the pond was built out of and routinely dive into the pond for a swim. I remember one day sitting at the kitchen window for over 30 minutes, just enjoying the little frogs playing in the water as the koi swam around them. They didn't return this summer and I really missed them.
Yesterday was Christmas here in Georgia and the weather was miserable. It was cold and dank and fairly depressing. No Dog of Consequence was kept inside as the weather was not conducive to his usual days of lazing around the backyard and sunning himself on our deck. I only bring up No Dog, because if he had been outside yesterday, the tragedy I am about to describe might never have happened.
No Family of Consequence was hanging around the living room as presents were opened and holiday merriment was enjoyed. However, No Baby, butt wiggling. as he crawled made a beeline for the kitchen. He was quickly scooped up by Mommy who let out a loud, "Oh my G-d!" followed by an equally loud, "Holy Crap!" I quickly got up from the couch to see what was happening and as I did I noticed a very large bird flying away. Apparently I missed the carnage.It was a gigantic heron and it ate all of our koi. All of them. Gone. The waterfall continues to gently splash into the now empty pond and I feel like I was a bystander to a bad Discovery Channel documentary.
Mature koi cost between $30 and $100 apiece. So yesterday's birdy buffet cost me between $500 and $1500 worth of fish. My question remains, can I put in a homeowner's claim?
No 1 of Consequence
Monday, August 07, 2006
So busy... and then, not so busy
Work has been kicking my ass the last couple of weeks as we are ramping up for the fall and what will basically be the coming out party of my company on the national stage. My job is as exciting as ever and even though it has been frustrating for me the last couple of months I can still say with much delight that I have never awakened since taking this job with the thought that I didn't want to go to work. In this day in age, that is saying something. So, of course, when I came in this morning everything was so crashed I am going to have about 3 hours to kill. Maybe I should go to the DMV and get my license changed over from NJ to Georgia. I mean, it has only been a year.
No 1 of Consequence
No 1 of Consequence
Tuesday, June 27, 2006
Southern fried physician, stop cooking your customer base
One interesting phenomenon I have noticed about my new state is that there is a significant lack of urgency from people, who quite frankly, need to get their collective acts together. I am talking about the rarified medical profession. As someone who visits doctors on a fairly regular basis I am acutely tuned in to the office experience and how badly it seems to suck here in the heartland. I categorize this as a wholly southern problem because I rarely experienced this sort of crap in the great state of New Jersey, whereas the simplest appointment here in GA can take two hours or more.
Recently I arrived at my doctor's office for a 9:30 AM appointment that should have taken about 15-30 minutes to complete. I fully expected to be out of his office by 10 and in mine by 10:30. I reached my office just in time for lunch.
After having suffered through this same scenario at a number of different doctor's offices here in Dixie I have decided to open my own medical practice. True, I never went to medical school, but I figure I can hire doctors to work for me. All I would need to do is make sure there was adequate staffing and that things ran on time. This seems so simple it is almost laughable, but the inefficiencies I routinely witness here absolutely kill the customer experience.
What happens if you have a bad experience with your doctor? Invariably you will change doctors and a practice that could grow and flourish with great customer service stagnates and dwindles because people don't like to be kept waiting and/or treated like they don't matter.
My current GP is a super nice guy. I really like him as a person, but his staff and the inefficiency of his office are causing me and No Wife to really evaluate if we want to be his patients any more. When expressing this to some of our neighbors, we were informed that many of them had similarly poor customer experiences and had since moved on from this particular physician despite his personally likable nature.
Understanding the customer experience and making it something special is the only way to grow a business, any business. Not paying attention to it and making it hard for people to do business with you is the dumbest thing any business can do.
Any docs in the area of Atlanta that would like me to consult on their customer experience and show you ways to improve it and grow your practices should contact me at no1ofconsequence@gmail.com
No 1 of Consequence
Recently I arrived at my doctor's office for a 9:30 AM appointment that should have taken about 15-30 minutes to complete. I fully expected to be out of his office by 10 and in mine by 10:30. I reached my office just in time for lunch.
After having suffered through this same scenario at a number of different doctor's offices here in Dixie I have decided to open my own medical practice. True, I never went to medical school, but I figure I can hire doctors to work for me. All I would need to do is make sure there was adequate staffing and that things ran on time. This seems so simple it is almost laughable, but the inefficiencies I routinely witness here absolutely kill the customer experience.
What happens if you have a bad experience with your doctor? Invariably you will change doctors and a practice that could grow and flourish with great customer service stagnates and dwindles because people don't like to be kept waiting and/or treated like they don't matter.
My current GP is a super nice guy. I really like him as a person, but his staff and the inefficiency of his office are causing me and No Wife to really evaluate if we want to be his patients any more. When expressing this to some of our neighbors, we were informed that many of them had similarly poor customer experiences and had since moved on from this particular physician despite his personally likable nature.
