Author Archives: brent

Let’s Stop Recognizing These “National” Days

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The United States of America is the best country in the world. I thank God each and every day that I live here and I couldn’t imagine living anywhere else. But, with that said, there are some things that go on inside these borders that are beyond ridiculous. Let me quickly vent on one of them.

I love holidays! I also like special occasion days like birthdays and anniversaries. I also like days that aren’t holidays but probably should be such as the Super Bowl and the first couple days of March Madness. I appreciate days that stick out a little more than others, it makes them special and it gives us all an excuse to have fun and enjoy each other. However, at this point, I am sick and tired of people and companies trying to make each day on the calendar a “National Day Of…” something.

I just about had it today when I was informed that September 5 was National Cheese Pizza Day. Really? National Cheese Pizza Day? Not even just National Pizza Day? They really had to throw the cheese part in? Of course National Cheese Pizza Day isn’t the only “cheesy” pseudo holiday…practically all of them are. Here are just a few: National Chocolate Milkshake Day, TV Dinner Day, Teddy Bear Picnic Day, National Gummi Worm Day, Hippo Day, Duran Duran Day, National Men’s Grooming Day, National Thesaurus Day, National Handwriting Day, National I Don’t Give A…

The last day I mentioned doesn’t actually exist but in all honesty it is probably the most rational one out of all the others. I can’t put into words how dumb so many of these days are. It is just not needed. We don’t need a silly theme for every single day of the year. This country is not populated by just kindergarteners. After a quick look around at work today and through running my errands I encountered living, breathing adults who probably think the same as me that National Gummi Worm Day is stupid.

To be fair, when I did some research for this post I saw that some people who are confined to hospital beds or who are incapable of getting out much do look to these silly named days as a little bit of comedic relief, something that actually gives them a little bit of joy each day. The last thing I want to do is strip anyone desperately in need of a daily laugh so let me just narrow my point a little more and specify who I am talking to.

I frown upon the people who are strong, able-bodied, and able-minded who latch onto these days. I frown upon the people who blow up social media wishing everyone a “Happy National Scrabble Day.” I frown upon the people who pour syrup on their sandwich because it is “National Maple Syrup Day.” I frown upon people who go out to eat dressed head to toe in purple because it is “National Wear Purple For Peace Day.” I frown upon the people who expect other people to know what “special” day it is and light up with a smile when they are notified about it. I frown upon the people who have expectations of others to actually wear, eat, do, or observe whatever lame topic the national day is commemorating.

I dislike these days because I think it cheapens our calendar. We don’t need something special or goofy every single day of the year. We just need Mondays to be Mondays and Wednesdays to be Wednesdays. I dislike these days also because I think it feeds gluttony and I think it plays to the notion that we have short attention spans and are in constant need of little distractions to keep us entertained. I also think it is a major crutch for people who have outlets to communicate with the masses but have nothing original to say so they rely on topics such as “National Make Cut Out Snowflakes Day.”

Do we really need to have a “National” day for every single date? No, we don’t. But just for the sake of argument let’s make a “National Live Life to the Fullest Day” and have 7/8 of the dates on the calendar be under that mantra. I don’t know about you but I would take that day over “National Measure Your Feet Day” in a heartbeat. Don’t Blink.

A Cool Random Act of Kindness

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Late last month someone did one of the coolest random acts of kindness I have ever heard about. Big Dipper is the most popular ice cream destination in Missoula. Although not my personal favorite, Big Dipper is a Missoula original and as far as this town is concerned, Ben & Jerry’s doesn’t hold a candle to it. During the last Sunday of August, someone walked up to the stand, handed one of the workers a $100 bill, and instructed that worker to use the money on free ice cream for the customers standing in line. I loved it!

Even though the grammar might be a little off, you get the idea.

Even though the grammar might be a little off, you get the idea.

No, I unfortunately was not at Big Dipper when the random act of kindness occurred but just thinking about the whole scene made me smile. I would have liked to see the faces on people as they waited in the long line (the line at Big Dipper always stretches a long distance) in the hot sun the moment they were notified that their ice cream on that particular day would be free, courtesy of a random stranger. You hear all the time about people buying coffee, beer, and dinner for complete strangers but rarely do you hear about people buying ice cream.

