Setting aside the lameness of the name

I do think that Seattle Sounders FC 2 as a name for the new USL Pro team is a truly, truly lame name, but the way this is being done makes a lot of sense to me.

I also decided to go ahead and join the trust and am looking into running for a seat on it.

The official S2 Kool Aid

ECS meeting with S2 

New scarf

Future tag team champs?

Instead of discussing a possible tag team, we just discussed dancing with Cheryl Burke.

Flaming. Tetherball.

Flaming. 

Tetherball.

Smell the Roses

Rose City Comic Con

Portland, OR

9-20/21-14

My haul.

Once again, I had the opportunity to work in Celeb Ops with a great team.

The Nerdiest Night Out Ever

Neil deGrasse Tyson

Paramount Theater

Seattle, WA

September 15, 2014

Good mail day back in April.

Worth every penny.

PAX Prime 2k14

The [E] experience is so excellent. It's really well organized and there is opportunity to see the event.

I went for a theme this year.

MTG Khans of Tarkir panel at the Hedgehog theatre.

I ended up working and on a panel because of the above item. 

Patrick Rothfuss is [E] material.

Man, I look tired.

I ended up on about 33 minutes into this video.

Soccer summer

 

USOC PK Seattle v SJE

 

Selfie with Neagle

 

USA viewing party at the CLink

 

Let it Reign

 

For my friend in Buenos Aires

Tuesday night at the theatre

A Chorus Line
5th Avenue Theatre
Seattle, WA
September 9, 2014

I have to admit I was much less familiar with this work than I thought it was.  The real time auditioning of most of it speaks to the sense of urgency of the characters.  And, even though it is dated to the time of its creation it remains timely. Nice.

Hard at work this summer

 

Hiking week

 

Ravioli Thursdays

 

Construction camp

 

A day at the velodrome

 

-------

 

And now school has started for the fall and I am back to wearing pants.

Playing catch up ... again

Fell behind on the blog posts ... again.  So in lieu of a slew of them, here is one big post to bridge the gap since June when I was last posting.

 

 

I am afraid of how large that bird was.

 

Had to try it.  Disgusting. Could not finish it.

 

Took the golf clubs out a bunch recently.  Me and the boy and now the girl too.  Life is good.  Birdie putts rock.

 

Nature is beautiful.

 

Birthday cake?  No.  Birthday peaches and cream.

 

Best draft ever. M15.

 

Kids rules are ones it would be nice for adults to follow.

 

Worst toe nail ever, and for me that is saying something.

 

Scalzi at the U bookstore.  He is singing a Cure song on an out of tune uke.

 

JoshIsFired

GISHWHES 2014

This year just wasn't as much fun.  I do not know why, but the list did not inspire me.  Also, it is likely not legal to intentionally crash someone's site. We will see about next year, I just wasn't that excited.

Free Concert (with autographs and selfies)

Seahawks pregame celebration and concert

September 4, 2014

Occidental Park & CLink Field North Lot

Soundgarden

Pharrell Williams

The Commish

#80

A Coug surrounded by 2 Huskies (Lawyer Milloy & Warren Moon)

The 50 Club

Recent 50th anniversary party for my folks and four other couples.  All either have just had within the last year or two or will have within the next year or two their 50th wedding anniversaries. 

Clever Girl (Roadrunner)

If you know the song that this is based on that is awesome, if not then search for it by looking for The Doubleclicks and Clever Girl. This will then make much more sense. 

Plus, the video not only got a Doubleclicks twitter click of approval, but The Doubleclicks themselves and I had the brief opportunity at PAX to discuss.

Tuesday (and/or) Wednesday Night Football

The NFL is a juggernaut.

Rival leagues have virtually no chance against it.

However, there is no need for a second tier football league to go against the NFL or to go to the Spring or overseas.

I picture a second tier league in cities underserved by major pro sports as a compliment to the NFL, even as an affiliate.

So, to cities like Portland, Omaha, Sacramento, Birmingham, Orlando, San Antonio, Memphis, Salt Lake City, Tulsa, Norfolk,  Hartford, and others ... NFL2.

The Plan:

- 10 teams keeps league small
- 8-10 weeks/games, leaning toward 8 where in two five team division teams simply play their own division home and home, minimal travel as a result cuts costs and could create some rivalries
- teams form in the weeks after final NFL cuts while players are most game fit and ready and can get to speed quickly with a 10 day camp prior to first game
- season, including playoffs, runs from weeks 5 to 15 of the NFL season
- games played on Tuesday and Wednesday nights so as to not conflict with NFL coverage or college football
- games broadcast on NFL network and other NFL contracted networks or on cable channels eager to do business with NFL as well as other platforms
- single division top 3 in playoffs with top seed getting bye and 2nd seed hosting 3rd in one game to face the top seed the following week or two divisions with no wild cards and the top division winner hosting the other division winner
- bye week allows for two weeks of ticket sales for championship
- NFL teams can send/assign players
- NFL affiliation offers legitimacy other start up leagues have struggled with
- traditional football season
- schedule takes away potential stadium and television conflicts

Good format

Good format.

 

I played a couple of drafts of the new Magic The Gathering release Conspiracy.

 

The things I like most about Magic and gaming are deck building, drafting, multiplayer, and new cards.  Conspiracy is all of those things.

