Saturday, September 28, 2024

Football Counter-Programming 2024: Who even cares what week it is?

(It occurred to me just now that I haven't formatted this year's FC-P photos with the AYRFSFC-P??!! text. Sorry. Maybe next week.) 


I've missed the last two weeks of the Football Counter-Programming project. And I'm sorry that you have not had me to misdirect* and distract you from the scourge of non-professional Saturday gridirony.

*I initially typed mislead. And that might be technically true. You'd have to fact-check me on that.** But I'm not going to go back and measure the veracity levels of past FC-P posts.

**HA!

ANDBUTSO . . . I'm sitting here on a Friday and not feeling particularly motivated to work. I'm alone downstairs in the house and Lynda is up in her office working. It's a grey, blustery sort of Friday and the arms of Tropical Storm Helene (nee Hurricane Helene) blow their way up into the Midwest. I've been getting texts of Mom in Tifton, after the worst of the wind passed over last night and this morning. She and Dad are safe. Big trees blew down along the driveway. Which makes me feel sad.

And Lynda's family is okay in Waycross. More trees down and flooding here and there. But no one that I know if injured. But I'm sure there are plenty of people I don't know who will be struggling through this in the months ahead. Sure hope that the government has enough tax money to fund their recovery efforts that are needed. (But I won't get any more political than that about that in this post.)

So, yeah . . . sad.

Sad to see big pecan trees blown down, then chainsawed away. But necessary because Mom couldn't use the driveway until it was cleared. Sad to think of the change that time brings. Sad to think of Dad--even though he doesn't now really know that the trees are gone. But I wish I could have a conversation with him about the fact that the trees are gone. But knowing that I can't really have a conversation like that with him anymore.

Sad.

I'll see him during the end of year holiday travels. But it is always bittersweet.

It is also unavoidably the reality of life. And I'm happy at least that life is being had. Through storms and daily living, he continues. And God bless Mom, who soldiers on every day. Relying on everyone who team together to help Dad. But also give Mom the space to find her own help. 

Life just keeps on coming. No matter what you do. No matter how things happen around you--be they work changes or weather storms. Be they growing kids or other facts of life.

It is still life.

And we still have it.

And it is better than most.

So . . . don't define your life with football. (You'll now pardon me as I have to get back to work so that I can spend the Friday evening in support of football-related activities.)

That is all.

Saturday, August 31, 2024

Football Counter-Programming 2024: Week 1 (or is it week 2?)

As I was driving around my town this morning, I thought that my color-blindness was acting up or altering. Didn't everything seem more red than normal?* Had I burst a capillary in my eyeball? Did my hair dye slip into my eyes last night?Was something else wrong going on?

But then I checked the calendar and I realized that it was Saturday in Ohio. It's Buckeye time. All the scarlet is out and it must be football time.

And when it's football time . . . it's Football Counter-Programming time!

(Even though I missed counter-programming you last Saturday, when I have been informed that gridiron games did occur. My two older brother's alma maters faced off and they were . . . both surprised by the GT/FSU game.

But I'm not here to give you mentions about football. Check the title. I'm here to distract you FROM college football. (I guess the college part is implied. But if you've been an avid reader of WWYG?! FC-P coverage over the last many years (search the blog labels in the right sidebar to see more) or if you read between the lines that I'm talking about Saturdays . . . then you know that its the college game I'm up against.

ANDBUTSO--this is already too much about football.

It's also Labor Day weekend here in Ohio--and, coincidentally, throughout the entire United States. So the other momentous thing happening around now is the cultural end of summer and the retirement of the 2024 Summer Hat. #OfficialHat2024 has done its job well, sheltering my head and hiding my hair when I didn't want to spend lots of time coiffing. (Did I spell the verbing of coif correctly? Do your worst in the comments!)

I hope to find time on Sunday to film and prepare my traditional goodbye to this year's #HatofSummer and to put a close to another season of one of the internet's strangest traditions. (I say that like a. I'm an expert on the internet and b. my dinky little project has any significance at all in the vast ocean of flotsam that is the World Wide Web. But a person can always dream.)

Truth be told, I didn't wear the #HatofSummer as much in the end months of summer as I might have. This definitely was impacted by my decision to let Jay dye my hair red. (See asterisk . . .) Wanted to show off the crimson locks. And they will be in full display from now until early November. (Again . . . see the asterisk. And follow my on Facebook for more marching band related content.)