If I ever spend triple digits to treat random people to something it is so going to be ice cream. I just love the idea and I love the feeling that I know people would get when they learned that their ice cream for that day was on someone else. This particular random act of kindness was new and unique to me so it made me think about other possible random acts of kindness that people could do with $100 that deviates from the norm but would make the day of many. My only criteria when creating the below list was that the $100 would have to stretch long enough to serve at least 10 people:

– Free sandwiches at Subway during the lunch hour rush
– Free admission to Splash Montana
– Free haircuts at Great Clips
– Free “buy all you can for $5” at Taco Bell
– Free carousel rides Saturday morning!
– Free hot dogs for the first 30 people who walk by the vendor stand

How cool would it be if an all-start good Samaritan went crazy and did all six of these things on a random Saturday? Wait…I mean how cool would it be if he/she did all seven of these things? Cause of course ice cream at Big Dipper would have to be included as well.

On behalf of Missoula, thanks to the person who treated the community to ice cream. What a cool and fresh idea to do something so random and nice. Sooner than later I hope to do the same thing. Don’t Blink.

My Two Minutes of Fame

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Click here to watch me act in “A Monte Movie :: Monte’s Roommate”

At Griz football games I am sheltered high up in the press box inside the snug confines of the control room. At least 99% of the 26,000+ people who cram Washington-Grizzly Stadium have no idea that I am up there, let alone even know that I exist. I like it that way. I enjoy the anonymity and I enjoy the behind-the-scenes work that I do. However, last Saturday the cover on my anonymity was blown completely off.

On Saturday in front of the largest crowd to ever watch a sporting event in Montana, my ugly mug appeared up on Griz Vision (our video board) for two minutes. By resurrecting an element that was done about a decade ago, I starred in the first modern version of Monte Movies. If you don’t know a darn thing about mascots or if you didn’t read my blog post last night, Monte is the mascot at the University of Montana. And yes, we do make videos of him and feature them at our football games.

The premise of this first Monte Movie was to show what it is like to be Monte’s roommate. Monte played himself and I played the roommate. We filmed the whole thing in my apartment. Yes, that shower curtain really is mine and yes, Monte actually sat on my toilet. We filmed the movie in one night about three weeks ago. Let me tell you, filming is long and tough work. For the two minute long movie it took us about four hours to film. People don’t realize all the takes, all the angles, and all the details that go into making something like this. I was definitely one of those people before my acting debut. If not for my great co-star and if not for our talented director/cameraman/editor/winner at life Nate Michael, I would have looked even worse than what I did in the movie.

The opening scene of the movie!

The opening scene of the movie!

I first saw the mostly completed film in Nate’s office a week before the game. I could barely watch myself. The next time I saw it was two days before the game when we went through our walk-through for Saturday night. With a few other people watching I could tolerate it a little bit more just because they were laughing and it gave me a little bit of encouragement. On Saturday night with our team dominating Appalachian State and with everything going right game production wise I watched the whole thing from the control room and kind of just enjoyed seeing myself act stupid in front of 26,293 fans.

 

A scene where Monte and I watched a tear-jerker movie together.

A scene where Monte and I watched a tear-jerker movie together.

Although I stomached watching myself the best the third time around, there was something a little unsettling that I noticed. I kept listening (more like hoping) to hear the stadium erupt in laughter but I never really heard that chorus of maniacal giggling that I would have hoped to hear. When “THE END” flashed on the screen I wondered if the crowd even liked it, wondered if I had killed Monte’s thunder and Nate’s hard work with my terrible acting skills. But right when “THE END” flashed away, I had my answer. My phone started blowing up. I got texts from good friends, people who I hadn’t talked to in forever, and from numbers I didn’t recognize. I got tweets sent my way and someone even attempted to call me. The reaction was all positive and they said they loved it.

That was only the beginning.

After the game I went down on the field to meet my dad and brother who came to watch the Grizzlies and by default my performance. As I visited with them people came up and commented on the video. When I went back up the tunnel and to my office, people passed by saying how cute they thought the movie was. The recognition came the rest of the weekend with acquaintances and randos pointing out that I was “The Roommate.” Today with the start of the work week I had several co-workers mention the video. When I went to the gym I had no less than four people point me out.

In this scene our director/cameraman/winner Nate Michael gets to make a cameo!