Understanding the customer experience and making it something special is the only way to grow a business, any business. Not paying attention to it and making it hard for people to do business with you is the dumbest thing any business can do.
Any docs in the area of Atlanta that would like me to consult on their customer experience and show you ways to improve it and grow your practices should contact me at no1ofconsequence@gmail.com
No 1 of Consequence
Monday, December 12, 2005
Weekend at No1's
One of the tough things about moving out of the state you have lived in your whole life is that suddenly, 34 years into the existence you are without support structure. Friends and family are very happy for your success but are suddenly hundreds of miles away. I am a pretty easy going person, but it isn’t really easy to get to know me. In my new company people kind of defer to me because I am a member of the senior staff, but I wouldn’t say making friends is something I have done. I can’t hang out with the people that work for me, obviously, and the other senior staff members are a bit different demographically. I think I make them uncomfortable. What does all this mean? It means when my brother flies in unexpectedly to visit, I am one very happy No1. We had a fantastic visit with much laughter and silliness that culminated in me taking Monday off and visiting the new Georgia Aquarium in downtown Atlanta. It is absolutely spectacular. As with most tourist destinations a season pass is only the price of a couple of visits so I purchased a season pass and anticipate visiting many times over the course of the year. Unfortunately my digital camera wasn’t behaving properly, so next time I go (New Year’s Day) I will take some pictures for your enjoyment.
The highlights:
The Ocean Voyager exhibit is truly amazing. To enter the exhibit which contains a 6.5 million gallon seawater tank you must walk through a 100 foot acrylic tunnel which essentially puts you inside the exhibit. The exhibit contains almost 100,000 fish, including whale sharks, huge grouper, saw fish, hammerhead and nurse sharks and one of the only bow mouthed guitarfish in captivity. The exhibit contains the largest viewing window in the world and as I sat there, drinking in the serene sights, it was impossible not be humbled. The majesty of the whale sharks is hard to describe. They are named Norton and Ralph after the Honeymooners characters.
The Cold Water Quest Exhibit was also very cool. We really enjoyed the Beluga Whales. There are five of them. They have their own tank and are very playful, swimming toward the large viewing windows and then dodging away. They swam around on their backs and did little flips in the water. They were a lot of fun to watch. We spent about 30 minutes watching them swim and I could have stayed an entire day, just enjoying them enjoying themselves. Two of them had been rescued from a Mexican aquarium where they did not have access to expert medical care or enough space to really thrive.
One of the more interesting things was that there was an entire Georgia Explorer exhibit dedicated to the life off the coast of Georgia. Most museums, despite being located somewhere try and be universal in their scope. It was nice to see that they decided to pay some attention to the “local” wildlife. Also, this exhibit had a sea turtle and this blogger is a huge fan of the sea turtle. It makes me sad they are endangered.
The other two exhibits are River Scout and Tropical Diver. They both contain magnificently colored fish and are quite cool in their own right, but pale in comparison with the other three exhibits.
There are five main corporate sponsors of the aquarium. I will link to all of their sites here because I really believe in what they did. Home Depot, BellSouth, Suntrust, AirTran, and Georgia-Pacific all sponsored one of the main exhibits. This is the kind of corporate responsibility and attention to community that can really advance us as a society. When corporate America stands up and pours money into its communities we really have a chance. I would have loved it if they underwrote the entire education budget of Atlanta instead, but we can consider this a victory and hope for the future. As I get into a writing groove again we are going to talk more about corporate community, collective responsibility and sacrifice. I am still working my way back there.
Other tidbits:
A real live knucklehead conversation overheard between me and my brother this weekend:
Him: I hate Black Eyed Peas.
Me: The band?
Him: No, the legumes.
Same old Jets… they could lose and make sure they have a really high draft pick and a shot at Reggie Bush but instead they whipped up on the Raiders and sentence us to about the 5th pick in the draft barring a long winning streak by the Packers and Texans. Just brutal, brutal, brutal. Being a Jets fan sucks. Being a Jets fan that has to pay for Direct TV in order to watch the games is just masochistic.
I will be slowly rebuilding the blog. Links will be coming again soon.
No1ofConsequence
The highlights:
The Ocean Voyager exhibit is truly amazing. To enter the exhibit which contains a 6.5 million gallon seawater tank you must walk through a 100 foot acrylic tunnel which essentially puts you inside the exhibit. The exhibit contains almost 100,000 fish, including whale sharks, huge grouper, saw fish, hammerhead and nurse sharks and one of the only bow mouthed guitarfish in captivity. The exhibit contains the largest viewing window in the world and as I sat there, drinking in the serene sights, it was impossible not be humbled. The majesty of the whale sharks is hard to describe. They are named Norton and Ralph after the Honeymooners characters.
