Posts Tagged ‘Laziness’

Just in case you were wondering, I have not abandoned the Gate this week.  In fact, I have been working harder on this joint this week than I have in months.  Unfortunately, all of that work has been behind the scenes…

…for the moment.

Let’s just say that I am taking advantage of the current off-season lull to make a few changes around here and to do a bit of remodeling.  Let’s just call it “Gate 21 — 2.0.”  Hopefully, all of this work will not be for naught.  Hopefully, I’ll be done with this marathon soon.  Hopefully, there will still be more than three people around to read once I bring the changes live.  Who knew this whole “blogging thing” would be so much work?

In the meantime, I’ll just leave you with this little visual representation of where this ship is headed.  Trust me, this is but one very small part of what I have in store for everyone in the near future:

The Changing Face of the Gate…

November 2007	February 2008	?? July 2009 ?? (I sure hope so)

Hopefully, I will actually get a little chance to write a few things here this weekend which I have had to put off a bit.  Yeah, yeah … excuses, excuses.  At any rate, please bear with us—there are exciting things to come in the near future.

In the meantime, just try to remember that Gate 21 does exist, and check back with us soon…

– So it goes…

Well, after taking the better part of two weeks off here at the Gate, and enjoying a little vacation in my “real” life, I am back once more.  If anyone noticed that I was gone, that is.

At any rate, now that I am back I am hoping to get a few features back up and running while we wait for football season to finally get here.  Apparently the mainstream media is feeling the same pressure to find something … anything … to write about at present.  Hence the News Sentinel’s in-depth focus on some old Tennessee football photographs (which are pretty cool, I must say) and observations on Lane Kiffin’s meteoric rise to prominence in the world of college football.

Slim pickings…

Since my other team, the Carolina Hurricanes, lost to the Pittsburgh Penguins in the NHL Eastern Conference Playoffs (ouch) I can’t even talk about hockey anymore.  I guess we’re just going to have to depend on HSH for any real substance until the season rolls around (no pressure or anything).

The good news is that, as the little tell-tale countdown in the right sidebar ticker confirms, we now officially have less than 100 days until kickoff.  Furthermore, things are heating up in the race to win the Fulmer Cup.  Still, football season has a ways to go before it arrives.

Needless, to say I am counting the days…

So, you might ask, is there a point to this post?  Well, in short, no.  Then again, I have never been one to sweat the small stuff such as accurately and succinctly conveying a message.

Minor details, minor details...

Sometimes we all fail, no matter how hard we try.  I think this is one of those times, not that I tried all that hard.

Anyway, go check out the old Tennessee football photos I mentioned above.  Oh, and make sure you go to see the new Star Trek movie, it rocks!  Other than that, I’ve got nothing for you today.

Yeah, this off season thing is a killer…

– So it goes…

Image(s) Courtesy of: The Fail Blog

Well, here it is, Friday, and I’ve got very little to show for the week…

I have been tied up the latter half of the week, and have been unable to get anything of consequence posted.  Even now, I am writing during a break in the action at a deposition.  Sad though it may be, I think Orson over at EDSBS may have gotten things right in his “football reads” assessment of the path most lawyers take in finding their career—especially the whole lack of math skills part.

This is all very simple once you've lived it...

Anyway, since I’ve pretty much been absent lately, at a minimum, I wanted to pass a long a great video I stumbled upon. This is a pre-game pep-talk from the chaplain at Georgia Tech.  Great line in there about “We gonna fight, till we cant fight no more, gonna lie down, bleed a while, gonna get up, fight some more!!!”

Video: Gonna Fight Some More!!!

• HT to: Her Loyal Sons

Bring it!  I’m ready to bleed a while…

– So it goes…

Image(s) Courtesy of: EDSBS

Well, there hasn’t been much going on in Big Orange Country of late, thus I have been painfully slow at posting…

There have been a few items of interest, mainly Robert Ayres being drafted at No. 18 by the Denver Broncos, along with Ramon Foster, Josh Briscoe, Lucas Taylor, Arian Foster, Britton Colquitt, and DeAngelo Willingham who were all picked up in free agency.  A dutiful blogger would have something insightful to say about all of this, but I have not been particularly dutiful of late and Hooper has already said pretty much everything worth saying over at RockyTopTalk.  Thus, I’ll just ride his coattails for the moment (sigh…).

