Quick Explainer: Who the Hell Do I Think I Am?

Friends, it feels like new social media sites are popping up faster than weeds in my wife's garden. What can you do? No one's quite sure which ones are gonna stick just yet, but we're all steady joining these things for better or worse. The hope, at least for me, is that each new site will offer a way to engage a new or different audience.

But every time we join one of these sites, we have to introduce ourselves all over again. That's a pain in the butt.

So. This is a little explainer: Who the Hell do I think I am?

Top 15 Posts of 2021

The end of the year is a time for reflection and re-commitment, for thinking about what worked and what didn't, and how we can improve in the months ahead. 

My sense is that 2021 was a lot better for most folks than was 2020, but as we head into yet another year amidst yet another surge of the coronavirus, we are again reminded that we are still a long way from normal. Whatever "normal" means in the year 2022. 

Among other things, it seems like the nation's overall psychology has deteriorated. We've spent so much time physically isolated from one another that we've now become emotionally isolated as well. This has not been good for anyone. Somewhere there's an inflection point between physical health and mental health, and as a nation, I feel like we're already teetering.

I know what this means for my family and my career. It's less clear what it means for my writing and/or As For Football.

I've done year-end wrap-ups like this before, but this is the first time that I've ever tried to integrate my writing for AFF with either my social media footprint and/or with my personal blog. It's been a somewhat fraught experience, introducing even more subjectivity into the process than normal. It's never been the case that the "best" posts of the year were necessarily the most widely read, but when we add in the effects of social media influence, we exacerbate the weird, giving potentially widespread voice to some truly random thoughts.

Making this list was therefore something of a balance. Some of it spoke to me. Some of it spoke to you. Some of it was randomly retweeted by the rich and much-more-famous. What can you do? My all-time favorite post on any platform has had just 387 readers since July 2016.  I don't know what that means other than that what speaks to me doesn't always speak to all of you.

Anyway. The Top 15 Posts of 2021 are after the jump.

Blog Shots: Trying to Reach People

 

Let’s Talk a Little About the BYU Cancellation & Why There Hasn’t Been a Make-Up Scheduled

A couple of guys were arguing about this on my Twitter timeline, and it got maddeningly acrimonious. Typical Twitter slap-fight maybe, but it’s still one of those things were both guys were mashing the PUSH TO TALK button without actually receiving anything. Obviously, both sides have a particular point of view, so that approach accomplished nothing.

Welcome to America.

5 Things on a Friday: Cancel Everything

I wrote this on the train yesterday on my way in to work.  It's been so totally overcome by events in the last 24 hours that I'm just gonna publish it as it was originally intended, and you can all laugh or cry as you see fit.

The original into said simply, "Well.  That escalated quickly..." 

XFL: Offenses at the Halfway Mark

We’re five weeks into a ten-week XFL regular season, and despite the coronavirus outbreak and a predictable drop in TV ratings, America’s newest football league is off to a seemingly strong start.  We’re seeing regular mainstream media coverage, power rankings, podcasts, and -- after a slow offensive start -- an increasingly interesting product week-to-week.

Let’s discuss.

View this post on Instagram

‪This is where things stand halfway through the regular season‬

A post shared by XFL (@xfl) on Mar 10, 2020 at 6:35am PDT

XFL Pics: NY Guardians vs. LA Wildcats

I don't know how many folks read my XFL recap yesterday.  Emma and I had a lot of fun despite the cold, but maybe my favorite part of the game was taking a bunch of football pics.  I started working on photography because I wanted to better express what it feels like to watch Army at Michie Stadium, and being at MetLife gave me the chance to practice my new favorite hobby in an athletic context.

I ran some of these as part of my recap.  Others got cut because I flat ran out of space.  Regardless, these were my favorites from the game.  The good thing about running them here is 1) I can talk a little more about them, and 2) I can spend a little more time considering the display in terms of size and aspect ratio.

As always, pics after the jump.

5 Things on a Friday: Panic?!

Hi folks.  Happy Friday.  As you read this, I am skiing Mount Snow.  As I write this, though, it’s Thursday morning, and there’s precipitation in Vermont.

So.  Was it rain or snow?  Am I having a good day or a bad day?

With Josh & Rob at Killington.  I'll be with Josh again today.

These are burning questions.  But by the time you read this, we’ll know the answers.  As I write it, however, I can only worry and wait.  Kind of like the Coronavirus.

Six Things on a Saturday: Divining Artistic Pretensions

It feels like the world has gone off the rails.  It wasn’t this week in particular or anything, but…  wow.

Let’s get to it.

5 Things on a Friday: The ‘Stick to Sports’ Edition

With the State of the Union, impeachment, and every other thing going 24/7 on all the major new channels and Internet sites, we’ve decided to stick to sports here at Casa Cabeza.  Not because we don’t have opinions -- we definitely do have opinions -- but rather, because it feels very much like the best thing we can do collectively as a society is to just suck some of the air out of the room.  

EVERYTHING is politics, all the time.  It doesn’t feel like that’s helping.

For all the outrage, the actual Will of the People has become a forgotten concept.  No one cares what people actually think.  The only thing that matters is that we stay mad -- about anything.  It doesn’t matter what you’re angry about, just that you’re angry.  There are a million places to post an opinion, but just so we’re clear: NO ONE IS LISTENING.  We’re relevant only to the extent that we can be commoditized, and not one inch further than that.

Thankfully, it’s been an interesting sports week.

5 Things on a Friday: Skiing the Super Bowl

Happy Friday, friends.  Let’s get to it.

5 Things on a Friday: Titans, Jeter, Rush

By the time you read this, I will be on my out to Colorado to ski with my buddy Brian.  Yay!

Alright.  Let’s do it.

