Taking Time to Nap

Posted on March 22, 2014 by brent

I usually don’t take naps. For starters I normally never have time to take one. When I do have an hour of free time I rather do nerdy things like blog and tweet. Besides, in the past when I have taken short snoozess I have usually always felt worse when I woke up. Groggy, on edge, and hungry I wake up with a feeling of guilt and wasted time. However, sometimes I do find the perfect time to sneak a nap in.

Take this Saturday afternoon for example. After working the morning at our football scrimmage I came home to relax. At halftime of one of the NCAA Tournament games I decided to go from sitting on my comfortable couch to lying down on it. With the wind howling outside and nothing at the present moment to tend to I shut my eyes and fell asleep for about thirty minutes.

I felt completely at peace, had vivid dreams, and had the assuring sense in the back of my head that when I got up I would have basketball to watch. When I did open my eyes I didn’t feel guilty. I still had a full Saturday ahead of me and the nagging hunger that I usually have upon awakening was suppressed, most likely by the lunch I gobbled up minutes before I dozed off. It was totally worth it.

I think everyone can use a nap every now and then, even the guy who is obsessively fond of saying Don’t Blink. The time and the state of mind just need to be right. Now that I am good on naps for another six months it is time to go back to watching the tournament and of course blogging and tweeting. Don’t Blink.

Why I Choose Not to Fill Out a Bracket

Posted on March 20, 2014 by brent

When folks ask me if I filled out a March Madness bracket I always say no. I respond that way because it is 100% accurate, I choose not to go through the annual prognostication exercise of filling one out. However my reasons for not doing so go beyond NCAA regulations. As I mentioned in a recent post because I work in an intercollegiate athletics department I am forbidden from participating in any bracket competition where anything of value is at stake. This includes anything from a free dinner in a bet with a few of my friends to Warren Buffet’s $1,000,000,000 bracket challenge.

So what is stopping me from filling out a bracket just for the fun of it? Nothing, really. If I wanted to I could spend an evening penciling in six different brackets like many of my friends do. But I choose not to for various reasons, including:

I don’t know the teams in the field well enough. I don’t pay an adequate amount of attention to the college basketball landscape during the year to properly make decisions on the 67 total games that are played throughout the NCAA Tournament. I just don’t feel comfortable basically taking a wild guess on who would win a game between George Washington and Memphis. Not only did I not watch a single minute of the regular season of any of those two teams I also couldn’t tell you a single player or coach on either squad. I don’t like flipping a coin to determine which team should advance.

I hate the work that comes from maintaining a bracket and the blacked out disarray that results from it. Not only is putting streaks through my wrong predictions bad enough but the unreadable, sharpie soaked paper my bracket becomes confuses me on which teams are actually still alive in the tourney. Nothing is worse than when your Final Four team busts out in the second round and you got to scratch them out through the next several rounds. I rather watch over a blank bracket and fill it in as the action unfolds so that I have a clear picture of what is going on in the tournament rather than trying to decipher what is going on over my badly predicted sheet.

I also have a thing with being wrong over and over again. Like I said, I plead ignorance when it comes to superior knowledge of college basketball. Because of that I know if I fill out a bracket I am going to make wrong decisions…a lot. Instead of getting mad and ashamed about my terrible picks I rather just watch the tournament games in peace with no pressure. I prefer to watch a game and appreciate it for its unique twists and turns rather than stressing out over a random team I want to win solely because I made an uninformed decision picking them.

Another reason I decide to pass on filling out a bracket is I tire of telling people who I have going to the Final Four, which #12 seeds I have pulling an upset, and who my dark horse is to win it all. Going back to what I have said throughout this post I just feel unqualified to make such decisions so when people ask me these questions I feel like I am just spewing B.S. by answering them. Also, I will admit that in the years past when I have filled out brackets I commonly forgot who I chose as my Final Four, making myself feel very embarrassed when asked to state my picks. I also like to avoid the people who want to chastise my decisions or engage in needless debate.

Finally, I am lukewarm to the whole idea of filling out a bracket just because nothing is at stake for me. I stand to gain nothing. There are no consequences for my disastrous picks or reward for if I ever got incredibly lucky and managed to submit a decent bracket. To me, filling out a bracket “just for the heck of it” is a waste of time.