And that's it I think for this week.

Until we meet again, get your eyes checked regularly . . . and don't forget that your alma mater's cornerback might have better eyesight than you do. But he'll be sore at the end of the day and you might not be.


* And, before you say anything . . . this isn't a stealth promotion for the 2024 Westerville North Marching Warriors show "RED." . . . or is it?

Tuesday, August 13, 2024

Twenty Years!

 I was gonna begin the anniversary post with a photo of Old Steve Rogers sittin' and ruminatin'. 

But Old Blogger wouldn't let me.

Is that because Blogger is itself too old? Or is the Old Steve pic so fresh and new (?) that the lawyers won't let me meme it for my self-promotional purposes?

Still, there has to be an acceptable (legal) way to celebrate that Why Won't You Grow turned 20 years old yesterday. And unlike Steve Rogers, it shows its age.

For one, it still sits on Blogger--the Hammer Tech of blog platforms. But I guess I'm ride or die at this point. I'm pot committed. All of my very important thoughts over the last two decades is here--for better and very much for worse.

It will all evaporate someday. Maybe an EM pulse will shut everything down. (No one will more the loss of WWYG?! but a small spec of individual expression will be gone.  . . . Right?)

How to celebrate 20 years of random flotsam? (Other than the simple acknowledgement that is happening now?) Well, last night I was sitting with Grace, enjoying a few episodes of her first self-directed LOST Rewatch and what episode appeared?

It’s not even my birthday! pic.twitter.com/vMXerghlJx

If only I have reached that point in my own LOST Rewatch/repost.


But anyway . . . Happy Anniversary to me!

Monday, June 10, 2024

Abrams did it to me again . . . for the FIRST time!

 Didn't George Lucas say something about how stories, like poetry, rhyme? (Meaning it as a justification that the repetition in his stories and what some might perceive as a weakness in story telling was actually a feature and not a bug.)

checking . . .


According to this source, he said "Again, it's like poetry, so that they rhyme. Every stanza kind of rhymes with the last one."

Well . . . he is definitely not the only one.

Because tonight I'm minding my own business and watching a rerun of an Alias episode. ("Almost Thirty Years" which aired May 21, 2002.) And at the end of the episode, Sydney blows up a big Rambaldi device that collapses a sphere of red water being suspended in anti-gravity whatsis. This begins a flood within the building. And so Sydney and Vaughn run to escape the rushing wall of liquid. Sydney safely gets on one side of a bulkhead door (which has a window). And Vaughn is trapped on the water side and so Sydney gets to watch as he is surrounded by the water.

DOES THIS SOUND FAMILIAR TO YOU?!

DOES IT RHYME?!!!!!


Maybe it would help if I shared a clip of this episode of LOST ("Through the Looking Glass--season 3, episodes 22 and 23, which aired May 23, 2007)


So . . . as you can see . . . Mr. Abrams's creative partners Lindelof and Cuse were happy to take a bit of Alias lore and hit me with it again almost exactly five years later. 

And I didn't make the connection until over seventeen years after that.

It shocked me, let me tell you.


(Yes, Will. It shocked me almost as much as that.)

#HatofSummer 2024 Revealed

 Look. I'm sorry that the #HatofSummer has been official for weeks and I forgot to cross post this video from my other social media feeds over here.

Fifteen-years-ago me would be severely disappointed.

But current me is who he is. And that's just how it goes. I encourage you to get over your disappointment and surf back through the WWYG?! archives and feel better about when this was more vibrant and vital and we all had more pep in our step.

None of that, however, takes away from the very satisfying fact that #OfficialHat2024 is out there and the #HatofSummer project continues--even after all this time.

So not everything slowly withers on the vine.


As much as the hat's simple existence, I am happy with the new style and video elements I added this year. No, I didn't experiment as much as I thought I would. But it gives me confidence that I might make another step next Spring when #OfficialHat2025 approaches.

Monday, May 20, 2024

#HatofSummer (2024) Voting Update Number 3


When I started this project in 2012 I didn't know where it would go. And all these years later, it seems evident by the tone of this video that I still don't.

Such are the defining characteristics of the #HatofSummer.