In this scene our director/cameraman/winner Nate Michael gets to make a cameo!

Even though I talked non-stop for three weeks about how embarrassed I was to have my shabby acting skills on display and even though I tried to tell the people who knew the video was coming not to expect much I have to admit, I liked the well-wishes and recognition that came after it was played on Griz Vision during primetime.

All the kudos in the world to Nate and Monte for using their talents to make me look decent in the video. It was cool to see the process of how everything works and like I said the recognition was pretty nice too but I think I am going to go out on top and retire from acting. I am the ultimate one-hit wonder. Don’t Blink.

Last scene of the movie...time to retire from acting!

Last scene of the movie…time to retire from acting!

 

A Special Mascot: Support Monte for National Mascot of the Year

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I feel fortunate to have a job that I love so much that I constantly feel the need to write about it. I apologize if I have gone Grizzly Athletics overload on you the past few posts but I can’t help it. But let me preface by saying that tonight’s topic is pretty cool!

Once again, Monte, our mascot at the University of Montana, has made the 2013 Capital One Mascot Challenge team. Each year a number of mascots are chosen from across the country to engage in a contest to see which furry creature will come out on top and become the National Mascot of the Year. In the past the winning mascot has been chosen through a voting system. This year a version of the voting system is still in place but there is an added twist to the mix. More on that later.

Monte and I at the NCAA Tournament in 2012.

Monte and I at the NCAA Tournament in 2012.

It is truly a big compliment that Monte continues to get chosen to the Mascot Challenge team (he has made it in 2002, 2004, 2007, 2010, and 2013). Pretty much all the other mascots on the team hail from large, BCS schools. The fact that a mascot from a smaller school in the FCS can continue to crack the team speaks to the talent, creativeness, and marketability of Monte. Each year we submit an application to Capital One. The required materials call for a highlight video, a couple high resolution photos of the mascot, and a completed paperwork form. You can then add any supporting documents that you see fit to improve your mascot’s chances of getting selected. We always see to it that we go above and beyond when creating our application.

When we got word that we made this year’s team we were ecstatic. Besides the great publicity and notoriety that we knew we were going to get from making the team, it also came with a $5,000 prize that went straight to our Mascot program. The payoff for taking the time to create a superb application packet is immense.

Monte and I close up style.

Monte and I close up style.

The senior of the two Monte performers who I oversee traveled to New York City in June to shoot the commercials and other promo materials that make up the Mascot Challenge. This student got the luxury of an all-expenses paid trip to the biggest and best known city in the nation to hang out with fifteen other mascots, stay in a nice hotel, and do some filming. Not a bad perk of the job. When he returned from the Big Apple he told me that he really tried to make Monte standout from the other mascots during all the shooting.

Monte and I goofing off.

Monte and I goofing off.

From the time of us submitting the application to hearing the good news to sending our mascot to New York it seemed like a lot of time had passed. So last week when the competition finally went live I think we were all ready to finally start the long campaign. But before we really started to ask people for their support for Monte, we needed to make really clear how they could support Monte. You see, things this year had changed.

In a quest to create more engagement and to take advantage of the ever increasing landscape of social media, Capital One introduced a three level point system. While you can still go with the old-fashioned way of simply voting for Monte there are other options that can boost his status in whatever head-to-head competition he is engaged in that week. While voting will only get you 1 point, you can complete “challenges” that will award Monte more points. Each week the contest organizers will present a question or task. If you answer or complete the task and use the appropriate hash tag of #CapitalOneMonte on Facebook or Twitter you get 25 points. However, if you want to put a little more effort into your support you can take the 25 point challenge a step up send 100 points Monte’s way.

Monte and I at the UCA championships this year.

Monte and I at the UCA championships this year.

Take for example this week. The 25 point challenge is to write a cheer for Monte. However, if you perform it in public and video it and then submit to Facebook/Twitter/Instagram with the appropriate hash tag you add 100 points to Monte’s schedule. I have no idea what the other challenges will entail but they should be fun for fans to complete.

Here is the cool thing about Monte in this competition: Each time he participates in it he does well. Even though out of all the other mascots he is from the smallest state in the smallest city at the smallest school (population wise), he always manages to make a great run deep into the competition. Because of the strong passion Griz Nation has coupled with the strong social media presence of Grizzly Athletics, Monte has a chance to win a competition that he really should have no business doing so. It is a beautiful thing and a pretty cool tribute to one of the best fan bases around.

