Is this NBA season Lebron's final shot at greatness? An email interview with Brian Shepard

Richard Sylvester - John Wayne is credited as originating the saying, "Every man has to have a code." For some men that code is the simple axiom, 'ball is life'. As one of the men that follows that code, and appreciates the gift from the sports god's that is the NBA and the game of basketball, how excited are you that the beginning of the NBA season is finally here?

Brian Shepard - Well, let's just keep it honest. Between the purgatory of sports that is baseball and Andrew Luck finding new ways to potentially destroy my fantasy football dominance, I'm ecstatic that basketball is officially back! It's like Christmas... except we don't have those weirdly patterned sweaters to wear or that brown loaf-like substance they call fruitcake. So I can't complain one bit. What about you? How are you feeling now that the NBA is officially back in full swing?

Richard Sylvester - I'll answer your question by saying this, besides the Chicago Bulls the other teams I root for are the Detroit Lions and the University of Michigan, specifically their football team. Also since I'm almost certain that the MLB is used by professional interrogators to torture people in to talking, it's so boring, the NBA couldn't get here fast enough. Also I'm riding high after an opening night Bulls win over the Cleveland Lebron's last night.

To that point, I was looking at some of ESPN's NBA predictions, and it is almost a consensus that the Lebron's are going to win the east (with 1 person I think picking Miami). Do you agree or do you think that somebody can legitimately sneak in and win it, keeping in mind that Kyrie is out until January at the earliest, Lebron seems to now have a chronic back issue and Kevin Love isn't exactly an iron man.

Brian Shepard - When it comes to the Eastern Conference, it's such a mix up. As you said, most people believe that the Cavs will repeat as Eastern Conference Champs this season, but then you get to that second place position and it's a complete mess.

We have Atlanta who's returning most of their roster but are missing their key defensive cog in DeMarre Carroll who's now with the Raptors in Toronto and Thabo Sefolosha's still dealing with his leg injury. They did add Tim Hardaway Jr. and Tiago Splitter, but just on paper they don't look like a real threat, even with having the #1 record in the East last season. Just looking at the rosters in the East, if there were any teams posing a threat to ascend the Eastern Conference throne, it would be two teams in my book; the Chicago Bulls and… wait for it… the Miami Heat! Let's start with the Bulls.

The Bulls from top to bottom have a very stout lineup and with their choice to go with Mirotic over Noah, I believe this gives them much needed firepower right out the gates. Of course with more offense the defense will take a backseat with Noah out of the starting lineup, but in this age the name of the game is "shooter's alley". The success of the Golden State Warriors with their lineup of shooters from Thompson & Curry, to their bigs with the soft touch like Green, Bogut and Speights, teams like the Bulls will look to see how they can implement some of that into their offensive philosophies. Plus with their roster having a nice mix of young guys and experienced vets, they really could do some damage if 1.) They remain healthy with Derrick Rose leading the way, and 2.) Hoiberg doesn't find a way to screw it all up.

Now as for my dark horse, the Miami Heat. To me, they look like they are a team that has recovered rather nicely from Lebron exiting stage left after the Spurs showed them what ‘old man strength’ looks like on their way to winning the 2014 NBA Finals. Of course, we know Pat Riley for being a masterful architect when it comes to assembling teams and this year's Miami Heat team looks to be another notch on the belt. Riley has put some solid guys around Bosh and Wade, who are now the elder statesmen of the organization.

Then you have young guys like Hasaan Whiteside, who had a great coming out party last year, Justice Winslow, the Heat's lottery pick from Duke along with Tyler Johnson and James Ennis who were brought in either by draft or D-League call-up. They also have guys acquired via trade or free agency like Amare Stoudamire, who's back home in Florida after signing with the Heat during free agency (hopefully his peanut brittle excuse for knees don't quit midseason). Gerald Green, another free agent who has come into his own with his second go around in the NBA, and of course last year's trade pickup of Goran Dragic, who also signed a 5-year deal to return to Miami this past offseason.

All in all, with the vets like Deng, Haslem, Andersen, Chalmers and McRoberts returning for another season, Riley has put together a roster of solid players that can come in, play their roles and if Wade and Bosh are able to lead the team in the right direction, Miami could truly be a team to watch out for.

Richard Sylvester - I honestly agree with a lot of what you said. However looking over the top four teams in the east (Cavs, Bulls, Hawks, Heat) I can't help but feel like it's going to come down to attrition, i.e. whoever can remain the healthiest. With all this new unregulated sports gambling going on, I'm going to give away a free million-dollar idea. Somebody needs a website where you can bet on which player and which body part is going to get injured. Once it's created put me down for $20 on Dwyane Wade's knees.

