Jay Mariotti, Sun-Times sports columnists, has resigned from the paper stating that he now believes newspapers are dead and the internet is the future. So what is his legacy?
If Sox and Cubs fans agree on anything, it is that they hate JM. He was rather universally reviled. The comments on the Sun-Times website show this clearly. Why was he hated? Some think he is a hack writer, some think his points are idiotic, some think he was never accountable for what he wrote, some hate that he had the privilege of access but has not been in a locker room in five years, and some likely think all those, plus some. But he positioned himself as a contrarian and turned that into national fame with ESPN.
He got people talking. He got himself noticed by getting people to revile him. He became infamous when two radio guys launched a website that was basically a takedown of every column he wrote.
Think about that for a second. How many writers can you think of with regularly updated posts about a freaking sports writer? The Sports Guy has a message board devoted to taking him down, Mike Lupica has at least one possibly two (though the second does not seem to focus on Lupica anymore), this guy hates Will Leitch but it is not a frequent topic on the blog, KSK hates Peter King, and there are probably some more out there but it is a pretty elite class of established, widely-read columnists. (Note: Firejoemorgan hates everyone.)
So what does this mean, other than the obvious? People know who Mariotti is. Does this make him a success? There are two ways to look at this. First, he wrote for the Sun-Times. The goals of the Sun-Times are to sell papers and sell ad space, the former obviously contributing to the latter. The first question then is, did Mariotti increase the Sun-Times circulation? This is arguable, I have no data on this. I know that at times Mike & Mike in the Morning would discuss something controversial he had written, and likewise for Mac, Jurko, & Harry. That may have sold a few more papers on that given day, but overall, who knows. The Sun-Times likely thought he did, which is why the signed him to a large contract extension two months ago.
The second prong of this first inquiry is about the traffic to the website. I would assume that he likely spiked traffic on the site, particularly given his national promenance with ESPN and the fact that people like to read and watch things that piss them off (e.g. Bill O'Reilly). So the Sun-Times likely valued him for the increased traffic his columns may have brought to the webpage.
The Second inquiry is whether being reviled is good for Mariotti himself. I would venture to say it is. It got him on national tv. It got him a radio show (which did not last long because it is one thing to spend two minutes reading a column and a whole other thing to listen to him for three hours). It got him a hate webpage. It got him in the news when people fucked around with his wikipedia page.
I do not know if they say this, but they should, "If you cannot be good, be controversial." After all, every story needs a villian.
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
College
There is a recent article in the WSJ called, "For Most People, College is a Waste of Time." (Note: Not really an article, part of a book by Charles Murray called Real Education: Four Simple Truths for Bringing America's Schools Back to Reality.) The main thrust of the article is that a BA can be replaced by certification tests such as the CPA. I may be stating his thesis too absolutely, but that does not matter, even when generalized his thesis is jabberwocky.
I am the first to rail against the structure of the traditional high school education, but it does share a theme with post-secondary education. I try to explain this to others, and they have trouble comprehending it. Hopefully, typing it out will make more sense.
You see, school is not about knowing what the colors in The Red Badge of Courage mean. It is about learning that those colors are to be appreciated and can teach you something. School is not about memorizing how to do geometric proofs, but how to think logically through a problem. School is all about learning how to think, not necessarily develop the specific tools for a specific trade (with the exception of trade or vocational school of course). Why do you think "Are You Smarter Than A Fifth Grader" is so compelling? No one expects an accountant or secretary or nurse or supply chain management specialist or salesman or FBI agent to know what a cirrus cloud is. To say "Knowledge Fades" misses the point. Factoids fade, the skills should not.
So what of post-secondary education? Aren't you essentially majoring in a specialty with an expectation to get a job in that specialty? Why couldn't a certification test replace a BA?
If rote knowledge is all you want, then yes, yes it could. You take the guy that memorized a bunch of equations, a few scenarios and used that to pass the CPA, instead of those who struggled through hypotheticals in class and tried to use known formulas in unknown situations. The question is, do you want your professional to be a robot or a professional? How would you feel if you went to your accountant or stock broker (bad example, fuck them), or middle manager and she said to you, "Does Not Compute"?
