Customization never hurts, and often times it definitely improves performance. Personally, I am hoping that this is the case with my new power soccer guard. I purchased the adjustable fiberglass guard from the Power Soccer Shop based in Minnesota. However, because I ride a red tilt-and-space Quantum 6000Z at roughly a 30° angle, these guards do not fit my chair. Therefore, because I'm not very technical, I needed help. It is always good to know people who know how to do things that you don't know how to do. The dilemma consisted of crafting a lightweight structure to attach a fiberglass guard to the frame of my wheelchair so that it could withstand the head-to-head collisions that power soccer sometimes involves. Enter Clark Agnew, a family friend as well as skilled carpenter. After exploring the various attachment points and potential hangups for less than an hour, he had a design beginning to develop. Tonight, I got to pick up the final product and have already begun to push my 13 inch black and gold soccer ball around the house, putting my family’s personal property in perhaps substantial danger (just kidding, I really am most of the time an overly cautious driver).
This is the value of personal craftsmanship in that a product that would be marginally useful to me at best is now perfectly adjusted to me. I am not blaming the Power Soccer Shop at all because they do provide high-quality products that satisfy the needs of most of the wheelchair market, and as a business major, I understand that businesses cannot fulfill the individual needs of every person in the potential market. However, having a personal connection in this area made this product that is of a high quality in and of itself, useful for me. I am very grateful that we were able to have a friend who was able to make this game much more solidly accessible to me. Now, I don't worry about how to attach the guard to my chair; all I need to worry about is how to put the ball into that goal beyond the swiftly spinning wheels of the opposing goalie.
On a totally unrelated note, tomorrow is April Fools' Day. While I will not explicitly write about April Fools' Day, you might see it integrated into my blog. Sports Illustrated fans might have some idea where I'm going with this...
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Soccer, We Are Go!
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
A Letter to Dee Dee
Dear Dee Dee Jernigan,
I know that many people have surely been criticizing you about two missed layups in the Elite Eight. However, what these people fail to notice is that there were many other missed shots in that game. In fact, your team as a whole missed a total of 37 shots throughout the game. I realize that some people will say that I cannot assume that shot made earlier in the game would affect the final outcome in the same way that these late game layups would have, and they might be right. However, another shot made earlier in the game by Xavier would have only shifted the momentum toward the Musketeers. Again, as my history professor would say, this is counterfactual speculation, but it seems that people are much too quick to assign the blame directly on you simply because you are a convenient target as the last one to miss one of the 37 shots. Also, assuming you made the shot, there was still the full court drive by Stanford that ended up breaking the tie and advancing the Cardinal. Again, assuming that the game might have gone to overtime, who knows what would have happened? You would have no more won the game for Xavier then many people are claiming you lost it. Winning and losing is a team effort; no one player can be absolutely held responsible. As difficult as it may be, ignore those people who are needlessly and groundlessly heaping this loss on your shoulders. Without all of the shots you made throughout the season, this Elite Eight berth may not have even been.
-Zak
Monday, March 29, 2010
Connections From Barre to Philly
As baseball season is coming near, I am reminded of a story that ties together two things that are very important to me. I very well might be the only one of you who has been into Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia. If any of you have, you will recall that while you were walking laps around the stadium waiting for the gates to open you saw three statues of some of the greatest Phillies and some of the greatest professional baseball players of all time. The likenesses of Mike Schmidt, Steve Carlton, Robin Roberts, and, once you enter the stadium, Richie Ashburn tower ten feet overhead cast in bronze on top of red granite bases. You can find images of these statues online, but you won't find out who made those bases anywhere online. Good thing I am here to tell you. A little known fact apparently is that those bases were quarried right here in Barre, Vermont at Rock of Ages. How do I know this if it is no online? While these statue bases were being produced, we had a friend who worked at the quarries at this time and invited us to come see this future piece of Phillies' history before it got shipped to link up with the statues and be stationed outside the ballpark. Who would have thought that a city that is seemingly divided between Red Sox Nation and Yankee Land could be involved with a team that resides in the flatlands? I guess that these fans might have realized who they should have been rooting for all this time.
Sunday, March 28, 2010
Chaos Reigns
AAU season has officially hit my household. We put in an opening weekend in Lamoille, and I was reminded about the insanity it can bring. I must admit that this is the only time this year that I had to actually not watch a basketball game that I had the opportunity to watch in order to get my homework done. If you had the choice, would you read about microeconomics or watch a basketball game? The only votes for yes may potentially be my two Econ professors, Prof. Gibson and Prof. Sicotte. Let me run this one by you; it seems as if my everyday insanity full of blogging and schooling gets turned up a notch when you add on top of that waking up at early hours, rushing around trying to grab a bite to eat for lunch while simultaneously attempting to be one hour early for a game that starts in one hour. Believe me, it is pure chaos! However, I thrive on chaos. If I have too much free time, I tend to waste it. In times that I only have two hours to do a whole night's worth of homework; I manage to have it all done simply because I know that it needs to get done. In times of necessity, the seemingly impossible is much easier to achieve simply because we all seem to have some tendency in our personalities that help us want to meet deadlines. We like other people to arrive promptly or complete a task when we ask them to; therefore, we know that others expect that of us as well. So, I got all of my homework done in record time this weekend because of the chaos that has ensued from AAU basketball. It's kind of weird I know, but it works for me.
Saturday, March 27, 2010
SUPRISE!