After the first day of the tournament (third day if you count the First Four games) I hope you are in the 0.4% of perfect brackets still out there. I think we were treated to some great basketball today and best of all I got to sit on my couch and watch all the evening games in comfort and free of stress. Can’t wait until tomorrow’s action. Don’t Blink.

Tweeting Smart vs. Tweeting Dumb

Posted on March 19, 2014 by brent

I have noticed more and more that some prominent people and national companies have started to embrace the hashtag, tagging, and shorthand culture we live in through every message they send out via Twitter. While I cringe enough at seeing friends and tweens compose tweets that contain no full words yet plenty of @ and # symbols I become blown away when professionals and important entities do the same.

A part of me dies when I see a semi-celebrity tweet something out like this: Can’t wait 2 see @BigMan453 & @FlyGurl34 2nite! We b #helping a good cause. Cum #support da kidz! #charity . Or when a respectable organization sends something like this out: ICYMI..Tonite join us 2 #celebrate #CustomerAppreciationDay at the @MustardSeed. #Free apps and #fun. CU there! #DontMissIt.

Twitter users who adopt this style look unprofessional, sabotage their message, and demonstrate a complete misunderstanding of how the social media service works.

As I said above shorthand is cool for 12-year olds, not for companies. When I see a business that misspells “cause” as “cuz” or “little” as “lil” I question whether their websites and other marketing materials employ those spelling mechanics as well. Same thing goes for when I see a respected journalist opt with “nvm” in a tweet instead of “nevermind” or mindlessly decides to use #traveling in the middle of a tweet rather than just traveling. It makes me wonder whether he actually graduated from high school and if he is just having someone else write his columns. Bottom line, this type of usage makes the company or person look childish…also known as unprofessional.

Most damaging, the method of using shorthand in combination with numerous hashtags and tags severely dilutes a tweet. The number one goal of social media should be to communicate, not to confuse. When I look at a tweet that hashtags every other word, mentions three people by their unrecognizable Twitter handles, and uses far-fetched abbreviations my head wants to explode. Accounts that utilize this strategy in hopes of cramming extra information in or in an attempt to look cool actually obtain the complete opposite and totally sabotage their social media Twitter effort. By all means utilize hashtags and mention someone by his or her Twitter handle now and then but don’t overdo it. When composing tweets we should be asking ourselves how we can be as clear and concise as possible. This differs tremendously from trying to put in as much “stuff” as possible. To illustrate my point let me use an example from my industry. What tweet do you think is more impactful?…

UMGRIZZLIES: Griz basketball vs. Idaho St. TONIGHT – 7 p.m., Dahlberg Arena. Enjoy a free t-shirt and see Kareem Jamar score 1,000 career points #GoGriz

UMGRIZZLIES: #Griz bball vs. #ISU 2night – 7 p.m. in @DahlbergArena. Get ur free #tshirt and see @Reem5Racks score #1,000 career points #GoGriz

See what I mean? Sacrificing a few characters for a much more clean and concise tweet trumps a jumbled up, hashtag plagued ramble any day. In the above tweet I know who the Griz are playing, who is going to reach a milestone, and what I stand to gain by going. All that I know with the second tweet is that I never want the person behind that account teaching my future kids grammar.

Finally, Twitter users show incompetence by littering tweets with hashtags and mentions. People and companies looking to get more engagement and hoping to get others to stumble on their account through this method will be very disappointed. Followers are gained by informative, witty, and interactive tweets. Followers are gained by strategically using specific hashtags based on research and backed by a marketing campaign. Followers are gained by demonstrating to the audience that a competent and intelligent voice is behind the Twitter account. Followers are lost and/or never found by sloppy, desperate tweets.

Always strive to inform followers rather than overwhelm them. All organizations and prominent individuals should be able to figure out if a tweet is solid or a mess just by quickly glancing at it. Accounts that address followers in a logical and adult like manner will have more success than accounts that address followers as if they were a middle school student composing a text message. Don’t Blink.