I ask that you please go here and complete the challenges for Monte and then vote 100 times for him. Remember to use the #CapitalOneMonte hash tag. This week we are up against CAM THE RAM from Colorado State University and we need your support. Yes, we do have a good lead on him right now but with any competition that hinges on social media things can change drastically and quickly. Hope you had a great Labor Day weekend and please support Monte for National Mascot of the Year.

One Special Griz Football Game

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I fully intended to write a lead up post about one of the biggest regular season football games ever played inside Washington-Grizzly Stadium but regrettably never got the time to do it. Working long hours that stretched late into the night made it difficult to devote time to my blog. But maybe I shouldn’t regret the missed opportunity to write a lead up post because that means I can just pour more energy and pride into the wrap up post. The last evening in August of 2013 in Missoula will go down as nothing short of spectacular.

I was so happy that my brother and dad got to see this game and also catch my Griz Vision cameo.

I was so happy that my brother and dad got to see this game and also catch my Griz Vision cameo.

Last night the Montana Grizzly football team hosted Appalachian State in a game between two FCS powers. Our fan base had eagerly waited years for the kickoff of this game and once the summer hit, people started getting extremely excited for the marquee game that would bring a start to the football season and an exclamation point type end to the summer season. You experienced the anticipation from Griz Nation everywhere whether it was on the streets, through social media, on the message boards, or just in the sweet Missoula air…it was there, you could sense it…you could feel it.

This anticipation circulated through every crevice of Griz Nation, including right at ground zero within the walls of the athletic department. For about eight months a dedicated team of department employees started envisioning and planning for what occurred on Saturday night. The vision was nurtured along as more and more pieces started to fall into place as the date got closer. Come the start of August it was full steam ahead as round the clock hours were logged to make the 2013 edition of Montana vs. Appalachian State one of the best shows ever presented inside of Washington-Grizzly Stadium. I think we delivered.

Because one of my duties is to serve as the mascot coordinator, probably the image that will forever be etched in my mind was when Monte drove down the middle of the field on his Harley with fireworks streaming from the back of his bike and pyrotechnics booming up in the air from either side of him. But myself, along with everyone else, will still remember all of the other images and memories from Saturday night. Take for instance when Bo Reichenbach was honored at midfield. Or when the Navy Seals parachuted into Washington-Grizzly Stadium. Or when the football team ran out in their sharp looking new maroon uniforms. Or when tunnel walk captured the attention of everyone. Or when the crowd got to party to Cotton Eyed Joe TWICE. Or when the whole stadium sang “Sweet Caroline” in perfect unison. Or when the Montana Grizzlies crushed Appalachian State by the score of 30-6 in front of the largest crowd ever in Washington-Grizzly Stadium history.

Fireworks lit up the sky after the Griz victory.

Fireworks lit up the sky after the Griz victory.

Of course these were just some of the highlights that defined yesterday’s game. Everyone will probably take something a little different from the experience. Heck, some people even mentioned that they will forever remember the Monte Movie that aired in the third quarter that stared some awkward, mumbling dude with curly hair (my two minutes of fame). But that is what great game presentations do, they cater to all types of people and present many different elements that everyone can connect with.

Sometimes people don’t realize who is behind the scenes doing all the work at these games but that is okay, because they really shouldn’t have to. They pay the money to get in and should just worry about the experience they see on the field, not necessarily who is pulling the strings. But it is still nice to recognize the people who made it happen last night. First and foremost you got to tip your hat to our marketing director, Brynn Molloy, who pulled every ounce of her energy into making sure this game was special. Beyond setting the stage for success, she executed success as well with her leadership during the game. Then there is our video guy Nate Michael who not only pumps out great video piece after great video piece but he also directs the video board flawlessly. Next there is our IT guy, Aaron Heiner, who works probably longer hours than us all and has incredible talent and patience. He has saved us all on numerous occasions. Can’t forget the people at Grizzly Sports Properties who helped us as much as possible to both introduce and enable exciting game elements for corporate sponsors. Next, lots of credit must go to two of our associate athletic directors, Greg Sundberg and Chuck Maes who did all they possibly could to support us and guide us as we pulled this thing off. They were behind us 100% of the way and when you know you have that backing it makes you feel very comfortable.

