construction update, and one of the better days in sports...

I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel, but it's still a ways off in the horizon. Our house remodel continues and while our newest rooms in back are relatively done and habitable, the basement is now in the process of remodel. When it's done, it's simply going to be amazing, and last night was the first night that I could really see the framework of the changes for real. I understand all of the things that are being added, but last night, the skeleton was more apparent and I could visually see the direction it was going. It makes the temporary inconveniences, like no water at points, exhaust smells, and random tools lying about seem like nothing now that I can see the light.

 

Granted, my wife has had to live it far more closely that I've had to because I can escape to the relative sanity of my office, but needless to say, we're all happy to see the final pieces go in place. It makes the getting up at 7 AM each morning worth it, as we need to be up in time to let the crew in for their tasks for the day. I'm impressed with the hard work and craftsmanship they've done so far, and for those of you interested, you'll be able to get a full tour when things are finished. And yes, the housewarming is going to be pretty epic.

 

And today was a good day to be out of the house because it's one of my favorite days of sports. I put opening day of baseball on the top of my list of favorite days of sports, because it represents spring time and the start of better weather. Ok, in many years, there is still plenty of winter weather about and plenty of early spring baseball ends up being played in snow or misty rain. But unlike other sports, baseball for many represents the end of winter, and so people immediately start thinking of summer vacations and the like. Football gets rolling in late summer when the weather is still nice, and weather doesn't affect pro basketball or hockey. I do get the same charge when the English Premiership and the Timbers gets rolling, but that's my soccer fan part coming out, and there isn't a true opening day like there is with baseball.

 

But baseball's opening day is fast being replaced with the opening weekend of the NCAA college basketball tournament, or as many people know it as the land of brackets. For 3 weeks, college basketball dominates the airwaves with back to back games that showcase amazing upsets, unknown teams from all over, great individual play, and the ultimate concept of win to stay in. During the first 4 days, the competition takes 64 teams and whittles it down to a sweet 16 in some of the best moments of sports, because it's still relatively pure. The tournament directors put together a relatively even bracket and let the dice roll. Sometimes, the higher seeds win while other times, the cinderella team lives to fight another day.

 

My alma mater, Gonzaga, has become a household name not because I attended there, but because of their antics in the tournament. They fast became the sweetheart school from the initial thoughts of "where the heck is Spokane?" and "how do you pronounce it" after breaking up a few brackets because of their success, but then again, Santa Clara made a name for itself by upsetting Arizona, George Mason made the Final Four unexpectedly, and Villanova and N.C. State won tournaments way back when nobody expected it. Even the non sports fans can watch and be drawn into the drama, even participating in one of the simplest competitions in sports, completing a bracket.

 

There's no real secret in completing a bracket and winning, because winning a competition for the most part is pure blind luck. I've seen college basketball experts get blown out in the first weekend for not picking the right upsets while complete novices win the prize by choosing the teams based on names or colors. That's the beauty of this, because the upsets are unscripted and unknown as well as plenty of close games and dramatic moments. And because there are 32 games in two days followed by 16 games the following two days, there's plenty of chances to either look good or stupid at any given point. I have yet to meet anyone that has been able to pick things consistently year by year. Most of it is because of turnover in college basketball in players and coaches, but there's also the unknown factor of who will be this year's cinderella story. I'm sure there will be many people who say they picked the big upsets for this season already, but the magic of the tournament is that the slipper can fall off at any point. The cinderella could fall on bad luck in the very next game, which makes it interesting and compelling to watch.

 

I'm a little upset that the NCAA is thinking about tinkering with the tournament, because I think it's very good the way it is. It's simplicity in the setup, and it's easy for even the casual fan to follow along. But the NCAA doesn't care about that, they simply follow the dollar signs and want to generate attention however they can. Adding more teams means more money, and the NCAA is obviously oblivious to what the real fans want. They've let the BCS mess in football carry on far too long because while the fans want a playoff, the fans are watching the games anyway and everybody involved is making money so there's no incentive for change. And now the simplicity of the tournament is at risk because there's additional money to be made.

