Remembering Grandma Bolek: Three Months Later

Hard to believe that 3 months have passed since Grandma Bolek passed away. On one hand it feels much longer ago than that given how much has changed in my life since then. It also feels like it just happened yesterday on another hand.

After mourning her loss, we soon had Mother's Day a few weekends later. It was a clear reminder immediately after her passing that her presence will be missed. It also was a reminder (hopefully) to all of us that knew her to appreciate our mothers a little bit more based on the example that she set.

Seeing the for-sale sign by her house just doesn't feel right. The fact I live around the block from the house makes me choke up every now and then when I see the sign.

I remember all the great times me and my siblings had as kids going over there, from playing Store to the Clothespin in the Bottle game. There was never a dull moment over there. Easter eggs hidden, my cousin Bobby dressing as Santa for his younger cousins (me in that group), the smoke-filled poker games using the table that me and my friends use whenever we do play poker. The list of things I remember is longer than that, but you get the picture. It was an awesome time over there.

I'm happy to say that I don't think I took having a grandma living around the block for granted. In my older years, I loved taking Buddy for a walk to her house- something I actually did the afternoon of the funeral as Lauren walked Pixie. It was sad seeing Grandma's best friend Emmy (her dog) all alone in the house that she kept my Grandma company in for almost 10 years. The night of the wake, I went over to my grandmas around 1am and sat on her bench just absorbing everything that I could from the backyard that I spent my childhood in.

Since Mother's Day, two times have come up this summer where I was expecting to get a call from Grandma. The first time was when I was alone at home when my folks went on vacation. She was always good to check up on me to see how me and the dogs were doing when I was to myself. The other time was during this heat wave that just passed. I was waiting for her to call to remind all of us to stay inside and stay cool if possible. She was always good for sharing motherly advice with our family, no matter how silly and obvious the advice was- like putting a winter coat on in 5 degree weather. It was always nice to know that she was thinking of us.

I know this is all disorganized here, but I just wanted to convey what it's been like since my grandma left. In my wallet, I still carry the card I got from her wake. I like to look at it to remind me of everything that she represented. It makes me smile to look at it.

When I open my wallet, this is something I often see.

In the meantime, I will cherish the time that I have left with my other grandma. I hope Grandma Raynor lives another few decades and gets to see her grand kids have grandchildren like my Grandma Bolek did.

I hope she is resting in peace as we speak.

Back to Business: How the NFL's Return Will Affect Non-NFL things

The great news has been shouted as loud as Paul Revere's "The British are coming" (X2) - the NFL is back!

For me, it means fantasy football season is back. It also means that I get to defend my first successful betting season (50-34, +$693) in my life. And I'll be able to get my first look at the Jim Harbaugh-led San Francisco 49ers. Will his confidence in Alex Smith be reciprocated by solid play from Smith? Something to look forward to.

Also, I have been asked to pitch in for a DirectTV package, so I will be able to watch my boys every week. When I was asked about this and thought about it for a second, I couldn't pass up on the chance to watch them week in, week out - no matter how depressing they may look at times.

For you, it probably means the same things - Sundays at the bar or at home watching your favorite team (if you're reading this, likely the Bears) with some good friends of yours, likely consuming tons of calories on adult beverages and cholesterol-filled goodies.

However, there are other people/groups who are lot happier than us not involved directly with football that are delighted to hear about the return of the nation's favorite sport.

Hotel chains

Imagine how much money would have been lost if the lockout continued and the season disappeared for hotels. From the plethora of fans who travel to see their teams to the NFL teams and their staffs themselves, the hotel industry was likely to lose millions for all the empty rooms that would come of this. This would have resulted in layoffs and cutbacks that our economy really doesn't need at this point.

Tourism industry

With hotels comes tourism. For those of us in Chicago who have walked the streets on a random afternoon, it is a common sight to see people from out of town in jerseys that match their team visiting the Windy City in some sport. Some of these people may have come to Chicago at some point in time, but there would have definitely been a hit to most city's tourism. Maybe except for Cleveland, but that's another story.