 

Monday, May 13, 2024

#HatofSummer (2024) Voting Update Number 2


Memorial Day weekend is now only two weeks away, so the time you have left to vote for the #HatofSummer is slipping away!

Perhaps this is surprising to you? If so, that might be because I have not done a great job of reminding everyone about the voting progress this year. Regardless #OfficialHat2024 will be chosen very soon and then no more new hats for me until Labor Day weekend!

 

Tuesday, April 09, 2024

Total Eclipse 2024


I'm putting my memory eggs into an unpredictable basket by headlining this post with a Facebook video. No telling what the state of social media will be a year from now, much less twenty years from now. (As if anyone will be eagerly seeking out WWYG?! in 2044.) But nevertheless, this encapsulates the experience in my time, in my "backyard." And, if nothing else--I am hopeful that this significant event will be recorded for posterity in some retrievable fashion for the benefit of the future.

(So . . . let's double down I guess . . .)



But . . . for me . . . this was a truly memorable event. As others have noted today, reflecting on yesterday--it exceeded my imagination. I know the theory of an eclipse. I've experienced partial eclipses. But seeing a totality occur was something that felt awe inspiring.

To have the reality of something match up so well with the description (huh . . . science KNEW what it was talking about!) was remarkable. The diminishment of the light. The coming of twilight. The reveal of stars (probably planets) at 3 pm. The complete blockage of the sun and the exposure of the so-real-it-seemed-fake image of the sun's corona and its electric umbra dominating the black blue of the sky. Seeing the street lights turn on. And through it all, listening to the excited crowd around me as people reacted in wonder to what was happening. I laughed in astonishment and excitement. It took me by surprise how remarkable it actually was.

I wasn't in a spot that was directly in the middle of totality. So our moment of totality was maybe a minute or so in length. What it must have been like to see that blockage, that midnight blue, that electric light for almost four minutes? 

But I'm so happy that something this remarkable occurred in my backyard. (Though Lynda, Jay, and I drove down the road to the soccer fields on Cleveland Avenue--across from the Westerville Community Center.) 

Part of me wishes that I had tried to take better pictures of the totality. But I'm glad that in the moment, I was more focused on the world around me and less on my technology. And I hope that these words can help me remember this moment for years afterward.

There have only been a few times in my adult life were I was unexpectedly caught off guard by the impact of an event. The other that comes immediately to mind is standing at the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem in 2012. The moment of awe and the realization that something so much bigger than me was happening . . . really something.

 

Thursday, April 04, 2024

#HatofSummer Voting Update #1


 Good day everyone! It has been a few weeks and I've let the #OfficialHat2024 voting proceed at its own, slow pace in the first few weeks.

There haven't been lots of votes yet. But we still have almost two full months for that to change.

I say that not to encourage you to sit on your voting hands and wait, but rather to remind you that you can use these upcoming weeks to vote to your heart's content. Many times! Multiple times! It is still very much anyhat's game to win or lose.

The Temperance Row hat has the bulk of the votes to this point. So, if you like that hat, then keep it going. But if you want to see another choice challenge for the crown (no crown options available), then go forth!


Click on this link to be taken to the Google Form for voting: https://forms.gle/qE3MDu2UM6sQLqx69

On that page, you will see the Rules video that I made this year and your four options.

If you would like to see the videos that have been made for the 2024 #HatofSummer campaign, you can visit this year's YouTube playlist. 


I will start making more video updates soon, I promise! 


Thursday, March 14, 2024

Vote for the 2024 #HatofSummer

 You have seen all for hat choices for #OfficialHat2024. (But if you need a refresher on what the four hats are, check out the 2024 #HatofSummer playlist.)

So now you can get busy voting.

Please vote as many times as you want!




Wednesday, March 13, 2024

#HatofSummer Video #4: Anders Erickson


Today's post features the final option in the 2024 #HatofSummer contest.

The Anders Erickson hat is merch that I bought from this YouTube channel.

Anders makes very good weekly videos about making cocktails and often discusses the history and creators of the drinks featured in each video. As I say in the video, I'm learning more about making cocktails and have started experimenting with spirits and liqueurs and the like. Cocktails always intimidated me as the ingredients always seems confusing and foreign and odd. But, as with everything else in life, if you take your time and think about it, you can learn.