 

If things needed to be changed, I'd throw out a couple of ideas:

• I don't like the single play in game so the field is 65, so replace it with more play in games. Seed 18 teams in each region, and have the final four seeds play each other on Tuesday/Wednesday in the tournament sites for the right to advance. Seed 15 plays 18 and 16 plays 17, and the winners get seeds 1 and 2.
• This still leaves the initial tournament at 64 teams starting on the first Thursday and keeps things on schedule. Right now, 3 weeks is a bit long for the tournament, and if you do anything else, you run the risk of playing through the middle part of April.
• Keep the games in March. Work with the conferences to get their tournaments done in late February so that March is what it's for, tournament basketball. Even if you did need a fourth weekend for play in games, you could still do it through March and it's done by end of March.
• Finally, if you win the conference berth to get into the tournament, you avoid having to play in the play in game. This is probably the most controversial thing I'm suggesting, but seriously, having a team win their way into the tournament with the automatic berth only to be told you have to play another game just to get into the tournament just penalizes the smaller conferences. The play in games should be the middle fringe teams in the bigger conferences for the right to get into the tournament. You might get a few more upsets, and more compelling opening round games.

But I don't expect this to be done, because the NCAA isn't going to do what is sensible here. They're going to listen to the TV and advertising money, and take what is already a wonderfully compelling competition and turn it into an unwieldy mess. The NFL plays one game to determine a champion, and until recently, the games haven't been compelling but now, they are spectacles of sports. Most other sports use long series to determine a winner, which while somewhat more fair that a one game title, it does lend itself to a champion being crowned because they handled the number of games better than their opponents. Seriously, the NBA takes 2 and a half months to determine a title, and I can't think of a compelling reason why.

 

If the NCAA cared, they'd watch what happened this weekend, they'd view the crowds at sports bars and the cubicle people hiding in their cubes to get scores and realize they have a good thing going already. The money might be compelling, but you have the perfect system now and there's no reason to tinker with it. And thinking that it needs to be changed means that the almighty dollar is far more important that the drama and the competition of sport.

I'm Still Hearing Construction Noise in My Head at Work

My wife is an incredible person, and I can't imagine how she has handled the events at our house the last few weeks as well as she has. For those of you not in the know, we agreed to have some house remodeling done, which started in mid-January and the first phase was completed this past weekend. Ok, there were a few minor hurdles that have come up since the back room was completed, including some painting, a few nicks in the wall, and some sealer that wouldn't dry right.

 

The first phase of the construction is to add two rooms to the back of the house, a new family and television room and a room for our collective of felines. Yes, folks, we have a bunch of cats that live with us, and up to this point, they've had free reign of the house, which usually isn't a problem. However, at certain points, the cats leave their hair and pee wherever they want. Some of this is involuntary, but the peeing thing is usually marking territory for whatever reason. When you have a big group of them, sometimes they don't get along and that usually braces for a turf war. This whole issue doesn't lend itself to inviting people over for social gatherings, because up until now, it involved a massive clean up effort after trapping the cats temporarily. Now, they have their own room and are away from everybody. Plus, with some big windows and a couple of window ledges to lay on, the cats will finally have space for their own.

 

To get to this point, we've had to deal with construction noise and the constant barrage of questions and noise. I've had the ability to get away from things by escaping to the relative sanity of my office, a massive cube farm collective. My wife, though, works from home and so she's on the front line, and can't get away no matter what. Seeing the rewards this weekend with the new room were worth the temporary problems, even with a few things that have happened later on. The cable wasn't hooked up right, the sealer on the concrete pad didn't dry right so we couldn't put the cats in there, and right now, the downstairs of our house is a construction zone with walls disappearing.