 

Playing at a couple different stores with regular players and with everyone in the same boat was pretty fun.  There were a lot of stop and read the card moments that got everyone in each group talking.  Instead of people rushing through games with decks they have memorized everyone was taking the time to really look at the cards.  Each of the groups I played in (and then a friend bought a box so we did 3 small drafts on our own) had good energy.

 

This is why I play the game.

I do not know what to do

I generally avoid a lot of big news tragedy stories.  The media coverage feels dirty.

Several years ago a classmate had a parent killed in a school shooting as a teacher.  It was close enough to home that I have always tried to keep a respectful distance.

The other day there was a tragedy in my home town at a place I hold in high regard that has a special place in my heart. I felt horrible, but I still kept a respectful distance.

And then the next morning my phone rang and I got the news.  I knew the guy.

I had worked with him, liked him, and even given him a ride home.

It's heartbreaking for so many reasons. I am sick to my stomach about so much of this, plus this additional detail.

It's not about me, but I just feel so awful that I do not know what to do.

Thanks Harrison

Years ago I sent a bunch of cards out for soccer players to sign.

Recently, Harrison Barnes of the Golden State Warriors announced an autograph policy.

So, even though I really do not have any Warriors or Tar Heels stuff I decided to join in.  

I sent him a print out of the article of his announcement and he signed it and sent it right back.

Awesome.

Brad Pitt

At the Maleficent premiere Brad Pitt was attacked.  Apparently, he is fine.  The guy who did it has done crap like this before.

I work in a role at various conventions and events with celebrity guests where I manage a staff of volunteers and work with security to keep fans in line.

At first I kind of wanted to joke as we were heading to see Maleficent that I hoped it was good, because of the Pitt situation.  I had all sorts of jokes about whether it would be good enough or bad enough to attack someone over.

Then, I looked at what I had noted and realized if I was joking about crap like that I should be fired from what I do.

The fact that Pitt is fine does not change that this is awful and dangerous and is a reminder of why we do what we do to keep fans in line.

One person doing something crazy or stupid and someone could get hurt or worse.

Nothing is funny about what happened to Brad Pitt.

Solar everywhere

I guess this makes me some sort of unpatriotic racist or something else that some idiot congressman might think is not science.

Solar everywhere.

School zone flashing lights? Solar.

Transit Center? Solar.

The main school I sub at? Gym is solar.

And so the other night when we took a ferry ride to Kingston for some ice cream I saw this and was fascinated. Yes, solar panels for the lights for the bumpers for the ferries as they come in.  

Awesome.

Chiming in

There are a number of interesting and amazing women in my life.

Strong female lead vocal rock bands tend to be the main focus of my musical tastes in recent years.

I am excited to think we are about to have a woman be POTUS.

Events I work at have added anti-harassment policies so that women can feel safe attending.

It appears that ECCC might have tipped the gender balance to more women than men and to me that is awesome.

Not everyone feels that the above sentences are positive.

People are just as entitled to believe things that I do not as I am to believe in what I do.

But, there is a line.

Nothing justifies acting on ugly ideology.

Basically, I do think that men need to chime in and raise the bar on the cultural behavior expectations when it comes to women.

Being frustrated because someone is not romantically interested is simply something that happens and works across genders and combinations of gender.

Yes, it hurts when someone is not as interested in you as you are in them.

We've all been there and been the one showing less interest, even if we did not know it at the time.

All people should be treated with respect.

Hating people and acting on it is cowardice and not heroic.

I am going to have zero tolerance for anyone who feels entitled to another person's body.

As I watch the trends on Twitter and commentary on misogyny that is raging after the recent anti-woman rampage I want to chime in but have hesitated.

However, it felt like nothing but an arrogant exercise to say, "Not me!"

A little rambling post like this is my way of chiming in.

To those showing anything even remotely excusing or justifying anything related to what happened on any level, I do not want anything to do with you.

Seven and Oh

Seattle Reign FC 3
FC Kansas City 2
NWSL Regular Season
Memorial Stadium
5-14-14

The Reign has now managed the best start and overall win streak in the NWSL's brief history.  

Watching these games I am intrigued by the midfield play in the triangle that is used and the overlapping and switching that is used by the wing defenders and forwards.

Keeping in mind that a couple starters are actually missing and this streak is even more impressive.

This is just a very good soccer team.

Seattle parking

Seattle is many things that I love, but also has a tendency to do some truly frustrating things.

Parking is rough in town.  Seattle has progressively done things to actually make it worse.  The markings of where it is legal to park are more complicated than they used to be.  The ticket dispenser meters are trickier to use properly than the old meters were. The timing of when one can actually park in need of paying has been extended.  The cost of parking meter tickets is more expensive than it once was.

The other night I drove around for over 20 minutes trying to find parking, a fairly common occurrence.

I do not trust Seattle to not pounce at the last minute to write as many tickets as possible.  So, with 2 minutes left til the free parking time I plugged in a quarter and paid for the two minutes.

One gigantic bird joke

As I walked to my van yesterday this gigantic dropping was so easy to spot that I was afraid something was truly wrong with the vehicle.

Of course, a tweet about the bird being big enough to carry it off was inevitable. 

Quick Turnaround

Burbank, CA

4-28 and 29, 2014

It was tough to work under these conditions.

LA in the distance from the resort.

Mt. St. Helens 

This was my first chance to be flown to work an event. I am very fortunate.