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Condescending Wonka: Wisdom to Live By

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Over the past six months or so, the Willy Wonka memes have taken over Facebook and the internet. I am sure you have all seen what I am talking about…there is a picture of Willy Wonka (from the old movie in 1971, not Johnny Depp) leaning his head on his hand decked out in his candy man costume with a creepy smile that would scare any parent with young kids. In the picture there is text at the top that says something that usually starts with “Oh, so you…….” and then at the bottom there is a sarcastic punch line. The jokes are a play on the real personality of Willy Wonka in the actual movie but usually make fun of present social norms. Many of them are really funny.

Unfortunately for me, I hate seeing these things pop up on Facebook because Willy Wonka (the one from the 70’s) just makes me a little queasy. I think the whole movie is really weird and let’s face it, seeing some creepy guy in an over-the-top purple suit is not what I want to see on my Facebook news feed…please give me more of my hot lady friends in their bikinis.
So to keep the humor but to resist the urge to click on the hideous image of Wonka, this past weekend I started following Condescending Wonka (@OhWonka) on Twitter. It is already one of my favorite accounts to follow. In fact, I retweeted three of the Condescending Wonka’s brilliant pieces of sarcastic wisdom over the weekend. For tonight’s blog post I would like to share with you the three tweets that I retweeted and offer some quick commentary on them. Oh Wonka, you crack me up!:
1. “Oh, you replied to my text with the letter “K”…you must like talking about Potassium.”
Nothing is more annoying or standoffish than the “K” text.  Lazy, disrespectful, and unoriginal are great ways to describe it. Yes, I have used it before. I rarely pull the “K” card but when I do it is usually because I am frustrated and I want to say the least possible because if I let loose I might text something that I regret. But some people use it way too much and will then even get angry at others when they use it. I “K’d” a person the other day and that person responded with “don’t  ever ‘k’ me.” I reminded the person that she had used it on me first. Not believing me,  I was able to just go back in our chat conversation (thank goodness for iphones!) and screen capture a couple days earlier when this person used “k” and sent it right back…sweet redemption!

But honestly, using “K” in texts is bush league. Have the respect for the other person to at least give them an “okay.” At the bare minimum, double up and give your text recipient a “kk.” If you do decide to do the unthinkable, at least have the decency to give the person a capital K with a period at the end (i.e. “K.”). Using “k” is just a slap in the face.

2. “Let’s have a round of applause for the heroes that save all the cancer-ridden children by liking and sharing those Facebook statuses.”
This one speaks so much truth. If there is one thing that pushes me away from Facebook more than anything else, it is the copied status updates addressing some disease or natural disaster. In my opinion, the people who share and like these updates are doing more to spurn the problem than solve it. These clueless people probably think that instead of actually getting away from their computer and donating money to cancer research/relief efforts or actually going out in the community and visiting sick people, they are doing their part by clicking the“like” button or copying and pasting something as their status. Asinine.
First off, all of those statuses that say something along the lines of “post this as your status and $5 will be donated to cancer research” are complete scams. Secondly, how self-serving and arrogant is it to do something like that? Let’s be honest here, many people do it to portray themselves in a positive light. It is like the people who decide to give something up for lent and then broadcast it all over social media or decide to tell all their friends. Do things for the right reasons, not for praise from others.
3. “Oh, you’re jamming to the latest popular song on your iPod? Please, join the countless others in tweeting the same lyrics.”
This one made me laugh the most because I am so guilty of it! Thanks Condescending Wonka for putting me in my place. Sometimes it is just so hard not to tweet lyrics though! I will be driving in my car to work in the morning and a great country song will come on and motivate me for the day ahead and I just can’t resist but to share it with my followers (follow me @BrentR7). When you have over 11,400 tweets you have to have something to fill the content, right?

It is cliché and unoriginal so perhaps I should try to cut back a little bit. What I think Wonka should have done though is call out the people who tweet lyrics and butcher them. Nothing is more annoying than incorrectly tweeting lyrics, in fact, it should result in the loss of Twitter privileges.

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Thank you Condescending Wonka for bringing a little bit of humor and sarcasm into my life. Don’t get too comfortable around me though, I can tolerate reading your tweets but please save me the eye sore and get the hell off of my news feed. Don’t Blink.

We’re Not Young

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This is the video that is the focus of this blog post

The song “We Are Young” by Fun never really grew on me. In fact, I seemed to hate it a little bit more each time I heard it. Seemed to me like the group was trying a little too hard to be different. Also, it seemed like my friends who liked the song had an affinity for it because they thought listening to it made them a little more cultured when it comes to music. Seriously, just go listen to country.

Usually, if I don’t like an original song I am not going to really care for the parody. While lyrics play a large role of any song, if the music and beat is bad, I most likely will not listen. If I buy a Weird Al album it better have several parodies of songs I actually enjoy or else I will pass. But,  there is always an exception.
Last week Yahoo released a parody of “We Are Young” called “We’re Not Young.” The video went viral very quickly and by this time it seems like everyone has watched it.  For despising the original so much, I have a love-hate relationship with “We’re Not Young.”
“We’re Not Young” obviously flips the message of the original and talks more about the hardships of getting older rather than the anything goes attitude of people a little younger. Specifically, the parody makes fun of people in their thirties and brings to light many of the not so glamorous events, attitudes, challenges, and responses that people in this age demographic go through. “We’re Not Young” is a true parody in that both the song and the music video spin off of “We Are Young.” Honestly, you need to watch the video. The lyrics and scenes are hilarious, you will be laughing throughout the whole thing. Issues such as weight gain, laziness, employment, empty relationships, and alcoholism are all brought up. The singers/actors in the video do a great job and I guarantee that you will watch it more than once. I have watched/listened to it so much that I now am totally accustomed to the parody over the original. If I am in my car and “We Are Young” comes on it just does not seem right to me.
A few of my co-workers and I watched the video together and could not stop laughing. We had a great time identifying what parts of the song were direct reflections of us and then also what parts fit our other co-workers and friends to a T. Watching the video with other people around you is much more fun than just watching by yourself. Okay, let me explain…
So while the “We’re Not Young” parody is very funny and creative it is also very depressing. It basically sheds light on the grim reality of being in your thirties and realizing that you are a total loser…scary.  Although I am still just twenty-five, I feel like I identified with that song a couple more ways than what I would like (besides just the “start a blog” line). While watching the video half of me was laughing while the other half of me was pretty concerned. If you read my blog much, youknow that I have a little bit of a phobia with getting older. Well, “We’re Not Young” did nothing to calm those fears. I admit it, the song was a reality check for me and sent the message that I have some work to do if I don’t want to end up like the people in that video.
If you want a mix of emotions, take a look at “We’re Not Young.” Not only does it improve greatly upon a terrible song, it offers some great life insight while delivering many laughs. All I can say is that if you are my age or older, you might want to have a beer or a tub of ice cream with you to indulge in after watching because you are probably going to need something to make you feel a little better about yourself. Try not to take it too hard. Don’t Blink.