 

I got another huge dose of reality yesterday when we put our cats in our room and the office temporarily so that they would be safe from the construction noise. Figuring this was a one day thing, what bad could possibly happen if they had to live in a room for day? Well, getting home at the end of a rough day at work, I was told as I got home that the sealer was still having issues, so the cats would have to remain locked up in the rooms for the night until today. So, two cats were in our room all night, while we heard the other cats yowling and scratching in the office wanting to get out. I tried to use my computer in the office to do some things, but instead, the cats simply yowled and howled to get out, and let me know what they thought of being locked up.

 

Cats, like kids, are difficult to reason with simply because they can't understand why you as parents or caregivers do what you do. We locked up the cats simply to keep them from the construction noise and potential danger, although telling them this doesn't mean anything. They wanted out, period, which meant me saying a lot of times that "No, you need to stay in here." Later on, I went into our room with our two special cats, and they were very upset about being locked up, but once I laid down on the bed to watch television, they didn't seem to mind. Well, initially anyway.

 

About 9 PM when Lost came on, the boy cat started yowling to get out. He was a feral cat that my wife saved after his parents were killed by a car, and was only days old when he became a member of the family. And while he's the sweetest cat about, he's extremely skittish around unfamiliar people and noises. He didn't understand why he needed to be locked up, and spent most of the day hiding under our bed until that point, when he decided to scream to get out. I went up to him to ask what was wrong, and put him near the water and litter box to see if that was it, and he fought that at first. After a few attempts, he finally drank some water and used the box for what seemed like the first time of the day. He wasn't happy about being confined, but at the same point, explaining it to him doesn't mean anything if he can't understand what construction means.

 

Going to bed later on, the cats sort of settled in but once the lights went out, it became more of wandering about and making noise. My wife sleeps very lightly, so she hears everything and so she didn't sleep much last night. I had to spend a few times getting up to grab the cat and put him back on the bed to go back to sleep with some reassuring words and signs of affection. I felt like we were dealing with a newborn, and in this case, we had two cats and so there were two young ones about. The girl cat is blind, and while she's very sweet, she's also extremely curious about things and so she gets into everything. At some point, I heard my wife yell at them both for sitting on her night stand because they wanted to, even though there wasn't any room. About the time I got to sleep, another noise riled them up and it was on again. At 5:45 AM, I woke up to feed them in the morning simply to get them to settle in, and they finally laid down to sleep for a bit until the other cats stirred about.

 

I've never hated an alarm clock more until this morning when it rang at 7 AM and it was time to prepare for the construction crew to arrive. The remainder of the morning was tending to cats while keeping them locked up, showering and eating a bit of food. I showed up at work today exhausted and just hoping for a quiet day at work. Well, the phone rang quite a bit, but so far, it was a quietly mellow day and that was what I needed. I got a chance to get away from the cats, the house, the changes, but yet all it did was give me a greater appreciation about what my wife deals with daily. I can't imagine what it would be like to deal with constant interruptions so that you can't get anything done, and while I do deal with that in my current job, it's a bit different because home is supposed to be slightly more stable, and our house right now is anything but.

 

I'm already looking forward to the end result, and want to thank my wife for everything she is doing to keep our house going. Tonight, the cats get to settle in to their new home, and we will be one day closer to having the house of our dreams. Nothing good comes without a price, and right now, our price to have this work done is paying for our dream with money, sanity and sleep. I'll remember these days later this summer hanging in the new room, and look back at these issues as temporary hurdles towards a greater good. Granted, I am starting to do that now, but that doesn't make the here and now any easier to deal with unless you keep the greater good in mind.

 

 

The Final Nail In the Coffin

I'll admit it, I tried to watch some of the Olympics coverage despite the evidence that it was a complete trainwreck. I wanted to see the events for myself and so I subjected myself to the choppy approach of tape delayed, back story heavy broadcast that NBC followed. They didn't air most events live, instead figuring people would watch regardless. And apparently they did, quite a bit. But I finally learned a few days into the broadcasts that I could go to CTV in Canada and watch videos and see results as they were happening. If it was something that I wanted to watch later, I could put up with the crap knowing the end result was worth watching.