Why do MBA programs use case studies? Why do law schools use the Socratic method? It is about thinking. Those are advanced methods of logic (though not in the case of some law), which are developed from the analytical skills that one learns in post-secondary education. It is about confronting a problem and learning how to analyze and ultimately solve the problem.
For some? Yes college is a waste of time. But for those who occasionally go to class and learn a thing or two end up learning things they never even knew they learned.
[Afterthought: If not for tuition, I think Murray may be advocating the higher education system in Italy, where attendance to lectures is largely voluntary.]
I am the first to rail against the structure of the traditional high school education, but it does share a theme with post-secondary education. I try to explain this to others, and they have trouble comprehending it. Hopefully, typing it out will make more sense.
You see, school is not about knowing what the colors in The Red Badge of Courage mean. It is about learning that those colors are to be appreciated and can teach you something. School is not about memorizing how to do geometric proofs, but how to think logically through a problem. School is all about learning how to think, not necessarily develop the specific tools for a specific trade (with the exception of trade or vocational school of course). Why do you think "Are You Smarter Than A Fifth Grader" is so compelling? No one expects an accountant or secretary or nurse or supply chain management specialist or salesman or FBI agent to know what a cirrus cloud is. To say "Knowledge Fades" misses the point. Factoids fade, the skills should not.
So what of post-secondary education? Aren't you essentially majoring in a specialty with an expectation to get a job in that specialty? Why couldn't a certification test replace a BA?
If rote knowledge is all you want, then yes, yes it could. You take the guy that memorized a bunch of equations, a few scenarios and used that to pass the CPA, instead of those who struggled through hypotheticals in class and tried to use known formulas in unknown situations. The question is, do you want your professional to be a robot or a professional? How would you feel if you went to your accountant or stock broker (bad example, fuck them), or middle manager and she said to you, "Does Not Compute"?
Why do MBA programs use case studies? Why do law schools use the Socratic method? It is about thinking. Those are advanced methods of logic (though not in the case of some law), which are developed from the analytical skills that one learns in post-secondary education. It is about confronting a problem and learning how to analyze and ultimately solve the problem.
For some? Yes college is a waste of time. But for those who occasionally go to class and learn a thing or two end up learning things they never even knew they learned.
[Afterthought: If not for tuition, I think Murray may be advocating the higher education system in Italy, where attendance to lectures is largely voluntary.]
Ignornance
I have spent virtually all of my life in the Midwest. As such, the term "parkway" meant nothing to me in the first 27 years of my life. Sure I had fleeting experiences with parkways in those years. As a child, and adolescent, and teenager, and young man, my family would regularly take yearly vacations to the Jersey Shore. To get to the shore, it was necessary to travel on the Garden State Parkway. I never thought more of it than it just being a road. In Illinois we had highways, expressways, tollways, freeways, and interstates. For most of my life, I just assumed that "parkway" was just a euphemism for a road with no stop lights where you could go real fast if you got lucky and there was no traffic.
I have lived on the east coast for about three days now and have already been on two parkways (George Washington and Baltimore-Washington) and seen signs for at least one more.
But I am not as ignorant as I once was. I now get on a parkway and I take in the sights, I notice the brick that lines the street, I look at the trees that line the road, I look for good places to drop anchor and have a picnic, I study the bridges to see if there is any nuance in architecture that one unschooled in such things as myself could appreciate, and I notice the height of bridges and wonder if I could make it under in the U-Haul I drove to Virginia.
But mostly, I think of Robert Moses.
You see, I went through 26 1/2 years of my life not giving a shit about the term parkway because I did not know it really meant anything. I never bothered to care if it meant anything. It was just a word. A word for a road. Who cares right? I drive on it. It gets me to where I want to go. What more could I ask?
A hell of a lot more. After I read The Power Broker, I understood that there were a lot more questions about Parkways that I should be asking. There is a whole history as to how they came about. Money for construction being the most important. But how often do you ask what government agency spends money to build a new road? Maybe if you are from the East Coast you have that question, but not us "aww shucks" Midwesterners.
This is one small part of how one very long book changed my perspective of something I regularly experience but never really understood. But had I never read that book, I never would have a second thought about what a parkway is. I would have remained ignorant. When I had this realization, I hated myself a little bit. Why had I never asked what a parkway was? Maybe I had, but why did I not remember the answer?