Urban Deer

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Please view this great story that my friend Emily did that explains the issue I am about to address.

Growing up in Spokane, whenever my family saw an animal that was not a cat, a dog, or some type of domesticated pet, it was a big deal. We just did not see wildlife that often so our jaws always dropped when we saw something out of the ordinary, such as a raccoon or a moose. Another animal that would immediately cause my dad to slam on the brakes and have all of us look out the window in awe was a deer.  Seeing a bambi on a trip would all but secure the fact that we would be talking about the sighting for the remainder of the car ride.

Deer were rare, wild, and mystical creatures that everyone in my family had a fascination with. Then I moved to Montana…
When I first moved to Missoula and started going to school here, I was very impressed and amazed at the plethora and “friendliness” of the deer around the town.  Never had I seen a deer up close, let alone ten of them at once. I remember daily walking across campus from my residence hall to the gym at 6am in the morning and walking past a whole troop of deer that would congregate in the middle of the oval (big grassy space in the center of campus at UM). It seemed to me that it was Montana at its finest, man one with nature.
However, somewhere along the way my opinion started to change a little. The novelty started to wear off a little bit. Probably at the point when I moved up into the Rattlesnake did I realize that these deer might not be as cool as I first thought. I didn’t necessarily like them overtaking our lawn and leaving their droppings all over the place. They kind of put a damper on Halloween when they would eat our jack-o-lanterns one hour after we put them out on our porch. Waiting for them to leave the road when a big pack congregated right in the middle of it was a waste of my time. I didn’t particularly care for the shot of adrenaline I got the many times a deer would randomly jump out in front of me and I would have to make a split second turn of the wheel to avoid smashing it. Oh well, I guess that feeling was a lot better than what I felt after I actually did smash into a deer (that car has since been totaled)…
Missoula has an urban deer problem. Up where I live they run wild and they run rampant. They dominate our neighborhood streets and our bigger roadways. For all the people who don’t maintain their lawns, the deer have taken over camp and use it as their hang out headquarters. The degree that the Missoula urban deer “don’t give a shit” surpasses that of even the honey badger…I am not kidding. You really can’t rattle these creatures, mainly because they are too stupid to even realize what is going on. They basically run suicide missions on the hour every hour as they sprint across and down the roadways right in front of vehicles.
A bunch of urban deer in my backyard.
Lately, the city of Missoula has taken a closer look at this dilemma. It is very likely that legislation could get passed and Missoula could implement a program intended to diminish the urban deer population. The city would most likely borrow a plan used by Helena, another city in Montana that saw their neighborhoods overridden with urban deer. Basically, the city would set traps for the deer that would catch them in nets. When a deer is caught, the city would send a responder out who would humanely euthanize the deer. Next, the carcass would be taken to a center where it would be cleaned and cut up and its meat sent to a food bank for needy families.
Well I am definitely all for the trapping and humanely euthanizing of the urban deer I don’t entirely know about sending their meat to food banks. If you could see some of the deer up in my neck of the woods, you would understand what I mean. These are not your healthy, strong, stereotypical beautiful animals. Many of them are straggly and sad looking. You have to realize that these urban deer are out of their natural habitat and mainly dine on garbage and fertilized grass. The idea of any of the deer from my neighborhood ending up on my dinner plate disgusts the hell out of me. I would not wish that as a meal for anyone, no matter how hungry someone is.
An urban deer in my lawn from this past fall. Does not look too healthy to me.
I really don’t like the idea of killing animals, especially if there is no use for them once they have been put down. But something needs to be done about the population of deer in Missoula. I would support trapping them and transporting them out into the wild, but I imagine a few things would happen: They would either immediately get killed by predators or other deer because of their weak condition, they would starve to death because they never learned to properly hunt, or they would just return back to an urban environment. Also, I imagine that the time and resources to transport the deer into a more proper habitat would cost the city way too much money. So if there is no other option, I would go along with having the animals trapped and euthanized…just please don’t distribute their meat.
While urban deer cause a mess in our neighborhoods and eat our pumpkins/flowers/plants, this is not the main reason why we need to lower the population. Bottom line, they are a safety hazard. They cause way too many automobile accidents and negatively impact the lives of many people.
So until the city passes legislation to get this problem under control, I will let the urban deer continue to entertain and put a smile on the faces of my friends who come visit me from the west who think that deer in my neighborhood is the coolest thing they have ever seen.  But once some type of ordinance is put into place, I will be more than happy to lay out some of those traps. Don’t Blink.

Social Media Rapid Response = Bad Idea

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I heard it all through my childhood, drilled into my head by my parents and teachers throughout the years: Think before you speak. I think I have taken their advice to heart and I try my best to not make any ill-advised or spur of the moment statements that result strictly from passion. As I am a very quiet person by nature, when it comes to face-to-face confrontation, I am pretty good at not making regrettable comments.

However, thanks to the proliferation of social media over the recent years, the shy guy like me now has the option to spout off heat of the moment statements whenever a Facebook status update or tweet appears that I don’t like. Thankfully, because I work in a position where I deal very regularly with social media and see the good and ugly involved with it, I usually stay away from these tempting, but unforgiving, opportunities.
As a society living in the twenty-first century with social media as a very valuable tool, we need to hold ourselves accountable the exact same way we do in other social situations. Mainly, we need to refrain from typing rash comments without thinking. Now I have posted about people using social media to cause drama or to offer their lame ideologies and drawn out opinions when it comes to athletics but this is a whole different topic. Again, tonight I am specifically talking about not giving into the temptation of immediately posting whatever comes to mind.
We all know it and feel it but let me state the obvious…everyone feels a lot stronger and cooler behind a computer or an iPhone.  Ego goes up and accountability goes down. When a status, a picture, or a tweet appears on the screen that you might not agree with or appreciate, it really becomes all too hard not to say something. I mean might as well stand up for what you believe in and take on the hero role, right? Who knows, your witty comment/reply could get a whole bunch of “likes” or retweets. The problem is, when you respond with the first thought or opinion that comes to your head, you usually come off as angry, bitter, and not very smart.