Let's switch gears to the west. Last week we had a lengthy semi-public debate about who would win the west. You were very adamant in your staunch defense of Golden State. Can you expand more on that considering they made no major acquisitions over the off-season while all of their main "rivals" got better. Lamarcus Aldridge to the Spurs, Ty Lawson to the Rockets, Kevin Durant back healthy with the Thunder, and Paul Pierce and J-Smooth (Josh Smith) to the Clippers.

Brian Shepard – Okay, lets get it! One thing that I've heard time and time again is "If it ain't broke, don't fix it". I believe that the Golden State Warriors went with that philosophy this off-season. I mean, they are the closest thing to lightning in a bottle in the basketball sense. From their rapid-fire spread offense, the disciplined defense which led them to being ranked in the NBA's top five in both offensive and defensive efficiency, they were #1 in pace and not to mention, they had the best overall record in the NBA last season. I think I'm forgetting one more thing… oh yeah... They're the defending champions.

This team has managed to keep their young roster together and found a way to dump David Lee's contract and turned it around into picking up another big man in Jason Thompson with change to spare. One thing I cannot argue is that the West did get better with the acquisitions made over the off-season while Dub Nation kept relatively quiet, but that's honestly [I think] the best thing that they could've done.

Now let me put this disclaimer out: I am in NO WAY saying these guys are the second coming of this team, but I think the front office learned a thing or two [from them]. Let's take a look back to the 1995-96 Chicago Bulls aka the 72-10 Bulls. They had their roster stacked with talent and they ended up winning the NBA Championship. This team also went on to repeat as NBA Champs the following season (well, when you have three hall-of-famers on the team, it's kind of a no brainer, huh?). The thing that stood out to me the most with these teams is that for the most part, they kept the same exact roster. They were so into keeping the roster intact, that for every person that they lost during the 1996 off-season; they replaced them with another player almost at the same exact position that they were missing.

The 95-96 team had James Edwards at center, John Salley and Jack Haley at forwards. Fast forward to 96-97, you know have Robert Parrish at center, Brian Williams, who was listed as an undersized 6'9 center (much like Draymond Green) and Matt Steigenga, another forward.

While everyone else in the West has to learn how to adjust and get used to playing with new guys, which could take half, maybe even 3/4th of the season, the Warriors can, in the words of D.L. Hughley, "go 'head and keep the party going!" There's one more thing I forgot to mention, the Bulls and Warriors have a common bond that people forget in the details. Their head coach Steve Kerr used to play for who again? Oh yeaaahh, the 1995-96 and 1996-97 Chicago Bulls. So now, you have a team adopting the same roster philosophy with a guy with has a first hand account on how it feels to actually win 72 games in a season. (Side Note: Get well soon Coach Kerr, we hope to see you back on the sidelines soon). All in all, I think that with the Warriors being a young team that seems to have it figured out, and they have the same roster essentially with championship swagger to match, I think I'm taking the Warriors over the rest of the pack.

Richard Sylvester - That is interesting analysis and I honestly can't fault you for your logic. My counter argument though is this, I just don't see them being as elite on the defensive end as they were last year. The reason being is that I honestly feel like their defensive prowess from last year is largely just a smoke and mirrors magic trick.

You see this happen in the NFL every few seasons. One team is suddenly inexplicably very good on defense and causes a bunch of turnovers despite having no major names or a glut of elite talent. This is done by surprising teams and just out 'physically-ing' their opponents. The championship Saints kind of fit that mold. However usually the next season the rest of the league adapts and catches up to them.

Golden State currently has 15 guys on their roster. If you take out the 3 guards listed at 6'3 and their legit 7'0 center, the other 11 guys on the roster are all between 6'6 and 6'11. This allows them to constantly switch on pick and rolls and screen and rolls. (The Olympic USA men's basketball team employs a similar strategy.) So I think that while their switching defense caught the league, and particularly the west off guard last year, with an entire off-season to watch film and prepare for it, I don't think the coaches of the elite teams are going to be caught off guard by it this year.

Personally I'm picking the Spurs not to have the overall 1 seed but to eventually win the west and represent the west in the NBA finals. Keeping in mind with the new playoff seeding rules going into effect this season, if the Warriors return to the pack this year (like I think they will) and don't get either the 1-2 seed, I could see them drawing a bad match up somewhere in the 3-6 position and getting an early out in the playoffs.