Bars & Restaurants

You think that bars would still be packed Sunday afternoons in the fall if the NFL wasn't around? Even moving some college football games to Sunday would have made it difficult to fill the void that the NFL brings in for bars. The NFL is a cash cow for many industries - with bars being one of the most prominent. The loss of revenue on Monday nights would also be affected - as I know that I'd be less likely to go out on a Monday night in the fall if football wasn't on.

(and most importantly)...Baseball Fans of Bad Teams

Before you think this is a shot at Cubs' fans, remember that the White Sox are often hopelessly hovering around 2nd or 3rd place around the time that the NFL starts, teasing us to the bitter end and then eventually getting eliminated with a week left in the season. I may not be able to speak for teams outside of our market, but I imagine the sentiment is the same as far as needing the NFL to come back to mask the woes of their ugly baseball team. It may be different in the New England, Arlington, Philadelphia & San Francisco areas, but many other cities who have football and baseball teams have fans that cannot wait to forget about the 2011 baseball season and cling onto the hopes of their NFL team this season.

There's probably other industries/groups I am missing, but those are the groups that I feel benefit the most from the NFL ending its lockout that aren't directly related to football.

In the meantime, free agent signings are about to clutter the bottom line and beginning pages of the sports section. Let the madness begin!

Initial prediction for the season: Packers repeat. I don't need to hear about the current free agents and where they go. Green Bay has a whole starting roster of guys coming back from injury. I believe the only way they lose in the playoffs (assuming they make it there) is if they get outcoached.

Your thoughts?

Random Damn Thems

This is Bitter Brian right now. Damn clouds.

As I sit here on the couch with my bad back for the weekend like a bitter old man shaking his cane from his chair on the porch, I figured I'd touch base on a few things that got me shaking my fist.

Ohio high schools plan on honoring Jim Tressel for their opening games

For those that don't know sports, Tressel came under the scrutiny of the NCAA in 2010 for his handling of an investigation on players of improperly selling materials they received from their 2009 Big Ten and Rose Bowl championships. After it was shown that Tressel knew what was going on and decided to hide what he knew, the NCAA initially suspended for less than the players were suspended until Tressel agreed to be suspended the same length of time. The investigation proved to be too much of a black eye to Ohio State for them to keep Tressel as coach, so they fired him. Surprisingly, Tressel was absolved of a lot of the blame for the events - the honor of blame went to quarterback Terrelle Pryor. Even former OSU players (some who probably broke rules themselves) were quick to throw Pryor into the public relations lake to watch him drown.

Now, Ohio football coaches want to honor him by wearing a white shirt and tie to honor Tressel for all that he has done for football in Ohio. To be fair, not all of the schools in the state will be honoring him from what I read, and for that, I commend them. For anyone to honor a man who is supposed to be the representation of leadership of a football team (only to disregard that in efforts to win at all costs) is disgusting. It goes to show you how demented some people are. Makes you wonder if Tressel could have murdered someone and they'd find a way to blame the victim.

People w/ bumper stickers

I was gonna write a big blog about this on its own, but didn't think I could write enough for a whole blog. I've realzed that the more bumper stickers someone owns, the more likely it is that they are a huge a-hole. College stickers are common and usually are donned on the back of the cars of parents and alumnae of schools. From there, bumper stickers outside of rooting for your favorite sports teams - ones that focus more on the hating of the opposing political party that you favor or the hating of specific groups of people - tell me all I need to know about a person. Bumper stickers tell a lot about a person. If only people wore bumper stickers around all the time, we'd be able to tell the a-holes apart from the rest of society.

The NFL & The Government

Where's Rodney King when you need him? Can't these folks just get along with each other? The NFL's battle between owners and players looks like it could drag on longer than we'd want it to. According to the players, the owners ratified an agreement 31-0 on Thursday that included material that was never discussed with the players and inserted in the last minute. If this is true, this doesn't bode well for an agreement anytime soon. I've never been on either side of this argument (owners and players are hard to back considering they're arguing about millions and billions). But if they were thisclose to an agreement and messed it up by adding stuff that was never spoken of during the player/owner meetings, then I'll find it hard to support the owner's side of things. Not to say I'll support the players as a result. I just think that any good agreement, especially one involving this much money and millions of fans looking for a solution that gives them what they want, requires good communication. And if you're throwing in last minute things, it's very shady to say the least.