Because as part of my job I manage a social media network with over 100,000 people in constant dialogue about a very passionate subject, I see people make fools out of themselves all the time.  Usually when someone makes a dumb remark, I will let the online community police it themselves and put the person in their place. After all, I am very fortunate to have a majority of classy, intelligent users who make up our audience. Only when someone makes a comment that is so off base and egregious will I step in as the administrator and set the record straight.

Even though I could call on several examples from what I do professionally, I would rather just keep it more general. When posting any comment on a social media platform, do it carefully and tactfully. If it is an issue that you are very passionate about, clearly think about what you want to say before you start typing away. Once you know exactly what you want to get across, I suggest typing out the comment on a Word document. By doing this you will protect against sending something accidentally when you don’t intend to AND protect against spelling/grammatical errors. There is nothing that makes a person look more like a dumbass than when they post something that is filled with anger and spelling mistakes.

Once you have crafted your message, sit on it a little bit before pasting it into whatever social media platform you are using. When it comes to e-mail, my boss always says to wait a full day after composing an e-mail that expresses anger/disappointment/controversy before actually sending it. Because social media issues are a little more timely as dialogue moves much faster, I suggest waiting an hour before sending out your thoughts. I know this might seem like overkill for a 160 character opinion or a Facebook status comment but in reality it is not. Remember, you are dealing with your reputation.

Just a few points:
Do delete a Facebook comment you make that is stupid. If you unfortunately post something that you should not have, or something that is inaccurate, get rid of it. Yes, you still will take heat for posting it and you do concede defeat when you take down your comment but it is better than leaving it up there for people to continue to see. Side Note: My friend Chris (another person who monitors lots of social media) and I have a tally going on the number of people who rescind their comments by deleting them after they are presented with the facts…just a small victory for us.
Don’t immediately cast judgment as live events unfold. This point usually pertains to sporting events. Many times a bang-bang play will occur that is very close and people will immediately jump to Twitter or Facebook to complain that a bad call was made, especially if they happen to be at the event in person and do not have all of the television replays at their disposal. Don’t be that guy who blasts an umpire or referee when in fact the right call was made. That is just embarrassing.
Do keep comments positive as much as possible. If you do have the need to post about something immediately, make sure it is positive. Always cast your comments and posts in an optimistic light. Do your best not to come across as bitter. Stay away from commenting on posts that already have a negative slant. Remember, split second negative responses rarely come out eloquently.
Don’t talk about a situation or topic that you know nothing about. I can’t stress this one enough. This applies not just for posting on a whim but for posting period. Stick to what you know. Never try to interpret another person’s posts either, especially if it is someone you don’t know. Again, there is no honor in volunteering your input on something you don’t have a clue about.

Keep utilizing social media for the many good things it offers. Don’t feel like you have to be the first person to comment or tweet. Remember, there is no one sitting next to you with a gun to your head forcing you to immediately post something while you sit at your computer or dabble on your iPhone. Take it easy and take it slow. Don’t Blink.

Thanks, Jim

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Last Thursday was a very dark and sad day for my place of work, a day that negatively impacted myself and every single employee in The University of Montana Athletic Department. In what seemed like the biggest punch in the gut one could get, we learned that morning in a last minute mandatory meeting that our athletic director and head football coach had been let go. To see two outstanding individuals ousted so fast sickened us all. I will not address the reasoning (or lack thereof) or my opinion of the terminations in this post because I have absolutely no business doing so. However, what I will address is my admiration and respect for Jim O’Day, the man who served as athletic director for Grizzly Athletics for eight years. In this tribute to Jim, I want to share why he was such a great boss and an even better person.

Let me start off broadly by saying that Jim O’Day was extremely effective as an athletic director. In order to be a great boss you must excel at your own job and responsibilities and Jim mastered this. He presided over an era in Grizzly Athletics that saw unparalleled success. On the field, majority of our teams experienced great results. Big Sky Conference titles, NCAA Tournament appearances, and FCS title games were abundant. Academically, a new bar was established. Under Jim’s watch, two Presidents Cup trophies (most prestigious award in our conference that combines academic and athletic success) were claimed by Montana. Several new building projects were started and finished. Montana separated itself from our rival, Montana State. Jim expanded the reach of our university by honorably serving on many prestigious national committees and boards. Student athletes took a much larger role becoming active in the Missoula community and making a difference. Jim sniffed out the shifting trend in intercollegiate athletics in regards to social media and he made sure that Montana did not get left behind. He also took an athletic department that had suffered some wounds financially right when he inherited the job and turned it into a money-maker. In all ways, he grabbed control of the department and made it prosper.

In order to be a great boss you need the personal achievements that Jim undoubtedly had but you also need something else: leadership. Jim O’Day was a leader in every sense of the word. People gravitated towards him. Always visible and available despite a ridiculous schedule, there was never a doubt on who was running Grizzly Athletics. Jim had a gift for talking in front of people and whether it was in a meeting, a banquet, an interview,  or a one-on-one conference, he spoke eloquently and confidently. Always encouraging his staff to keep checklists and stay on task, he offered us the guidance and resources to succeed. Leaders don’t limit their staffs, they let them grow and Jim did that. Despite having an unwavering loyalty towards his staff, he also demonstrated leadership to all of us by how he interacted with people who had different viewpoints and agendas from the athletic department’s. During times where I would have liked to just blow off a person, group, or entity that I felt was not worth our time or trouble, Jim would not leave them in the dark and would not allow us to either. He taught me how important it is for a leader to not burn bridges and to always nourish relationships, no matter how unbalanced or stressful they might seem.

While Jim was a leader, he was also a servant. He gave so much to the state, the Missoula community, The University of Montana, and most importantly to him, Grizzly Athletics. There was no one who was more selfless with their time and resources than Jim. Every function, every fundraiser, every funeral, every wedding, every graduation party, and every cause that Jim could attend, he would. He gave everything he had to support what he loved most. You asked Jim to do something, he would do it. There was no such thing as being “too busy” for him. If someone from several years back needed a letter of recommendation, they would get it. If an athlete from long ago wanted recognition in our hall of champions, Jim would make sure he/she would get in. If someone wanted a poster or a t-shirt, he would make sure their request got filled. Make no mistake about it, Jim could have easily and rightfully gotten away with concentrating more on his important leadership duties but that was not him…he always wanted to give back and to serve.
A big part of why Jim was so successful and so loved was because he was such a genuine people person. If you live in Missoula, over the past few days you have probably heard plenty of stories from people talking about what a nice and caring man Jim is. The guy pretty much knew every person in the state, no one was beneath him. He knew the name of every single athlete in our department. He knew the names of my interns and would always take the time to talk to them and engage them in a meaningful conversation. If you went out to dinner with Jim O’Day you better have been ready for an onslaught of random people coming up to the table and shaking his hand. He was a legitimate celebrity without the ego. When someone came up and talked to Jim I would watch him make the person feel like a god and put a smile on his/her face. I would sometimes then ask Jim who the person was and Jim would respond with the person’s name, hometown, occupation, and family details. The stuff he retained in his head was incredible. No one who actually knew Jim disliked him.

