Moving on up...

...to WordPress, at https://geoffmarsh.wordpress.com/. This page won't be updated as much as that one. Maybe.

The REAL Five Hard Lessons the PNP must learn.

Five hard lessons the PNP must learn- the myth and the reality.

I just read an article at http://jamaicansfortruth.tumblr.com/post/140308950870/five-hard-lessons-the-pnp-must-learn and I am really stunned at the misconceptions displayed by the author. The cultist mindset exposed in this article are sadly shared by many (though not all) PNP supporters, and I believe that it is a key reason for political tribalism and Jamaica’s general failure to launch after 54 years of independence. I freely admit that such mindsets are also present in many JLP supporters, but it is more prevalent in the PNP and has played a significant role in their 18 and 4 years of mismanagement. I will take a look at these five “lessons” which are actually myths, and I will present the reality for that point. For reference, I am an independent voter who generally leans towards the JLP. I wouldn’t consider myself to be a “Labourite” but most Comrades would brand me as such. I do consider myself to be a part of the #ArticulateMinority which is NOT affiliated with any political party.

Myth: Labourites will never support us (the PNP). 

Reality: Labourites will support anyone who is a proven and effective worker, and shows that they put Jamaica before anything else.

This is the biggest myth of all, and is actually a reflection of “this is what I would do, so this must be what they would do.” As a general rule, a JLP supporter will vote for a PNP member of parliament if that person has shown themselves to be effective, fair and a hard worker in the constituency. A prime example is Julian Robinson, who won his seat handily in the 2016 election with the votes of many JLP supporters and #ArticulateMinority members. If I lived in his constituency, I would have voted for him, even though I wanted the JLP to win the overall elections. Why did Julian pick up this support? Because he is effective, he has shown that he puts the people and Jamaica first, and he is a reasonable and hard worker. The JLP supporter will look past the party and see the individual, and support the individual. Compare this with the average PNP supporter, who would rather die or starve or cut off their arm before voting for a JLP MP, even if they agree that the JLP person deserves the support and the win. The PNP supporter will almost always view things through the filter of party, and anything that doesn’t support the party isn’t worth supporting (even if it helps the nation.) Once the PNP supporters begin to learn that it’s not about party but about Jamaica, and once they begin to demand more from their MPs than bleeding orange, then we can truly “step up the progress.”

Myth: The PSOJ will always “nyam you out and vote you out.” 

Reality: The PSOJ doesn’t care about party politics. All they care about is a government that facilitates economic growth.

If the author would just take off their orange glasses for a while, they would see that governance is much more important than politics. Politics is just a tool to gain governance, and the best way to keep power in governance is to govern effectively. The PSOJ doesn’t owe the JLP or the PNP anything. They are Jamaicans, just as the rest of us are. If the only people you (the author) care about is your base (other PNPs) then you are setting yourself up for myth #1. You need to start caring about Jamaica and all Jamaicans.

Myth: The PAJ is not your friend 

Reality: The PAJ is not your mouthpiece.

An independent press preaches the truth to power. If the truth is offensive to you, then the problem is with you. If Cliff Hughes is “cussing the PNP every day”, is there a slight chance that the PNP needs cussing? If the PNP were doing well and governing properly, why would they need cussing? The victim mentality needs to stop. Doing a job fairly does not equal letting the PNP get off the hook with their foolishness. The same media will cuss (and has cussed) the JLP when cussing is needed. The proverb says if you meet an asshole in the morning, you met an asshole. If you meet assholes every day, all the day, YOU are the asshole. Evaluate yourself, comrade.

Myth: The #ArticulateMinority sets the trends. 