The Cold Water Quest Exhibit was also very cool. We really enjoyed the Beluga Whales. There are five of them. They have their own tank and are very playful, swimming toward the large viewing windows and then dodging away. They swam around on their backs and did little flips in the water. They were a lot of fun to watch. We spent about 30 minutes watching them swim and I could have stayed an entire day, just enjoying them enjoying themselves. Two of them had been rescued from a Mexican aquarium where they did not have access to expert medical care or enough space to really thrive.
One of the more interesting things was that there was an entire Georgia Explorer exhibit dedicated to the life off the coast of Georgia. Most museums, despite being located somewhere try and be universal in their scope. It was nice to see that they decided to pay some attention to the “local” wildlife. Also, this exhibit had a sea turtle and this blogger is a huge fan of the sea turtle. It makes me sad they are endangered.
The other two exhibits are River Scout and Tropical Diver. They both contain magnificently colored fish and are quite cool in their own right, but pale in comparison with the other three exhibits.
There are five main corporate sponsors of the aquarium. I will link to all of their sites here because I really believe in what they did. Home Depot, BellSouth, Suntrust, AirTran, and Georgia-Pacific all sponsored one of the main exhibits. This is the kind of corporate responsibility and attention to community that can really advance us as a society. When corporate America stands up and pours money into its communities we really have a chance. I would have loved it if they underwrote the entire education budget of Atlanta instead, but we can consider this a victory and hope for the future. As I get into a writing groove again we are going to talk more about corporate community, collective responsibility and sacrifice. I am still working my way back there.
Other tidbits:
A real live knucklehead conversation overheard between me and my brother this weekend:
Him: I hate Black Eyed Peas.
Me: The band?
Him: No, the legumes.
Same old Jets… they could lose and make sure they have a really high draft pick and a shot at Reggie Bush but instead they whipped up on the Raiders and sentence us to about the 5th pick in the draft barring a long winning streak by the Packers and Texans. Just brutal, brutal, brutal. Being a Jets fan sucks. Being a Jets fan that has to pay for Direct TV in order to watch the games is just masochistic.
I will be slowly rebuilding the blog. Links will be coming again soon.
No1ofConsequence
Thursday, December 08, 2005
No 1 Returns
Return of the product…..
I am back, yes, that’s right, little old addle brained me. It’s blogtacular. The Jersey Jew with the slightly interesting take on the world. It has been about a year since my words have graced this space. A year. A lot can happen in a year so I will give you the extremely short version. As you may, or may not, recall I was laid off from my old company last October. One night, in a fit of depression over another lost job I e-mailed my resume to every company that competes with my old one. Lo and behold my current CEO calls me up, we meet in NYC the following week, hit it off famously and before I know it I am once again employed. Not just employed mind you, but in what could almost be considered a dream job. I currently have a team of 7 employees and growing and we are the belles of the ball.
Belles you say?
Well, it’s interesting you mention that, because this new employment (not so new anymore) has taken me to the ATL. Atlanta, as in Georgia, as in, the south. Red state hell. Can we talk sports? Not so much, being a Yankees and Jets fan and having no real affinity for college football. Can we talk politics? I don’t think we can because I believe some markedly different stuff than most of the known universe to begin with. You magnify that with the southern conservative microscope and you end up with some heinously different ideas. Can we play poker? Eh, they still play things like guts and Chicago.
A majority of my time right now is spent diabolically planning the downfall of my old company. I already stole a significant member of their international team and am heavily courting their number one sales guy. He knows he needs to come over to the light side and get off the Titanic. He knows my company will crush his over the long term, but he is still trying to convince himself of the truth. Yesterday I presented my company’s services to one of the Titanic’s biggest clients. They loved it. I can’t wait until I sign them and we make our announcement.
I am coming back out of the ether, so for the uninitiated I write about a number of different things. I am interested in sports, politics, movies, TV, whatever odd thought causes me to have a deep introspective moment throughout the day. I try to write once a day, but I have a tremendous amount of responsibility in my current position so I am not sure if this is going to be possible anymore. That I am writing again at all makes me incredibly happy and I am very thankful to return to blogging.
Some quick hits:
Ø The Jets suck, being a jets fan is one of the most infuriating things in sports. I had to get satellite TV in order to watch the Jets every week. Now, of course, I want to send the Jets the bill for the NFL Sunday Ticket. I went to see them play in the Georgia Dome on Monday night in October. It was one of the odder experiences of my life. Giants Stadium, despite its age, is a great place to watch a game. Jets fans are rude and crass and loveable. They sit in their seats and when something happens they jump up and cheer like maniacs and then when the moment has passed they sit back down and go back to watching the game. Here in Georgia, the fans stand the entire time. I mean the whole game. 2 and 6 plenty of time in the game, run up the middle for a marginal game, they are standing. Are they cheering? Not really. Are they booing? No way. They are just standing. This makes watching a game at the Georgia Dome a pain in the ass. I never thought I would say this, especially growing up watching the Jets at Giants Stadium, but southern football fans are rude as hell. No fan etiquette whatsoever.