So switching to championship talk, do you have the Warriors winning the whole thing or do you think the Lebron's have a shot at revenge?

Brian Shepard - Okay, now I'm torn as the analyst and the fan. Let it be known, I am a big Lebron James fan and make no qualms about it. With that being said, I'm all in on the "win one for the gipper", the gipper being the entire state of Ohio.

Now being that I am a Michigan fan in fan-hood, birthplace and any other sense of the word, I shouldn't even want that state to win anything; but when it comes to this Lebron guy, my moral compass is compromised. I want Cleveland to win one bad because they're a Midwest city that has found winning hard to come by, just like my Detroit Lions, who are the heartache of my entire existence, but I digress.

Even as an optimistic fan who prays for the narrative of the NBA to be slanted in Lebron's favor, the analyst in me can't go all in on the Cavs yet. With Love coming back and Kyrie out, plus Tristan Thompson having to make good on this new contract and now Lebron's back issues, these first few weeks may be a little rocky for the Cavs faithful, which is great news for everyone else.

Now teams like Chicago and Miami can set the tone and pace early. Even teams like Atlanta, Toronto and Washington can get into the mix. Let's not get too ahead of ourselves with the rest of the pack because if the Cavs can get to full strength with Kyrie back and Kevin Love playing that stretch four position in elite fashion, it's going to be headaches being handed out left and right as Cleveland makes their return to the Finals.

Looking towards the West, as much as I like the Warriors coming out on top, who is to say that Houston, Oklahoma City, San Antonio or Memphis won't be on pace to make a deep run and usurp the Western Conference crown from Curry and Company. It's wide open, very wide open in the West as usual. But if I had to give my Finals match-up early, I'm saying Cavs/Warriors 2.0 with Lebron finally getting it done for the home team.

Richard Sylvester - To quote the great J.R.R. Tolkien in the Two Towers, "There is no curse in Elvish, Entish, or the tongues of Men for this treachery." As a Bulls fan, I cannot even express how much I don't want Lebron to win another title. It is bad enough having to live in a world where he has 2 rings and be forced to listen to ESPN on a nightly basis foist undeserved praise upon him for every minor accomplishment. (Oh see how Lebron chew's his nails while sitting on the bench, such poise and look at that form!)  It got so ridiculous that when they ran out of adulation during his last season in Miami, they started inventing stats about him. (Lebron shooting over 50% during the month of February, after the sun went down, when it's warmer than 58 degrees outside, and the moon is 3/4's of the way through its cycle...) But I digress, personally I see the Spurs returning to form and getting it done while Tim Duncan prepares to ride off into the sunset.

Since we disagree about who will win the championship this year, here is my final question. ESPN's Skip Bayless started this narrative about Peyton Manning being, "the best regular season quarterback of all time." Basically highlighting that during his career he ran roughshod over teams during the regular season, but is pretty sub par in the playoffs. Jemele Hill of ESPN on the other hand has brought to light that when it comes to Manning, every time he comes up short from winning the super bowl there is always an excuse and the blame is not placed on him.

If Lebron makes it to the finals and loses again would it be fair to call him the Peyton Manning of the NBA?

Keeping in mind that in his final season in Miami, that entire year the resounding pick to win the championship was Lebron and the Miami Heat. Then after the Spurs made them look like a high school junior varsity team, the narrative instantly became that Lebron needed more help and the Miami Heat lacked talent, even though they had 4 future first ballot hall-of-famers on their roster.

Brian Shepard - I honestly would not be able to argue with that statement. I mean, if he goes again this year, that's six Finals runs within his career, which is nothing to scoff at all. But if he loses, he'll be two for six. I'm like LeBron... LEBRONNNNNNN... Go for the 50% my man! I'll take the three out of six.

In the grand scope of greatness, we can't deny that Peyton & LeBron have changed the game by the way they play and are able to see the game. They will be considered champs and first ballot HOFer’s as they should be. [However] does that mean that they are withheld from scrutiny and critique? Absolutely not. The facts are the facts, Peyton Manning is the greatest regular season quarterback of all time but come playoff time? POOF! He makes Hoodini and David Copperfield jealous with his disappearing act. It's facts, take it how you want it people.

Truth be told, LeBron's on his way to being everyone's David Blaine if the Cavs can't get it together this season. LeBron, if he wants to sit at the table with Jordan, Magic, Bird, Kobe, Duncan and the rest of the titans in the basketball universe, he has to win this ring. If not, he'll be another great player but we'll remember how he had the potential to be the greatest and how it never really came together.