On another front, apparently the powers that be in World soccer have decided that Neyland Stadium is worthy of hosting World Cup (Soccer) competition, and everyone’s favorite stadium has made the cut in the most recent round of machinations pertaining to site selection for the United States’ bid to host the 2018 / 2022 World Cup.  While I am hardly the world’s biggest soccer fan (despite spending an inordinate amount of time watching 9-year-olds compete in it), it was nice to note that Neyland Stadium qualified, while Bryant-Denny Stadium (Alabama Crimson Tide), Tiger Stadium (LSU Tigers), Jordan-Hare Stadium (Auburn Tigers), and  Beaver Stadium (Penn State Nittany Lions), among others did not.  I guess that new jumbotron was just too good a thing to turn down.

Heh…

Finally, as a resident of the RDU area of North Carolina, my “other” team is fighting for a chance to advance toward claiming Lord Stanley’s Cup.  Yes, that is hockey for those of you who do not realize it.  No, I wasn’t born in Canada.  Yes, I grew up in the South.  Yes, you should really consider giving the NHL a try—hockey is pretty cool (especially when there is no football).  For both of you out there who care, you can read all there is to be known about my othe team, the Carolina Hurricanes, over at Canes Country, which is part of the SBN family of blogs, (i.e. a lot better than this joint).

In the meantime, I will continue to work diligently to find ways to waste time on meaningless things and thus avoid wasting time writing meaningless articles…

– So it goes…

Image(s) Courtesy of:   Carolina Hurricanes ||  Statement on Fair Use

Given the fact that I have continued to be a heavy-hitting slacker (if you’re going to do something, do it well), here’s a little more You Tubification of Eric Berry set to the sounds of Korn.  This video montage, again, comes courtesy of VolzRChamps and BlazerChronicles.com.

Video: The Blazer Chronicles | Eric Berry: If You Can’t See Him, “You’re Blind”

You know, I never get tired of watching Berry shred opponents…

– So it goes …

Video Courtesy of: VolzRChamps / You Tube • Blazer Chronicles

Just a quick link or two that stood out to me…

Fred White does sports talk, and chats with VJ

First of all, anyone who remembers watching former Vol DB Fred “The Deuce” White from 1996-99 will be pleased to hear that Fred now has his own radio show courtesy of 1180 WVLZ in Knoxville, the same station that brings you Basilio and other great sports talk radio. The guys over at Vol Junkies recently got the chance to sit down and chat with Fred about his new show and get a few insights from the big man. Check out the interview over at Vol Junkies, and you can check out Fred’s show at 1180 am on your radio dial or in a live web stream from the WVLZ website.

Brian Butler’s tale gets even more twisted

RTT’s Hooper takes an interesting look at all of the issues surrounding the Tennessee recruit Bryce Brown’s “handler,” Brian Butler, on the heels of the announcement that the NCAA will be investigating Butler’s involvement the recruiting of high school athletes (not an investigation of any program in particular, but rather one of Butler and his Potential Players recruiting service).  It’s an interesting read, discussing the thorny path that high school handlers must walk, and the possible implications it can have for both recruits and the programs recruiting them.  Oh it’s a tangled web we weave…

MoonDog gets a facelift

In case you hadn’t noticed, the venerable and all-knowing MoonDog has gotten a facelift.  Well, at least his site has.  Slide on over and check out the new look for his prognosticating and pontification portal, MoonDogSports.com, which is pretty snazzy looking if you ask me (of course I did help a little with the makeover, so I suppose I’m biased).

Anyway…

Hopefully, I will get a chance to come up for air soon, and can continue on with my series looking into the impact of the nation’s economic woes on major athletics entitled: “The Cost of Sports.”  I also hope to simply get back to my standard fare of half-baked and poorly executed commentary on Tennessee sports.  Until then, however, all I can say is that I am trying my best and hope to be back in the saddle … someday.

– So it goes …

Due to some pestilential plague I contracted in the last 48 hours, I am not on top of my game at the moment.  Hence, I never managed to get this week’s “Marching Orders” post up yesterday.  Hopefully, my medicine will kick in in the near future, and I will be able to get back on track with everything.  I also know that HSH will shortly be posting this week’s On Remote rundown of the games for the week.