Brynn and I share a sigh of relief after the game ended.

Brynn and I share a sigh of relief after the game ended.

Let me not be so blind that I totally forget about the student participants who are the reason why people come to the games in the first place. I am talking about the football team, the Spirit Squad, Monte, and the band. Also, a huge shout out to our marketing interns who helped us immensely last night. Everything from on-field direction, Monte entrance coordinating, Griz Vision element execution, and social media reach was done top notch.

I am excited for the next home game but I must say that I am in no way against the three week period we have until the kickoff of that game on September 21. I think we are all tired and need a little bit of rest. The Labor Day holiday tomorrow is exactly what the doctor ordered. Thank you Griz Nation for being so awesome, you rocked it last night. Don’t Blink.

Random Notes From a Hungry Guy

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It is one of those nights where it is late, I am hungry, and I am tired. But it is also one of those nights where I feel guilty if I don’t sit down and write a blog post for my readers. With that said, I want to offer up one of my “slacker” brief posts that hit on a few random topics. The sooner I finish this the sooner I can eat, let’s go!!

You ready for four random thoughts?! Here we go..

You ready for four random thoughts?! Here we go..

Miley Cyrus’ VMAs Performance: I am a Miley Cyrus fan but even I have to say that her performance last night was a little too out there for me. To be honest though, it wasn’t the twerking, the raunchy singing, or the weird bears that did me in. I felt the most ill by watching some of her facial expressions. They made my stomach turn a little bit and had me questioning my fandom for her. I wonder what my mom will tell me about that performance. My mother disliked Miley even when she was just sweet and precious Hannah Montana so I am a little curious to hear what she has to say. Whatever it is though, it can’t be worse than some of the stuff I read on Twitter and saw on Facebook about ol’ crazy Miley.

School Starting at UM: Classes started back up again today at the college campus that I work at and let me tell you, the presence was felt. All the reminders seemed to be a little more intense this go-around. Traffic before 8 a.m. was backed up past the Madison Street Bridge and I noticed many more people walking by the Adams Center than usual (where we have our athletic offices housed at). But where the biggest onslaught of student humanity could be found was at the gym. Of course it happens at the start of every semester that the gym gets slammed for the first couple weeks but today was even much worse than usual. I walked into the rec center at 12:30 p.m. and it was a complete zoo with every machine occupied and pretty much every space taken up. Here’s hoping that many of these kids find other fun college things to do besides work out.

Lamar Odom Missing, Now Found: A report came out yesterday that Lamar Odom was missing and that he had been battling a drug problem. I really don’t think it is a joking matter when a person is uncounted for and at risk. So of course something that I didn’t find funny in the first place wouldn’t make me even crack the smallest of smiles when the jokes are so lame and obvious. I don’t know how many times I heard/saw the “how do you lose a 6-10 black man?”. Stupid, uncreative, and insensitive. If there is one thing that is seemingly impressive it is that Odom’s wife, Khloe Kardashian, posted a profanity laced tweet that over 7,760 people found worthy enough to retweet.

Thank goodness that Lamar Odom has been found.

Maroon Out: I hope to go into detail a little bit more about this huge week for Grizzly Athletics in a couple more days but I do want to plant this seed now: If you are going to the Montana-Appalachian State football game this Saturday, WEAR MAROON. We are going to make this the best and most successful maroon out ever and we need your help. The biggest regular season game in the history of Washington-Grizzly Stadium also deserves the biggest turnout of fans dressed in maroon. Don’t forget!

Hope Monday went well for everyone! Let’s make sure to always count our blessings that we are alive and that we live in such a blessed country. Talk to you soon! Don’t Blink.

Catching Up With Instagram Video

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A little over two months ago, Instagram came out with “The Announcement” and introduced video to its photo sharing service. The announcement and subsequent rollout of the upgrade seemed to create a buzz and hysteria analogous to when American troops took out Osama bin Laden. However, although a very important moment in social media indeed, I tried to keep a cooler head. Before proclaiming Insta-Video the savior of the social world, I wanted to wait several weeks and see how people used it and the influence it had. I have a couple observations to make.

Personally, I think video on Instagram has underachieved. Bottom line, I don’t think people are using it that much and I definitely don’t think people are watching it that much.