The main reason why Jim was such an effective boss? (You know, besides being extremely effective, a great leader, a selfless servant, and a people person). It is because of the man’s class and integrity. No one can touch that…not the media, not critics, not a university president.  Jim did what was right at all times. He never cheated or looked for a short cut. He was first to congratulate a coach or player who defeated a Griz team and he never looked to embarrass an opponent or adversary.  Jim knew he was the walking billboard for Grizzly Athletics and he safeguarded it with every ounce of his being. In an industry where high profile athletic directors and head coaches take on egos and personalities that set them apart from others, Jim did just the opposite. Jim stayed true to his classy nature to the very end. In that terrible meeting he stayed strong the whole time, telling us to do the same and stick together. He didn’t take any parting shots, he didn’t criticize the decision. When he came down to say goodbye to us in the marketing department he kept it together when none of us could. Again, he echoed the same message, stay strong.
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I already miss Jim. I miss him telling me “good job” for doing the most remedial tasks. I miss the “nice work” e-mails for completing the more challenging tasks. I miss watching him shake the hand of every athlete and coach as they walk off the field or court. I miss him coming downstairs into our offices and checking up on us and telling us to “get to work.” I miss him starting up conversations with me based on the stupid stuff I posted on my Twitter account. I miss the jokes and laughs we would have as a staff at his expense. I miss the dinners we would all share together after games. I miss his sense of humor and positive attitude.

I miss the best boss I ever had. Don’t Blink.

One of My Best Experiences: 2012 NCAA Tournament

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This past week I had the opportunity to travel with the Montana Grizzly Basketball team to the 2012 NCAA Tournament.  I had an absolutely amazing time.

The NCAA Selection Committee decided to send us out to Albuquerque, New Mexico, for the second and third rounds of the tournament. While Portland, Oregon, was probably everyone’s top choice on where to go, Albuquerque was definitely number two. Not only did we get a favorable geographic location, we also got a favorable seeding. The Selection Committee tabbed us as a #13 seed and set us up with a matchup against Wisconsin on Thursday.


Our Montana contingent left Missoula on Tuesday morning. Three buses that consisted of the players/coaches and their spouses, athletic staff, media personnel, the Dance Team, and our pep band left campus at 10:30am en route to the Missoula airport. Escorted by the Missoula Police, we had a hero’s send off as people lined the sidewalks as we drove down Broadway Street. It was so cool to see all the support and pride that Missoula has for the program.  We got to the airport and went through security. One of the perks about going on these special trips is that you get to fly charter. That means you don’t have to worry about checking in, checking luggage, or hauling big bags all around. Everything is pre-arranged and pretty much done for you. After eating lunch at the gate, we boarded our plane.

Me just about to board the bus and start the trip to Albuquerque.


The plane ride had a couple of little quirks thrown in. First, we were delayed on the ground for about a half hour. Once we finally got in the air, it was pretty much smooth sailing. However, as we started to fly over Albuquerque and descend into the city we all of a sudden flew out and ascended higher into the air. It turned out that because of our late start, the schedule had been messed up a little bit and other planes were landing at the time. So we had to spend some extra time in the New Mexico skies joyriding around before we were finally cleared to land. Once we touched down on Albuquerque soil, we picked up our luggage that was conveniently waiting for us right outside of the plane and hopped on buses to take us to our hotel. The first thing that hit me upon our arrival in Albuquerque was the beautiful weather. In the low seventies and sunny, my mood was sky high.

The NCAA put us up in the Marriott Pyramid in the north part of Albuquerque. The hotel was definitely the Luxor of New Mexico and it was very nice. The lobby was gorgeous with waterfalls, nice furniture, a restaurant, and a lounge. Streamers strung from the ceiling cascaded down the ten floors, giving it a really cool look. NCAA Tournament banners were hung all over the place, reminding everyone of the  major event that was going on. The NCAA also placed the UNLV Basketball team at our hotel as well since they were playing in the South Region, making it so we would not play them in the initial rounds.
Our hotel, the Marriott Pyramid. Very nice and classy.
By the time we all got checked into the hotel and settled, it was around 4:30pm. We spent that first night pretty much just hanging out as a staff. With the team getting concentrated on Wisconsin, we as a staff just enjoyed each other’s company and watched the First Four games that were going on that night. Later on a bunch of us ventured out to a restaurant called El Pinto for dinner. It was the start of a whole bunch of Mexican food that I would consume on the trip. I gobbled down chips and salsa and had a mammoth burrito that was very tasty and spicy. The best part though? The margaritas! At El Pinto they make them the real way by cutting out the artificial margarita mix and using lime juice. The fact that the tequila was Patron Silver also added to the taste. It was the best couple margaritas I had ever had in my life. The best way I could explain the taste was to say it was as if I was drinking the liquid version of Trix cereal. It was also at the restaurant where I first learned the mini obsession that New Mexico has with putting red and green chilis into everything!
Doug and Megan at the El Pinto bar as we wait for our table.

We got back to the hotel and once again gathered as a staff to just enjoy each other’s company, chit-chat, and watch sports. I stayed up until around 2am talking with our radio announcer and one of the basketball managers before hitting the hay.

I awoke at 7:30am the next morning, showered, and went down to the hotel lobby where I caught up on necessary work as I updated our website and social media outlets. Joining me in the lobby were several staff members who were tending to the activities that were going on that day. At 10am, I went right outside the hotel with Christie as we watched the Dance Team and band practice. It was another amazing day out. I had not felt so comfortable in a long time as I stood outside in the beautiful New Mexico morning sun.

The Dance Team practicing in the beautiful weather.

After practice I hopped on the bus and we went out to the University of New Mexico campus for the basketball team’s practice. The team practiced at the venue they would play at tomorrow, the famous facility known as The Pit. The arena holds around 16,000 people and is simply a great facility. Even though it was decked out for the NCAA Tournament, the New Mexico Lobos presence was everywhere, serving as an example of successful branding. The practice itself was pretty much just a formality. For one hour the team just got loose, ran some basic drills, and became accustomed with the floor they would be playing on. After that practice they would go to a local high school for a more intense and traditional closed session.