In the meantime, there are a few items  of note out there worth giving a look, which I thought I’d pass along:

A great piece by the Ghost on Why he Isn’t Giving up on the Vols — 3SIB

Joel celebrates funerals in this week’s wild and crazy Hot Giggity Animated BlogPoll — RockyTopTalk

The Right Honorable Senator Blutarsky weighs in with some early thoughts on the Tennessee v. Georgia matchup from a Dawg perspective — Get the Picture

A Few of Will’s thoughts on hearing of Travis Henry’s arrest on cocaine charges — SESB

RBK continues his stupendous countdown of the Top Moments in the Bruce Pearl Era, as we get ready for Basketball Time in Tennessee — The BruceBall Blog

And a new Vlogger (a/k/a Video Blogger) has hit the net pumping the Tennessee Vols, with his new series the Orange Blazer Chronicles:

Now, if I can just get my sinuses to play along, I might be able to actually offer a few thoughts later today…

– Go Figure …

I opened the Gate back in mid-November of 2007 with no real idea of what I was getting myself into…

Even now — looking back — I’m still not sure what my goal was.  Due to poor planning and a complete lack of forethought, my first post did not go up until a few days before the Vanderbilt game — the second-to-last game of the 2007 season.  Gate 21 didn’t really develop it’s “persona” until early 2008, but since then things have really expanded and — assuming all the stats counters are correct — a few people have actually read some of the things I’ve had to say along the way.

But this “blogging thing” takes a lot of work…

Thus, seeing that football season is right around the corner, my “real” life job has eaten up almost every second of my life since May, and the fact that I lack any real ability as a sportswriter, it is my distinct pleasure to announce the addition of “Home Sweet Home” as a new writer here at the Gate.

For those of you out there who have been following the Big Orange Roundtable, you will recognize “Home Sweet Home” as the Patrick — the lead voice from The View From the Hill.  Why he wants to leave his highly respectable blog — built on quality and substance — to join-up with yours truly is, I’m sure, troubling to many of you out there.  It may have had something to do with me promising him fame, fortune, and a handful of stick-on tattoos.

Either way, here he will be — at least until he realizes what a blowhard I am.  To start out Home Sweet Home (as in “Rocky Top will always be, Home Sweet Home to me …”) will be taking charge of a few new features here at the Gate, the first of which will be entitled (ta-da!) “The View From the Hill.“

At any rate, I know that those of you out there in webworld will appreciate the addition to the staff here in that he actually knows how to write an article which is rational, informative, and substantive — which, I suppose, will also be a new feature here at Gate 21.  Needless to say, I am thrilled to have him in the show.

So be sure to welcome him on board when his posts start appearing in the near future.

Oh yeah, and try not to hold it against him that he’s affiliated with me…

– Go Figure …

After goofing off for the last few weeks with a construction fence across the header here at Gate 21, the fences are finally down.  What should have been a 2-3 day minor renovation has turned into a multi-week exercise in my dragging my feet which has finally come to lackluster fruition.

Thus — although I am still working on updating a few things — Gate 21 is now back open for business without fear of having a virtual crane drop anything on your head.

The primary changes may not immediately be apparent, unless you look closely.  The high points are a wider post area (HT to MoonDog for that idea), wider sidebars, re-schemed colors, improved load times (hopefully), a nametag for Gus, and a completely re-organized blogroll which now lives in both sidebars.

There are still a few more things to be adjusted, but — for the most part — the remodel of the actual site is done and things should be returning to my normal level of questionable quality and poor taste.

Hopefully, Gus will begin the 10-day countdown to kickoff with daily changes to the header here leading up to gameday.  I assure you that each day will be suitable for framing (if you consider a faded bamboo calendar for 1968 hawking Esso gasoline to be fine art, that is).

And to think you all thought I was actually going to change something meaningful…

– Go Figure …

As I indicated last week, Gate 21 has been given the chance this year to participate in the College Football BlogPoll — a clear sign of the lack of good judgment on the part of the BlogPoll brain trust.

I posted my preliminary ballot late last week with my meager attempt to quantify the merits of the various teams from across the country as we sit at the brink of a new season.

Since then, however, Joel at RTT has taken the BlogPoll to a whole new level through the creation of an algorithm-based analytical computer model which quantifies the ranking of the teams based upon a list of indicators.

Owing to the fact that I can hardly add or subtract (which guided my choice of professions) I am not entirely sure that I understand his new ranking model completely.  Still, it is truly impressive and is really worth giving a look if you are a fan of stats.  Needless to say, it makes my method of assigning rankings — based largely on the clever use of chalk, a tape measure, and a set of lawn darts — look … well … very “quaint.”

Man, and I remember the days when I used to just be able to say “That team looks good…”

– Go Figure …

Image Courtesy of: Just Jay It!