Slow progress is still progress

 I see people on social media sites complaining about the University of Minnesota Golden Gophers  minor bowls against middle of the road teams and say that P.J. Fleck doesn't deserve the credit he gets after leading them to their NINTH consecutive victory.

Would you prefer that they NOT play bowl games and maybe only win two or three games a year?!?!

Yes, they've got a long way to go to get up to the national level with the likes of Michigan, Ohio State, and Penn State, but do you really wanna deal with those headaches that come with being the big dogs?

I know Michigan and Ohio State have won the last two NCAA "national championships".  And the hill got MUCH steeper when Oregon and USC joined the Big Ten.

For now, I'm good with no longer being the punching bags, the laughing stocks, or the runts of the litter.  People have to give them a *LITTLE* respect, and those iotas are much greater than zero.

Can Minnesota do better?  Yes, they could.  It's gonna take time.  And I've got plenty of patience.  Gopher football season is no longer the "wait until hockey starts" transition period between the start of the school year and the puck drops at Mariucci and Ridder Arenas.  It means something now.  I'll gladly take that.

It take time to become golden.  But compared to what they were in the days before they started rowing the boat?  I'll gladly be not shit...

Row the boat, Ski-U-Mah, and Go Gophers.

So what'cha want?

Adam, Adam, and Mike tried to warn the record companies ~30 years ago.

The only people who need record companies are the artists TO HELP PROMOTE THEIR BANDS.

Albums help sell tickets to shows, which is where musicians make their money. But now that the shoe is on the other foot, where bands can start their own labels, work directly with studios, and can cut the big name producers out of their equation.

There is no need for a middleman anymore.

Technology helped too. Thanks to the iPod eventually becoming big enough to hold entire PERSONAL libraries of music, why do you need to listen to SOMEONE ELSE'S collection?

Need recommendations for new music? Ask a friend. 

And the whole Napster fiasco? It showed record companies only cared about their bottom lines. 

Music, and making albums, adds to their wealth, so they can sign more bands and make more recordings increase their IP catalog.

Once the albums are stamped, they'll license their productions out where they can make their bucks. 

Who needs record companies? Investors, and that's it...

I think I found my TRUE, TRUE calling in life...

 After spending the last few days...

WEEKS, really...

OK, YEARS...

...Thinking about all the various personal projects I've started working on, all the notes I've compiled, all the drawing I've come up with, files upon files UPON FILES of data on my PC's...

I think my true, TRUE, passion in life is world building.

I've been kicking around some relatively recent thoughts and ideas about a story I've been trying to write for years now.  All the LEGO sets I've bought and brainstorming about integrating them into a single, grand unified theory of "what story am I trying to tell with all of them"...  Pages and pages of notes, playing through countless video games, putting together playlists of songs, countless digital notes, scratching my head wondering what's behind the next door and picturing the next adventure...

It all comes back to the same question: "What comes next?"

Science fiction, fiction, articles, books, music, art, images, hundreds, thousands, millions,  BILLIONS of ones and zeroes.  They continue to add up to the same result:

I need to fill in the blanks.  Either in your narrative or one of my own.

As I keep dumping ideas into one hole, another one appears (or two or three of a bazillion) more appear.  So I have to fill in those gaps.  I try to fill them in, and more appear.  It's like my brain in playing an endless game of whack-a-mole.

And one just isn't enough.  I've got a whole unused hand awaiting assignmment, so why not play two games at once?

Feet?!?!  Sure, go for three!!

But wait, sit down and use the other foot!!  THAT'S FOUR1!

Whack-A-Mole isn't that hard.  It doesn't take much brain power, IT CAN PLAY MENTAL WHACK-A-MOLE!!  FIVE!!

Am I overthinking this?!?!  YOU'RE ONLY ASKING THIS NOW?!?!?!

It goes on, and on, and...  Well, you get the idea...

I wouldn't have it any other way.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to collect my tickets before I start my next game...

Can you do it?

 I’m dusting off the ol’ blog to post some personal insights and views to share with whomever *MIGHT* be reading.  Here’s one I wrote last summer:

Between all the recent celebrations of diversity and the great things life has delivered to us, between the Juneteenth and Negro Leagues Baseball and Pride events, I will continue to do what I can to help share their wonderful contributions to this world.

In my eyes, if you can do the job, then you are welcome on my team.  If you’re willing to roll up your sleeves and learn how to be of assistance, I’ll gladly teach you.

Skin color, sexual orientation, gender and gender identity?  Details.  If you’d like me to celebrate it with you, I’ll do my best.  And please let know if I’m not doing it right.  I’m sure I still have a lot to learn.

A rising tide lifts all boats.  Let’s get on board and set out for adventure.

Even though I’ve been going through life on one of the easier difficulty settings (straight white male, but not *THE* easiest, as I’ve never been an obscenely rich white male) it hasn’t been *THAT* easy.

After I turned nine (9), people had a problem with who I was, and most of them felt the need to try to constantly tear me down for their own entertainment.

Fuck those assholes.  I hope karma comes around to bite them on the ass so hard they have to be put on a waiting list for a new buttocks transplant.

In the words of Elton John, “I’m still standin’ better than I ever did.  Looking like a true survivor.  Feelin’ like a little kid.  And I’m still standin’ after all this time.  Pickin’ up the pieces of my life without you on my mind.”

Although you are still on my mind, I’m using it as the inspiration for a fictional story I’m writing.

If, by some incredible miracle, I make some money off it, I’ll buy a plane ticket for you TO COME KISS MY FUCKING ASS!!!

So, at the beginning of their journeys, Professor Oak gives “Red” Ash Ketchum and Gary “Blue” Oak a Pokédex each, with data about all 149 species of Pokemon known to exist in the Kanto region. But the data on those devices is locked behind a system that somehow senses the Pokemon they each had caught AND seen, with no apparent explanation (to my knowledge) how THE DEVICE knows.

I know it's a video game (and a anime cartoon based on it), which became a new cornerstone to the Nintendo empire that's been pretty much killing it in the video game industry since the early 1980's, so you should take it with a grain of salt, but it is a valid question.

If you've watched the anime and know the explanation for such a GAPING plot hole, please let me know if a video clip exists somewhere to fill in that hole.

Anyway, if I had a similar device with cell phone like capability that automatically unlocks data about magic animals that are electronically stored in tiny little colorful balls, years before the actual technology exists...

I suppose that's something we have "Star Trek: The Next Generation" to thank for.  Thanks to that future focused show, they had characters hanging out and enjoying down time in a virtual reality where technology could do shit that we could only DREAM about...

Yes, I'm putting too much thought into this.  And yes, I'm probably not the first person to wonder about this.  I'm sure Nintendo is cool with us discussing this, as they get to reap the rewards.  "Some dude is talking about our multibillion dollar franchise on a blog?  And he's been a loyal customer for thirty-five years?  Sure, we're cool with it."

Don't expect me to start eating mushrooms or climbing down green pipes...