Blinding Me With Science

Posted on March 18, 2014 by brent

From time to time I mention how cool it is to work in an athletic facility that houses an arena. Besides sporting events a lot goes on around here. You got concerts, plays, circuses, comedy acts, religious events, and more. All these events transform Dahlberg Arena into something other than the basketball court that so many of us are used to seeing. Each year a more low-key and innocent event also sets up shop in our 7,000 seat facility.

Stimulating the minds of the youth while lighting an academic fire inside of them I always look forward to when the Montana State Science Fair comes to Missoula. The best science projects completed by middle school and high school students are displayed on the arena floor as well as on the second level balcony. All conceivable space is completely occupied. Out of what seems like thousands of projects judges pick their top four. The proud creators of those projects get an all-expenses paid trip to Los Angeles to showcase their work at a national fair.

This morning I had the chance to quickly walk through the fair. While I have absolutely no idea what projects received the best in show recognition from the judges I definitely know which ones I liked best. Of course they dealt with things like soda and gum and other items that most people would not immediately associate with science but what do you expect from someone like me? Without further delay I would like to put the spotlight on my favorite projects at the 2014 Montana State Science Fair.

What Mint Makes Your Mouth Hurt the Most?

What mint will give your mouth the most distress if you dare to take a drink of water?

The student who conducted this project wanted to know what mint would make the mouth feel the coldest after sucking on it and taking a sip of water. This ambitious student had subjects suck various brands of mints for 15 seconds, drink water, and then rate it on a “coldness scale” from 1-5. The mint that will freeze the mouth the most? Peppermint sugar free mints (no brands given)! As I do experience the stinging cold sensation of drinking water after partaking in a stick of gum or mint I found this report helpful…I am definitely sticking to spearmint!

Most Corrosive Soda

Which soda will eat up a hot dog the quickest?

This neat experiment tested what soda would eat something up the quickest. The student experimented with Coke, Pepsi, Sprite, Mountain Dew, and A&W Root Beer. Using nails and cut up pieces of hot dogs the student placed these items in the five different soft drinks and observed for fifteen days. This middle schooler correctly predicted that Mountain Dew would eat up the nail first before the other sodas but didn’t find the same result with the hot dog. Much to the student’s dismay, Pepsi broke down and dissolved the hot dog before the other pops. Sure am glad I don’t drink soda!

Video Game Mania

This video game experiment is a little on the silly side.

This self-proclaimed gamer wanted to see if what you sit in while playing video games will impact overall score/performance. Rotating his subjects so that they would all sit in a gaming chair (what does that even look like), a wooden chair, and on the floor while playing Super Smash Brothers Brawl he recorded the scores from the various different seating positions. After the games were played and the data crunched this student concluded that sitting in a gaming chair (whatever that is) will improve video game performance. Cool result in all but I question it…back in the day when my little brother and I would face off in our sports video game battles he would sit on the floor and I would sit in a computer chair and he still managed to always kick my butt.

How Much Sugar in Drinks

Sugar sugar sugar

The visual aid of this project won me over. The student showed the amount of sugar in each bottle of soda/Gatorade/milk in a very literal sense. By using the nutritional label on the product he/she measured out the grams of sugar indicated and poured it into the empty bottles. Pop drinkers would probably look away at this exhibit because the Coke, Dr. Pepper, and Mt. Dew bottles had a sickening amount of sugar inside them. Even Gatorade had an alarming amount. The student then went on to make the very bold recommendation that if faced with choosing milk or soda that one should probably opt for the milk.

Gum Decomposition

Wait one second before you throw that piece of gum out the window!

This final student wanted to test how long it took different brands of chewed and unchewed gum to biodegrade in soil. Using Wrigley’s Winterfresh, Trident Layers, Dentyne Ice, and Hubba Bubba gum he/she planted chewed and unchewed pieces in wet soil. After two weeks the student checked back and found that the Hubba Bubba unchewed gum biodegraded the most over the time period. I found this experiment a little contradictory to my own experiences as a youngster. While in grade school I would chew a piece of gum every morning at the bus stop. When the bus would come I would spit it out at the exact same tree. That spot on the tree trunk was littered with hundreds of pieces of chewed gum, none of which I remember biodegrading in any degree.

