On The Road To A Better ESPN

Most people want to go to Europe, I would imagine - most, however, would not go simply to watch a soccer game they could see on TV in their own country.  Only if you lived in SIBERIA would you consider doing such a thing, and yet here I am, looking up ticket prices to Athens, Madrid, and Hamburg, so I can watch the World Cup without ESPN's pandering to every sports fan in America.  There is a reason soccer is an elitist sport.  You need to have more than a modicum of brain cells to understand the game.  (I am not comparing it to American football, which you also need to be vastly intelligent to play.  Knowing what X Jet Y55RDelta Tampa QR4 means is pretty difficult).  But the way ESPN talks down soccer to a dull sludge that only a numbskull would understand, especially with Josh Elliot, who is an absolute MORON, leading the charge, is disgusting.  Elliot, by the way, is ESPNs token soccer fan, much the same way that Chris Berman is supposed to appeal to the every day white American and Stuart Scott to the African-American populace.  Make no mistake - I am trying to do this to spite ESPN, and for no other reason.  ESPN's coverage is actually going to be decent, because they listened to everyone who said that Dave O'Brien and Marcelo Balboa were garbage in 2006, and they listened again to the same people that said Adrian Healy and Tommy Smyth and Andy Gray were good in 2008.  They did something great, and hired Martin Tyler once Sky Sports went bankrupt to have him do the American, English, and other major games (presumably the World Cup semi finals and finals).  But the coverage leading up to the World Cup is what irritates me.  I grew up on ESPN.  I remember when it had a hint of common sense, when Dan Patrick, Keith Olbermann, and Rich Eisen worked there.  Now it clamors for viewers with desperate ratings ploys like Who's Now.  So their so apparent obviousness to capture the soccer viewer in America is what irritates me.  And THAT'S why I want to book tickets to Madrid, Athens, or Hamburg.  Actually, I'd really like to go to London, sit in the Emirates Stadium with my Arshavin jersey on, and see if America could make it out of the group stage while listening to Jon Champion.

I just finished watching Hoop Dreams, and I wanted to leave a thought here before it left my head.  No one can say that the job of the coach at St. Joseph's High School isn't laudable.  For a kid like William Gates to be able to come out of the ghetto, have a private school education, and get a scholarship to a place like Marquette is wonderful.  But the attitude of the coach, and the largely purveying attitude of all coaches at that time, both in high school and in college, at least for major programs (sorry for that poorly constructed sentence), is that you can never do enough.  You can never give enough heart, effort, commitment.  You could have done so much better if only... and it seems to be, really, to make the coach look good.  To boost his ego.  When does it stop?  When does "working with kids" end and "boosting my own personal success" begin?

Myles Brand , President of the NCAA died yesterday.  I'm going to try not to personalize criticize the guy.  I never met him, never knew him, and the only thing he did that I personally didn't care for was his firing of Bobby Knight when some punk provoked him.

But on the NCAA's webpage today, there is a memorial to everything he accomplished in seven years as Executive Director of the NCAA.  One of those is "having an unofficial goal of having 80% of all student-athletes graduate."  Furthermore, it goes on to say that "Division I student-athletes have stepped closer to that goal every year, with the most recent data showing 79 percent graduating within six years." 


Doesn't that seem grossly underachieving?  4/5 of all student-athletes in Division I graduating in SIX years?  Shouldn't the goal be four years?  And 100%?  Maybe if the number of travel trips were restricted - ie - for football, traveling outside your conference no more than once every two years, or for basketball, no more than two a year.  Maybe set milage limitations.  Or restrict travel for basketball during holiday periods only.  Maybe then we'd go alot further to improve that graduation rate.

Man I love College...

One of my newer favorite books is The American College Town, by Blake Gumprecht . It's almost a doctoral thesis, doing research on what defines the college town in America.  (I have to read it in pieces in the University of Kansas bookstore since I can't afford the hardcover copy.  If you buy me a book , make it a hardcover please.)


