Things that Grind My Gears - the first in a recurring post

So, I was listening to Prime Time Sports and thought I had come up a good point to make about the NFL decision to fine Brett Favre for not cooperating but not to punish him for his alleged actions. After listening to Bruce Arthur make the point that the NFL could also have been sued by Sterger because of the workplace sexual harassment piece of the story, I came to the conclusion that this is why they were not as harsh as they were on Ben Rothleisberger - because any further punishment would be a tactic admitting on their part that they felt that Favre did this, and would weaken their defense of a certain to come lawsuit.

Of course, while looking for links to fill out the post, I found this blog post by Kevin Seifert, which makes the point that the statute of limitations has expired on Sterger, so she can't actually sue. Which ends up destroying my point and brings me back to square one - Why so light on Favre in the face of Rothleisberger's punishment?

In short, I hate it when blog posts get ruined by things like facts.

Why I Attend UFC Events

Julie, Ryan and I were having a discussion on Twitter on the upcoming UFC event at Montreal. Ryan and I are waiting until Thursday when the tickets go on pre-sale, but Julie isn't going to go. Of course, that lead me to wonder why exactly I wanted to go.

The main thought that went into my head was similiar to my thought from my trip to Montreal in May:

The atmosphere in the Bell Centre was incredible. A tonne of energy, and the crowd was hyped for the entire 5 hour card.

Indeed, that's the main reason why I enjoy going to UFC events - the crowd atmosphere makes the show more of an event. All of the cheers and boos, highs and lows, ups and downs give a totally different experience than at home. You feel as though you are a part of something special, and you can definitely feel differently about the card than those at home. When it comes to the UFC in December, the reaction of the Montreal crowd to GSP will be insane, and something that you will have to be there to truly experience.

But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that it was not just the atmosphere, but it was that I linked the UFC events with hanging out with great friends, and the associated shenanigans that went with it. Assuming I get tickets for Montreal, the same will hold true - I currently have to put an order in for 5, with the possibility of more to join, and there's many more who plan on attending. It shapes up to be a fantastic weekend of a lot of fun.

Watching UFC events with friends is fun; spending a weekend hanging out with friends and going to a live UFC show is a recipe for a bunch of stories and memories to be made.

Note

There was an unfinished post here which was posted automatically. I've deleted it because I'm not sure that the point I was going to make was really worth arguing, or if it is that strong of a point to write about. So if you saw it, that's where it went.

Manic May: A look back

I started Manic May because I was frustrated. The theory was by forcing myself to write, I'd get over the frustration, and would also improve my writing. Naturally, things didn't quite work out as planned.

I did do a lot of writing over the month. Granted, a lot of it was about Survivor, but that was a happy coincidence. (BTW, shout out to Mark Burnett and crew for making a great season of Survivor and for having the finale in May.) At the same time, I really didn't feel I completed what I wanted to. My long form writing was pretty well non-existant, beyond the odd Survivor post, which went against what I wanted to accomplish. My writer's block exaserbated the issue. All in all, I feel as though I have a lot of room to grow with my longer form writing.

What I was impressed with was my ability to come up with content on a daily basis. Though I ended up quitting on May 30th, I could have produced something if I chose to (for example, a roundup of UFC 114.) The reason I didn't was because I felt it was going to be a completely subpar job, and it would be reflective in my writing. With that said, I still have many different movies/books/whatever to review, so I am not lacking in content ideas.

I must also commend Blogger for it's post-dated posting method. Being able to write posts and then save them for a particular day was ideal for my predicament. Writing stuff out days in advance was fantastic for ensuring I had content on a daily basis. It made the challenge a lot easier knowing that I could stock up on posts, and I'm confident I will be using it again. (For example, this post.)

So where do I go from here? I'm planning on getting into a regular schedule with posts - Monday Musings continues, and from there, I'm not entirely sure. The weekend will likely have a longer post. During the rest of the week, a minimum of one post of indeterminante lengh, if not two.

Manic May might not have been a complete success, but it has given me some motivation. It's now up to me to take the motivaion and do something productive with it.