So, please drink responsibly.

But . . . vote irresponsibly!

All of the #OfficialHat2024 choices are now public and the voting sheet is live. Start clicking and voting with abandon! You can start casting votes for your favorite hat here.

I'll start posting update videos to give you progress on voting soon!

 

Tuesday, March 12, 2024

#HatofSummer Video #3: Temperance Row Brewing Co.

 Here is the third of four choices for the 2024 #HatofSummer.

It's another bit of swag from another local Westerville business--a hat for the Temperance Row Brewing Company, housed within Uptown Deli and Brew.

This is a favorite restaurant of ours. The food is simple, but tasty and I enjoy their locally brewed beers as well. And from a historical point of view, this restaurant is notable for being the first Westerville brewery since the temperance movement hit alcohol sales in the United States back in the early twentieth century.

As you may know, Westerville was a very important headquarters for the temperance movement before and during the Prohibition era in the United States. Westerville once called itself the Dry Capitol of the World. And it mailed information against the sale of alcohol across the globe from this (then) sleep town in central Ohio.

But those days are over. Prohibition ended in the 1930s, but Westerville remained dry until the 2000s. Now there is a museum for the movement in the local public library and information about the Anti-Saloon League. As well as a memorial statue on Main Street outside of City Hall. 

But we also have alcohol sales and many good restaurants and wine bars up and down that same Main Street. And if you look, you might see me on a summer weekend with a glass in hand, wearing the Temperance Row Brewing Co. hat--if it wins the most votes, that is.

Watch the video and cast your vote!


Monday, March 11, 2024

Martin Scorsese films that I have seen . . . ranked

 In my effort to see more Oscar nominated movies before yesterday's 96th Academy Awards, I sat down with Grace on Saturday and watched Killers of the Flower Moon. And I had feelings about it. And while I'm glad to have watched it, I do not think it was inappropriately snubbed at the ceremony on Sunday. But I'm not a professional movie critic . . . just a guy who's seen an average to less than average amount of films.

Definitely file this in the "Who Asked You?" file.


TOP

The Wolf of Wall Street (2013)

Gangs of New York (2002)

Goodfellas (1990)

Cape Fear (1991)

The Color of Money (1986)

The Last Temptation of Christ (1988)

Taxi Driver (1976)

The Aviator (2004)

Killers of the Flower Moon (2023)

BOTTOM

A Comparison

 


#HatofSummer Video #2: Whits Frozen Custard


I bought this hat a few weeks ago.

I was in Delaware, attending Grace's latest concert band performance at Ohio Wesleyan. It was a rare opportunity to get the whole family together to see Grace's concert. Sarah and her boyfriend drove up from Columbus. Jay didn't have a Friday night conflict of some kind. And even though it was (maybe?) the worst snow storm of this winter, we all made it there and back home again.

After the concert was over, we drove in the snowfall and trudged through the sidewalks of downtown Delaware to have a quick late night dessert at the Delaware Whits. And there, beside the counter, was this hat.

It looks bright and nice and I decided then to buy it!

So, will it be this year's #HatofSummer?

 

Sunday, March 10, 2024

#HatofSummer Video 1: Seersucker


Today, the Google Form opened to receive votes for the 2024 #HatofSummer.

So, I'm posting video number 1 here to start publicizing the choices for #OfficialHat2024.

And, to peek behind the curtain a bit, I have a bit of dilemma. You see, I make the videos and I don't open the voting until all of the videos are ready. But when I have all of the videos ready and I open up the official voting, I am reluctant to post all of the hat videos in a block. Because I want to tease out the time period of new videos to try and draw people in. (You see I still labor--after all these years of evidence to the contrary--under the delusion that I will ever be able to generate any sort of Internet interest in the things that I do.)

So, I have videos ready. And I want to time delay video presentation. BUT . . . the Google Form already tells you what the hat choices are--even if you don't have all of the videos to watch yet.

But does it matter?

Untimately, no. I doesn't matter.

So I guess what I will do is this--

I've posted video 1: Seersucker now. Here. And you can start voting now. Over on this linked Google Form. But you will also see the other choices, even if you don't have the full context. But I'll be releasing those videos in a sort of accelerated pace over the next few days. It won't matter or make any difference. But that is what I've chosen to do.