It is cliche by now, but the old saying is that wisdom is knowing how much you really do not know. I keep striving to know, but to get everything is impossible.
But I have to try.
I have lived on the east coast for about three days now and have already been on two parkways (George Washington and Baltimore-Washington) and seen signs for at least one more.
But I am not as ignorant as I once was. I now get on a parkway and I take in the sights, I notice the brick that lines the street, I look at the trees that line the road, I look for good places to drop anchor and have a picnic, I study the bridges to see if there is any nuance in architecture that one unschooled in such things as myself could appreciate, and I notice the height of bridges and wonder if I could make it under in the U-Haul I drove to Virginia.
But mostly, I think of Robert Moses.
You see, I went through 26 1/2 years of my life not giving a shit about the term parkway because I did not know it really meant anything. I never bothered to care if it meant anything. It was just a word. A word for a road. Who cares right? I drive on it. It gets me to where I want to go. What more could I ask?
A hell of a lot more. After I read The Power Broker, I understood that there were a lot more questions about Parkways that I should be asking. There is a whole history as to how they came about. Money for construction being the most important. But how often do you ask what government agency spends money to build a new road? Maybe if you are from the East Coast you have that question, but not us "aww shucks" Midwesterners.
This is one small part of how one very long book changed my perspective of something I regularly experience but never really understood. But had I never read that book, I never would have a second thought about what a parkway is. I would have remained ignorant. When I had this realization, I hated myself a little bit. Why had I never asked what a parkway was? Maybe I had, but why did I not remember the answer?
It is cliche by now, but the old saying is that wisdom is knowing how much you really do not know. I keep striving to know, but to get everything is impossible.
But I have to try.
Thursday, August 14, 2008
Dueling Snores
Right now it is about 11:00 p.m. I am exhausted, sitting on the bed in a cheap hotel somewhere in bumfuck Pennsylvania. I am in the midst of officially moving to Virginia. Only three hours away, hopefully. I am dead tired, having had four hours of sleep last night and having spent 10 hours today wrestling with a 14 foot U-Haul.
My parents, unable to see their only son finally leave the nest after 27 years*, insisted on coming along. Sort of. I did need them to drive my car down, but they were coming no matter what. So we got a hotel room, to spend the night because I did not want to spend 14 hours straining my wrists keeping the U-Haul in its lane (though my right wrist is much stronger now thank you). We got, or my mom got and I did nothing to prevent, one room. I was in the room when the reservations were made, and I should have said, "Hey, I will take my own room." But I did not.
This sucks for two reasons.
First, my parents are in my room. It is not like I would have ordered porn or anything, but it is a little, . . . . I mean, I should be self-sufficient by now. If I want my own room, I should just get my own room. Sadly, I am not to that point yet. Keeping another $75 off my credit cards now will slightly help me in the long run. Plus, apparantly you can smoke in PA hotels. My folks quit six years ago. Now, with them both sleeping, I am going to have to sneak out to smoke so I do not wake them up.
Second, I doubt I will wake them up. My parents snore. I mean, they SNORE. It is loud. This is not something you think about at 7 o'clock when your mom makes a hotel reservation. But now that the cacophony of nasal and throat sounds drown out the Olympics gymnastics announcer, I recall the last time I was in a hotel room with them, and I lied awake for three hours listing to a nasal symphony.
So that is what I am. I dude sitting in the dark, with only the light of the laptop and television, listening to his parents snore, as he tries to strike it out on his own.
This will not end well.
*Four years of out-of-state undergrad, two years living 3o minutes from my hometown, and three years at out-of-state law school evidently does not qualify as "leaving home."
My parents, unable to see their only son finally leave the nest after 27 years*, insisted on coming along. Sort of. I did need them to drive my car down, but they were coming no matter what. So we got a hotel room, to spend the night because I did not want to spend 14 hours straining my wrists keeping the U-Haul in its lane (though my right wrist is much stronger now thank you). We got, or my mom got and I did nothing to prevent, one room. I was in the room when the reservations were made, and I should have said, "Hey, I will take my own room." But I did not.
This sucks for two reasons.
First, my parents are in my room. It is not like I would have ordered porn or anything, but it is a little, . . . . I mean, I should be self-sufficient by now. If I want my own room, I should just get my own room. Sadly, I am not to that point yet. Keeping another $75 off my credit cards now will slightly help me in the long run. Plus, apparantly you can smoke in PA hotels. My folks quit six years ago. Now, with them both sleeping, I am going to have to sneak out to smoke so I do not wake them up.