Wow, Butler has pulled it off and made it into the Final Four! Who would have thought that Syracuse and Kansas State would topple at the hands of Butler? I guess a lot of people probably did, but after watching Syracuse a few times throughout the year, I had thought that they had a pretty easy path to at least the Elite Eight. Well, I was right there, but my next prediction about them making it to the Final Four was obviously wrong. Butler has been to the NCAA tournament quite a few times in recent years, but why is it that many teams who are so-called "mid-majors" do not get the recognition that they are proving they deserve
Well, one obvious reason is media coverage. This area is improving due to efforts such as ESPNU and other networks that focus on college sports. Because there are so many NCAA teams and only so much network time on ESPN and ESPN2 for college sports throughout the season, the few games that are broadcast often feature Duke, UNC, Kansas, or any other university that has become all but a perennial powerhouse. While Butler has been very successful, they have yet to develop that national image that will secure them a spot on the major networks. Because of this, many average sports fans will overlook the mid-major. Even I underestimated Butler; I knew they were good, but I never thought they could topple the Orangemen.
Another reason that Butler could be seen as a surprise by people such as myself is because of geography. Syracuse is much closer than Butler; Boston College plays in the ACC, so teams such as Duke and North Carolina come closer to home. When the local teams are covered as they should be, that leaves limited time for teams from faraway lands such as Indiana. Those flat states often times get forgotten in Vermont simply because we like to think that the more local teams that we have watched all season.
However, none of this constitutes a viable excuse for my neglecting Butler. I guess I need to be more aware next season in order to make a bracket that doesn't end up being covered in red ink.
Friday, March 26, 2010
Fiction Friday #3
It seems as if some mornings come far too soon while others seem to be an entirely different century than the night before. This morning was like the latter; I felt as if the job confirmation or rejection was taking far too long. Practically, while the hours might have been long, I realized that my fear was irrational because many of those hours were overnight. However, that did not change the fact that I wanted a response now.
As I got ready for the day, I took extra care to make sure to make sure I looked presentable. When the call came, I wanted to feel good as well as look good. Practically again, I realized that the people on the phone would not see me, but I still felt the need to look slightly better than the usual. Pulling out my pale blue oxford and a conservative royal blue tie, I guess I was thinking that if I was going to tell my old boss that I was leaving for a better job in a bigger company, I wanted to look worthy of my new office.
No time for breakfast; I never really had an appetite in the morning. I hopped into my somewhat beat up Nissan Cube. I know, since I said I was one of the fastest rising executives in Creative Marketing Solutions, I bet you were thinking I would be driving a Porsche 911 or some other high end sports car. Well, in title, I was an executive, but if I recall my Civil War knowledge, I could call myself a brevet executive. I had been promoted to approximately an executive position, but I was told that the pay raise would be coming depending on my performance. Anyway, for now I was driving my Cube to the metro station, about 5 miles down the road from my apartment, in Owings Mills.
After the 20 minute subway ride, I got off at Shot Tower/Marketplace and headed to the office. I have been in offices where nobody ever talks and all they do is work. However, this was by no means our office. While we weren't as loose as Dunder-Mifflin Paper Company, the fact that we ran a marketing firm allowed us to have more creative collaboration and sharing than perhaps an accounting firm would. While this should be an ideal working environment, I felt like I needed more. Yes, we had a big business within the city of Baltimore, but that was it. I wanted more; I wanted to discover more challenges and experience greater success
However, all of that sat on a phone call that I was anxiously waiting for. As I booted up my Dell Studio laptop, I had the feeling that this day would be one of the longest days of my life.
Thursday, March 25, 2010
Money or Happiness?
I don't want to write about sports tonight. I know, this will probably be disappointing to many of you. However, I was sitting at the Honors College plenary lecture tonight where Matt Crawford was discussing his ideas concerning what is intellectual work. When Crawford worked as an abstract writer of scholarly articles, he claims to have felt very anti-intellectual because the work did not require much thought. He would skim the articles and then write a brief summary that was not necessarily representative of the piece. However, when Crawford dropped this job to become a motorcycle repairman, he said that even though the job of a mechanic is often seen as somewhat "simple," he found that it was much more satisfying and mentally stimulating than the supposedly intellectual job of reviewing scholarly articles. This got me thinking about my future career. What exactly is a job supposed to be in a person's life? If a job is just about making money, then I would perhaps become a plumber or electrician. Due to the fact that they would not have college expenses and loans along with the fact that master electricians and plumbers make quite a bit of money, it would make sense for me to become a plumber. However, would I be happy doing this? No, not really. Therefore, should my career only bring me happiness? If that were the case, I could make my career sitting at home and playing fantasy baseball. It is an activity I enjoy, so it would make a good career careers were all about happiness. Obviously, you realize that this is ludicrous because people simply need to make some money to survive. Okay, so if money and happiness cannot fully determine what career you should choose, how on earth should one decide? Personally, I think the enjoyment should take precedence over pay if you're only responsible for yourself. If I want to take a job that pays next to no money, I should do that if it only affects me. However, if I have a family, one sacrifice that I might have to make to make my family comfortable would be to take a job that will allow me to provide for more than one person. Each individual should be able to pursue his or her own passions, but I think that when other people are affected by your choices, these effects need to take just as much if not more precedence over your own. Maybe I'm old-fashioned, maybe I'm not consistent with the modern theory of "if it feels good, do it," but I think that you can pursue your own passions as long as they only affect your life directly. However, when you add the responsibility of providing for other people, one of the sacrifices that may need to be made would be overall love for work in return for overall love for family. I would hope that being able to make the ones you love comfortable would generate enough happiness to offset the happiness you might have to sacrifice if indeed finances demand it.
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