————

Let me give the middle school and high school students of Montana a big A+. Thank you for engaging in cool (yet sometimes obvious) studies and thank you for having the guts to showcase them on a statewide stage. Best of luck to the students advancing to nationals! Don’t Blink

My 2014 NCAA Tournament Top 10

Posted on March 17, 2014 by brent

With what many people call the best spectacle in sports starting tomorrow I felt like it was only appropriate for me to jot down some thoughts regarding the men’s basketball 2014 NCAA Tournament. For this post I am going to go David Letterman on you all and categorize my nuggets of tourney wisdom top ten style. But if you despise Letterman’s nightly top ten list don’t worry: I am not counting down nor am I making an attempt to be humorous…well unless you consider my awful writing skills humorous.

1. Sitting Out the Dance: After two straight years of the Griz making the NCAA Tournament the streak has come to an end. It is definitely a bit of a letdown not marketing the team on such a large level and not attending the tourney but I try to keep things in perspective. You can’t go to the Big Dance every year and on the bright side I will actually get to enjoy the tournament and watch the games from my own home. Yesterday I felt so weird watching the Selection Show on my couch without the pressure of capturing the moment our team was announced live and then racing to get all the information out to our fans.

Me at the 2012 NCAA Tournament in Albuquerque.

2. Love the Coverage: I know it was just a matter of time before it happened but I am so thankful for the comprehensive coverage of every single tournament game. For the past few years CBS has utilized its family of networks to give fans the option to watch any game they want in its entirety on television. I used to go insane when CBS wouldn’t show the game I wanted to see in my regional market or when it would cut away to another game. I spent way too much time during my younger years yelling at the score ticker at the bottom of the screen rather than watching the actual game.

3. Dislike the First Four: I used to not mind when the tournament just featured one play-in game because I found it cool that two random teams got national exposure along with infinite punchlines on how bad the winning team would get beat by the #1 seed. However, I think four games is overkill. I also dislike the fact that two of the play-in games grant the winning teams a seed higher than 16 into the tournament. I know the NCAA has its reasons for these games but I think they are gimmicky.

4. Hate the Terminology: Adding to my dislike of the First Four is that those games are now classified as the “first round.” This means once the tournament actually gets started with the round of 64 those games are classified as the “second round.” Which of course means the original second round of games are now classified as the “third round.” I hated denoting this technicality last year when talking about our team’s matchup with Syracuse. Although it sounds more important to say Montana played Syracuse in the second round of the tournament give me a break. It was the first round and now everyone will have to make distinctions between a team that made it to the second round in 2009 versus a team that made it to the second round in 2014.

5. Warren Buffet’s Billion Dollar Bracket: I love the rejuvenated bolt of excitement this stunt by Warren Buffet and Quicken Loans has given bracket picking this year. Although I can’t participate because of NCAA regulations I have enjoyed the uproar and excitement it has caused. Buffet has made the rounds on radio shows promoting his competition and he is a lot of fun to hear talk. He crunches numbers and probability right on the spot. On every program he has said that if someone manages to make it to the national championship game with a perfect bracket and if Quicken Loans allows him to, he will try to broker a deal with the fan and cut his losses. How cool would it be to see that happen?

6. Cue the Corny ESPN Tweets: While I love ESPN I hate its main Twitter account. Yes, even though I cringe at what it sends out I still have the tweets sent directly to my phone because I need to stay informed. However, I can only handle so many clichés and cheesy statements before I get fed up. With the NCAA Tournament here I am mentally preparing myself for loads of silly and unprofessional updates.

7. Why Michigan State?: Because I am deeply involved in the Griz and Lady Griz basketball seasons I don’t usually get to follow the college basketball season as a whole as much as I would like to. There was no exception this year. With my ignorance freely admitted, can anyone tell me why everyone and their dogs are choosing Michigan State to win it all? I watched yesterday as ESPN’s whole college basketball studio panel plus Dick Vitale practically crowned them champs. As a #4 seed I am just a little puzzled at why the Spartans are so highly regarded. BONUS: Michigan State will begin its tourney journey in Spokane this year. Four years ago they started there as well and I got to witness it as they won both games to advance to the Sweet 16. They ended up making it all the way to the Final Four.