Second, I doubt I will wake them up. My parents snore. I mean, they SNORE. It is loud. This is not something you think about at 7 o'clock when your mom makes a hotel reservation. But now that the cacophony of nasal and throat sounds drown out the Olympics gymnastics announcer, I recall the last time I was in a hotel room with them, and I lied awake for three hours listing to a nasal symphony.
So that is what I am. I dude sitting in the dark, with only the light of the laptop and television, listening to his parents snore, as he tries to strike it out on his own.
This will not end well.
*Four years of out-of-state undergrad, two years living 3o minutes from my hometown, and three years at out-of-state law school evidently does not qualify as "leaving home."
Friday, August 8, 2008
That Did Not Take Long
As of right now, this blog is still not "Live." No one other than me knows that it exists. Google has not indexed it yet (I will not bother trying to get it on yahoo or MSN. Seems pointless, though probably is not).
Yet someone has already taken notice of my first post. According to sitemeter, I have had a grand total of four visits since my first post. Three have been from me. The other; well if you read that first post you can guess.
So to follow up, this is my letter to UPS:
Dear UPS (and any other company that provides customer support):
As you have read, I was extremely pissed off when I wrote that initial post. The fact that you sent my package to CA when it was supposed to go to VA sent me off into a white hot rage. Your job is to deliver to packages. Why you failed at this task for the one package I had sent with you in the last four years frustrated me to no end. When I looked up that tracking number and saw where my package was, I was livid.
You see, this is why you cannot outsource customer service (not UPS in general (you do not even have customer service), but companies in general). You do not call customer service when you are happy as a pig in shit. You call customer service when you are about to explode and the poor underpaid rep on the other side [of the ocean] has to deal with it. It is a terrible situation for all parties involved, the provider and the customer. You put me on a line with "Steve" who is actually Indian, you are not getting the customer service experience off on the right foot. You lie to me from the outset, you think I trust you for the rest of the conversation. No it just gets me more pissed off.
But back to UPS. Thankfully, when my overnight package arrived four days late, no harm was done. As soon as I found out, I contacted the recipient, who understood the situation and was very understanding. So no harm, no foul.
But not really. I spent fifty bucks for overnight service, not week service. But by the time I went in today to take of my situation, all the venom I wished to spew had been swallowed into, "eh." So I very calmly explained the situation to the dude at the UPS store and that was that.
Now, the one thing that does piss me off is that the UPS Store Franchise does not have authorization to issue refunds for an obvious fuck-up such as this. See, I do not have my fifty bucks back in my pocket right now. I have to wait ten days to get a check. And what will the number on that check be? Today, I would have taken forty dollars, maybe even thirty, just to have that cash back in my pocket. Now, if you are mailing me a check, I expect all fifty dollars back. You fuck up my package, then you make me wait for a refund, shit it almost makes me wish this whole situation screwed me into a hole so I could sue for consequential damages (which I would get FYI. You overnight a package, obviously it is of utmost importance and should not be sent 2,000 miles in the wrong direction. Second, the only contract I made was with the UPS Store franchise, which specifically disclaimed consequential damages. You (UPS) would obviously know that I am a third party beneficiary of the contract I made with the Franchise and as such, privity is no defense for you).
In closing, UPS, thank you for taking stock of my site. There is no need for your CEO to contact me. As I told the franchise clerk after he said he was sorry that my package was delayed, "Shit happens." Granted my story has a happy ending (once I get my $50), but the fact that you have no customer service phone number on your website still pisses the shit out of me.
But in the end, it is you, FedEx, or USPS. So when I went to the UPS Store today, I also shipped out another (albiet, much less important) package. You can bet I will be checking that tracking number more often (but because it is going only 60 miles, I do not expect any problems. Though that is when problems occur).
Yet someone has already taken notice of my first post. According to sitemeter, I have had a grand total of four visits since my first post. Three have been from me. The other; well if you read that first post you can guess.