Quick Thoughts: The Titans & the AFC Championship Game

I'm kind of mourning the Titans' postseason today.  Sally and I spent the entire weekend at a singing and dancing competition with our girls.  I found myself sitting alongside all the other Dance Dads all weekend long, impatiently awaiting the start of yesterday's game.  I won't say that fatherly intensity had reached a fever pitch by the time we got to kickoff, but I will note that the hotel bar was crammed to bursting with dads looking for something to think about besides costume changes and jazz hands.

"I definitely shed a couple of tears... I just felt like I could have done more for this team. I love this team, I loved playing football and competing."@KingHenry_2 Thanks Teammates + Fans After Historic Season 📰 » https://t.co/jBf4BrpDEphttps://t.co/14QjFHWwEa

— Tennessee Titans (@Titans) January 20, 2020

That stuff is great and all, but most of us have no idea what we're watching out there.

5 Things on a Friday: Back on the Bandwagon

5 Things on a Friday returns for a special NFL Playoff/MLB Cheating edition.  Enjoy!

I don’t want national media respect anymore. I want them to have to cover the Tennessee Titans in the Super Bowl which is their worst nightmare.

— Two Tone Fanatics (@twotonefanatics) January 14, 2020

Favorite Photos of 2019

Happy New Year, everyone! 

This has been a year in which Sally and I have mostly kept on keeping on.  Arguably the biggest changes in my life were my decision to commit to skiing more last winter, taking up photography early in the summer, and writing a Hell of a lot for As For Football. 

This post is most obviously about the photography.  However, it's influenced by all three.  First, I wrote so much for AFF that there's really not enough material from the blog to do a best-of retrospective for 2019.  That's been a long-running series here, and I'm sad to skip it, but there's just not much point.  Luckily, I have these pictures to show, so it's not a total wash.  A good number of these come from shots taken for AFF, so before we bemoan the lack of additional writing, it's worth remembering that the As For Football crew sent me to a heck of a lot of really fun football games this year. 

That's not nothing.

The one regret that I have with this is that it's tough to show size and aspect ratios via the blog.  Some of these ought to be shown big and others are just wide or skinny.  None of that comes across in this format.  I'd like to have a little show in our backyard, but that's definitely a project for the spring or early summer.  Paired with beer tasting and a friendly audience, it could be fun.  We'll see.

Let me just say, too, that I don't know that I'm necessarily good at this.  However, I enjoy it, and I've never been shy about showing my work to others.

For all of these, you can click the pics to them at full size.

Twitter is Not IRL

I saw a couple of interesting articles about the Democratic primary election this week, one from the NY Times and one from the Atlantic.  Both papers are struggling to understand the Democratic electorate in the Twitter Age. That’s no easy task.  Bottom line, though, the Young Left of Twitter (YLT) has decided that it hates Mayor Pete Buttigeg of South Bend, Indiana, with an abiding passion.  Apparently, this is because he is either too successful personally or else he’s not far enough left.  Or perhaps both.

My message to those I meet is simple: "este país es tu país."

This country is your country. Everyone who has made the United States their home deserves to participate fully and freely in their communities.https://t.co/sMRkVfwFwF

— Pete Buttigieg (@PeteButtigieg) December 17, 2019

Pics from Round Pond and Army vs. Tulane

It's been a week.  I know.  But better late than never, right?

Before we get started with these, let me stipulate that I definitely need to read more about how and why we edit photographs, especially with filters.  I've read a few Internet articles, but that's not the same as understanding of the process.  I've learned a few things, but I like to understand why things work.  I need more theory.  I did most of these based solely on "feel," and in a lot of cases, that means that I know something's wrong, but I can't put my finger on what or how to fix it.

I took about half of these.  My wife took the ones from Michie Stadium and of the game.  She also, obviously, took the one of me.  I took the landscapes from Round Pond.

Technical note: to see full screen versions, click any picture.  You can even scroll through from that view.

Ready?

Let's get it on.

Friday Night Lights: Stratford Red Devils

Sally and I went to our first high school football game as high school parents last night.  That was so much fun.  Our daughter Emma plays in the band.  Her night was actually ludicrously complicated, but for Sally and me, well, we just sat there and watched the game.

End zone shot at the start of the second quarter.  Stratford got a pick in the end zone right after this, drove down and scored.  That made it 14-20.

The Red Devils were at home against Notre Dame Catholic.  Notre Dame ran a run-heavy read-option set against a decidedly undersized Stratord defense.  Alas, the Red Devils really only have a handful of talented players.  They had trouble stopped Notre Dame's power running up the middle, let alone containing the misdirection plays outside.  However, they made some plays on offense through sheer team speed at the skill positions.  Basically, they tried to run some kind of sweep run on almost every offensive snap, hoping to get one of their speed guys in space on the outside while mixing in the occasional play-action pass.

This worked well enough that Stratford was down just three at halftime.  Alas, the size disparity along the lines started to show in the second half, and they wound up dropped the game 41-25.

More pictures are after the jump.

CFB Games of the Week: Week 2

Y’know, I was only partially right about Tennessee last week.  I was right that they would start ugly.  I was wrong, though, about exactly how ugly they’d start.  

They’ve had a bunch of kids enter the transfer portal this week, so it looks like the wheels may be coming off down in Knoxville.  Yikes!

Don't you just love college football?

Pics from Rice at Army

I took 109 pictures at Army's first home game.  Three-quarters of them were total garbage, even for me, but I liked a few.  A few of my favorites are below.

Tailgating with friends.

I edited these rather indulgently, so have some patience, okay?  I mean, I didn't have to crop everything 16 x 9, but I wanted to, so that's what I did.  

Be thankful they're not all sepia-toned.