The team practicing in The Pit.

After practice I returned to the hotel and by this time I was starving. Jimmy, Christie, and myself ate lunch at the hotel restaurant. I don’t believe I have ever mentioned Jimmy in one of my posts before but he is our Assistant Athletic Director for Business and Finance. Not only does he keep all of our money straight, he also arranges all of the team travel…pretty big job if I do say so myself. At lunch I ordered the chicken macaroni and cheese. Once again, it came with green chilis. Anyway, I think it may have been the best macaroni and cheese I had ever had in my life besides what my mom makes and despite how hungry I was and how much I love mac and cheese, I was not even able to eat it all!! That is how big it was.
Me with my macaroni and cheese.
After lunch, we got back into the buses.  Christie, our dance team coach Megan, and I took the band and dance team to a major shopping mall area. It was fun traveling to the shopping area and seeing all of the different businesses and buildings in Albuquerque. Once we dropped off the students at the mall, the three of us went to a place called St. Clair Winery and Bistro and we sampled some wine. Megan ordered some chicken macaroni and cheese. While it looked good, it did not compare to what I had a couple hours earlier. We left the winery and walked the sunny streets of Albuquerque, entering into an area called Old Town. Random shops and old structures lined the area. After looking around a little bit, we headed into a hole in the wall restaurant called Old Church Café. We sat out on the back patio and over some chips and salsa and margaritas we simply just chatted and enjoyed ourselves under the sun. At that point I made a note in my head how lucky I was to be there, it was one of my best memories of the trip.
Myself, Christie, and Megan at Old Church Cafe. One of my favorite moments of the trip.
The bus then picked us up and we went back to the hotel. After hanging out with the staff some more, we took the Dance Team and band out to another Mexican restaurant called Sadie’s. After the dancers and band members got seated, the three of us went to a different area in the restaurant to relax. It was here that Christie and I met a guy all the way from Baltimore who talked to us about how he became a Griz fan the moment he saw our football team on ESPN against Appalacian State in our classic semi-final  night game played in the snow from a couple years back. We had a great time chatting and he assured us he would cheer on the Griz tomorrow. I had enchiladas at this place and just like everywhere else, the food was amazing. At Sadie’s they also had a serve-yourself chips and salsa station. No need to wait for refills! I thought that was pretty cool.
My meal at Sadie’s. So good!

After dinner we returned to the hotel and once again it was more staff bonding time. I think one of the best parts of all this time we got to spend together as a staff was getting to know people you did not know very well (or in some cases even at all) before. By this time, my mind was starting to focus on the game tomorrow and my adrenaline started to pump a little bit. Later on in the night, Megan, Doug (assistant director in the equipment room), a couple people from our student government, and I went out for a little bit. Being the younger people on the trip aside from the student athletes, band, and dance team, we had a little more energy than some of the other staff members. We returned to the hotel and then Megan, Doug, and I stayed up and talked until around 5am. As I said, it was just tough to sleep with an NCAA Tournament game looming the next day. In fact, after Doug and Megan went to bed, I just made it an all-nighter…no sleep for this guy.

Myself, Megan, and Doug.

At 7am I showered and caught up on updating everything on the web and socially. I got put in charge of giving all of the people in our travel party their tickets for the game. I ate breakfast in the hotel restaurant with Jerek (our video person) and a couple of the local sports anchors who had made the trip with us. I had the New Mexico omelette that came with chorizo sausage, cheese, peppers, and you guessed it…green chilis. After breakfast we hopped on the buses and made the trip down to The Pit…it was show time.

When we arrived at The Pit, excitement was starting to build outside of the arena. Several Griz fans were gathering around the gates and I was passing out WE ARE MONTANA cards to them. Again, the weather was beautiful. Christie and I entered through the media entrance and made sure the dance team and mascot were settled in one of the New Mexico weightrooms so they could warm up and stretch. I then went out to the floor and sat on the team bench and just looked around for a few minutes. Looking at the court, press row, television cameras, and various NCAA officials actually made me get a little emotional. Here I was courtside at the NCAA Tournament…the thing that I had watched religiously for the past fifteen years of my life and believed to be the greatest sporting event in the world. It was a little surreal and a little magical.

Christie and I outside The Pit.
Watching our team take the floor and then our dance team and Monte take their positions under the basket gave me a huge sense of pride. Walking around the floor area pre-game was a little chaotic as cameramen, security, NCAA officials, media personnel, and others were moving all around. Although exciting, I was happy when the National Anthem was performed and the game was about to begin. Christie, Megan, and I sat front row in one of the corners of the arena so we could be right by the Dance Team and Monte. The Pit employs ushers who wear distinctive red coats. The one right next to us three informed us that he was rooting for Montana.
Getting Monte ready to go!

At 12:10pm on Thursday, March 15, the Montana Grizzlies tipped off against the Wisconsin Badgers. Most of you know how the game went. For the first half, the Griz stayed right with Wisconsin. Although trailing by ten points at half, it was a very competitive first twenty minutes. When the second half started, Wisconsin started to pull away. The lead started to extend. At one point,  the lead was cut back to ten points on back-to-back three pointers but it was not meant to be.  Wisconsin beat Montana 73-49.

Me at the tournament.

After the game, Christie, Megan, and I went to the press conference to support our team. Behind the disappointment, it was really cool to see how a major press conference is conducted and set up. Seeing the media workroom was also a neat site. We walked around The Pit for a little bit and then we went back to our seats and watched the Vanderbilt-Harvard game. Vandy ended up winning the game but would eventually fall to Wisconsin on Saturday.
At the press conference after the game.

After our game ended, word quickly got around that we would be leaving at 8pm that night. After the Vandy-Harvard game we got back on the buses to go back to the hotel and pack. Before we packed though, a bunch of us shared one last meal at the hotel restaurant. As we ate and chatted, I realized that I really did not want to leave New Mexico.

Megan got macaroni and cheese one more time.

We got on the buses and headed to the airport. Our buses pulled right up to the plane and we went through security in the dark right when we got out of the bus. We got on the plane and I immediately fell right asleep. When I opened my eyes next, we were landing in Missoula. We were greeted by a cold, consistent rain. The buses took us back  to campus and I trekked from where we were dropped off to my car which seemed like a thousand miles away. Once I reached my car sopping wet I got in and drove back to my house.

Despite the early exit in the NCAA Tournament, I had a wonderful time in Albuquerque. It was a true highlight for me and something that I feel very fortunate to have experienced. I love working for Grizzly Athletics and I love working with the people who I work with. This trip could not have confirmed those two facts any more. Don’t Blink.