I don’t think people are using Instagram video that much because it isn’t the easiest platform to use and it can be time consuming. Half the time I attempt to use Insta-Video I get an error message popping up saying I don’t have enough memory to record. The times when I am actually able to roll tape I find my thumb missing the red record button or I believe I am recording something when I am really not. The way the video screen charts how much time left you have to record is not visually appealing and seems a bit primitive. Also, it seems like a lot of effort has to go in to making a decent Instagram video. Now of course to be successful in social media you have to put effort in to all of your content but I think Instagram Video adds a little more labor than necessary. I know you don’t have to use all 15 seconds but when you have a certain amount of time available to you, the tendency is to use it.

While I can’t be 100% certain, I would bet my yearly salary that Insta-Videos receive much less attention, views, and likes than regular pictures. For many people, once they see the video icon in the top right hand corner of the image they scroll right by it. People don’t want to spend 15 seconds watching something. They just don’t have the time. Users want to look at a picture and get all their information right then. They don’t want to wait for the delay of the video to start, they don’t want to be startled by the loud volume of the audio once it finally does, and they don’t want to watch a shaky 15 second video with nine different takes. It doesn’t take a genius to spot the obvious. From looking at the videos that I post and that others post, I would say that videos only receive a third of the likes that a traditional picture does. Maybe it will take some time for video to really catch on but by no means has it transformed Instagram overnight.

I will give Instagram Video credit on a couple fronts. With the ability to film for 15 seconds, you can connect to your followers in a more intimate and expressive way. You can relate your opinions, thoughts, and moods by taking a quick video. I don’t think many people are utilizing it in this way just yet but I think that users who want to have a true impact with Insta-Video should do so. You can really create an interesting little vlog with Instagram now. If you can express yourself in an honest and unique way you could really pull in an audience.

Another way that Instagram has succeeded with its video rollout is that it has crippled Vine. No, it hasn’t completely destroyed it but it has dealt it a big blow. My friend activity on Vine has died down probably 75%. Of the 25% of the activity still taking place, more than half of it is through re-vines…lame. Instagram definitely wanted to accomplish two things: Create a top of the line video experience while knocking Vine off of its rapidly rising social media pedestal. To this point, it has only succeeded with one of those objectives.

I am going to continue to keep tracking the strides that Instagram Video will or will not make in the next couple months. Like I said, it might just take a little time for it to catch on. However, at this point, I have to say that Instagram Video has been a disappointment. Don’t Blink.

The Worst Fundraiser Ever

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From time to time, I will be approached by kids at my door, at work, or at the store who are selling various items for fundraisers. I always say “yes” before they have to go through the same old spiel that they probably hate giving and are usually embarrassed to give. Well today I even said yes sooner than normal solely because I was once in the exact same position as the kid who was selling to me.

A few minutes before getting home today, I was approached by a young man trying to sell an item to raise funds for his team. As he started to talk to me I had one of those “some things never change” moments. He was selling the classic $20 coupon book. Well, actually it was a coupon card but it for the most part was the exact same thing I used to have to put under people’s noses. Man, how I hated doing that.

I played high school football at Mead High School in Spokane from 2002-2005. Every single year we had to sell coupon books for $20 a pop. I genuinely enjoyed doing our conditioning sessions out in the 90 degree temperatures more than soliciting people to purchase those coupon cards.

It started at the beginning of football season each year. Before one of our practices we would huddle into our school’s theater some dude would get up in front of us and give some unmotivated, standard talk that he gave to probably 50 high school football teams before us. He would give us his best strategy to sell the books, point out the best deals to highlight when talking to people, and then he would explain the incentive program which was the absolute biggest joke in the world. I will get to that incentive program later.

After he gave his talk, our head coach would get up and tell us how important selling these coupon books were to the program. He would then set rather ambitious quotas for all of us to reach. He made it clear that everyone had to sell ten cards. Ten cards! Keep in mind, this was ten years ago. Back then $20 meant a whole lot more than what it does today. He really expected all 120+ kids in the whole football program to be able to con 10 people each out of $20 to buy a coupon book? I actually always made the quota because of a great family and a very generous street that I lived on but not everyone had the same resources. If we sold the ten cards, we were promptly given ten more cards and told to go out and sell those.