8. NCAA Tournament Doesn’t Determine Champion in a Legitimate Way?….BULL: Last week as I turned on Mike and Mike I listened as Mike Greenberg bashed the tournament as an inefficient way of selecting a champion. He believes the best teams don’t get a big enough advantage and that the single elimination format doesn’t do enough to establish a true champ. I think he must have just been trying to generate controversy that day because I honestly don’t see a better system out there. You got a large representation of both bigger and smaller schools battling it out on neutral courts in a well-structured format. Who would ever want to see a college basketball national championship series where you watched Kentucky and Georgetown play in a best of five series? Yuck. A team that is able to win six straight games against the best competition at the end of the season earns the right to be called CHAMPS.

9. My Favorite Part of the Tournament: I think you kind of have to attend an NCAA Tournament to really understand this but there is nothing cooler than going to a tourney site and experiencing the true collegiate atmosphere. Besides eight different teams in one arena you also got eight different cheer squads, eight different mascots, eight different bands, and eight different fan bases. Cultures collide and it is all under the bright lights on sports’ biggest stage. There is nothing better.

The collegiate atmosphere at the tournament makes it so special.

10. Who I am Cheering For: Here are the teams I am cheering for in each region…UCLA (South), Coastal Carolina (East), Gonzaga (West), and Iowa (Midwest).

——-

Enjoy the tournament everyone! Best of luck winning that billion dollars and I hope you all get your own personal “one shining moment” at some point during the Madness. Don’t Blink.

My Fortune Cookie Experiment, Part II

Posted on March 16, 2014 by brent

After the disappointment I suffered on Monday I knew I didn’t want that bad taste to linger in my mouth. Last week I opened up 24 fortune cookies hoping to find priceless wisdom along with a good laugh or two. Instead I found generic clichés and duplicated messages. At fault in this big bust was me. I decided to take the easy way out and purchase a couple boxes of fortune cookies at Wal-Mart. My attempt at a shortcut laughed right in my face the second after I cracked open all the cookies and looked down at the less than inspiring fortunes. I needed to right my wrong.

Yesterday I visited four different Chinese restaurants and got fortune cookies from each one.

Yesterday I spent the lunch hour visiting four different Chinese restaurants in Missoula. I swallowed my pride and went inside each one and told the employees that I didn’t want to eat at their establishments but I would sure appreciate it if I could have a few fortune cookies. Despite my embarrassment at my cheapskate question everyone treated me well and granted my request. Two of the restaurants shoved cookies at me free of charge and the other two nicely charged me the measly price of one dollar for the treats.

My loot from visiting the different Chinese restaurants.

In the end this project cost me $2 for the cookies, some gas money, and a bit of humiliation but it was definitely worth it. The fortunes I received from these restaurants blew the fortunes from the Wal-Mart cookies out of the water. I visited China Garden, Hong Kong Chef, China Buffet, and China Bowl for my sample. The restaurant that provided the best fortune cookies? China Buffet! Individually wrapped with a child in front of a red heart on the wrapper the appearance alone made a great impression. However, the contents inside impressed me even more. The fortunes themselves were fun and exotic but the message also came with lucky numbers and a “Learn Chinese” section. I should also add that China Buffet was one of the two restaurants that gave me the cookies for free.

What it looked like after I opened up all the cookies.

Favorite Fortune (from China Bowl):
Make those special talents you have work like a charm – I just really appreciate and understand this fortune. We all have our own talents that we need to utilize. I try my best to further the talents that I have (while also recognizing ones that I don’t) to make my life more enjoyable and profitable.

Time now to reveal each fortune that I cracked open. My favorite fortune from each individual restaurant is reflected in the image introducing that particular business and is also listed first.

China Garden

China Garden – 2100 Stephens Ave.

– Listen Attentively. You will come out ahead.
-Now is a good time to try something new.
-You are both ingenious and methodical.
-Now is a good time to explore.