Christie and I…what a great trip.

Strange Sounds in Missoula

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This weekend while I was checking my Twitter feed I saw something that caught my attention. The tweet was from one of the major local radio personalities in Missoula and it read “strange sounds heard over skies of Missoula, Montana.” There was then a link after it. Because of the type of person I am, I immediately clicked on it (will explain in a little bit).
The link took me to a video that this radio personality took himself. Okay, so I don’t refer to him as a “radio personality” for the rest of this post, let me introduce you to Aaron Traylor. Also known as “The Tallest DJ In America” (Aaron stands 6’10), Traylor is a local celebrity. He has shaped not only the current music and party scene in Missoula, he has also pretty much created and pioneered the social media realm here in the Zoo as well. There is no one who is followed more on Facebook and Twitter than Traylor himself and his station, 107.5 Zoo FM.  He has gotten to this prominent spot in the Missoula landscape through hard work, savviness, great marketing, and risk taking. He is also controversial.
I clicked on Aaron’s link and watched the video. For those of you who are unable to view/hear it, you are missing out on the discussion. Aaron is on a playground and there is this eerie noise filling the sky. Definitely hard to describe but think of a high pitched, vibrating, alarm grabbing type sound. Think of any sound that you would associate with a UFO science-fiction type movie and you have an idea of the sound that is dominating the audio of the video.  The setting of the video just intensifies the spookiness as well. It is recorded on a pretty much deserted playground, a dog runs to Aaron as the strange sounds hit a peak, and there is a single little child stalking across the snowy surface (the child is really just Aaron’s little girl but it definitely adds impact to it).
When I first watched it I didn’t really know what to think. I am a sucker for anything supernatural, unexplainable, or apocalyptical. This type of stuff has interested me since I was a little kid and it still fascinates me to this day. I grew up watching Unsolved Mysteries and checking out ghost books at the library. I was a huge fan of the X-Files and I always loved watching shows and reading literature that dealt with alien abductions. I would love to make visits to Roswell and Area  51. The fact that this video was occurring right in Missoula made it even more exciting for me. However, the other side of me told me that this was an account told by a highly successful radio DJ. As I said, Aaron has made a name for himself by being edgy and controversial. It is the name of the business…it is how you are successful. Because I had heard nothing about this incident from the local newspaper  or the local media outlets, I did not know really what to think.
I became more skeptical when I watched a link that was attached to Aaron’s video. The link took you to another place in the country where the exact same thing was happening. This place was Amarillo, Texas, and when you first hear the location it seems convincing. But then you watch the video and doubts start to swirl. It just so happens that the group that recorded the sounds in Amarillo is a sister station of 107.5 Zoo FM. Not only that, but I found the whole video a little on the cheesy side. A local DJ is spooked over the noises conveniently heard right outside the radio station. He walks down the hallway and reaches the room where his other DJ friend is broadcasting, just in the nick of time to hear the whole station identification proclaimed by the on-duty DJ. The two DJs then enter into a discussion where the word “dude” is used about fifty times and the dialogue seems just a little…how shall I put it…rehearsed. It made me almost give up on the whole thing.
But then I read on in Aaron’s account where he said these noises have been happening all across the world. I immediately began a totally unofficial Google research session. Sure enough, these strange sounds in the sky are pretty much a phenomenon that is happening all over the place that has started since the beginning of 2012. I read articles and watched video of similar occurrences, ones that did not have verbally challenged DJs from Texas. I felt a little dumb for not hearing about this earlier.
As more and more of these “strange sounds” incidents pop up, about the same amount of scientific explanations are offered. When it comes to these scientific solutions, the one I came across the most is that the sounds are a reflection of something weird that is going on underneath the earth as plates move and such. Not my area of expertise.  When it comes to the Missoula incident, many people are attributing either the railroad or the airport as the culprit. While science does take some of the fun and mystery away from the sounds, we really can’t just take these academic solutions simply as fact. I mean obviously some of them are wrong if there are so many.
Since Saturday, I have watched as a mini uproar has come to surface in Missoula. In the middle of this all is Aaron. People have called him a liar and discounted his story. I have watched as he has steadfastly stated that this is not a publicity stunt. He has said his sleep has been impacted by the sounds and his mind is constantly on it. As I have heard him respond to the criticism I have definitely decided that I believe that the sounds Aaron recorded are legitimate. Whether they are the product of a simple scientific explanation or an alien invasion I don’t know. But I don’t believe it is a hoax.
I will continue to follow this story. I want to hear the sounds. I want to record them with my flip camera and post on my Facebook page. I want to be spooked a little bit and have my heart jump….I love that feeling. If anyone else has heard these noises please let me know, I would like nothing more than to pick your brain about them. Keep an ear open, Missoula! Don’t Blink.

