Lou Pickney's Online Commentary
Sand Castles
Sunday
July 22, 2012
I haven't had much time to write on here as of late, but that's not a bad thing per se -- it's just a sign that I've had plenty going on recently. This is my one day off in the midst of an 11-of-12 run, but I'm not complaining one bit: I'm very happy to be back in the TV news biz and am glad to help out at the station however I can.
I've adjusted to living by myself again, which actually fits my way of doing things pretty well. For some reason it tends to annoy me at times to have to tell others where I'm going or what I'm doing, something that with roommates (or living with a girlfriend) is generally expected. Not that I'm being shady -- I'm just a very selectively private person when it comes to certain things, even the most innocuous stuff at times. Of course, on here it's the polar opposite as far as personal privacy goes, but I have the latitude to choose what I do and don't write about, which makes all the difference.
Work is going well. I've adjusted to the a.m./p.m. flipped schedule, at least as much as one can, though with my night owl nature it has worked out much better for me than it does for most people. So if I'm typing this at 7 a.m. EDT, as I am as I write this paragraph, it's as if it's 7 p.m. -- at least that's how I have to think of it. Sleep (at least ideally) 10a-6p, then have some time to get my wits about me and catch Big Brother on TV before heading into work by 11p.
As painful as being blindsided was, it might end up being the best thing Stacy could have done for me. When I wrote on 5/2 that it might be a "blessing in disguise" type situation, it was wishful thinking... but something that seems to have been prophetic. Just look at the turn of events: in less than a month I went from being emotionally waylaid to having lined up a good job and making a fresh start in a city that I knew I liked, and things are going about as well now as I could have hoped for when I left Nashville more than two months ago.
The hardest part was, and continues to be, not being around her dog Clyde anymore. I seldom let my emotional guard down for anything or anyone, but with him I did, since I figured I'd get to be around him for the rest of his life. But that's not the way it worked out, sadly. Sometimes that's how things go in life.
My condolences go out to those who had loved ones either hurt or killed in the Aurora mass shooting. My friend Josina briefly worked last year with one of the people who died in the shooting, 24-year-old Jessica Redfield (not her real last name, but the name she used professionally), who interned at the TV station where Josina worked at the time. The sports journalism world has mourned Jessica's loss, and rightfully so -- just as the nation has mourned the senseless collective loss of life in Aurora.
It has been especially surreal to see, in this era of social networking, posts made by victims on Twitter literally in the final few minutes of their lives... without any of them knowing of their impending fate. It's another reminder that life comes with no guarantees -- and that you should enjoy the time you have as much as you can while you can.
I've been playing a great deal of NCAA Football 13 for the PS3. It's a fun game, much improved over last year's version which was a bust for me due to the game having linebackers that could jump like Dwight Howard to bat down a pass intended for 10 yards down the field. For the purposes of Draft King, the series in general has an added value for me since it allows for a literal computer simulation of how players might do this season. The game isn't perfect on that by any means, like in NCAA Football 11 when Boise State WR Titus Young won the Heisman in my Dynasty mode, but overall it's fun to use it as a somewhat accurate representation of how things, in general, might play out.
|  | This isn't exactly how the real 2010 Heisman Trophy balloting turned out.
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Speaking of Draft King, I've had to cut back considerably on the work I've done on it. As much as I enjoy writing long articles for there, between limited time and other commitments, the time I put into it versus the revenue I generate just wasn't worth it -- in part because of the proliferation of ad blocking software, but also because the ad market has remained rather soft overall in this economy. I've had to go on an indefinite hiatus from appearing on radio shows to talk about Draft King and both college and pro football, not because of anything contractually, but simply because time-wise I don't have time for it. Sad but true.
What I do plan to do though is keep my first-round mock on there as accurate and on point as possible. Ultimately, that's what 99% of the people who visit my site want to see the most, so it makes the most sense to focus my time and energy and resources into making sure that's as strong as possible. But I did write a preview about offensive players who are potentially draft eligible for 2013 a couple of weeks ago, and soon I will write one on the defensive players to watch for 2013. But there is value in that for me not only in having something fresh for the site but also in going through and doing comprehensive independent research that has a direct correlation on players I would be well-advised to watch this fall.
One last thing: the Summer Without Cable has been a smashing success. Even with limited OTA reception from my location and not being able to pull in all the local channels, with ESPN streaming so many live sports and the Dish/AMC impasse leading to AMC to put Breaking Bad on its website to watch (or at least the first episode), it has worked out well. Once the free internet here sunsets I'll get the Comcast cable/internet bundle deal, just in time for the fall football season. Advantage: me.
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