It cheered me in the book that one of the college towns that fit Mr. Gumprecht's definition thereof was Hanover, N.H., where I spent the years 1986-2006, with various stops across the river in Norwich, Vt., junior college in Randolph, Vt., and finishing out my degree in Keene, N.H.  I love Hanover.  If I got a job at Dartmouth, I would move there immediately and never leave.  Forgetting the fact that my parents live there - there are so many great things about that town.  It's intellectual, it's beautiful, it has a phenomenal school system (of which now five Osheyacks are a product of, with four more [at least] to come.), but most important of all, there is a sense of achievement that permeates the town that thrills me to my very core.

I remember being young, and watching my parents' friends who were in medical school or working on their MBA at Tuck and how successful they seemed.  How the world seemed at their feet - because of their education.  Looking back on it now - I can't help but draw inspiration from it.

It's why I want to live in a college town.  It's why I want to work at a college.  It's why I want to raise children in a college town.  It's why living in a town like the one I'm in now - and I am, truly am, grateful for having a roof over my head and for the experience of living in a small midwest town - drives me crazy sometimes.  There is no pursuit of intellectualism.  There is no feeling of individual success.  And that's fine - who I am to criticize how people live their lives?  But it's not for me.

That's why I can't wait for school.  I feel motivated for the first time in a LONG time.  Maybe ever.  I know what I want out of life.  I know a lot about myself that I didn't know two months ago.  I can't wait till January.

PS - please buy me the book?

How to turn a conservative into a liberal without really trying...

Or how I turned into one.  This probably won't work on any hard-core conservatives.  But if you can find a moderate, like I was circa 2007, you may have a winner.

When I made the decision to move to South Florida in 2007, I never once thought how my mediocre college grades would have landed me there.  I had always been a firm believer in work over thought, even though I always thought I was smarter than everyone else.  I graduated from college with a 2.56 GPA, never thought much of it.  I had the job I always wanted at age 24!  Some people work for 10 years before they get the title I got.  But I was desperate when I accepted the position.  My original job had fallen through, I had moved in with my parents again, and this was the first offer I got.  There was a 0% chance I wanted to back to Florida.  None.  I didn't even have a car.  I lived on two different peoples' couches for six weeks before I had a place to live.  I didn't even know how I was going to back to Florida to begin working until when, as I was in the airport flying home after my interview, I heard a call for my flight say it was overbooked and Airtran was offering free flights for those who would give up their seats.  I did, and I did.

And I started work.

And I rather liked it, for the most part.

I'm not going to delve into every instance of what went wrong or right at XY University. (XY because I signed a severance agreement, and who knows if this is "defamatory" or not.  I'm not taking any chances.)

But I did notice, almost upon beginning, a very "company" routine, if you will.  A X>Y>Z power chain, that I was a part of, that did not deviate from protocol, a very soulless part of a machine used to suck dollars from student's wallets while feeding them an education based on a very conservative dogma of free trade and enterprise.

Little hint that I knew they were conservative:  Something about their intolerance of big government.  Stunning.

They propagated this cogs in the wheel mantra by hiring plenty of their own alumni.  At one point, the following people in the organization were educated by that same institution:

The Director of Human Resources
The Director of Alumni Relations
The Director of Public Relations
The Assistant Director of Public Relations
The Registrar
The Assistant Business Manager
One Academic Advisor

Now I will admit, my experience is higher education is slim.  I've worked there for three years.  I don't have a Ph.D (yet), and have never taught a class.  But I did grow up in the shadow of an Ivy League school (freaking DARTMOUTH, for crying out loud).  I did attend a pretty fine liberal arts school (although as noted, I didn't really apply myself) that actually did hire the occasional alum (though not this one.  Still love ya, KSC.  Someday I will donate.)  I still, somehow, doubt, that when an institution has seen enrollment plummet for five straight years, would consistently hire people educated in that same system.  Does that make sense?  Let me put it another way.  When students are leaving your institution at a rapid pace, I wouldn't hurry to scramble up the ones that do stay and put them in important positions at the school.  Just me.