 

I'll admit that it's an uphill battle to see things go back to the way they were, simply because there's too much influence and money involved with things, and right now, ratings and advertising dollars are the only thing that matters. Loyalty doesn't mean anything in television, as evidenced by the rather curious decision to forgo some of the coverage of the closing ceremonies party for the premier of some crappy pilot. Seriously, this is almost equatable to leaving the coverage of an NBA playoff game in the third quarter because we need to show the next episode of the Hills. NBC doesn't care about its viewers at all, and if you thought anything different, well this should finally convince you otherwise.

 

Now some crazy people have said that we'll miss NBC as soon as they're gone from the Olympics, and the thing is there are parts of what they did that was OK. I liked the use of technology to super impose athlete images in the same frame to compare runs, and some of the commentary was actually good from experts that know what they are talking about. But seriously, the rest of it was the worst possible coverage of sports simply because NBC treated it like entertainment rather than sports. I hope the next network will learn that events need to be seen live, the stories need to unfold naturally rather than try and create them before hand, and the promotional stuff needs to be kept to a minimum. And it's not a good service to your fans when you put games on channels that might not be available everywhere. Look, I get it's a challenge to cover it all, and tastes vary, but at the same point, shoving skating at us every moment doesn't do most sports fans any good.

 

Besides, it will be good to talk about different things for once. I mean, seriously, tomorrow is Dr. Seuss's birthday and so I'll need to celebrate as best I can, because that's what I do, it's GK I am.

 

It's Been A Tough Day, But It's Getting Better

I know that everyone has tough days, days that you would just like to hide from the world or ask the world to stop the ride becaue you'd like to get off. I remember many times growing up hearing about character building experiences, which I equated to situations where adults wanted to torment kids for whatever reason, but now that I'm older and trying to get things figured out, I see things differently.

 

I'd like to say that I learn a lot from winning and success, but honestly, the only thing that I can consistenly say that I learn from that is that I should keep doing whatever it is I'm doing cause it worked. Mind you, it could have been pure dumb luck or the efforts of one or many that led to success, but we all know that being a superstitious lot, we tend to try and mirror successes to build upon things later. I've learned far more from the hurdles and drama that I've had to deal with, because those situations force us to examine ourselves and who we are, and either make the decision that things are OK or things must change because they can't work the way they were. I've faced a lot of challenges lately, from my own past trauma which we all have to challenges at work, but nothing has presented as many challenges as losing my mother.

 

For those of you that know me, this is rather old news, but for me, there are things that remind me of her that push me back to the day we lost her. Today happens to be her birthday, and while it's a lot better today mentally, I still feel a bit of apprehension and stress simply because I know what day it is. Granted, I know that she's moved onto a better place and I'm living in the here and now, but that doesn't change the fact that she was an important influence to me, good and bad. And if you had talked to me late in 2005 after her death, I still had the rose colored glasses and eternal optimism that things were good with us and I had a really good childhood.

 

The years and events since then have pulled a lot of the tarnish from that rose colored view to make me realize that things weren't nearly as good as I envisioned because I only focused on the good stuff. I didn't focus upon the divorces, her desire to try and find someone to love her as much as she loved others but settling for what was available, and her inability to kick me in the butt when I needed it. Instead of allowing me to fail or succeed based on my terms, I got the kid gloves treatment for the most part, and so it's no wonder now that I try so hard to avoid failure because I never learned until recently that it's ok to fall on your butt. I thought I had my life all figured out until I was forced to look at it and I realized that it wasn't anything like what I wanted.

 

I had a studio apartment in NW Portland, living the relative high life by myself and trying to manage things for me. But when I met girl and realized how important she was to me, I realized that I needed and wanted so much more, even if I didn't know it at first. I missed the simple joy of pets coming around to sleep on your lap, or rubbing against you when you've had a crappy day, or even the simple ability to share the events of my day with someone that cares. Not that I didn't have friends and family that don't care, but when you are in an intimate relationship, it becomes a big relief to have someone to help carry the burden. And while I drive my wife crazy quite a bit, I can't think of anyone else that I'd want to spend my life with. She gives me love and kicks my butt when I need it, and I appreciate that quite a lot, even if there are times where I fight it or don't appreciate what she does for me.