Richard Sylvester - That is a great place to end it. Thank you for your time my dude. Hopefully we can do this again in the future.

Brian Shepard - Yessir! Let's plan on it!

*  You can follow Brian on twitter at @iambrianshepard as he talks about sports, music and this crazy thing we call life.

The times, they are a changin'

We need to talk

I realize those words tend to incite cold sweats, heart palpitations and the general feeling that your heart is about to be kicked right in the balls, but I promise you this is going to be a pain free conversation.

The quote, "Whatever your hand's find to do, do it to the best of your ability" is something that my parents instilled in me when I was young, and is an axiom that I try to follow in my day to day life. When I begin something, I am 100% invested. So when I think about this blog, I want to have a clear vision for what I want to accomplish with it, and communicate that to you so you know what to expect from me.

So what are we doing here

While murky at the inception of this blog, my vision for what I want this to become and how I want it to grow has become crystal clear over the last few weeks. When I started this blog I wanted a place where I could discuss ideas and issues that were of importance to me in long essay form. That will continue to be the main source of content of this blog with those posts going up on Monday mornings.

However I now realize that I have a unique opportunity on my hands. I am incredibly privileged to keep the counsel of some remarkable men, men who are rising stars and up and comers in a variety of fields and disciplines. As we keep in contact daily, we talk about everything from life, to sports, politics, religion, marriage and relationships, leadership, career advice and everything in-between. These conversations are incredibly deep, multi-layered and the source of growth for those of us that get to partake in them. At the conclusion, the comment of, "Wow, that should have been a podcast" is said over and over again. So while I will never violate the sanctity and privacy of those conversations, I would like to bring some of these conversations from behind the curtain and have them in a semi-public forum.

So starting tomorrow I will be beginning what I am calling, "Free Talk Friday's." (No I didn't come up with that and yes I am shamelessly appropriating it.) The posts that go up on Friday morning's will be guest writers, collaborations or posts of less gravity than what you would expect on a Monday. I am also going to be starting an email exchange series where I interview somebody over a series of emails and posts the full transcript here. It is my hope that by reading these conversations you get as much out of them as those of us who have them.

Where do you see this going

I have some big ideas about how I would like to develop this blog into a bigger platform, but I am keeping that close to the vest for right now. As this blog is still in its infancy, I want to give it time to grow and mature before I begin to add additional offerings. What I am willing to share at this moment however, is I am planning to move this blog from the blogger network on to it's own stand alone site. Most of this will be happening behind the scenes and should not interrupt the programming schedule. This should be taking place hopefully over the next 4-6 weeks.

That's all for now but be sure to check back tomorrow for the very first email exchange interview with my good friend, and almost cousin (a story for another time) Brian Shepard.

Until next time,

May your dreams and passions turn into exciting new opportunities... And if they don't, then there is always chocolate.

How to be a sports fan and why you are probably doing it wrong

And the surprise of the year goes to

For those of you who either aren't in the know, live under a rock or are just generally unfamiliar with the goings on with the various sports ball thingamajiggers, allow me to fill you in on some much needed back story so the rest of this post makes sense.

 Within the state of Michigan there are 2 main universities that are perpetual rivals, the University of Michigan (commonly referred to as U of M or Michigan) and Michigan State (aka MSU or State). The rivalry is very serious, as demonstrated by the fact that with in the state of Michigan it is perfectly acceptable to greet friends and even strangers with a slight insult or jab when discovering that they support the rival team. The rivalry and goes back well over 100 years with the first game being played in 1898. In fact they have played a total of 107 games with  U of M leading the rivalry over all winning 68 games to MSU's 34. However in recent times MSU has dominated the rivalry, winning 7 of the last 8 games.

Now with all that back story out of the way lets talk about why I decided to write this piece. Back on October 17th Michigan and State played again. The rivalry is extra fierce right now because MSU has had an elite team for the past few seasons, and Michigan has a new coach, which they brought in this season to turn the program around after years of mediocrity. So after a back and forth game, Michigan had all but assured the victory when this happened.

Michigan made a mistake on a routine play, and State was able to force a turn over and steal the game in the final seconds. This seemingly impossible turn of events was met with shock by the Michigan fans.

And one fan in particular that had such an extreme reaction it went viral and made national news.

Various news organizations even reported that there was a Michigan fan that had a heart attack at the game. (Based on my research and according to various news outlets, it is unsure if the heart attack was related to the outcome of the game. Also the identity and current status of the person in question are unreported and unknown.)