Deleting Social Media Accounts

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I make it no secret that I love social media. Numerous times I have expressed my admiration for it through this blog. Social media is dominant in our society right now and it is only going to keep getting bigger. If you have a good grasp on SM, you know all of the great things it can do such as reconnect old friendships, start new ones, keep you in touch with what is going on in the world, entertain you, share your thoughts, etc. However, as I have also expressed through my writings in this blog, social media does not always produce positive results.
Social media is a very powerful drama generator. Very easily, people can take their drama that started in the real world and take it into the social media realm. Things can then get pretty nasty. Likewise, drama can start entirely inside the social media world as well. A picture here, a comment taken out of context there, or an accepted friend request can all help to stir the pot. From what I have observed, people will usually deal with social media drama by going to one of two extremes.
The first extreme entails waging a full out war on social media, whether it be by chastising someone on his/her Facebook wall or just via your own Facebook status or by dropping Twitter bombs at the person’s expense. The people who resort to social media attacks are very immature people who probably have very low self-esteem. Of course there are many different ways to participate in this extreme besides the general ones I just mentioned. In fact, for the true snakes out there, there are many ways to stick it to someone through social media. In case you just started reading my blog, I actually wrote a whole post on these different methods. So since I have already explained this unfortunate extreme, I want to focus on the other one.
The other end of the spectrum when it comes to the dealing of social media drama attracts the much more mature and less manipulative people.  Instead of battling it out to see who can be the wittiest, meanest, and cruelest, they decide to just fall on the sword.  They delete all of their social media accounts.
Usually this is a kneejerk decision that was the result of a broken relationship, a friendship gone bad,  a rumor that manifested itself socially, or just plain paranoia. From my experiences, the elimination of social media accounts by a person happens quickly and a lot of times out of the blue. One day your friend is tweeting every two seconds and the next day there is no longer a trace of their username or of the 10,000+ tweets they had sent over the past two years. Or one day your co-worker puts up an album of a fun road trip on Facebook and you happened to be tagged in quite a few of the pictures. Then, the next day you log on and see that your picture count has decreased by twenty and the reason for that is that all the pictures that your friend recently posted have disappeared, along with his/her Facebook account.
Although going to the extreme of eliminating one’s social media accounts is a much more noble move than going to the other extreme of slinging mud, I still strongly advise against it. Extremes are never good, even if one is better than the other.
By pulling the plug on your social media outlets, you are single handedly destroying your personal brand. After you press the delete button, all the time and effort you poured into these accounts to reflect your own unique persona will now mean absolutely nothing. There was a time not too long ago where people cringed about employers seeing their Facebook and Twitter pages. The thought out there was that these types of accounts were unprofessional and incriminating. Not so anymore. Everyone has Facebook and Twitter these days, starting with someone who works in a position like myself all the way up to the President of the United States. If you are active in social media it does not mean that you are slacking, it means you are active and engaged. It means you are relevant.
When I Google my name, it returns a lot of results that I have absolutely no control over. I am not saying that these results are negative, I am just saying I don’t have control over them. However, I have complete control over my Facebook account and my Twitter account. And guess what? They both appear in the top five in my returned search results. If I eliminated my social media accounts and a prospective employer or another important person Googled my name, they would get a string of results that had absolutely nothing personal, engaging, or fun. The person who Goggled me would probably think I was out of touch with the current world.
It is also just bad practice to delete your social media accounts because then you are pretty much just giving into the person (or people) you deleted your accounts because of.  Don’t concede to them and don’t give them that satisfaction that they really got under your skin. Please also think of the other people you might impact by getting rid your accounts. What if you have an aunt who lives a thousand miles away who has her day brightened every time she logs onto Facebook and sees a new picture of you pop up in her newsfeed. Or how crushed would your mom be if she could no longer keep tabs on you by checking your page and getting her assurance that you are doing okay.
By putting the kibosh on your social networks you are not only isolating yourself from the rest of your friends and family you are also isolating yourself from the world. Sure, you can still get your news from the TV, newspaper, and non-social internet sites but you are missing the one thing that Facebook and Twitter provide that distinguishes themselves from these other mediums…interaction. The world is unfolding right in front of our eyes and  the conversation is taking place over social media. Don’t miss out.
Think long and hard before deleting your social media accounts. Don’t make it a spur of the moment decision. If you do delete them, make sure you do it in a way that will allow you to recover them in the future if you decide that you want to reconnect. Remember, don’t go to an extreme. If you find yourself in the middle of social media drama just don’t participate in it. If you feel like you are being violated or “stalked” by someone on one of your accounts, block their ass. Just make sure to stay somewhere in the middle and hold your ground. It is important to have a respected, solid social media presence. Don’t let anyone ruin that for you. Don’t Blink.

Reminiscing About the Past

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One interesting piece of human nature that I notice a lot is the tendency for people to be nostalgic about everything and feel that the way things were done back in the past were so much better than the way they are done today. While it’s nice to look back and reminisce we need to keep in mind the context of those earlier times and not just let our imaginations take over.
Elderly people are stereotyped all the time as folks who long for the past and who start pretty much every other sentence with the phrase “Back in the good ol’ days….” They will talk about how great life was when there was no cable television, no internet, fewer vehicles than today, stricter parents, harder schools, drive in movies, Coca-Colas for five cents, etc. Of course all of us younger people know that these “archaic” times were not better than the world we live in today. However, we humor the older generation because they believe so passionately that their times and experiences “back in the day” were superior to what is going on currently.
But you know what? It is not just old people who assume everything in the past was so much better than the present. It seems to me like a good portion of society, all ages included, fall victim to this thinking. Nothing is as good as it once was, nothing will ever be able to measure up to something that happened five years ago.
 The Super Bowl this past Sunday really seemed to drive this point home to me. It seemed to me like the same old people had the same old critiques and criticisms, mainly “The commercials sucked this year and the halftime show sucked this year.” I hear this every single Super Bowl. Just because you watch a commercial and don’t laugh your ass off does not mean it was a bad commercial, or that it failed compared to commercials of the past. Chances are that the party you were at was too loud for you to pick up on everything in the commercial and you missed something that actually did make the ad funny. Or perhaps you were distracted with everything that was going on around you and turned to the commercial half way in…I know this happened to me a lot. Or maybe you were just too drunk to comprehend what was going on. Even if you paid your undivided, sober attention to each commercial and were still unhappy with them, then fine, you are entitled to your opinion. But don’t say that they sucked compared to previous years.
When I talk to people my age and they tell me that the halftime show just blew this year, I want to pick their brain a little. If you seriously think that Madonna this year and the Black Eyed Peas last year paled in comparison to shows of the past, you suffer from the “back in the ol’ days” syndrome that I discussed earlier. Do you realize what some of the past shows have been? In order of the most recent, here are the past six shows after the Black Eyed Peas performed in Super Bowl XLV: The Who, Bruce Springsteen, Tom Petty, Prince, The Rolling Stones, and Paul McCartney. Now I realize these acts were awesome at one time but by today’s standards they belong in retirement homes. The Black Eyed Peas killed it last year with a show that was full of pyrotechnics, cool effects, and #1 songs but people still critiqued it to no end. Madonna this Super Bowl was good. She sang good songs that everyone knew and the surprise guests (Minaj, LMFAO, Cee-Lo, M.I.A.) added a lot to it. Don’t begin to tell me that Bruce Springsteen standing on stage singing his old songs topped the last two shows. Compared to shows of the past, the halftime show on Sunday was good.
Of course it is just not the Super Bowl where people say that things just aren’t the way they used to be. One of my good friends has such a skewed sense of the Missoula social scene. He will regularly complain to me that the bars in downtown Missoula are just not the way they used to be. He will complain that they are not as packed, the girls are not as hot, and there are fewer people that he knows. But come on, what do you expect? You are pushing twenty-six. Bodega and Stocks seem much different when you are a fresh twenty year old student newbie on the scene as opposed to a dude in the latter half of his twenties who has not sat in a classroom for over two years. Don’t  complain about Maggotfest either, it did not downgrade this past year, a new generation is just moving in. Halloween at the bars doesn’t seem as fun either? Maybe it is time to hang up the costume. Not happy with Testy Fest anymore, either? Consider that a good thing. You had your fun, the fact that you believe that everything I outlined above has taken a step down might just be your cue to move on.
People will complain about food not being as good as it once was too! They will be convinced that the pizza at a certain place that has not changed its recipe in fifty years is on the decline. They just don’t make it like they used to. Whatever. As you grow older your taste buds change and expectations alter. Most likely, the times when you scarfed down that plate of pancakes at the diner when it was “the best” was when you were probably living out your younger days that were more than likely a lot of fun. Truthfully, when you are young and in your prime, things just taste better, standards are lower. No, the food did not change…the person did.
It is funny, you can take a certain thing away from someone and give them a vastly superior thing of similar nature, and people will complain that the new thing is not as good as the old. Growing up I lived across the street from  a park. In this park we had a playground jungle gym type area that was made out of wood. It was shitty but we still played on it every day. The time came when the park management had to demolish the decaying wood structure. In its place they installed a state of the art, colorful, modern playground complex. It came with twisty slides, crazy monkey bars, a glider, and multiple bridges. All of us neighbor kids after about six months started reminiscing about the old playground and how it was so much better than the new one we had. It was asinine.
Adults act this way too. This past year at the athletic department I work at we premiered a brand new, awesome pump up video that we play before our football team comes out. It is probably the most exciting moment in the game day experience that we offer. Despite the fact that we introduced a video that was no doubt as good as any other of its kind in intercollegiate athletics, there were still people who wanted to see a version of the pump up video that came out ten years ago. For whatever misguided reasons they had in their head, they believed that back ten years ago everything was bigger and better. Truth is, if they were to sit down and watch the low quality, static video from ten years ago and then watch the product we put out this past season, they would laugh out loud at the dramatic differences between the two videos and then their laughter would subside into embarrassment for their faulty memory.
This post is getting long so let me just point out a few more examples of people thinking that the past was so much better than the present. 1. My high school football team from twenty years ago would beat the team that my alma matter has this year (No way of telling that, but most likely because of strength programs and the year-round nature of high school athletics today, your team from twenty years ago would most likely get killed by the present day team).  2. When I was a high school/college student, we had so much more spirit, attitude, and fun compared to the present day class (Things change over time and you like to think that no one can quite live up to what your class did/accomplished but chances are that they are exceeding it). 3. Holidays aren’t like they used to be (As the years go by, the magic lessens and lessens, making the holidays less enjoyable. I suggest you celebrate holidays for the right reasons). 4. Facebook gets worse and worse with each update. Can’t we just turn back the clock six years and get the old Facebook back? (No, we can’t. Actually, Facebook gets better and better with each update. See a post I have done on this subject).   5. The world as a whole is a worse place now than it used to be (How about you change that?).
Our minds are tempted to embrace nostalgia at the expense of the present moment. Unless you have quantitative figures and stats to compare a present event/product/experience with a past event/product/experience, don’t do it. Human memory is just too unreliable. Don’t Blink.

