It's not my first time using the new Wi-Fi service in the air but I am still pretty enamored with it; aAll except the cost aspect, but I imagine that too will come down over time.
It seems like a 'no brainer' to be online in the clouds when the world of computing is all about the 'cloud' these days.
My favorite part - except for the lack of ability to 'text' my life can go on as usual up here. I am on Facebook, working on an expense report and getting ready to write my weekly article for the FFL Guru (I know you are reading here but do you watch me at www.thefflguru.com as well) all from the comfort of 2A somewhere between San Antonio, TX and Atlanta, GA.
As much as I get frustrated by technology it really is an incredible time we are living in and how much we take it for granted. Just now, it struck me that I forgot to TiVO a show tonight. Do you know what I did? I logged into my Direct TV account here, up in the sky, typed in a few key strokes and voila! when I get home The Biggest Loser will be waiting for me (please no jokes...).
I finished reading the new Dan Brown book, The Lost Symbol, last week and it was fairly entertaining but one part that struck me is the concept is 'Man as the CREATOR' as opposed to 'Man being created'. When I think about technology and advances in Science that really is true. We as a species are the only living things that 'create' beyond some basic type structures. For the most part this is good, however, sometimes we create for the bad (even if its not intended that way). No deep philosophical discussion about it now, just an interesting thought.
Those are my thoughts for now, going to turn back to the 'Sports Gil' and go 'create' an article.
Talk to you next on 'terra firma'
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Sunday, September 27, 2009
Fantasy
Google the word - you get 246,000,000 hits in .15 seconds. Wow, either my MAC is screaming or a lot of people like things with the word 'fantasy' in them. Interestingly enough the first hit I got was for the Wikipedia definition of fantasy. I checked it out. Guess what? It ONLY referred to 'fantasy' in terms of magic and that genre. This really surprised me. From there I went to Webster's online and get the OFFICIAL definition. Low and behold there is more!
Main Entry: 1fan·ta·sy
Variant(s): also phan·ta·sy \ˈfan-tə-sē, -zē\
Function: noun
Inflected Form(s): plural fan·ta·sies
Etymology: Middle English fantasie — more at fancy
Date: 14th century
1 obsolete : hallucination
2 : fancy; especially : the free play of creative imagination
3 : a creation of the imaginative faculty whether expressed or merely conceived: as a : a fanciful design or invention b : a chimerical or fantastic notion c : fantasia 1 d : imaginative fiction featuring especially strange settings and grotesque characters —called also fantasy fiction
4 : caprice
5 : the power or process of creating especially unrealistic or improbable mental images in response to psychological need; also : a mental image or a series of mental images (as a daydream) so created
6 : a coin usually not intended for circulation as currency and often issued by a dubious authority (as a government-in-exile)
For the purposes of this post I am definitions 3 and 5, though I am intrigued by #6. As I read the definitions, in particular #5 I get the feeling that the word 'fantasy' is a negative term, or at the least one that has very little reality attached to it. Again, I was surprised.
Lately, when I think about fantasy it is usually in relation to NFL Football and my side pursuit of Fantasy Football. What I love about Fantasy Football is that it allows the 'average man' to be in control of a sports 'franchise'. As a guy and a sports lover this is one of our fundamental desires. Many of us grow up playing the games we love and dream about playing at higher and higher levels. Eventually reality comes crashing down on us. Conversely, as we watch sports and follow our favorite teams we know in our hearts we could do a better job in managing the franchise. Of course, economically, the likelihood of us actually owning a Major sports franchise is far less likely than actually playing for one, so once again our dreams get crushed. In steps Fantasy Sports which may be created in a 'fictional world' clearly exists in REALITY. We use real players and real games. We just manipulate that reality to our own rules.