 

And while today has been a relatively busy day at work, I've still thought about the day and my mom, and while I miss her terribly, I know she'd be happy because I'm happy with my life. She would be ecstatic that I have someone to share things with, inspire and support, and playfully tease once I figure out a good comeback to some of her jokes (hey, I get tripped up when she tells me I suck and I can't think of a quick reply), because it's like finding your other half. Today, while I've thought about my mom and talked to my sister by email, I've spent as much time thinking about the future and the things I want to do later on. I suppose you could say that I'm living my life, which I'm sure that my mom would want me to do more than anything.

 

Olympics Banter - Hockey fans are still way upset about Sunday and with good reason. I watched the game Sunday afternoon and it was one of the best events I've seen in a while. While I'll agree with this blogger that some of the technology used for this coverage has been top flight, the coverage overall has been terrible. You might have some of the best camera angles and graphics that show some pretty cool stuff, but when your coverage is extremely minimal and more based on tape delayed snippets and back story filler, it doesn't matter how many cool toys you have. I want to see events and have the drama unfold in front of me rather than being told what I should like or what I should support.

 

And something I can't support is ice skating, which is something the coverage dedicates itself to quite a bit. I can't support any activity that depends on judging that is hard to understand, I don't care how compelling the costumes might be or how much adversity they've overcome to get here. At least with aerial skiing, I can relate to the difference between certain tricks and there's a danger factor that provides some thrill, but skating doesn't provide me any of that. It's the same beef I have with the Summer Olympics and gymnastics. But I won't say that the Olympics needs to get rid of any sports at all, because I understand that people have differing tastes in competition and I'm not going to badmouth the choices in sports unlike other fans who hate the game I love soccer.

 

It's just that for a sports fan, you relate to competition and the drama that builds up during the event, and putting things on tape delay and not allowing the event to unfold as it happens takes away the most compelling reasons to watch sports. It would be like boiling the Super Bowl to an hour show with only the key plays and lots of stories about the players. Nobody would ever agree or watch something like this, but for the Olympics, NBC is convinced this is what we want to watch. Well, not me, I've been watching what I can on ctvolympics.ca, a site run by CTV. It's not on delay, and while it's biased for the home side, it's still some of the best stuff to watch if you simply want to watch people battle in the arena of sports.

My History with the Olympics - part two

So the torch was finally lit for the Vancouver Olympics Friday night in a cavalcade of spectacle. The opening ceremony had it all - a parade of nations to challenge your understanding of geography, special effects to dazzle or confuse the senses, a crazy poet with the worst chinbeard ever, and a celebration of the torch that was comic yet touching. The comedy was present when the torch cauldron inside BC Place stuck, and one of the doors protecting the arm didn't open. For two and a half long agonizing minutes, the torch bearers (4 of them) stood in place wondering what would happen, but then the three other arms came up, the torch was lit inside and everyone celebrated. It was like the fortress of solitude for Superman broke, and they couldn't get it fixed, but it was historic in that more than one person lit the cauldron and they did it inside.

 

But then in a scene that was amazing, the great Wayne Gretzky ran to catch a ride, and suddenly he was in the back of a pickup driving down the streets of downtown Vancouver. They were lighting a second cauldron outdoors, and the great one was going to be the person lighting this one. And sure enough, it went without a hitch and the crowd erupted in approval. Watching the truck glide through the city and seeing the residents jump up and down in celebration was interesting. The world's biggest celebration of sports was underway, and Vancouver opened its arms to the world.