Ø I am a little disappointed in the Yankees off season. They haven’t really addressed some of their needs and some players that could have helped them have slipped by. I am very happy that Brian Cashman and Joe Torre are staying with the Yankees. The Yankees blew the Leo Mazzone negotiation. Allowing him to go to a team in their division was doubly stupid. They should have showered him with money. The guy is like Rain Man for pitchers. Everyone on the Yankees could have used him. The fantasy baseball value of every Orioles pitcher has skyrocketed in my mind. Mazzone is worth a run to a run and a half on the team ERA.
Ø The political climate of this country sickens me. I don’t really want to get into it right now.
Well, I think I have written quite enough for my first foray back into the blog world. Talk to you again soon.
No 1
I am back, yes, that’s right, little old addle brained me. It’s blogtacular. The Jersey Jew with the slightly interesting take on the world. It has been about a year since my words have graced this space. A year. A lot can happen in a year so I will give you the extremely short version. As you may, or may not, recall I was laid off from my old company last October. One night, in a fit of depression over another lost job I e-mailed my resume to every company that competes with my old one. Lo and behold my current CEO calls me up, we meet in NYC the following week, hit it off famously and before I know it I am once again employed. Not just employed mind you, but in what could almost be considered a dream job. I currently have a team of 7 employees and growing and we are the belles of the ball.
Belles you say?
Well, it’s interesting you mention that, because this new employment (not so new anymore) has taken me to the ATL. Atlanta, as in Georgia, as in, the south. Red state hell. Can we talk sports? Not so much, being a Yankees and Jets fan and having no real affinity for college football. Can we talk politics? I don’t think we can because I believe some markedly different stuff than most of the known universe to begin with. You magnify that with the southern conservative microscope and you end up with some heinously different ideas. Can we play poker? Eh, they still play things like guts and Chicago.
A majority of my time right now is spent diabolically planning the downfall of my old company. I already stole a significant member of their international team and am heavily courting their number one sales guy. He knows he needs to come over to the light side and get off the Titanic. He knows my company will crush his over the long term, but he is still trying to convince himself of the truth. Yesterday I presented my company’s services to one of the Titanic’s biggest clients. They loved it. I can’t wait until I sign them and we make our announcement.
I am coming back out of the ether, so for the uninitiated I write about a number of different things. I am interested in sports, politics, movies, TV, whatever odd thought causes me to have a deep introspective moment throughout the day. I try to write once a day, but I have a tremendous amount of responsibility in my current position so I am not sure if this is going to be possible anymore. That I am writing again at all makes me incredibly happy and I am very thankful to return to blogging.
Some quick hits:
Ø The Jets suck, being a jets fan is one of the most infuriating things in sports. I had to get satellite TV in order to watch the Jets every week. Now, of course, I want to send the Jets the bill for the NFL Sunday Ticket. I went to see them play in the Georgia Dome on Monday night in October. It was one of the odder experiences of my life. Giants Stadium, despite its age, is a great place to watch a game. Jets fans are rude and crass and loveable. They sit in their seats and when something happens they jump up and cheer like maniacs and then when the moment has passed they sit back down and go back to watching the game. Here in Georgia, the fans stand the entire time. I mean the whole game. 2 and 6 plenty of time in the game, run up the middle for a marginal game, they are standing. Are they cheering? Not really. Are they booing? No way. They are just standing. This makes watching a game at the Georgia Dome a pain in the ass. I never thought I would say this, especially growing up watching the Jets at Giants Stadium, but southern football fans are rude as hell. No fan etiquette whatsoever.
Ø I am a little disappointed in the Yankees off season. They haven’t really addressed some of their needs and some players that could have helped them have slipped by. I am very happy that Brian Cashman and Joe Torre are staying with the Yankees. The Yankees blew the Leo Mazzone negotiation. Allowing him to go to a team in their division was doubly stupid. They should have showered him with money. The guy is like Rain Man for pitchers. Everyone on the Yankees could have used him. The fantasy baseball value of every Orioles pitcher has skyrocketed in my mind. Mazzone is worth a run to a run and a half on the team ERA.
Ø The political climate of this country sickens me. I don’t really want to get into it right now.
Well, I think I have written quite enough for my first foray back into the blog world. Talk to you again soon.
No 1
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