Personally, this pursuit of my own sports fantasy is leading me further into a pursuit of a dream. Ever since I was a young kid I fell in love with sports. Not only did I love playing sports but I also loved talking about sports. Some of my earliest memories are of debating the Philadelphia sports teams of my youth. I had always thought I would make a pretty good Sports Broadcaster long before I knew what that was. Remember, I was a kid growing up before ESPN. Besides the local games on TV, my view of a Sports Broadcaster was the guy in the tie on the nightly news who got 3-4 minutes to give scores and local updates. As many of you know, this dormant dream has become more and more real over the last 3 years. Three years ago I was part of creating a concept for a Fantasy Football show that would be online and be no longer than 15 minutes long. At the time, even the big guys of Sports Broadcasting were not creating video content specifically for the web and we saw a niche in this growing market. Today, Fantasy Sports is a 3-4 BILLION DOLLAR Industry. We are now in our third year of The Fantasy Football Guru (www.thefflguru.com). With each season we have grown and become more comfortable with our content. We have also grown our audience and distribution channel. We now stand on the precipice of the 'tipping point' I believe. We now are integrated into Atlanta's #1 Sports Radio Station, 790 the Zone, www.790thezone.com. Our production team, The Raw Report (www.rawreport.com) are top notch and they are taking us into new markets as well. More recently, we have signed a deal with Yahoo! Our content is now available as a WIDGET on new Internet Ready TV's as well as a mobile app. What started with about 100 viewers is now available to 3.5 MILLION households. Where we go next I do not know, but what I do know is that something that started as pure FANTASY has become part of my REALITY. I am not just passionate about sports or my fantasy team, I am passionate about the process and the business. I see and feel opportunity around every corner.
So there is one story where fantasy is not the improbable that the definition seems to imply. The more I think about it, the more I hate that definition. Why is a fantasy nearly unattainable? Last week I witnessed TWO things I thought were improbable , nearly impossible but they happened. They happened because of hard work, determination and passion. The first is just a video I saw on YouTube. It like many videos on that site is of a 15 year old scoring a touchdown in their High School football game. What was improbable is that the kid has Downs Syndrome! I watched and I cried. I cried for joy and I cried for the human spirit, but mostly I cried as the Uncle of a 9 year old who has Downs. The second story I heard was that of a Make a Wish child. One of my friends has a grown child who was a Make a Wish recipient and now the family gives back through their own Foundation. Last week my friend put together a very personal, last minute Make a Wish for a local child. Within 4 hours of the 'Wish' being fulfilled the young child passed away. I once again found myself crying. At first I wept for the loss of a young child and then for the sadness my friend felt. Within a few minutes though my tears turned to joyful ones. What I realized was that in this child's final hours they were able to smile and feel special. For the briefest of moments there was no illness, no tubes, no fear, just love and happiness. For however short the life was, it went out the right way, with a full heart. Neither of these stories have anything to do with my fantasies or fantasy sports yet they are once again examples of turning a fantasy into reality.
Economically things are bleak, not just locally but globally. We seem to be divided more by politics and race more and more every day. Turn on any of the 'news' channels and you will find pundits trying to push their REALITY on us and stifle our creative energies to turn our fantasies into reality. This week, as a Jew, I am celebrating a New Year as well as paying respect to the year gone by and asking G-d and my family and friends to forgive me for the wrongs that I have done this year. I hope that I will not just be forgiven but also continue to be given the freedom to dream and fight for turning fantasy into reality. We might not always hit the mark but you can't ever get there if you don't try. It's very cliche but the journey of a 1,000 miles begins with the first step.
Here are my first steps in this New Year:
- lose the last 17 pounds to get me to 200 lbs. (I started at 247 in July of 2008 after knee reconstruction)
- complete an Olympic length Triathlon with my friends the 'Tri-Nuts'
- continue to grow my career and current company
- let The FFL Guru take me where it may
- re-engage with the Non Profits that I serve
- continue to be an engaged and active father to two of the most beautiful and precious young ladies I know
- be a better friend, sibling, son and partner to those that need me
- smile everyday and stop to be thankful for all that I am blessed with
- spend more time with YOU, my 'audience' if you will. Those of you that post, send me private emails or just spend time on my page are an inspiration.
Sorry for the long and rambling post, it's late and its been a while since I have blogged :)
Main Entry: 1fan·ta·sy
Variant(s): also phan·ta·sy \ˈfan-tə-sē, -zē\
Function: noun
Inflected Form(s): plural fan·ta·sies
Etymology: Middle English fantasie — more at fancy
Date: 14th century
1 obsolete : hallucination
2 : fancy; especially : the free play of creative imagination
3 : a creation of the imaginative faculty whether expressed or merely conceived: as a : a fanciful design or invention b : a chimerical or fantastic notion c : fantasia 1 d : imaginative fiction featuring especially strange settings and grotesque characters —called also fantasy fiction
4 : caprice
5 : the power or process of creating especially unrealistic or improbable mental images in response to psychological need
6 : a coin usually not intended for circulation as currency and often issued by a dubious authority (as a government-in-exile)
For the purposes of this post I am definitions 3 and 5, though I am intrigued by #6. As I read the definitions, in particular #5 I get the feeling that the word 'fantasy' is a negative term, or at the least one that has very little reality attached to it. Again, I was surprised.
