Monday, January 18, 2010
Remembering Dr. Martin Luther King
I am not, in any means, an official historian. I am however, a lover of history.
I say this because every Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, of which today is, I make it a point to listen to the entire "I Have a Dream" speech, easily one of Dr. King's most famous and significant orations.
It is a true shame that our country lost this visionary and leader long before his time was done. While his "I Have a Dream" speech has a few sentences that everyone knows, if you haven't heard the entire speech in its entirety I would encourage you do so today (and often) as it is truly an inspiring message and also sheds light on how far we have come as a nation and how far we still have to go.
Please take 18 minutes out of your day to view this and share it with your children and friends. Maybe it can be used to open up dialogue with another generation of the significance of the man as well as his message.
I say this because every Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, of which today is, I make it a point to listen to the entire "I Have a Dream" speech, easily one of Dr. King's most famous and significant orations.
It is a true shame that our country lost this visionary and leader long before his time was done. While his "I Have a Dream" speech has a few sentences that everyone knows, if you haven't heard the entire speech in its entirety I would encourage you do so today (and often) as it is truly an inspiring message and also sheds light on how far we have come as a nation and how far we still have to go.
Please take 18 minutes out of your day to view this and share it with your children and friends. Maybe it can be used to open up dialogue with another generation of the significance of the man as well as his message.
Saturday, January 16, 2010
This Week In Sports (TWIS)
So a new feature for the 2010 version of Smitty Said will be a weekly recap of things going on in the sports world that I feel compelled to comment on.
Mark McGwire being treated like a hero by Cardinal fans is just wrong. I was there when he hit his 500th career home run, it was a magical night and one I won't ever forget. I am not going to cast moral judgement on him for using steroids or other drugs, but I promise you one thing, he is no longer a "hero" of mine. He still has a chance to become a champion of youth by becoming the poster-boy for educaction and why kids shouldn't use drugs, but until that time comes, no cheers, applause, much less a standing ovation, from me for him.
Kurt Warnrer should retire and will be in the Hall of Fame.
***Please help the Red Cross earthquake relief efforts: text "HAITI" to 90999 and make a $10 donation to support the American Red Cross. ***
I love watching the Australian Open. It starts next week and I love it because I just love watching live sporting events and with the time difference it provides the only live sports events for late night and early morning viewing. I remember touring the grounds on a past business trip to Australia too, good times indeed.
Watching Sports Center this week I realized how irrelevant the NHL has become. We have a team in my hometown that is starting to make a playoff push, I am not scoreboard watching yet but I realized how little the rest of the country cares about the NHL. Of course the fact that ESPN doesn't carry any games I am sure makes it easy for them to put highlights at the bottom of the page, if not at all.
Mark McGwire being treated like a hero by Cardinal fans is just wrong. I was there when he hit his 500th career home run, it was a magical night and one I won't ever forget. I am not going to cast moral judgement on him for using steroids or other drugs, but I promise you one thing, he is no longer a "hero" of mine. He still has a chance to become a champion of youth by becoming the poster-boy for educaction and why kids shouldn't use drugs, but until that time comes, no cheers, applause, much less a standing ovation, from me for him.
Kurt Warnrer should retire and will be in the Hall of Fame.
***Please help the Red Cross earthquake relief efforts: text "HAITI" to 90999 and make a $10 donation to support the American Red Cross. ***
I love watching the Australian Open. It starts next week and I love it because I just love watching live sporting events and with the time difference it provides the only live sports events for late night and early morning viewing. I remember touring the grounds on a past business trip to Australia too, good times indeed.
Watching Sports Center this week I realized how irrelevant the NHL has become. We have a team in my hometown that is starting to make a playoff push, I am not scoreboard watching yet but I realized how little the rest of the country cares about the NHL. Of course the fact that ESPN doesn't carry any games I am sure makes it easy for them to put highlights at the bottom of the page, if not at all.