 

Not that it hasn't been without other incidents. Earlier in the day, a luger from Georgia was tragically killed in a training accident up at Whistler, which put a damper on some of the celebration. Accidents are part of the game in sports like luge, where athletes hurl themselves down a sheet of ice at speeds that most of us don't drive our cars at, but in this instance, the luger lost control on the final turn and shot off the track into a steel pole. The officials there made some tough but quick decisions to alter the competition starting points and put up extra barriers around that fateful turn, but apparently, there were some questionable decisions made prior to the Games that had some competitors up in arms. Organizers tried to make the fastest track in the world, and in succeeding, they pushed the envelope to the edge which means the margin of error should something bad happen is minuscule. Plus, Canadian luge officials apparently didn't make the track as available to other competitors before the Games, meaning that racers hadn't had the chance to really get comfortable with the layout unless your helmet had the maple leaf on it.

 

Officials also said afterwords the track was safe and the accident was rider caused, which led to a lot of firestorm as well. I learned later that the luger had taken 26 training runs on the course before Friday, and to compete at this level, you need to have a certain amount of skill just to be there. It's not like we're talking about a complete rookie here, but then again, even the most experienced racers were having problems with the course. I get that you want the most competitive and even handed course available, but in attempting to make things more interesting, there has to be a balance between speed and safety, otherwise you are tempting fate and things like what happened on Friday will happen more often. I'm sure the debate about this will continue as people try to point a finger and determine a reason why something happened. But while it's important to understand the why, it's also important to deal with the what happened, and continuing the competition was the right decision to make as long as they are being safe about it.

 

Also, protests earlier in the day marred the torch relay, making course reroutes necessary to get the torch to its destination. The demonstrations continued through Saturday, taking a more destructive stance as protesters turned violent with property destruction in downtown Vancouver. Nothing brings out people looking for a stage for their cause like an event that is drawing worldwide attention, and sure enough, those wanting a sympathetic ear are trying to state their case, no matter the consequences. I'm all for social activism if the heart is in the right place, but nothing excuses the destruction of other people's property just to prove a point. I get that there are serious issues about that need attention, and it's important to deal with those things rather than sweep them under the carpet, but I can't be sympathetic with those that decide their need to be heard comes at the cost of harming others directly or indirectly. Maybe the homeless in Vancouver need some help, but trashing stores in the downtown Vancouver area isn't the way to inspire people to do something.

 

Lastly, I couldn't believe how much disdain people have for Olympics coverage from NBC, including a person who created a Facebook group about it. NBC is already dealing with the controversial decision in their late night programming and the ramifications there, and now their coverage of the Vancouver Games is drawing similar levels of criticism. From not showing the United States - Canada men's hockey competition on their main channel relegating the game to MSNBC in lieu of ice dancing, putting most of the events on tape delay instead of showing them live and admitting they're doing it, and using integrated advertising within the games coverage themselves, I don't know of anyone that is happy about anything the peacock network is doing.

 

And they don't seem to care despite all of the anger being shown on blogs and other media outlets, because despite all of it, we're apparently still watching. Me, I'm upset that two shows that I absolutely love, the Office US and Community, reside on a network that things manipulating coverage to fit their needs instead of letting things happen naturally and telling the story as it happens works. Seriously, this network couldn't figure out what to do with the Tonight Show when the guy promised the job was doing what he was supposed to while the guy that had the job suddenly wanted his job back, and so they nearly destroyed their network framework in the process of trying to solve the issue. So how can I trust them to cover these events in the way that helps sports fans.

 

I get that the Olympics draws a lot of casual sports fans, and a lot of them love skating for whatever reason. I can't stand it because I hate sports that have subjective judging that doesn't allow me to completely understand why one person spinning four times in the air is better than another person that does the very same thing. At least with most skiing, bobsled, hockey, track skating, it's easy because the person that gets the course done first wins and although I can't ski like that, I can relate to the competition of knowing the best person won. But the Olympics aren't about me or any sports fans anymore, it's all about ratings and fierce corporate logos, complete with overpriced souvenirs. I've finally figured out that there are some wonderful websites available where I can watch what I want when I want to find out what's going on, and avoid the pomposity and blatant slant that NBC is portraying, and if I really want to watch the games, I should just watch the Simpsons version anyway. If you want to watch it, you can do it here. And now, let's welcome Albania, Ghostbusters style!!