Lately, when I think about fantasy it is usually in relation to NFL Football and my side pursuit of Fantasy Football. What I love about Fantasy Football is that it allows the 'average man' to be in control of a sports 'franchise'. As a guy and a sports lover this is one of our fundamental desires. Many of us grow up playing the games we love and dream about playing at higher and higher levels. Eventually reality comes crashing down on us. Conversely, as we watch sports and follow our favorite teams we know in our hearts we could do a better job in managing the franchise. Of course, economically, the likelihood of us actually owning a Major sports franchise is far less likely than actually playing for one, so once again our dreams get crushed. In steps Fantasy Sports which may be created in a 'fictional world' clearly exists in REALITY. We use real players and real games. We just manipulate that reality to our own rules.
Personally, this pursuit of my own sports fantasy is leading me further into a pursuit of a dream. Ever since I was a young kid I fell in love with sports. Not only did I love playing sports but I also loved talking about sports. Some of my earliest memories are of debating the Philadelphia sports teams of my youth. I had always thought I would make a pretty good Sports Broadcaster long before I knew what that was. Remember, I was a kid growing up before ESPN. Besides the local games on TV, my view of a Sports Broadcaster was the guy in the tie on the nightly news who got 3-4 minutes to give scores and local updates. As many of you know, this dormant dream has become more and more real over the last 3 years. Three years ago I was part of creating a concept for a Fantasy Football show that would be online and be no longer than 15 minutes long. At the time, even the big guys of Sports Broadcasting were not creating video content specifically for the web and we saw a niche in this growing market. Today, Fantasy Sports is a 3-4 BILLION DOLLAR Industry. We are now in our third year of The Fantasy Football Guru (www.thefflguru.com). With each season we have grown and become more comfortable with our content. We have also grown our audience and distribution channel. We now stand on the precipice of the 'tipping point' I believe. We now are integrated into Atlanta's #1 Sports Radio Station, 790 the Zone, www.790thezone.com. Our production team, The Raw Report (www.rawreport.com) are top notch and they are taking us into new markets as well. More recently, we have signed a deal with Yahoo! Our content is now available as a WIDGET on new Internet Ready TV's as well as a mobile app. What started with about 100 viewers is now available to 3.5 MILLION households. Where we go next I do not know, but what I do know is that something that started as pure FANTASY has become part of my REALITY. I am not just passionate about sports or my fantasy team, I am passionate about the process and the business. I see and feel opportunity around every corner.
So there is one story where fantasy is not the improbable that the definition seems to imply. The more I think about it, the more I hate that definition. Why is a fantasy nearly unattainable? Last week I witnessed TWO things I thought were improbable , nearly impossible but they happened. They happened because of hard work, determination and passion. The first is just a video I saw on YouTube. It like many videos on that site is of a 15 year old scoring a touchdown in their High School football game. What was improbable is that the kid has Downs Syndrome! I watched and I cried. I cried for joy and I cried for the human spirit, but mostly I cried as the Uncle of a 9 year old who has Downs. The second story I heard was that of a Make a Wish child. One of my friends has a grown child who was a Make a Wish recipient and now the family gives back through their own Foundation. Last week my friend put together a very personal, last minute Make a Wish for a local child. Within 4 hours of the 'Wish' being fulfilled the young child passed away. I once again found myself crying. At first I wept for the loss of a young child and then for the sadness my friend felt. Within a few minutes though my tears turned to joyful ones. What I realized was that in this child's final hours they were able to smile and feel special. For the briefest of moments there was no illness, no tubes, no fear, just love and happiness. For however short the life was, it went out the right way, with a full heart. Neither of these stories have anything to do with my fantasies or fantasy sports yet they are once again examples of turning a fantasy into reality.