So to follow up, this is my letter to UPS:
Dear UPS (and any other company that provides customer support):
As you have read, I was extremely pissed off when I wrote that initial post. The fact that you sent my package to CA when it was supposed to go to VA sent me off into a white hot rage. Your job is to deliver to packages. Why you failed at this task for the one package I had sent with you in the last four years frustrated me to no end. When I looked up that tracking number and saw where my package was, I was livid.
You see, this is why you cannot outsource customer service (not UPS in general (you do not even have customer service), but companies in general). You do not call customer service when you are happy as a pig in shit. You call customer service when you are about to explode and the poor underpaid rep on the other side [of the ocean] has to deal with it. It is a terrible situation for all parties involved, the provider and the customer. You put me on a line with "Steve" who is actually Indian, you are not getting the customer service experience off on the right foot. You lie to me from the outset, you think I trust you for the rest of the conversation. No it just gets me more pissed off.
But back to UPS. Thankfully, when my overnight package arrived four days late, no harm was done. As soon as I found out, I contacted the recipient, who understood the situation and was very understanding. So no harm, no foul.
But not really. I spent fifty bucks for overnight service, not week service. But by the time I went in today to take of my situation, all the venom I wished to spew had been swallowed into, "eh." So I very calmly explained the situation to the dude at the UPS store and that was that.
Now, the one thing that does piss me off is that the UPS Store Franchise does not have authorization to issue refunds for an obvious fuck-up such as this. See, I do not have my fifty bucks back in my pocket right now. I have to wait ten days to get a check. And what will the number on that check be? Today, I would have taken forty dollars, maybe even thirty, just to have that cash back in my pocket. Now, if you are mailing me a check, I expect all fifty dollars back. You fuck up my package, then you make me wait for a refund, shit it almost makes me wish this whole situation screwed me into a hole so I could sue for consequential damages (which I would get FYI. You overnight a package, obviously it is of utmost importance and should not be sent 2,000 miles in the wrong direction. Second, the only contract I made was with the UPS Store franchise, which specifically disclaimed consequential damages. You (UPS) would obviously know that I am a third party beneficiary of the contract I made with the Franchise and as such, privity is no defense for you).
In closing, UPS, thank you for taking stock of my site. There is no need for your CEO to contact me. As I told the franchise clerk after he said he was sorry that my package was delayed, "Shit happens." Granted my story has a happy ending (once I get my $50), but the fact that you have no customer service phone number on your website still pisses the shit out of me.
But in the end, it is you, FedEx, or USPS. So when I went to the UPS Store today, I also shipped out another (albiet, much less important) package. You can bet I will be checking that tracking number more often (but because it is going only 60 miles, I do not expect any problems. Though that is when problems occur).
Strange
A couple weeks ago I made a post on a message board about a kid named Ben Underwood who is blind, but sees through echo-location. Today, I noticed that With Leather had a post about the same story (from 8/6).
But the thing that caught my eye was when Ufford said, "This week's People Magazine profiles Ben Underwood . . ."
It was odd because it was not this weeks People, but People from July 2006, and happened to be the same article I linked to in the message board post.
I just found that odd. I am not an attribution whore, it was merely a post on a message board. After my post, it showed up on SI's Hot Clicks, and went from there. But the important thing is that the story is getting out. Because the story is pretty fucking incredible.
Note that the follow-up is not so heart-warming. His cancer has come back.
But the thing that caught my eye was when Ufford said, "This week's People Magazine profiles Ben Underwood . . ."
It was odd because it was not this weeks People, but People from July 2006, and happened to be the same article I linked to in the message board post.
I just found that odd. I am not an attribution whore, it was merely a post on a message board. After my post, it showed up on SI's Hot Clicks, and went from there. But the important thing is that the story is getting out. Because the story is pretty fucking incredible.
Note that the follow-up is not so heart-warming. His cancer has come back.
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
Hello World
This is what I hate.
On Friday I nailed down an apartment 1,000 miles that I was planning on moving in sight unseen. All I had to do was overnight a package from Illinois to Virginia containing my deposit checks. Easy enough, except that it was 3:30 p.m. and I was at my parent's house and my checkbook was 45 minutes away. No problem I thought. I made the 45 minute trip in a record breaking 35 minutes (no traffic at 3:30, go figure), made it to the closest UPS store, and got all my copies and faxes in order.