People Who Think They Know About Sports

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I have a few pet peeves that I detest. They include standing in line, excuses, people who are late, liars, and laziness.  In addition, I have an additional pet peeve that I seem to encounter every single day: People talking about a subject that they know nothing about. Now I hear people spout off in pure ignorance about basically every single subject under the sun but what I can’t stand the most, and what I do hear the most, are people who jabber about sports when they should just shut up.
Of course this hits me the hardest because I grew up with sports, played sports, and work in sports. I know all of you out there who have a certain profession or interest must cringe whenever you engage in a conversation with, or just simply overhear, someone talking about your passion with the confidence that they know it like the back of their hand. It is maddening.
Because sports is such a major part of society, especially where I live and the campus that I work on, I understand that it is going to be a subject that is discussed frequently. I welcome this and think that it is great.  I appreciate when people ask questions about sports, offer general/factual statements and opinions,  share their enthusiasm for a team or a game, or preface whatever they say with something like “I am not an expert on this but I think…” or “I admit I don’t understand this but to me… .” Where I have a problem is when a person or group of people start talking out of their asses about something they know nothing about (such as a rule, a coaching decision, statistics, personnel moves, or any of the finer points of sports) with the conviction that they are preaching God’s truth.
I experience these type of people mostly at the gym. Mainly I am subjected to this clueless banter from the time I set foot in the locker room through my time up on the weight room floor. As I have said before, I work out on campus at the rec center. Since about June, I have started working out during the lunch hour. This time slot attracts a lot of male university employees, professors, and retirees. They like to work out in little packs. For most of these people, this time is not really about working out, it is more about socializing and giving themselves the impression that they are working out. Fair enough, I try to just zone them out and do my thing. Students also strut around the gym talking sports with the attitude that they are Scott van Pelt. Just some things that I overheard today, keep in mind that it was the day after the BCS title game: Nick Saban is leaving Alabama for a higher paying job elsewhere, there will be a BCS playoff next year, Jim McElwain is becoming the defensive coordinator at Florida and Brent Pease is becoming the head coach at Colorado State, and Brent Musburger attended The University of Montana. I hear people spread misinformation like this on a daily basis. What really gets me though, and where I really have to hold my tongue, is when I both talk with people and overhear people talk about the Griz. You would be surprised at how many people just don’t have any idea about what is going on with the various UM teams. But since Grizzly Athletics is the number one draw in town, people are always going to be talking about them…no matter if they have a clue or not.
I think guys are especially prone to talk about sports and give off the false impression that they know what they are talking about just because it is kind of the masculine, macho thing to do. I mean you can pretty much prove your manhood if you can participate in a solid sports discussion. But come on now, cars are also a masculine subject that guys like to talk about. You could put my knowledge of cars into a thimble but that does not mean that I am going to act like I know the difference between a 1967 ferrari and a 1969 ferrari. Just save yourself the embarrassment of sounding like a complete idiot and avoid engaging in/starting a conversation that you really don’t know anything about. If a conversation starts innocently enough and is within your capabilities but it then becomes a little too advanced, simply claim ignorance. You will be much more respected if you do.
I want to make a distinction here. In this post I am pretty much calling out the people who walk around talking about a subject they don’t have much knowledge about. They are good people and have good intentions, they just get ahead of themselves and want to maybe fit in a little too much and act as if they know about the intricacies of athletics. These people are saints compared to the armchair quarterback losers I talked about in one of my most passionate posts ever. Just wanted to make that clear.
So again, stick to talking about what you know. If you don’t know something, don’t engage in the conversation. If you feel like you are missing out, do your homework and gain some knowledge on the subject. Remember, eventually someone will see through the BS. Don’t Blink.