Now I'm all for being passionate about sports, and I even understand how a particular team can bring people together and even create lasting memories. However when it gets to the point where your fan-hood is affecting your physical health, relationships or your emotional and psychological well being, than it is no longer healthy and something really needs to change, as I had to learn from personal experience.

The pot calling the kettle red

The Chicago Bulls are my team. With close ties to the city of Chicago and being born in the early 80's, I was just old enough to get swept up in the Michael Jordan mania. I would argue that no athlete has ever done for sports fans what MJ did for basketball fans, and Bulls fans in particular. Simply put he made kids of us all again. Whether you were a kid or an adult, watching him play was something close to magical. He seemed to defy both reality and gravity at will, with both electrifying and athletic dunks and impossible to make jump shots (that he seemingly always made). While there were great players before him, and there are now will continue to be great players in the future, nobody since Jordan made me feel that way about the game of basketball, until Derrick Rose came along.

Derrick Rose. A kid from Chicago entering the draft when his hometown team had the number 1 overall pick. It seemed like kismet that he would wind up playing for the team he idolized in his youth. As a fan I watched Derrick from the second he came into the league. For his first few years I never missed a game or practice. If there was a video of Derrick playing basketball, I saw it. The word obsessed wouldn't be be entirely inaccurate about how I felt about both him and my team. I told myself however I was just being a fan.

Having ties to Chicago it's hard to convey to somebody not from Chicago what it's like to love a Chicago team. A city that constantly plays second, third and fourth fiddle to the likes of New York, LA and Miami, having the greatest NBA player of all time be ours means something. Then along came Derrick. Watching him carve up teams with speed and athleticism never seen before at the point guard position, combined with a relentlessness and hunger to his game, returned me to the days of watching another special and beloved bulls player. Needless to say I hadn't felt that way about watching another player since Jordan. Watching Derrick made me feel like I was watching something magical, any given night anything could happen, and then it did happen in the spring of 2012 when he tore his acl.

To say I handled it poorly was an understatement. It affected my relationship, my job, and my schooling. I had been so invested in my team and this player that I was just emotionally numb for a while. I walked around in a funk for weeks, and as that faded away I began to become short tempered and easily irritated with people. On the positive side of things the longer Derrick was out the more I realized how unhealthy my attitude surrounding sports was. I began to try and wean myself off of the raw emotion that I invested in my sports teams, but I couldn't cut ties completely. Part of me held out hope, even as Derrick sat out the entire season, I held on to the hope that once he just came back things would be like there used to be. 

In the fall of 2013, after sitting out for a full season, Derrick was working his way back into playing. He had struggled through the preseason but was starting to look better, until one fateful night in November. I remember watching him as a played against the Portland Trailblazers. He had looked really good that night, scoring 20 points through 3 quarters. Then on a cut to the basket he came up limping. As he limped off the court and eventually went back to the locker room, my only thoughts were, 'oh no, not again.' The feeling of emotional numbness that I had gotten intimately familiar with over the past 18 months spread over me, I just felt that it was going to be a serious injury. Sure enough as the team announced the next day, a 2nd knee injury would keep him out for the second season in a row. 

In that moment, while reading that press release, I completely cut all my emotional ties with my team and with sports.

Taking the fanatic out of the fan

My relationship with sports is now a lot more casual. I don't rage on losses and wins make me happy but don't really make my day or week. Shaking free from the all encompassing emotion of the game has allowed me to actually learn to appreciate the game even more. For all of the benefits that come from supporting a team, just as with anything, over indulgence can be harmful. Allowing your attitude and mental state to be overly influenced by things outside of your control is always a risk, and an unnecessary one at that.

Talking to friends of mine, more than one individual has found themselves either sleeping on the couch or in an argument with their partner when one of their favorite teams lose. I often find myself asking the question, "is it really worth it?" Does your fan-hood really require you to sacrifice everything on the alter of your favorite sports team? Do you really need to celebrate every win like the birth of your first child and every loss like the death of your best friend? 

In the aftermath of deciding to divorce the fanatic out of my fan-hood, I remembered hearing a quote from former ESPN radio host Colin Cowherd that really helped me to change my outlook on sports and stick to it. To paraphrase him he said, "Love your family, your spouse and your kids, like everything else." I encourage you all to do the same. 

Or you could just continue to be this guy.

Whatever work for you.

Until next time,

May your favorite team be just good enough to make the playoffs, only to lose to your biggest rival.