Hong Kong Chef

Hong Kong Chef – 2009 Brooks St.

-You will have good luck in your personal affairs this month.
-A zesty partner can help you in your efforts to get ahead.
-Your present plans are going to succeed if you stick to them.
-Good things come to those who wait. Be patient.

China Buffet:

China Buffet – 1900 Brooks St.

-You will be invited to a small gathering with lots of spicy conversation (Lucky # 19, 45, 7, 11, 10, 2).
-A tub and rub will change your day (Lucky # 15, 16, 20, 18, 33, 49).
-You will be unusually successful in business (Lucky # 23, 34, 14, 45, 55, 29).
-Ancient sites beckon you to hit the road soon (Lucky # 37, 19, 22, 54, 16, 30).

China Bowl:

China Bowl – 3445 American Way

-Make those special talents you have work like a charm.
-It is time to help a friend in need.
-Trust your intuition today. You’re right on!
-Your personality can make quite an impression on people.

————

Okay, I promise you I will never write about fortune cookies again. I just wanted my shot at redemption. The fun and mystery of fortune cookies is still out there…you just have to go someplace other than Wal-Mart to enjoy it. Once again I will leave you with the best fortune ever…Don’t Blink.

St. Patrick’s Day in Butte, Montana

Posted on March 14, 2014 by brent

I don’t circle March 17 on my calendar each year. Not that I don’t like St. Patrick’s Day, I just don’t get too overly excited about it. In the past I have celebrated it during some years while during others I have treated it just like any other day. This year? With it on a Monday I might wear a polo that has green on it to work and call it good.

However I do tend to adhere to the cliché that goes “try everything once” and that was the mantra I used two years ago when I visited Butte, MT for St. Patrick’s Day. For my non-Montana readers: The Butte St. Patty’s Day celebration is to the state of Montana what the New Orleans Mardis Gras celebration is to the state of Louisiana. Of course the Montana function is much smaller but based on festive spirits, shenanigans, and liberal street laws it matches up very well. Normally I wouldn’t have much interest attending such a free-for-all but since the holiday fell on a Saturday and I had friends going over I went along for the experience.

Sad to say probably the thing that I think of most when reminiscing about that day was the weather. It rained most of the time as dark clouds hung over the town the whole day. The second thing I think of most were the costumes. People dressed for the occasion much to my enjoyment. You had leprechauns, green mascots, green body suits, people decked in green body paint, and any other wild green outfit you could think of. My friend dressed in a green Statue of Liberty costume. I even donned a special St. Pat’s Day wardrobe.

I sported this outfit on St. Patrick’s Day in 2012

As for the reputation the celebration has I would consider it pretty accurate. It is a rather wild time with lots of people. Vendors selling food and knick-knacks (such as green beads, sunglasses, bandanas) line the streets. Tents are set up and areas of pavement are roped off to accommodate makeshift dance floors and outdoor bars. The St. Patrick’s Day spirit runs rampant. Some people completely overdo it. With as many as 10,000 non-residents converging on the area the town of Butte definitely enjoys its yearly shining moment.

Megan in her Statue of Liberty Irish style costume.

If you asked me for a recommendation on whether you needed to experience St. Patrick’s Day in Butte I would say no. I had an interesting time but I wouldn’t say I had a great time. If you are a college student and want to let loose in a town you might never go to otherwise I would probably say take it or leave it. But for all of us other people I just don’t see a real point. My idea of a perfect St. Pat’s Day is sitting down at one of Missoula’s two great Irish restaurants and eating a warm dinner….not traveling two hours to stand outside in bad weather while eating vendor food and putting up with overly intoxicated people. I guess it all comes down to personal preference.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day to all! If you choose to celebrate have fun but be safe. To be honest I am going to enjoy when the day is over because

Five Topics in Five Minutes

Posted on March 13, 2014 by brent

Well I am definitely due for a multi-topic, random blog post. Tonight I am feeling rather ambitious so I am going to attempt to cover five different happenings in as few of words as possible. Thanks for checking out my blog post tonight and let’s get started.