I hated pitching these cards to people. The whole “you can save up to $5,000 with this book” is a complete scam. No one would ever in a million years exhaust every single coupon on the book/card. If you did so you would be all of three things: 1. Broke. If you really used all the coupons it meant you spent a lot of money initially to get the extra savings. 2. Fat. You obviously ate out a lot. 3. A loser. Do you have anything more productive to do than use two hundred different coupons within a year?

The deals on the coupons aren’t even that good. In my experience, there would always be a few legit buy one get one free deals that were enticing but all the other ones were only good for $1 off or you had to buy two drinks and a side to get a free item. By the time I graduated in 2005 the coupon book was complete crap because all the decent deals that existed when I was a freshman and sophomore were now discontinued because people actually used those and the participating businesses no longer wanted to offer the discount.

The fundraiser would always end with a big “BLITZ” night. As a whole football program we would get together one night after practice, split into small teams, and overwhelm the north Spokane community with high school boys trying to scheme citizens out of $20. We worked hard for three hours trying to make money for our program while our coaches probably went to a bar and drank beer.

Probably the worst part of this whole thing was the timing. Going through two-a-day practices is exhausting. Trying to find time during that to go out and sell a product that you hate is a nightmare. Let’s see…would I rather lay on my couch and rest in between practices or would I want to hit the hot pavement and go door-to-door selling coupons? That right there just made me want to buy four of those cards from the kid I talked to today. Although of course my bank account would not appreciate it, the thought just briefly ran through my mind because I know how much it sucks.

Oh yes, let me hit on the incentive program we had real fast. We didn’t get cool prizes if we went above and beyond and sold a lot of tickets. We got, get this, coupon books as our reward! Yes, we were rewarded with the same product that I thought was garbage for all of our hard work. This is how the coupon contractor rationalized it: “It is a great deal! Take the extra coupon books that you earn and go back out in the community and sell them and keep the full profits for yourself!” BUSH.

The experience did teach us some redeeming values. It taught us how to sell, it taught us how to talk to people, and it taught us how to work hard and deal with rejection. I just wish we had a better product to give to people, such as something that I didn’t hate and something that didn’t make me feel like I was ripping someone off. I also wish the fundraiser didn’t take place during the most physically draining time of my athletic career. Oh well, I will never have to sell another stupid coupon book again. I just have to make sure to buy them. Don’t Blink.

Happy 32nd Anniversary, Mom and Dad

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Today my parents celebrate their 32nd wedding anniversary. Besides it being a very long time, I know the number 32 does not hold much of a significance in terms of milestones but because I have this blog and because I have two amazing parents, I wanted to make sure to write just a little something to commemorate this special day.

My parents, Mary and Tom, both grew up in the small town of Walla Walla, Washington. My mom claims she had a crush on my dad in middle school. However, the crush fizzled as my mom went to the private high school in town and my dad went to the public high school. They also went their separate ways for college too. After they graduated they reconnected back in Walla Walla at a bar. It was there that my dad got my mom’s number and later called her. They started dating and fell in love. On a sweltering August day in triple digit temperatures inside a small catholic church with no air conditioning, my parents got married. That was 32 years ago today.

My mom and dad in their earlier years.

My mom and dad in their earlier years.

You won’t find a better marriage than what my mom and dad have. They love each other and support each other. Many marriages are defined by struggles and hardships that take a toll on the relationship. My parents have never had such tribulations. They simply have always been loyal, kind, and patient with each other. As I have grown up and observed other marriages fall apart, my admiration for what my parents have put together has just increased more and more.

My parents and I clowning around during Halloween.

When I get married, I want to go about it the same way as my parents. I want to have a relationship with my wife that is based on love and trust. I want to be able to talk to her in the morning, while at work, and in the evening. I want to be the absolute best parents humanely possible to my kids. I want to treat the friends and significant others of my kids like gold in the exact same way my parents have always done. I want to build that marriage and that family in a way that everyone else looks at and respects.

My parents have a happy, blessed marriage. In 32 years they have produced so many fruits from their relationship that you would probably need 500 different trees to hold them all. They are the ultimate example of what a healthy and prosperous marriage is and I can’t express how proud and lucky I am to be their son. Happy 32nd anniversary mom and dad, I love you both. Don’t Blink.