Economically things are bleak, not just locally but globally. We seem to be divided more by politics and race more and more every day. Turn on any of the 'news' channels and you will find pundits trying to push their REALITY on us and stifle our creative energies to turn our fantasies into reality. This week, as a Jew, I am celebrating a New Year as well as paying respect to the year gone by and asking G-d and my family and friends to forgive me for the wrongs that I have done this year. I hope that I will not just be forgiven but also continue to be given the freedom to dream and fight for turning fantasy into reality. We might not always hit the mark but you can't ever get there if you don't try. It's very cliche but the journey of a 1,000 miles begins with the first step.
Here are my first steps in this New Year:
- lose the last 17 pounds to get me to 200 lbs. (I started at 247 in July of 2008 after knee reconstruction)
- complete an Olympic length Triathlon with my friends the 'Tri-Nuts'
- continue to grow my career and current company
- let The FFL Guru take me where it may
- re-engage with the Non Profits that I serve
- continue to be an engaged and active father to two of the most beautiful and precious young ladies I know
- be a better friend, sibling, son and partner to those that need me
- smile everyday and stop to be thankful for all that I am blessed with
- spend more time with YOU, my 'audience' if you will. Those of you that post, send me private emails or just spend time on my page are an inspiration.
Sorry for the long and rambling post, it's late and its been a while since I have blogged :)
Thursday, September 3, 2009
The FFL Guru is OFFICIALLY back
Yes -- i have been waiting and holding this exciting news, but as football season kicks off so does another season the The FFL Guru. This year our role with our Radio Partner, 790 The Zone (www.790thezone.com) has expanded and our website will now be housed there as well (www.790thezone.com/fflguru). Additionally, we welcome a new Production Partner, The Raw Report (www.rawreport.com). Our first production was on Tuesday of this week and should be live on the site by Friday (9/4) morning! We are very excited about the new elements the gang brings to the FFL Guru!!!
Also, Jordan and I are finalizing contracts with Yahoo! that will air our show on their new Internet TV Property called Yahoo! Connected (http://connectedtv.yahoo.com/).
Lastly, we will be blogging on our site at least twice a week, so if you are into Fantasy Football make sure you are checking out the site, www.790thezone.com/ffluguru often. As a sample, here is my first blog that went up the other day:
Draft Preparation and Cheat Sheets
Posted 9/2/2009 4:00:00 PM
Go ahead and call this my Fantasy Football Manifesto, my Jerry Maguire moment. if you will.
From this moment forth, I will not purchase another Fantasy Football Magazine!
What purpose do they serve other than taking up space in my bathroom, where two months from now I will peruse them and laugh about their inaccuracies and dart board projections. Look, I understand, Fantasy Sports is a BILLION DOLLAR industry and that magazines were an essential element in the early growth of Fantasy Sports. And from a pure entertainment and basic information standpoint, the content in those magazines is ok. But the thing that kills me in them is the ‘Cheat Sheet’ they all insist on providing. Actually, let me retract that previous statement, what really PISSES ME OFF are the Cheat Sheets, which pretend as if they are supposed to help you in any league regardless of the league’s scoring system.
The fact is magazine Cheat Sheets don’t help you because they can’t help you. How could anything written in May, i.e. pre-Memorial Day, possibly help you pick players at the end of August or beginning of September? Today’s NFL is a fluid, ever changing league where a team or player may be highly thought of in May, but considered a bum in August. Those Cheat Sheets are worse than putting up Christmas lights in July or wearing white in October!
So, why the rant? Clearly I’m not shilling my own online site that sells information. And I’m not a tree hugger frustrated with the number of trees being cut down for these magazines. No, I’m ranting because I’m just another frustrated Owner with three drafts in five days with three different scoring systems and three completely different sets of rules.
It is impossible for a magazine or any static mechanisms completely help you prepare you for YOUR draft. If you rely on nothing but projections, cheat sheets and someone else’s rankings you are doomed to fail.
Remember back in College and High School? How did we get by when studying was too difficult or reading took time away from a party? We bought Cliff Notes and other study aids that assisted you in bypassing the actual learning involved in studying. In fact, with minimal effort, many a drunken and lazy Undergrad was able to make it through.