Bowling: Last night I spiced up my usually boring weekday evenings by going bowling. Would you believe that $1 bowling still exists? Believe me, at Westside Lane in Missoula it does! I did something I have never done before and bowled five games. Usually after two games I am good but with the cheap price and a score that needed to be settled between my friend and I we played 50 frames. Another thing that I have never done before? I bowled a 168! I am about 90% sure that qualifies as my highest score ever. The numerous games did take a toll though…this morning I woke up sore in a couple spots! I am definitely not in bowling shape.

Montana Grizzlies Facebook Hits 100K Likes: Right before I dashed out my door to go bowling last night our Montana Grizzlies Facebook page hit the 100,000 like mark. As I have eyed this milestone for a long time it felt great to finally reach it. Griz Social Media is shoulders above other competitors in the FCS and is a player on the national scene as well and this big benchmark just validates our success. Big winner of the night besides our athletic department was Facebook fan Amy Cody who correctly predicted the day and came the closest to predicting the time that our page would hit the hundred grand mark. Because of her excellent prognostic abilities I sent her a Griz prize pack today.

Malaysia Airlines Flight 370: I do find this whole saga fascinating but I find it much sadder. To me at first I can’t fathom how the plane has not been found. Then I take a step back and realize this world is a big place with the oceans covering over 140,000 million miles of it. Then throw in the twists and turns that occur daily in relation to the governments, theories, and searches and I can’t begin to imagine what the families of the passengers are going through. For some reason I think this ordeal might have a very crazy ending that a lot of us aren’t expecting. Only time will tell.

Subway…Eat Fresh?: I enjoy Subway so much that I actually wrote a whole blog post detailing how much I love it. Call me naïve for thinking it would always specialize in just sandwiches but I am a little turned off about the expanding menu. Pizza? Enchilada melts? Breakfast sandwiches that don’t resemble a sandwich in anyway? I understand that Subway must evolve and offer more options to keep up with competition I just think it is a little sacrilegious to offer a pepperoni pizza at a place that markets itself on healthy eating.

Putting on my Sports Information Director’s Hat: In just about a half hour our men’s basketball team faces off against Portland State in the Big Sky Conference tournament in Ogden. I am here in Missoula just about ready to cover the game over our social outlets but my duties will get a little extended this evening. As our legendary Sports Information Director Dave Guffey doesn’t have necessary software installed on his laptop I get to play with the program in his office and output all the statistical reports immediately after the final buzzer sounds. With a couple training sessions completed at the tutelage of Dave and a page of notes at my disposal I should be fine although I would be lying if I said I am not a little nervous about screwing everything up.

——————–

Okay, time to watch our men’s basketball team play! I appreciate all of you and have a wonderful Friday. Don’t Blink.

My Small Connection to 16 Years of NCAA Basketball Excellence

Posted on March 12, 2014 by brent

It didn’t take me long to get my feet wet in intercollegiate athletics. Nineteen years ago as an eight-year old little squirt I served as a ball boy for the Gonzaga University men’s basketball team. I had the time of my life shagging balls, wiping up sweat, and passing out water. Because of how greatly I was treated by the coaching staff (led by head coach Dan Fitzgerald and assisted by Dan Monson and yes, Mark Few) and players I developed an obsession for Zag basketball. From the time of my service as a ball boy running all the way through my senior year of high school I was a Gonzaga basketball fanatic.

Hanging out with my dad in my official ball boy issued shirt before going to work a game.

During my two seasons as a ball boy I got to work for a couple good Gonzaga basketball teams. I got to serve with fellow ball boy Adam Morrison (who I would end up going to high school with). I got to watch Steve Nash in a Santa Clara uniform torch the Bulldogs for 40 points. I got to run around the tiny old 4,000-seat “Kennel” in Martin Centre. I got to bounce on balls in the training room. I got to have a lot of fun.

As I said I got to work for a couple good Gonzaga teams…not great Gonzaga teams. That tide shifted the season after my term as a ball boy ended. With me out of the picture and my brother taking my spot as the Reser Bulldog Ball Boy the Zags staged the seemingly miraculous run to the Elite 8 where they would come just short of making the Final Four. That special season, especially the tournament run, will always go down as one of my favorite childhood memories.