Reality:...ok, I’ll agree with this one :D

But even if this is becoming a reality, you have to learn how to interact with us. You must realize that we aren’t idiots. You may think we’re not very bright (because we don’t see the glorious beauty of the PNP as you do) and that you have to “flatter us” and make us swallow your propaganda...but if you come with that tack, you have lost before you even began. We aren’t interested in becoming Comrades OR Labourites. We the Articulate Minority may have our preferences and leanings, but those are superseded by our love for JAMAICA above all, our demands for GOOD GOVERNANCE no matter which party is in power, and our willingness to VOTE OUT anyone who disrespects us or the country or who shows their incompetence in governance. We are not ignorant, we are not idiots, and if you are unwilling to discuss in mutual respect, to disagree without being disagreeable, and to let go of your entitled belief that “whatever is good for the PNP is good for Jamaica”, then you will not have any traction with the Articulate Minority. That’s why your party hacks on Jamaican Twitter have no influence and are ridiculed to scorn. You need less hacks, and more independent-minded and intelligent Comrades who support Jamaica over the party. I pray that such persons become more vocal. That’s the only way you will get any traction with the PNP. For me, if I thought the PNP could do a good job of governance and grow the economy, I would have voted for them. I haven’t seen any evidence of this, and so I haven’t voted for them. The day I see a genuine effort at bipartisanship and a genuine move or desire to work WITH the JLP on something that benefits Jamaica EVEN IF it doesn’t directly benefit the PNP is the day I view the PNP in a more positive light and think that the cultist mentality has changed.

Myth: When you assume governance, you have to clean house. 

Reality: When you assume governance, you have to put in people you can trust; but more importantly, you have to put in people WHO CAN DO THE BLOODY JOB.

The past PNP government was the epitome of patronage and scarce benfits divided among loyalists, and Jamaica paid the price. As long as the PNP looks at “who can I reward” vs “who can do the job right” then they do not deserve to be in power. Plain and simple. I won’t even go into detail on this, because Fenton Ferguson and Jennifer Francis still make my blood boil.

The author said “We (The PNP) need some introspection as a party.” You do indeed, but with the attitude exhibited in that article, that introspection won’t do any good. I sincerely hope that the few Comrades who haven’t drunk the coolaid will take their responsibility seriously to put Jamaica first in their fellow comrade’s minds, and to remove all traits of this cultist attitude that the Jamaican electorate is beginning to reject. The best way to power is to govern well and respect all, not to build up a base of “my people” and view everyone else as the enemy. Will the PNP change? Time alone will tell.

Words are important. Be careful what you say.

The Prime Minister of Jamaica recently labeled the Opposition Leader as an "Enemy of the State." What was his crime, to deserve such a vitriolic appellation? He had the temerity to say "You're not doing a good job."

This reaction is disturbing to me on several levels.

1. The Prime Minister seems to equate herself and her party with the State. This view is very dangerous, as it says "Don't criticize me! We are here to stay! Stop your noise peons, and do as we say!" The office of the Prime Minister is no one's personal property or right. The Prime Minister is the servant of the people, and the state is neither JLP nor PNP. One party may constitute the Administration, but they should not view it as their birthright.
2. The Prime Minister seems to say that she is above criticism, and that all criticism is negative. Newsflash; If you are not doing a good job, it's not in your best interests to have persons tell you you're doing a good job. What is more important; that you do your job properly, or that you feel good about yourself? I don't want the Prime Minister to do a bad job, because the country will suffer and I will suffer if she does a bad job. Thus, it is in my best interests to tell her when she's doing a bad job, so that she can make corrections. If she doesn't agree with me that she's doing a bad job, she's free to disagree with me; but she has no right to tell me I shouldn't comment on her job performance. It is still legal in this country to speak ones mind freely and to vote freely, and I plan to do both as a comment on job performance.
3. The Prime Minister seems to focus more on personal attacks than on the meat of the matter. This is immature, unproductive, solves nothing, and ignores what really matters. When you can't attack the message, attack the messenger. This is a tried-and-true tactic in Jamaican politics and Jamaican society, and it's a huge factor in our national non-performance since 1962. Rather than wasting time trying to make the Opposition Leader look bad, why not let your job performance speak for itself? Oh, yeah, that might not be a good idea...

This is a developing story, so I don't know what the fallout from this will be, but we will find out soon enough. I don't have any expectations that wiser heads will prevail, but hopefully I'll be proved wrong.

I updated the list of my top TV dramas after realizing that I had watched some new shows that forced their way in, and that I'd have to expand my list significantly. Disclaimers: I still haven't seen Boardwalk Empire, or much of Treme, Friday Night Lights, nor have I seen "The Good Wife." Odds are that these shows might change the lower hiearachy once watched, but the top 7 shows are pretty solid in my opinion now. Beware of spoilers...In descending order, here they are:

11: "The Sopranos." (HBO) This is a very low position for a very important show, I agree. Nonetheless, while I followed the early seasons with gusto, I found the last 2 seasons to be somewhat of a slog, and I wasn't enthused enough to continue watching it. I followed the recaps on TWOP and kept abreast of developments, but nearly 7 years after the infamous "fade to black", I still haven't watched those last episodes and have not much desire to. That says something to me.