But did the Cliff Notes’ users excel? Were they top of the class? Of course not.. Doing the minimum might be fine for college. Heck, it might be fine at your job. But in Fantasy Football if you do the minimum, i.e. printing out cheats sheets and rankings, you can expect the same average result in every league you play in-- a 5th-7th place finish, notable for it lack of glory and embarrassment.
Sound like fun in the FFL world? Not to me. I’d rather go for it, on my own, with some knowledge in hand and my own system and notes relied on. Sink or swim, it will have been my choices and I won’t spend the offseason blaming some stupid magazine or online site for my playoff-less finish
Ok, so what’s important in crafting your own personalized pre-draft strategy ? (FWIW – make sure you utilize available websites for updated player information and comparisons of players based on your particular league’s scoring system and number of teams)
1. Draft order – duh, right? Well, in one of my leagues we don’t use a snake system. We actually draft randomly through the entire draft in an order that was picked ONE week prior to the draft. Mock if you want, and many do, but it is fun and unique and eventually things even themselves out over the years and it is actually pretty rewarding finishing ‘in the money’ when saddled with a poor draft position. The point here is where you pick is not the only important thing. Where you pick relative to those around you is just as important in analyzing your draft order, which leads me to strategy #2.
2. Know thy Competition – the longer you play with the same people the easier it will be for you to pick up their tendencies and behaviors. In poker we call this a ‘tell’. In Fantasy Football you should be aware if an owner likes to draft QB’s early or another owner has to have a player from a certain NFL team. Be sure to gather as much of this subtle information as you can. It will help you determine where to grab certain players and when to pass on certain players that you can be believe you’ll be able to get later in the draft.
3. Have a Flexible Plan – in general I know I want to come out of Round 3 with a stud RB and 2 top flight WR’s or flip flop that. What I can’t predict is who they may be OR what ‘reach’ another Owner may make that could throw my strategy out of whack. For instance, my plan is to wait on drafting a QB (like many others do). But if there is a top-tier QB (think round 1 or round 2 quality) available when it’s my turn to select in round 3, then I need to be mentally prepared to shift gears. Don’t get stuck on certain positions in the top rounds just because of the 27 mock drafts you created. Odds are they are all wrong!
4. Let the ‘run’ on a position happen without your involvement -- Drafts are moving, living organisms. Invariably human nature takes over and panic steps in. Often it happens around Tight Ends (no jokes please). There are very few high quality TE’s (again, I am open for humor or a nice picture of Jessica Alba), so when one goes it often starts a run on the remaining TEs in the top tier. But if all of the players you consider to be top tier in a position are gone, then pass on participating in the draft run, especially in the early rounds when there is still a ton of value on the board. On the flip side, if you pay attention to knowing your competition and being flexible (as discussed above), then you very well could create one of these runs and take advantage of some undervalued talent in the very next round.
I hope these four ideas are helpful as you prepare this week. Good luck in your drafts and I would love to hear your thoughts, feel free to send them (or Jessica Alba photos) to gwolchock@gmail.com.
Don’t forget to catch us on the air every Friday Morning and Sunday before kickoff on 790 on the AM dial in Atlanta or streamed live on www.790thezone.com.
Gilly Gator
Also, Jordan and I are finalizing contracts with Yahoo! that will air our show on their new Internet TV Property called Yahoo! Connected (http://connectedtv.yahoo.com/).
Lastly, we will be blogging on our site at least twice a week, so if you are into Fantasy Football make sure you are checking out the site, www.790thezone.com/ffluguru often. As a sample, here is my first blog that went up the other day:
Draft Preparation and Cheat Sheets
Posted 9/2/2009 4:00:00 PM
Go ahead and call this my Fantasy Football Manifesto, my Jerry Maguire moment. if you will.
From this moment forth, I will not purchase another Fantasy Football Magazine!
What purpose do they serve other than taking up space in my bathroom, where two months from now I will peruse them and laugh about their inaccuracies and dart board projections. Look, I understand, Fantasy Sports is a BILLION DOLLAR industry and that magazines were an essential element in the early growth of Fantasy Sports. And from a pure entertainment and basic information standpoint, the content in those magazines is ok. But the thing that kills me in them is the ‘Cheat Sheet’ they all insist on providing. Actually, let me retract that previous statement, what really PISSES ME OFF are the Cheat Sheets, which pretend as if they are supposed to help you in any league regardless of the league’s scoring system.