Fast forward 16 years and a lot have changed. I no longer live in the state. The Zags no longer play in Martin Centre. I have a new favorite team. Gonzaga has a new uniform deal. I keep company with a Grizzly bear and a passionate marketing team. Gonzaga keeps company with the nation’s top basketball teams and ESPN. However, after the past 16 years there is still one thing that has remained constant: Gonzaga basketball is annually making it to the NCAA Tournament.

To make it to the NCAA Tournament 16 years in a row is astonishing. To do it at a small Spokane school adds to the achievement. Players come and go, different powers rise to the top, and programs have bad years. To somehow manage to fight against averages and make it to the best postseason tournament in all of sports for so long speaks immensely to the strength of a program.

It also speaks to the head coach. Love the Zags or hate them, they definitely aren’t America’s darling anymore, Mark Few deserves complete respect from all. After Dan Monson left after his Elite 8 season Few has done nothing but coach the Zags for 15 solid seasons while picking up 400 victories. Watching our own Lady Griz coach Robin Selvig pick up his 800th win this season after more than three decades at the helm helped me realize how amazing Few’s accomplishment is. His loyalty, community service, and winning ways make me a big fan.

But these days my fandom stops at the coach. I am a diehard Griz and I wouldn’t mind if our men’s team won the conference tournament this week, drew Gonzaga in the second round, and pulled an upset by sticking it to them. Great memories and nothing but respect for Gonzaga but I would love to see the team I care about more than any other line up against the Zags on the hardwood and take care of business. Good luck to the Griz basketball team in Ogden this week. Don’t Blink.

Facebook Evolving to Help Us Improve

Posted on March 11, 2014 by brent

As the main Montana Grizzlies Facebook page that I manage reaches the major milestone of 100,000 likes, an equally important development will occur. Facebook will once again undergo significant changes for its fan pages or business pages, whatever you like to call them. I always welcome these changes with open arms.

Although personal Facebook users tend to believe that any changes to a newsfeed or profile page signals the end of the world, those of us who manage business pages understand and embrace the modifications. As most of us are marketers who serve as administrators on these pages we are totally in tune with the concept that you have to adapt and improve to survive…even if you are Facebook.

As I mentioned, people will immediately notice the changes. Business pages will revert back to the one column format for the main content flow, thus ending the two column timeline feature that caused such uproar when introduced a couple years ago (and what users now are completely used to). To the left of this column where all the posts will be reflected, Facebook users will see an additional column. This column will be static and will hold the basic information on the business/organization such as phone number, web address, map, and older photos and videos. Basically all the information that once held a spot at the top of the page will head southwest, occupying space right next to the main content. Replacing the business info up top will be additional tools to navigate and view page analytics.

This is what the new Facebook business page will look like.

However, those changes don’t address the new feature Facebook is offering that I am personally stoked about. Coming with this new rollout is a tool called Pages to Watch. Page administrators will now have the ability to track other business pages of interest and receive in depth analytics and information on those particular pages. I can’t wait!

I am a very competitive guy. I do all I can to make sure our social media outlets outperform those of other athletic departments that are similar to us. I also know I hardly have all the answers so I am constantly looking for inspiration from the upper-tier athletic departments and other brands with solid social media programs. To adequately make sure that we are beating our competitors and to get the guidance I need from the big boys, I am constantly leaving the Montana Grizzlies Facebook page to visit the pages of other athletic departments and brands. To now have a tool that allows me to track numerous other pages at once with much more sophisticated information than I could ever glean myself is a cool deal. The fact that I get to stick on the Montana Grizzlies page while viewing this info just sweetens the pot.

I can’t wait until Pages to Watch becomes available. Will be a great tool for all Facebook page administrators.

Facebook says that the new changes will come into play during this week. When they do I will be prepared and ready. The page administrators who utilize the new tools will undoubtedly make their page better while the ones who overlook them will miss out on valuable opportunities both for themselves and their audience. By Facebook improving itself it is also giving all of us page administrators a chance to improve as well. Best choice is to take advantage of it. Don’t Blink.

Don't Blink

By Brent Reser