Back to politics.

The more and more I became disgusted at my work environment, the more and more I realized that XY was doing nothing but taking money from kids and not giving them an education, the more I realized that some thing was very wrong.  This was not what education was.  This was the Wal-mart of education.  OK, BJs.  Expensively priced but utterly worthless.  Decisions made at the highest level were not ever fully explained to the specific persons on the respective campuses.  People with far reaching levels of celebrity were championed over those who thirsted for common sense and respectable marketing decisions.  People without educations at all were hired in critical spots because they were friends.  Exceptions were made for student athletes not even on account of their talent, but because of who their coache(s) were.  Student-athletes who could not keep a 2.0, or even a 1.0 were kept eligible, while others who saw their GPA dip from a 3.75 to a 3.5 were cast aside.

It soured my very spirit.  It was so disheartening to watch children, some brought from across the globe, be so poorly treated on their studies.

I changed political ideologies because of this.  I changed it because I know that this cannot be the way that education is headed in this country.  I know this is but a small example, but I am forever changed by it.  I want to dedicate my life to teaching and education in a proper manner.  To truly touch a young person's life.  To ensure they exit college with a proper blend of educational, competitive, and life experiences.  Not to promote an embarrassment of financial riches, but to make an honest effort to change the world.

Thank you, XY.  You have made me see the light - truly.

For those of you who like completely inane questions, here is one about me.  What are the two words I have more trouble spelling than any other?

A:)  Marraige.  (Marriage)

B:) Exersize. (Exercise)

Ready for another question?  (That's a question in and of itself, so here is the third and actual question.)  Which scares me more?  B.

I hate exercising.   I hate running.  I hate lifting weights.  I hate being at the gym watching juicers spurt more pimples while they bench 275+ lbs while I am pushing 60 on the arm machine with my little twigs.  I hate running on a treadmill with no apparent purpose or reason.  (Side note:  I know there is a reason - getting healthy, but it's hard to see that light at the end of the tunnel when you are lifting your feet like a guinea pig on a wheel in a cage.)  I can't concentrate on music - I am constantly changing the songs every 15 seconds.  

But since coming out to Kansas, and being consistently bored, since I can't find a job of any kind in the midwest, I've started exercising, both out of a need for some kind of entertainment and a 10 year desire to lose this ponderous belly I've acquired during my disdain for physical activity. 

I could occasionally lift weights from time to time because I could see results.  Even after one day, I felt stronger, and after a week, my girl was purring like a kitten at my newfound MUS-KULLS.  Rowr.  

But even after a day of walking and running, then 3, then five, there was still not even the smallest of changes to my midsection.  But after about 7 days, there was a nudge.  Maybe half an inch gone?  I don't care.  It's progress.  

But this is what I've learned.  It's SLOW progress.  You can't lose weight overnight.  And even if you accept that - it's not enough.  I need to repeatedly pound it into my head.  Case in point.

Sunday night, we went to Black Hoof Park and walked to the dam, then ran back.  I killed it.  It was the best I've ever worked myself, probably since high school football.  (I wish I could go back and just go through training camp.  Lose 20 pounds and get it over with in 2 1/2 weeks).  I felt on top of the world.  The next night though, we took it easy and went to a slowly building community across the street.  Lots of hills.  We weren't even running, and I felt like garbage.  I was getting shin splints, cramps, my back hurt.  I had to ask Ashley if we could cut it short.  I was embarrassed.  I was angry at myself for quitting.  

But I need to keep reminding myself what a slow process this is.  I start graduate school in January.  That's going to be a slow process.  I need to keep a 3.0 or better just to stay in.  I need a 3.5+ or better to get into any doctoral schools.  It's a LONG process.  I could be in my mid-30s or early 40s before this leads to any fruition.   But just like losing weight, I can do it, slowly but surely.

Stay away from the steak crostada. Feeling pukey.