Thursday, January 14, 2010
Smitty Read/Reading This Week
So most of you know that I am an avid reading of both short form and long form writing, it mainly goes back to my days as a journalist and reading great stories was a natural way for me to improve on my craft.I read now much more for enjoyment and to educate myself on issus, trends and other news. Part of the new efforts of this blog will be a weekly feature focusing on grea articles I have found and am reading or have read as well as highlighting a great book or two.
So without any further ado here is this week's installent.
GQ released a great story today about the cover-up and aftermath of a shooting at car wash owned by Marvin Harrison ("former" NFL player). I won't give the artivle too much prose here other than to simply say it is a must read:
I sarted kayaking last summer for the first time and feel in love with it. Still at the point where I am renting kayaks when I go out on area rivers for float trips but I hope to own one soon. The NY Times Sunday Travel section had a great piece on kayaking along the Mississippi river on a stretch that is practically in my backyard. A touching piece about the bonding of the reporter and his teenage son during the trip too.
The book I am currently reading (and I suspect will have finished by the weekend), is a great look at the history and future of Google. Of course professionally his is a company I rely greatly on for our business, but even if you aren't the digital world you should read this just to learn more about a company that I think will be sure to dominate the corporate landscape for years to come.
Please feel free to pass on any recomedations you might have as well.
Saturday, January 9, 2010
Ashamed to be an American
The above words are ones that I never thought I would ever type but yesterday was one of the rare times I can honestly say that I was ashamed to be an American.I had lots of emotions: anger, disappointment, bewilderment, and even brief moments of positiveness and hope. Then I realized the most prevailing emotional wind of the day was coming from the shame I felt of being American.
As most of you know I spent a large chunk of my professional career in the online gambling industry, first working for the leading trade-show and research firm in the entire industry and then transitioning to a structure where I had my own (1 person) company where I was contracted to act as PR/events/marketing team for BetOnSports plc.
I won't bore you with rehashing the details of the cash, you can find more information here and here, but instead to rehash what made me come to feel such shame of my country and its justice system.
For the most part the courts agreed that the former CEO of BetOnSports was a good man and a solid business man who meant no harm or ill-will towards customers. He wasn't driven by greed or fraud like others in the industry and certainly the executives of the company that were at BetOnSports before him (namely its founder),
The court did disagree that the company operated in a gray area, the judge actually saying that it "clearly was a black and white issue."
More than 24 hours after the case I am still stunned with this opinion and continue to feel pain and anguish for my former boss and someone who now I am proud to call a dear and great friend. I know he will "be fine" as he is a strong person who has already been through so much, I know he only looks forward and doesn't look back, but I have to weigh in on this issue myself for the sake of my own sanity.
I can't help but keep coming back to the fundamental issue of this case (the gray area vs. black and whiteness of the online gambling industry in the eyes of the Department of Justice). If there was or is, no "gray" area then why did it take congress nearly 10 years to finally pass a bill that brought clarity to the issue? And even at that the "clarity" was only specific to the payment transaction side of the business. You can even argue the bill was only allowed to be passed due in large part to the media buzz from the BetOnSports case that was going around when the bill go through Congress.
And then finally, if this is such a "black and white" issue why do hundreds of sites, with tens-of-thousands of customers and millions of dollars of revenue continue to operate today and even advertise throughout mainstream media?
This industry will continue to flourish outside the U.S. and other countries where it is licensed and regulated will seek benefits from it. The U.S. will continue to try to prohibit the industry while American citizens who wish to spend their leisure time and money online playing poker, casino games or even sports betting, will continue to find plenty of options online to do so.
And I will continue to feel ashamed of our country and its "strategy" in dealing with the online gambling industry.
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
Top 10 Viral Videos of the Decade
The great thing about this decade is not only can we compile a top-10 list of our favorite viral videos of the decade but you can actually argue that this is the decade of the viral video.
We can ponder such deeper things at another juncture, in the meantime, enjoy this compiled list with no real guidelines other than I liked them and they got tons of traction at some point in time during the last decade. If I missed any obvious ones add them below. I purposely left out cat/animal videos as I frankly don't find them interesting.