The Start of Something New - Part 2: Electric Boogaloo

So I guess we should call this a rousing success

Ok, so maybe not abandoning this thing after 1 post is far from a success, but considering the incredibly low bar I'm judging personal success lately I'm chalking this one up in the win column. I have discovered that as I am dealing with some ongoing personal issues, having this to focus on is giving me a great outlet channel my creativity into. Which surprisingly helps me to be more productive in general. So since I'm going to be continuing this for the foreseeable future, I'd like to talk about what I intend to us this blog for.

Things to not discuss unless you are looking for a fight

There are a lot of different directions in which I thought about taking this thing. Becoming a pseudo-expert on one topic and creating a brand around that one thing seems to be the fasts way to internet/blogger stardom. But does the internet really need another "expert" on relationships, parenting, cooking, fashion, blogging, tech or SEO? (Considering how long it took me to find an unused blog address, the answer is apparently yes, yes it does.)

I however, am not particularly interested in following the well worn path of 'how to create a non-traditional career in 3 easy steps!' What I am interested in doing is creating a place for me to discuss topics in which I find interesting. You aren't going to see a lot of a deep dive into topics of religion or politics, but if you want an interesting take on a smaller news story one week, followed by a discussion of existential ideas the next, this might be the place for you.

Congrats on pursuing a dying medium

For years people have been proclaiming the death of the written word. The refrain of 'nobody reads anymore is said so often if you had a nickel for every time you heard it you'd probably be a 1%er by now. Yet amongst all of the uploads, likes, retweets, pokes, pins and upvotes I still believe writing has value. As much as social media tries to condense thought and opinions into micro-conversations I don't think a well research and presented opinion can be expressed in 140 characters or less. So I will be using this blog for long form essays and opinion pieces.

Will people read them? Maybe, maybe not. But I believe that the value of something doesn't have to be derived from how favorable the popular opinion of it is. Often times the value of something is derived from simply that it exists.

So until next time,

May your selfie stick break and your phone fall into an open sewer.

The Start of Something New

You should really be writing

Have you ever heard something over and over to the point that you instinctively begin to tune it out? That commercial you've heard one thousand times, the reminder to take out the trash by a partner, the lame joke retold by your boss.

After a while it just becomes white noise, slipping in one ear and out of the other without any part of your consciousness registering it, or so you thought. Somewhere in that confusing mass of gray matter we call our brains, a copy of it is made and subsequently stuffed into a closest along with every other time we've heard it. It happens again and again until one day when we go to place one more recording in the closet, we crack open the door it explodes; drowning us under an avalanche of recorded memories we had thought we had forgotten. That is basically how I ended up starting this blog.

I've heard you for the thousandth time

I've always been an adequate writer. Some might say a good writer, but we don't really know each other yet and I'd hate for us to begin our relationship with you thinking I'm a braggart, so I'll just stick with 'adequate'. I like to write. Personally it's my preferred method of communication. I love the ability too see my words, mull them over, erase, rephrase and reassess until they convey precisely and only what I want them to say. However my attempts to turn my writing into something more substantial have never really gotten off the ground.

I've found in life there is always an excuse to not do something. Whether legitimate, such as the need to go to work and exchange time for money or the less so, such as the siren song of the endless browsing of reddit the various other interwebs, my attempts in the past flopped harder than Lebron James in a playoff game. However I have much higher hopes for the future of this venture.

So, I guess this is a thing now 

A few months ago somebody who I greatly respect suggested that I start a blog (for maybe the dozenth time). My witty retort was that nobody in the right mind cared to read what I had to say in long form essay. His patient reply was that writing is often more for the writer than the reader. A few months and a few life changes later, that room where I stuffed his comment into burst open and here we are.

This "blog" (something about that word just doesn't roll off the tongue very well for me) is going to be where I write about the things I have on my mind. It isn't for the purpose of becoming a major business or leading to fake internet stardom, I just have some stuff I need to get off of my chest. If by some strange happenstance you have found this and are reading it (welcome, make yourself at home but leave your shoes at the door) just understand that this really is a selfish enterprise. That doesn't mean you aren't useful however.

Since you are obviously bored at work, or bored at church, or bored at home (we're all bored somewhere after all) I'll provide you with a modicum of entertainment in exchange for you sharing your thoughts, ideas and feelings about what you've read. Hopefully in our future conversations through the exchange of ideas and comments we both can get something out of this. If not you can request a full refund for the amount of money you have invested.

So until next time,

May you always have the last word and be ever ready with a witty retort.