Likewise, the government can't get its act together with this debt ceiling crap. I won't pretend to know much about what's going on here, but everything I've heard about it tells me that if our country defaults, then our economy is even more facked than it was before. Democrats & Republicans working together make the NFL problem seem like it's already been solved. The problem with politicians is that they are always campaigning, so it doesn't do them any good to compromise on anything, no matter how far it would go to actually help their constistuents. I don't know what will happen with this, but it doesn't seem like it's going to end well.

I'm done ranting. People are dumb. This shouldn't be surprising to anyone. I just needed to be the old man shaking his fist at the youngins who were walking on his lawn.

Damn all these people. Damn them all!

Revenge of the Heat

Last month, Chicagoans rooted against the Heat as loud as they could. Now, it looks like a heat of a different sort will have its revenge.

Today's temperature, according to NBC5 News, is the highest we have seen in 6 years. People rushing to air conditioning, pools, lakes and hoses as fast as they possibly can. If you are without AC and a pool, your life is probably a little more unbearable right now than most dealing with the heat.

Me? Oh - just working from home in an air-conditioned house, with access to a pool after the work shift is done. Granted, at this point, the pool resembles more of a hot bath right now. It's just nice to know that it's there. (Ahhh, feels good to be an a-hole sometimes with some of these statements.)

If you have air conditioning at home and your work allows you to work from home, then do it. There's no reason not to take advantage of working from home from time to time (or even permanently). If you don't feel like you'd be able to motivate yourself to work by yourself, you could always commute and then take the 20 minute walk to the office in this weather. That may motivate you enough to stay home for a few days and work remotely. Who needs human interaction anyways?

If you can't work from home, then just tough it out or use some PTO. We deal with extreme weather of all kinds in this area, so what's a little heat? I'd suggest a summer home in Canada and a winter home in Florida or Arizona if these extremes are too much for you. Or a Mediterranean climate like San Francisco.

Good luck rooting against this heat, because unlike LeBron in the Finals, this heat seems to be closing strong.

99 blog postings but bitching ain't one

Blogs - But Bitching Ain't One (Ok, that may be false)

Anyone who knows me knows that I am a numbers person. I have been since my youth, learning how to calculate batting averages at the age of 5. It's probably why I got so good at math and can do most basic math problems (within reason) in my head quickly. The bifocals were the perfect outfit for a math nerd like me, although I never did get into the pocket protector phase of my life (thank god).

Anyways, where was I? Oh yeah - numbers. As much as I like to write, my need of numbers in life (mainly just through sports statistics) is undeniable. The reaching of triple digit blogs within a 10 month timeframe was something I never set out to do. In fact, I thought I was gonna give up writing this blog around December (did for a while) and then again in February. Whether it be just to educate people on certain goings-ons in my life or just to write for my own release, I've found a lot of different subjects to write about.


At first I thought it might just end up being about sports and gambling (and it may go more towards that when football season starts). However, I've branched out into general topics that get more views than I expected. It seems most people have connected most with my personal pieces - my grandma poem (rest in peace Grandma) and short write-up on my dad's cataract surgery and picture accompanying it have been my most read pieces.

I never know who reads this thing, but I have an idea of the few people who read it a lot. I do like people coming up to me at social gatherings and telling me they read this because it gets me motivated to write more. As the blogs keep getting posted, please let me know your opinions about my opinions or my writing style or whatever it is that you wish to discuss. I enjoy getting feedback (both positive and negative) because it means that you're actually reading it and giving somewhat of a damn to what I'm saying or writing.

Thanks for the motivation to write, and hopefully I'll be able to keep at this to get up to 999 and beyond.

