Writin' Forty

Ya  know, we weren’t even supposed to be here today! I mean that. When the NCAA basketball gods put together the tournament brackets year by year the whole purpose of seeding the brackets 1-16 is that by the time two rounds end, or known to everyone as the Sweet Sixteen, only the 1-4 seeds of each bracket should remain. While this has never happened the intention seems pretty clear: there is a line of demarcation of the teams the tournament designers feel should make it far and there are teams the designers feel should not make it far.  For the year of our lord, John Wooden, 2019, Auburn was NOT supposed to be this far and you don’t have to go any further than looking that Auburn was assigned a ‘5’ for its dance invitation.  Quick recap of Auburn’s season: great start, a stumble out of the gate for the start of the SEC season where we were predicted to compete for another regular season championship marked by a series of narrow defeats, the absolute nadir when Au...

I read a  stat  somewhere that the average white  (American)  owned small business owner starts off with about $100K in capital while the average black owned small business owner starts off with about $31K. Not playing “identity politics”, whatever that is. I’m simply relaying what I have read to make this point: I think I want to start my own business but I don’t really have the capital to do so. Let me check that, I probably could get the capital but in order to do so I’d have to place myself and family in a position of financial discomfort; I worked too hard to get to this point in my life to risk that money away. I believe I want to start a small business; I do not want to make it the “last ditch effort” where either the business succeeds or my wife and I go hungry! I like to eat. She does too. Decades ago I had the dream of opening a comic book store. While the first comic book I ever picked up was from a Big B Drug Store in Birmingham, AL the first time ...

I saw a meme, picture, something on someone’s Facebook or twitter or something that mentioned… Yes, I know that above clause is a mess but it’s either reflecting that my mind is a mess (highly possible) or goodness, we receive information from a ton of different places! There are a lot of people who fret or worry that we receive our news from Facebook or any level of social media. I get that, but if you’re careful about how you  vet  your information obtaining it from Facebook or Twitter first isn’t really that big of a deal; it’s making sure the source information is valid. Or, if you’re looking at a meme, understand that a meme itself isn’t the source information and you should be super careful about just trusting a meme to carry your thought processes. I should finish the clause. … the ancestors of many African American people, slaves, who were toiling in the field  (In the United States)  were not meant to be slaves. They were doctors, teachers, lawyers,...

Whether it’s the adage of 10,000hrs or you are what you repeatedly do it seems obvious in plain English that if you continually do something you’re going to get better at it.  Let’s take my tried and true hustle of jiu-jitsu. I’ve read if you’re going to jiu-jitsu  once a week you will slowly begin  to get behind the curve of learning in the art, two times a week  you’re slightly ahead, three you’re moving well ahead. Overall this makes sense to me: if you keep going to class at a steady clip then you’ll get better. If you start as a brand new student and go three times a week you’re going to  learn  more than a brand new student who only goes one or two. If you’re an advanced student and only go once a week your skill level may be that no one below you will notice you’re slipping. But other advanced students would probably be able to tell; it’s possible a gifted new student who’s attending multiple times a week can tell as well. I don’t consider...

I recently wrapped up the recent final run of Daredevil.  N owadays, instead of sticking with original numbering of a series, as soon as author  concludes his/her run a publisher will restart the numbering of a series with 1 in the hopes that new readers can attach to the series. They need to just stick to original numbering, it makes more sense for the hardcore collectors. None of this has anything to do with what I’m talking about but I love comic books. In this issue of Daredevil, he is laying  on the opera ting table fighting for his life. He is internally musing about why he should fight to live anyway: Kingpin is the mayor still, enemies are still gunning for him no matter what, and the fight is seemingly never ending: he is drowning in darkness and cannot see the light. He dies. But he comes back to life and he says something that I find incredible: If you cannot see the light, then be the light. Whoa. That hit me hard. I love that  line. It mad...

You'll pardon me if I get somewhat personal on this one. I mean, this blog is literally about myself and processes that I go through but this one will go a little deeper than normal. On my desk in my office sits a picture in a frame. I'm notoriously bad at keeping pictures. I have a decent amount but they're sitting in photo albums and looked at seldomly. I have never looked at my wedding video. I have not looked at my retirement ceremony. Mom told me she has a video of my high school graduation. I've never looked at it. If there's a picture I want to look at it's a picture that means something to me. The picture is from college and it's of me and three other friends, dressed as the Ghostbusters for Halloween. It occurred me today that all three of the other guys in that photo voted for Donald Trump. I can safely infer this. My interest here isn't political. It's more on how a president can affect a country and there shouldn't be any debate...

I grew up as a brainy kid. I was called nerd a lot. This blog is not about how much I was called a nerd as a kid. Not really.  I was always in Quiz Bowl, or Academic Bowl, as a kid. Did a decent amount of it in middle school. It made sense for me to continue trying it in high school. What I have learned in my middle age is that you can be a hotshot at something, but if you have to move to a different location to keep doing that thing you’re going to have to prove yourself all over again.  I was kind of a hotshot in middle school at quiz bowl. Moving into high school, I had to prove myself all over again. I found out there was an Academic Bowl team for the high school  and joined up. The proving myself part came when I had to “sit the bench” for the first half of the competition. If memory serves me correctly, each match between schools was 25 questions long. There were four people on the team. A coach could sub in any or all of the four team members after 12 ques...