No. 10 History of Dance -- Impartial to this one but I know the kiddos loved it
No. 9 Numa Numa spurred all kind of copy-cats
No. 8 Leave Brittney Alone -- Who knew her fans were so passionate
No. 7 Diet Coke + Mentos -- = crazy stuff
No. 6 Bill O'Rielly goes ape shit
No. 5 "Thriller" -- The original flash mob
No. 4 Miss Teen USA -- You can't fix stupid
No. 3 Wedding Entrance -- Even inspired an scene in "The Office"
No. 2 OK GO on treadmills -- a masterpiece in work.
No. 1 David After Dentist, the quote of the decade "Is this real life?"
We can ponder such deeper things at another juncture, in the meantime, enjoy this compiled list with no real guidelines other than I liked them and they got tons of traction at some point in time during the last decade. If I missed any obvious ones add them below. I purposely left out cat/animal videos as I frankly don't find them interesting.
No. 10 History of Dance -- Impartial to this one but I know the kiddos loved it
No. 9 Numa Numa spurred all kind of copy-cats
No. 8 Leave Brittney Alone -- Who knew her fans were so passionate
No. 7 Diet Coke + Mentos -- = crazy stuff
No. 6 Bill O'Rielly goes ape shit
No. 5 "Thriller" -- The original flash mob
No. 4 Miss Teen USA -- You can't fix stupid
No. 3 Wedding Entrance -- Even inspired an scene in "The Office"
No. 2 OK GO on treadmills -- a masterpiece in work.
No. 1 David After Dentist, the quote of the decade "Is this real life?"
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
Dick Clark Brings in New Year
So I am fully aware that Dick Clark has dealt with some serious medical issues in recent years and he certainly can no longer carry the popular moniker of America's Oldest Teenager, but I hope for the sake of the current generation of kids, that this is the last year we see him on his New Year's special.
It had been sometime since I found myself at home on New Year's Eve, but family commitments were such that I brought in the New Year in a nice and simple way at home with just my wife and I and the TV. I was amazed at how poor Dick looked and how hard he was to understand. I know how hard it can be to deal with strokes as I have many people very close to me suffer from them. I also know the importance of image and branding from my professional life and I hope that for Dick's sake someone close to him and convince him that next year he should take a behind the scenes role on the show, or maybe even pre-record something that won't have him live.
I might be over reacting here, but you can judge for yourself, see how much of a train wreck the final countdown was as the big ball droppped.
It had been sometime since I found myself at home on New Year's Eve, but family commitments were such that I brought in the New Year in a nice and simple way at home with just my wife and I and the TV. I was amazed at how poor Dick looked and how hard he was to understand. I know how hard it can be to deal with strokes as I have many people very close to me suffer from them. I also know the importance of image and branding from my professional life and I hope that for Dick's sake someone close to him and convince him that next year he should take a behind the scenes role on the show, or maybe even pre-record something that won't have him live.
I might be over reacting here, but you can judge for yourself, see how much of a train wreck the final countdown was as the big ball droppped.
SmittySaid Blog Gets Overhaul for 2010
Not only does 2010 usher in a new year and a new decade, it also ushers in a new look and feel to the SmittySaid blog.
In an effort to improve the blog, keep its content fresh and its own creator interested in it -- which is certainly a vital part of the process -- look for new and exciting changes to come from the site.
The idea of this post is really more for the posterity of actually have a dated entry signifying the official announcement of the change. I still don't know exactly how this will all take shape, but I have lots of ideas and concepts on the direction it will take and I will certainly keep everyone posted as the ideas develop and come to fruition.
In an effort to improve the blog, keep its content fresh and its own creator interested in it -- which is certainly a vital part of the process -- look for new and exciting changes to come from the site.
The idea of this post is really more for the posterity of actually have a dated entry signifying the official announcement of the change. I still don't know exactly how this will all take shape, but I have lots of ideas and concepts on the direction it will take and I will certainly keep everyone posted as the ideas develop and come to fruition.
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