Peace.

Shameless Plugging: How Sweet It Is

Anytime I hear someone do a cheap plug on something, I usually just shake my head and laugh. This is found a lot on ESPN with ABC products (i.e. why do you think Dancing With the Stars always features an athlete? It's because they can then show highlights of the show on their Sportscenter and because Disney owns both of them). This is the most common type of cheap plug - when a corporation owns multiple media outlets and promotes one of them on the other network.

The best cheap plugs are the ones that you don't even notice - such as many who probably don't think of the athlete angle with Dancing With the Stars. I have become keen to this - partly because I know which corporations own which channels/media outlets.

Stephen Colbert is the master of the corny cheap plug. He will often feature something on his show that displays blatant advertising for a product in a way that can only be described as satirical. From his consumption of Ben and Jerrys when trying to promote his flavor Americone Dream to the chowing down of Doritos, Colbert often finds a way to make the plug funny while everyone knows it is supposed to be a satire of how plugging products has become commonplace in media everywhere.

I, however, am no such master. I wrote this blog largely in part to promote my appearance in my friend's show, "Three Guys, One Room." I play the role of Swift Charlie, an unwelcomed dinner guest who ends up robbing the gents of all of their belongings.

If you can't access that from there, here's the link for the episode. Talk about shameless plugging. God, I love it.

But seriously, it's a part of our media world, and it will continue to be for as long as we live. So continue to enjoy the shameless pandering that networks (and friends like me) will shove in your face on a daily basis.

You're welcome.

*This message was brought to you by Four Seasons. For all the right reasons, Four Seasons.

Stuff Your Sorries in a Sack: The Art of a Good Apology

~What else should I be? All apologies - K. Cobain, circa 1993.

In a recent interview, Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker James Harrison spoke his mind on a few subjects, blasting everyone from the commissioner to his teammates, including calling Rashard Mendenhall "a fumble machine". As is the case with most apologizes, Harrison apologized for his words but said some of the content was pulled out of context.

While this may be true, I find it hard to believe apologies that come with an attachment to them. Here's some signs of a bad apology:

(1) "I'm sorry if this offended anyone."- Any version of this is usually a fake apology. What it essentially means is, "If this didn't offend anyone, I'm not sorry, so suck it!" If you're making an apology, odds are you offended someone. So stop pretending that the word "if" applies when it clearly doesn't.

(2) An apology that one reads ver batum off of a piece of paper - It's true that some people may just not be good public speakers and need to write their words down before going in front of people. But at least look up every now and then and show some eye contact. Obviously, this apology applies more to celebrities who do something stupid and then the media and public look for some sort of remorse for their words or actions.  The more someone reads off of the piece of paper, the less remorseful they are.

(3) No eye contact - I touched base on this with the second point, but this is more of a general thing and not just celebrity-based. Someone that you have wronged/offended/whatevered needs to see that you are telling your apology in an honest and straight-forward manner. If you're looking down while making an apology or watching TV, you're clearly half assing it.

(4) "I'm sorry. I was misquoted/taken out of context/etc." - This goes back to point 1, where you add a "but" or an "if" immediately after your apology. For all the years I've been a consumer of media, I know that yes, there are times where you can be taken out of context and may not have meant what you said or what people perceived you said. There will be some people who believe apologies when they take the time to read a whole story themselves or hear out a complete story before making a judgement. If people do misunderstand your statement/actions and take offense, you may have been misquoted or they may have taken something you said out of context, but telling people that may be harder than just simply saying it. I'd say in circumstances like this, if you really believe you didn't do anything wrong, don't apologize. Sensible people will know that you didn't mean any harm with whatever you said or did.

If you're really interested in offering a genuine apology, just say it directly and simply: "I'm sorry for what I did/said." The rest of what you say afterwards (unless you're telling them how much of a dumbass you are) is usually a bunch of BS and doesn't help your case when you're apologizing.

For the inspiration for the title of the blog, here's where you can stuff your sorries in a sack, around the 36 second mark and 2:20 mark.