West “Virgina” … huh?
There is a debate every year about the 2 post season college basketball tournaments, the NCAA and the NIT. The NCAA selects the best (and all the automatic bids), and then the NIT gets to take it’s pick of the “best of the rest”. A second rate tourney… minimal TV coverage, and rarely any of the really good teams. The best the NIT hopes for is a big name program to have a bad year, bad enough that the NCAA’s won’t want them, and then the NIT can have them (like Syracuse this year).
Anyway, if the NIT ever hopes to be seen as legit, they may want to treat their champions better. The West VirginIa Mountaineers won the title, and were given these wonderful t-shirts to celebrate in. Anyone notice anything funny about the shirts? Way to go N_T.
Truly a Father to the fatherless …
Grace, humility, service, and forgiveness lived out in a way we seldom hear. Thank you Jonnes.
Netflix leading the way
“You’re not measuring my daily hours, so why are you measuring the number of days I work?”
Netflix has a unique vacation policy … no policy. They pay you to get your work done, not attendence. According to this article, it is not uncommon for employees to “leave for three, four, even five weeks at a time and never clock in or out.” Many companies that hire “creatives” are experimenting with unusual benefits that can promote loyalty from their workforce. When it comes down to it, many of these extra freedom benefits are really the employer treating the employee like an adult.
This reminds me of a company that I interviewed with that had a refrigerated keg in the breakroom. Anyone was welcome to partake anytime they wanted (they even asked me if I wanted one during the interview). If someone is “more creative” with a beer or two, then this company was happy to oblige (and even foot the bill).
However, if you were to partake of one too many beers or vacations and your work quality or quantity were to slip, you would not be employed there much longer. It is all about the work product, not the number of hours/days that you were chained to your desk. I can dig it.
This weekend was wonderful
My college roommate and dear friend Pete made it up from Florida with his wife and new kiddo for the weekend. It was encouraging to see them again. The whole “work/family/life” has gotten in the way of us having much meaningful contact these last few years, so it was nice to remedy that.
It was refreshing that even after years apart once we were together again, everything was all good. The inside jokes all came storming back. His lovely wife even mentioned how fun it was for her to see us together again; she was seeing a “side” of his personality that she hadn’t seen in a long time. (Granted that “side” is more irreverent and sarcastic than a healthy marriage should endure, so I predict it will lie dormant until we meet again…)
And that got me thinking because a different side of me was coming out too. Well not really different, just a side that hadn’t really seen the light of day in a long time. A carefree, funny, irreverent, and confident personality than has been unintentionally suppressed, in favor of a blah and low-key “so-called” personality of someone trying to fly under everyone’s radar.
When you are with people who know you, love you, and accept you, you can experience a great freedom. I wasn’t trying to impress him, I wasn’t worried about whether or not he liked me, I wasn’t being judged. I was able to just be me… and I liked it.
And I believe 4 posts in one day is plenty… time to shut this down for the day.
Spend time with your kids, so Peyton Manning doesn’t…
The preproduced digital shorts are the only REALLY funny things coming out of SNL these days and this one with Peyton Manning is classic.
That guy needs a hug
The announcer of this Giant Slalom downhill race stepped up to the plate with some TOP NOTCH commentary about this unexpected event. I still can’t decide which impromptu one-liner is my favorite:
- Oh the gate to the groin play
- You could hear it and if you’re a man you could feel it
- Oh Frenchman, Oh Messieurs
- Wow, the boys took a beating on that one
- That guy needs a hug
Sidenote - So you can hear the sound the skis make on the snow, they wire the whole slope for sound. In this case that lets you hear some great audio of the skier’s pain. God bless the internets.
It was only a matter of time
For someone like me who believes in man’s inherit depravity, not innocence, movies like the “Saw” franchise are very disturbing. Yes, the graphic violence is hard to take, but with this franchise in particular, something else was far more bothersome … unlike other movies that use violence as a way to “futher” the plot, Saw is less about the actual violent act as it is the shear terror of the victim leading up to the act.
Despite the “R” rating, kids are the ones that enjoy these sorts of movies. And we already have a winner for the first kids to copycat this film. “Thankfully” it was just a prank, but even the prank terrorized this poor woman enough to cause a stroke. Ironically, this happened in Nashville … the capitol of the bible belt.
Drumroll please …
My current employer just launched its new and improved design, so go check out the new look…
I had some say in the design and a lot of work in the implementation. It is a lot bolder, and IMO a lot more intuitive, especially on the employer side. While you are there, check out the new bios page … I work with some pretty cool (and impressive) people (and the designs on that page are all mine).
Travel?
No one has ever described me as nomadic. I don’t have any longing to travel extensively. However, this video of Matt “dancing” all over the world made me smile. Watch the whole thing… I am very impressed with how extensive it is. I am also impressed that he ended up landing a sponsorship from Stride chewing gum.
For more info about Matt, check out www.wherethehellismatt.com. I bet you he made a lot of people smile.
Comparable to espn.com? No way!
For those of you who didn’t know, I have a new job as a web designer for a company whose presence on the web is integral to the business. To help give you an idea of the traffic volume of oursite, check out how “we” compare to some of the big boys like ESPN.com and progressive.com.
Over the last year, our volume grew 57%, epsn’s grew 31%, and progressive’s shrank 9%! We are definately doing something right. Pretty cool…
(Sadly chriswho doesn’t even register yet, oh well…)
Swiss Army invades Lichtenstein!
Something the “real” news outlets aren’t talking about…
Thursday night, the tiny European country of Liechtenstein was invaded by the one neighbor they never thought they had to fear… Switzerland. I kid you not, a company of armed Swiss soldiers “invaded” Liechtenstein!
Sure, it was an accident. They got lost in the dark. They weren’t carrying ammo. No one in Liechtenstein even noticed! The details take most of the fun out of this story.
On a sidenote, it is interesting to note how “free” some countries borders apparently are. Can you imagine the firestorm the media would have if a regimen of Mexican soldiers carrying weapons made it a mile or two into Texas?