Over the last year or so, my online activity has decreased dramatically. At first, my YouTube time was just being replaced with blogging time, but now I find that my blogging time is being replaced by IRL. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but I would like to take some steps to keep my online life from slipping away completely. However, the very process of scaling back the time I spend in the online world is kinda self-perpetuating. The less I blog and make videos, the less people pay attention to my blogs and videos, and when I find that I'm not getting any comments on my posts/videos, I kinda lose the motivation to make them. I guess I could turn this all around my really putting a lot of energy and enthusiasm into my online life, but frankly, I don't feel any strong compulsion to do that. I really don't feel drawn to the online life the way I used to be. Why is that? Well, the answer might surprise you. In fact, for those of you who only know me online, the answer might seem a little silly. However, if you've known me IRL for years, the answer might just make perfect sense.
Perhaps this won't seem shocking coming from a guy who wears a football helmet in his online icon ( God! I've been away from the online world so long that I've completely forgotten the two-letter abbreviation for the photo people use to represents themselves on social networking sites - can somebody help me out here? ), but I'm a HUGE sports fan. I won't bore you with any details, but those who know me really well can tell you that HUGE doesn't begin to describe how big fan I am.
This may seem silly to you, but I think the fate of my favorite sports teams ( The New York Mets ( baseball ), the New York Knicks ( basketball ), and the New York Jets ( football ) ) has had a big impact on the way I've conducted my life. I didn't start taking serious steps to court the opposite sex until after my favorite team ( The Mets ) won the world championship in October of 1986 ( Note: This is the only time any of my 3 teams have won the championship since I started following them in about 1976 ). It wasn't as if I wasn't attracted to girls prior to October of 1986, but until Mets won that title, I was far more focused on the Mets than girls each Spring and Summer. If the Mets had failed to win that title in 1986 ( It was miraculous victory - see the video below ), I seriously think I'd be an unmarried obsessed Mets fan today. I think that the Mets victory in 1986 really allowed me to go on with my life and stop being a social outcast.
Anyway, how does this possibly all relate to my online life? Well, as I type these words I find myself in the middle of a drought. Not a drought in my online life, but a drought in my sports life. One January 7, 2007, the New York Jets played ( and lost ) a playoff game against the New England Patriots. None of my three favorite sports teams have played a playoff game since then. It's been more than 3 years. I think I became aware of the concept of "the playoffs" in about 1976, and since then, this current 3-year span has been the longest I've ever gone without one of my 3 favorite teams playing in a playoff game. It's been quite a drought, and it's left a bit of a void in my leisure life. Unlike years past, there have been times when I've really wanted to find ways to keep from thinking about the fate of my sports teams ( Especially when the Mets collapsed at the end of the season to fail to make the playoffs in September of 2007 and 2008, and the Jets did the same in December of 2008 ), and YouTube and Blogger were a great outlet for me.
However, I've had a hard time thinking about YouTube and Blogger lately, because in a little more than 15 hours from now, the drought ends. The Jets will be playing a playoff game at 4:30 PM Eastern time on Saturday, and I am STOKED! I'm REALLY REALLY STOKED! More stoked than a nearly 40-year old guy with two kids really should be - but hey - I'm been waiting for this for a long time.
I can't wait. :)
I've been thinking about this game at work all week.
Yeah, they might lose, but that playoff excitement is really going to be great. :)
Yeah, I know this is silly and immature, but that's the way I roll.
J-E-T-S JETS JETS JETS!!!!!!!!!!!
Rich
P.S. And hey, if they lose in heartbreaking fashion you can all probably look forward to a prodigious amount of blog posts and videos from me over the next few months.
Edit: JETS 24, Bengals 14. WOOOOHOOOOO!!!!!!!!
1 comment:
So, am I reading this correctly? You might be a virgin today if not for Bill Buckner? %-}
My prediction: they might very well beat Cincy today. But next week, they'd face /the REAL/ Colts, and that would be the end of that.
Go Jets!
Z
P.S.: I think the 2-letter abbreviation is "up" for "userpic", but there reaches a pint where 2-letter abbreviations become /so/ overloaded and ambiguous that it's silly. "Icon" is perfectly serviceable, in my mind.
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