The fact is magazine Cheat Sheets don’t help you because they can’t help you. How could anything written in May, i.e. pre-Memorial Day, possibly help you pick players at the end of August or beginning of September? Today’s NFL is a fluid, ever changing league where a team or player may be highly thought of in May, but considered a bum in August. Those Cheat Sheets are worse than putting up Christmas lights in July or wearing white in October!
So, why the rant? Clearly I’m not shilling my own online site that sells information. And I’m not a tree hugger frustrated with the number of trees being cut down for these magazines. No, I’m ranting because I’m just another frustrated Owner with three drafts in five days with three different scoring systems and three completely different sets of rules.
It is impossible for a magazine or any static mechanisms completely help you prepare you for YOUR draft. If you rely on nothing but projections, cheat sheets and someone else’s rankings you are doomed to fail.
Remember back in College and High School? How did we get by when studying was too difficult or reading took time away from a party? We bought Cliff Notes and other study aids that assisted you in bypassing the actual learning involved in studying. In fact, with minimal effort, many a drunken and lazy Undergrad was able to make it through.
But did the Cliff Notes’ users excel? Were they top of the class? Of course not.. Doing the minimum might be fine for college. Heck, it might be fine at your job. But in Fantasy Football if you do the minimum, i.e. printing out cheats sheets and rankings, you can expect the same average result in every league you play in-- a 5th-7th place finish, notable for it lack of glory and embarrassment.
Sound like fun in the FFL world? Not to me. I’d rather go for it, on my own, with some knowledge in hand and my own system and notes relied on. Sink or swim, it will have been my choices and I won’t spend the offseason blaming some stupid magazine or online site for my playoff-less finish
Ok, so what’s important in crafting your own personalized pre-draft strategy ? (FWIW – make sure you utilize available websites for updated player information and comparisons of players based on your particular league’s scoring system and number of teams)
1. Draft order – duh, right? Well, in one of my leagues we don’t use a snake system. We actually draft randomly through the entire draft in an order that was picked ONE week prior to the draft. Mock if you want, and many do, but it is fun and unique and eventually things even themselves out over the years and it is actually pretty rewarding finishing ‘in the money’ when saddled with a poor draft position. The point here is where you pick is not the only important thing. Where you pick relative to those around you is just as important in analyzing your draft order, which leads me to strategy #2.
2. Know thy Competition – the longer you play with the same people the easier it will be for you to pick up their tendencies and behaviors. In poker we call this a ‘tell’. In Fantasy Football you should be aware if an owner likes to draft QB’s early or another owner has to have a player from a certain NFL team. Be sure to gather as much of this subtle information as you can. It will help you determine where to grab certain players and when to pass on certain players that you can be believe you’ll be able to get later in the draft.
3. Have a Flexible Plan – in general I know I want to come out of Round 3 with a stud RB and 2 top flight WR’s or flip flop that. What I can’t predict is who they may be OR what ‘reach’ another Owner may make that could throw my strategy out of whack. For instance, my plan is to wait on drafting a QB (like many others do). But if there is a top-tier QB (think round 1 or round 2 quality) available when it’s my turn to select in round 3, then I need to be mentally prepared to shift gears. Don’t get stuck on certain positions in the top rounds just because of the 27 mock drafts you created. Odds are they are all wrong!
4. Let the ‘run’ on a position happen without your involvement -- Drafts are moving, living organisms. Invariably human nature takes over and panic steps in. Often it happens around Tight Ends (no jokes please). There are very few high quality TE’s (again, I am open for humor or a nice picture of Jessica Alba), so when one goes it often starts a run on the remaining TEs in the top tier. But if all of the players you consider to be top tier in a position are gone, then pass on participating in the draft run, especially in the early rounds when there is still a ton of value on the board. On the flip side, if you pay attention to knowing your competition and being flexible (as discussed above), then you very well could create one of these runs and take advantage of some undervalued talent in the very next round.
I hope these four ideas are helpful as you prepare this week. Good luck in your drafts and I would love to hear your thoughts, feel free to send them (or Jessica Alba photos) to gwolchock@gmail.com.
Don’t forget to catch us on the air every Friday Morning and Sunday before kickoff on 790 on the AM dial in Atlanta or streamed live on www.790thezone.com.
Gilly Gator
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