Happy voting!

 

Monday, February 26, 2024

#HatofSummer Rules Video

 I am not a good content creator strategist.

If I was trying to drive consistent traffic to my blog/YouTube channel, I would create content and then push it live on a regular schedule--similar to how the Disney+ streaming services get you interested in a series and then deliver a new episode week-by-week.

(All this assumes that any content that I make would be sufficiently interesting to drive any traffic anywhere. But this is a hypothetical and not a reflection of what I know is reality.)

But instead, I get excited by ideas and I make them and throw them up by inspiration.

Case in point: I created my #HatofSummer teaser video and put it up on Saturday. And then I got an idea for the #HatofSummer Rules video and I put it together on Sunday and pushed it live. 

That alone is not a bad thing. 

But I'm not ready to push the rest of the #HatofSummer videos live immediately after. So I promise something and then there is a lag while I get the rest of things together. Because I don't have a critical mass of followers, then attention wanes and lessens any interest in subsequent videos that come.

Oh well.

Here is the rules video that I put together Sunday afternoon. It's not the slickest video you will ever see on YouTube, but I enjoyed making it and I like it. Not that bad for a few hours of work and all done for free.

More #HatofSummer videos will come soon, I promise. And then the real voting can get started.

Saturday, February 24, 2024

#HatofSummer 2024 is Coming Soon!


Even though there is snow on the ground outside the window as I type this, Spring is soon to arrive. And that means that the videos for the 2024 Hat of Summer are in preparation now.
And so, I spent some time this weekend working on the ins and outs and I got this teaser trailer put together.

I hope that you like it.

And I really hope that you keep your eyes open for the other videos that are to come.

Next up will be a rules video, separate from the hat-specific videos. (It's odd that I haven't made a rules only video in the past, but I'm excited to put it together.)

The hat videos and the Google form for voting are soon to be made and will be live soon. As always, I thank you for your attention and your interest in this weird little annual project of mine.

Thursday, January 25, 2024

Checking In . . . 2024 Style


I was mentally preparing myself to be mad that I've ignored the blog. But when I loaded up the CMS, I see that I did post in early December. It hasn't event been two full months of inactivity! Wonderful!

*pats self on back*

***

ANYWAY . . . my one fan asked me to update WWYG?! and so I will do so. (When you read it, you'll wonder why bother?)

Earlier this morning while doing my morning walk I listened to a podcast that discusses and judges series finale episodes. The show being examined was Mad Men. Was the finale a good one?

Without rewatching/refamiliarizing myself with the show as a whole (which I did watch in real time and did enjoy), I can't form much of an opinion on the finale itself. I don't remember being very polarized with at the time. I'm sure it was of a high quality and well considered--as was almost all of Mad Men itself. (It does goad me to consider making it a rewatch . . . but there are other things that I REALLY SHOULD (have to?) complete first . . .

My point is that listening to Mad Men and the discussion centering around the thesis of the show and the goals of the finale made me think about midlife crises. And it made me wonder if I have had/will have/am having one.

Am I mired in my daily schedule? Do I even want to get out of it? Do  I have malaise? And what would/could I even do otherwise? Best to avoid and not think about it! Don't try to fix what ain't broke! Recognize what you've got and don't get distracted by phantoms of what else!

Okay.

Repress.

***

Jay got some good school news last night! Their application for the half-day school curriculum at Fort Hayes was accepted. And they seemed very happy about it. I hope it will be a good academic fit for them and that it helps them explore the career field that they are right now interested in. There will be scheduling challenges to overcome for next year, but I am confident that those can be figured out. And Jay may have to make some changes by dropping a few after school performance things next year to make this work and make the schedule flow. But if it is what they want to do, then I hope it results in good things.


***

Lastly, I've had a few random thoughts about Hat of Summer as the calendar shifted to a new year. It is still many months until we begin the approach to Memorial Day weekend. But if I can get inspired, maybe I can start making the odd video here and there. Uploading them to Private of course. Don't want to make the voting period drag on for too long. But shooting, editing, and banking would be a good use of time when I've got nothing else happening. (I make it sound like it is such an ordeal. The videos--as you know--are incredibly simple. But I am--as you know--of limited skill.)

And I guess that is it for now.

Better than nothing? That is for you to decide.