Ashton Kutcher took to Twitter last night, like so many others, to voice his opinion about the firing of Joe Paterno at Penn State.  The problem that Kutcher incurred is that he did not read all of the information about the case before giving his two cents.  This could prove deadly when you have more than 8 million followers, a lot of whom feel strongly about the child-sex scandal that is going on right now. 



Almost immediately, Kutcher began getting inundated with tweets.  Many calling him an "idiot" or a "moron".  I was a little nicer (which is odd), my tweet said "Get educated on the entire scandal, then tweet".  Perhaps if he tweeted the same thing without the hashtags "insult" and "noclass", he may have been given a slight break.   no comments

Imagine a Sunday afternoon, sitting in the bleachers of your favorite baseball team with a hot dog, a cold refreshment of choice and you are literally 20feet away from your favorite players. You can hear the players conversations, the tips from the coaches and possibly even scope out some hidden baseball signs (no binoculars needed). Now imagine paying for your ticket, food and drinks for the entire game for under $2.  

Flash forward 60 years and this same fan has been pushed out of the "real fan" seats, banished to what his wallet can afford, the dreaded upper deck. He has the same hot dog and cold refreshment, only this time, its set him back close to $100. Now add on if you care to take your family or a date to a game, and you end up broke before its time for the 7th inning stretch. 

Whether you're watching from home or lucky enough to attend a live game, slowly but surely, corporations are making major decisions in every aspect of our beloved sports. 

But does the drooling from team owners for corporate dollars actually help or hurt the leagues that embrace them? no comments

Steve Jobs has passed away and it is a very sad day here in Silicon Valley and the country. There has been a tremendous outpouring of emotion and great articles since the news broke several hours ago. I'm not going to write the 10,000th article about Jobs and his legacy, but rather take a moment to point out some distinct things I've learned over the years from being a fan of Apple and him (not a cult member, but someone who just intensely loves and respects Jobs and Apple).

If Things Don't Work Out, Stay True To Your Passion

I think the thing that I most respect about Jobs is that he could have washed away in some type of mid life crisis. He was fired from Apple, the company he founded. Insanely rich and with plenty of options, there were many ways the rest of his life could have unfolded. Instead he stayed true to his passion. This is my favorite Jobs quote although "Do you want to sell sugar water for the rest of your life, or do you want to come with me and change the world?" is also pretty good (in recruiting a Pepsi exec to become Apple CEO).

"But it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life."

What many people don't realize is how great of a company Pixar ended up being. There are 12 Pixar movies. 8 of them are in the IMDB top 250. The LOWEST grossing film they've ever had was Toy Story with a whopping $362 million.

It's not hard to imagine different avenues Jobs could have gone after being let go at Apple. He could have taken a paycheck somewhere else, taken some time off, been a consultant/board member type, etc.

Instead he kept with his passion by founding NeXT and turning around Pixar, a company that is truly amazing. Eventually it led him to wealth, success, and back to Apple where he ultimately had what many consider the greatest CEO tenure of all time.

I take this to heart because in 2009, my dream job was a casualty of the recession. I had a lot of options. Staying with the company I was at but in a new role and a lot of people offered me roles at a variety of different companies. I was close to taking some. Very very close.

In the end I bought myself some time doing some consulting that was more up my alley and subsequently digging into launch Bloguin. In the end, I couldn't walk away from what I was passionate about regardless of the hand I was dealt and the ominous economy. no comments

 
When I first sat down to write up a list of sports movies, it was coming out much too long.  I had EVERYTHING on there.  "Hmmm, M*A*S*H is a war movie, but it has that great football sequence in it;  those Harry Potter movies have the best quidditch sequences ever filmed"....

Realizing the column would wind up being 9 pages long, I then thought of doing a “top 10” list, or picking the best movies in each individual sport.  Then I scrapped all those artificial constructions and just came up with MY list.  These may or may not be the best sports movies ever, but they are my best sports movies ever.

Every film on this list is something which struck me when I first saw it and that I can watch over and over again.  In keeping with that sort of “no particular definition” spirit, these movies are not in any order.  This is not a ranking system, it’s just a list of sports titles that won’t let you down.

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Wow, what a long, strange trip it's been for Charlie Sheen in the last 48 hours.  From lovable sitcom star, to unhinged cokehead maniac, to social media genius, Wild Thing has been everywhere.  The man has seemingly taken over the entertainment world, even our humble sports blog!  But, the question remains, is Charlie Sheen the craziest person who's ever roamed the planet?  How does he stack up against some of the looniest personalities in the sports world, like Mike Tyson and Ron Artest?  Well, we've decided to find out, and test your knowledge of crazy at the same time.  Below you'll find 15 quotes, some from Charlie Sheen, others from documented psychiatry patient Ron Artest, and others from the inspiration of the "Tyson Zone", Iron Mike Tyson.  Your job is to match the quote to the proper nutjob, Sheen, Artest, or Tyson.  Play along with our Crazy Quiz and find out how well you're in touch with your inner child of complete and utter lunacy!

(1) "I think the average person thinks I'm a f**king nut and I deserve whatever happens to me. That's what I believe." 

(2) "Resentments are the rocket fuel that lives in the tip of my saber."

(3) "Clearly I have defeated this earthworm with my words - imagine what I would have done with my fire breathing fists."  no comments

 

What do you use Facebook for? Do you use it to reconnect with people from your past? Do you use it to find people in your class? Perhaps you use it to spy on your children? Or, in most cases, you are a creeper who loves to peruse the photos of the newly added "friend" you haven't seen or talked to in ten years. Admit it, it feels like I am in your head right now, doesn't it? Well this isn't rocket science, it is the internet and I guarantee that almost all of the 500 million users of the 'book can fall into one or all of those categories.

I am friends with approximately less than .00002% of the population of Facebook, so I guess you could say that the annoyances I have stumbled on might be isolated to my tiny corner of the social network. However, after conversing with some friends (real ones), I found that many of the things I find intolerable on Facebook are right in line with their thoughts on the subject. Now I wonder what the people outside of my friends think. Are we just assholes or is this shit really annoying?

Tagging yourself in a picture in your album-- Really? What is the valuation in tagging yourself in a picture in your own album? Is it just to drive up the number of pictures you're tagged in? Don't laugh. I know that is the precise reason you are doing it you narcissistic psychopath. With that said, don't get this confused, if you are in someone elses album it is perfectly acceptable to tag yourself.  no comments