Then the UPS clerk offered my a choice. The package could arrive by Monday for $30 or on Saturday for $50. Never one to count my chickens before they hatch, I went with the Saturday delivery and promptly informed the apartment people that the package would arrive on Saturday.
Then I forgot about.
I was a little surprised that I did not hear back from the apartment complex on Monday, but did not think much of it. Same thing on Tuesday, though I began to get a little concerned. But I eventually forgot about it and went out for the evening. When I got home, I decided, as an afterthought, to check the Tracking Number to make sure that it was delivered. Yeah, you see where this is going.
On Tuesday morning, my package was sitting in California. Far as I can tell, it is still there. It was supposed to be in Virginia on Saturday morning. Instead of going 1,000 miles east, it went 2,000 miles west and still has 3,000 miles left to go.
So what was I to do? I immediately e-mailed the apartment complex, but that will not do any good for now. It is 2 a.m. there. For all I know, when they did not get the checks when I told them they would, they said screw me (without a phone call because talking to people can be a bitch when they need you to understand a peculiar circumstance), and leased the apartment to a new person. Or maybe they are still holding it for me. I did fax them my application and they said they would hold it for me, but the fact is, they do not have my cash yet, so it is not like they owe me anything.
I checked the UPS website. Apparently, there is no customer service numbers for when your package gets lost. I checked www.upsstore.com, but for whatever reason, the location search is fucked up and does not work. This makes it difficult to even find out if there is any store that is open 24 hours anywhere in the country. This dearth of information from preventing what I really want to know, When the hell my package is going to arrive. I guess this means that I have to call or head to the UPS store tomorrow. I will probably go in person. I want my fifty bucks back (but not if it limits my remedies to only the refund).
So this is what I hate. It is now 1:20 in the morning. And there is nothing I can do. Something is fucked up, and there is no way that I can fix it right now. Everything is out of my control. Nothing is going to change in the next five hours. I can only accept that and deal with it.
I hate this.
On Friday I nailed down an apartment 1,000 miles that I was planning on moving in sight unseen. All I had to do was overnight a package from Illinois to Virginia containing my deposit checks. Easy enough, except that it was 3:30 p.m. and I was at my parent's house and my checkbook was 45 minutes away. No problem I thought. I made the 45 minute trip in a record breaking 35 minutes (no traffic at 3:30, go figure), made it to the closest UPS store, and got all my copies and faxes in order.
Then the UPS clerk offered my a choice. The package could arrive by Monday for $30 or on Saturday for $50. Never one to count my chickens before they hatch, I went with the Saturday delivery and promptly informed the apartment people that the package would arrive on Saturday.
Then I forgot about.
I was a little surprised that I did not hear back from the apartment complex on Monday, but did not think much of it. Same thing on Tuesday, though I began to get a little concerned. But I eventually forgot about it and went out for the evening. When I got home, I decided, as an afterthought, to check the Tracking Number to make sure that it was delivered. Yeah, you see where this is going.
On Tuesday morning, my package was sitting in California. Far as I can tell, it is still there. It was supposed to be in Virginia on Saturday morning. Instead of going 1,000 miles east, it went 2,000 miles west and still has 3,000 miles left to go.
So what was I to do? I immediately e-mailed the apartment complex, but that will not do any good for now. It is 2 a.m. there. For all I know, when they did not get the checks when I told them they would, they said screw me (without a phone call because talking to people can be a bitch when they need you to understand a peculiar circumstance), and leased the apartment to a new person. Or maybe they are still holding it for me. I did fax them my application and they said they would hold it for me, but the fact is, they do not have my cash yet, so it is not like they owe me anything.
I checked the UPS website. Apparently, there is no customer service numbers for when your package gets lost. I checked www.upsstore.com, but for whatever reason, the location search is fucked up and does not work. This makes it difficult to even find out if there is any store that is open 24 hours anywhere in the country. This dearth of information from preventing what I really want to know, When the hell my package is going to arrive. I guess this means that I have to call or head to the UPS store tomorrow. I will probably go in person. I want my fifty bucks back (but not if it limits my remedies to only the refund).
So this is what I hate. It is now 1:20 in the morning. And there is nothing I can do. Something is fucked up, and there is no way that I can fix it right now. Everything is out of my control. Nothing is going to change in the next five hours. I can only accept that and deal with it.
I hate this.
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