10 (tie): "Game of Thrones" (HBO), and "Homeland." (Showtime). Both shows deserve to be on this list, but I can't kick off any nor do I want to change my previous #12s and 13s, so I gave them a tie. Both shows are wonderfully acted and have set a very high bar. Homeland deservedly won the Emmy for "Best New Show" and GoT has become a cultural phenomenon thanks to GRRM's excellent books (I'm also a fan of those). I'm expecting great things for both shows.

9. "Sons Of Anarchy." (FX) This is more of an emotional ranking. If you go by overall quality in recent seasons, then GoT/Homeland would leapfrog this show, but SOA has been around for 5 seasons come September and I've been riding along with them since then. SOA will tell the story it wants to tell, whether you like it or not, and I've decided to appreciate it for what it is rather than for what it could be. I'm down for the rest of the ride.

8. "The Shield" (FX): Grittier than a spoonful of gravel pudding. Rougher than sandpaper. Pulpier than freshly squeezed orange juice. The Shield was uncompromising, brutal, direct and raw. Michael Chiklis tore up his cuddly Commish image and through the character of Vic Mackey re-wrote the textbook on corrupt cops. The dangers of running rogue were frankly presented as the Strike Team acted as a law unto themselves, with tragic results. The series finale of "The Shield" remains as the best single episode of any TV show I've ever seen, and it's a textbook example of how to wrap up a TV series.

7. "Terriers" (FX). You may not have heard of this TV show, or if you heard of it you were wondering "what is it about? Dogs? Private Investigators? What?" Do yourself a favour; go watch it. Buy the DVD set, watch it on Hulu, torrent it, do whatever it takes. Go watch it, and I'll be here to receive your thanks when you're finished, and your grief and anger that we only had one season of it. What are you still doing reading? Go watch the 13 episodes now now now!

6. "Justified" (FX). Harlan County, a place I love watching on TV but wouldn't want to live in. The exploits of Deputy US Marshal Raylan Givens started off in a pretty good way in Season 1, then made a huge leap from good TV to great TV in Season 2 with the addition of Mags Bennett. Season 3 was never going to live up to the heights of Season 2, but they did an admirable job to keep the quality as high as they could, and Justified continues to stake its claim as one of the top TV shows of the current crop. Hands down, it's the best drama on FX since "The Shield" ended.

5. "Deadwood" (HBO). Also known as "Profanity as Poetry". The fictional account of Deadwood in what was the frontier USA was a rollicking tale of community, how various nefarious characters with nothing in common came together to forge something worth defending. Ian McShane broke out as one of the most iconic characters of all time as Al Swearangen, while Timothy Olyphant led as Sherriff Seth Bullock. It was a very complicated and interacting tale, sadly cut short after three seasons with a whole lot more story to tell. Alas, whe'll never hear those stories.

The remaining series will be posted later :-) see you then!

Stirring the waters

as you can see by my twitter feed, i'm still alive...

as you can also see, I stalled my TV analysis. My laziness kicked in again, good thing I don't make a living from blogging...

Such as it is, I finally got into Mad Men since my last post, and have caught up with the current season. Suffice to say that my TV list now requires some adjusting and maybe some tie-equating, but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. It's a great TV show tho...

As it regards Fantasy Basketball, this season was less successful than the others. I did win two public leagues on both my IDs, and it seems I will win the roto league on my other ID, but I also bombed in my Winner leagues, and didn't place in others. Private leagues were also very disappointing. I'll chalk it up to the lockout, lol...

anyways, waters are stirred, i will re-submerge and try to get this TV analysis re-started. More anon...

Fantasy Basketball Primer

The NBA Lockout is over and I'm able to take up my fantasy addiction again. I'll be following the same format I did last season, with the addition of being in Winners Leagues after long last...here's to actually winning them :)

These are some of the things I've learned from playing fantasy basketball for the past six years (based on Yahoo leagues).

1. Balance your player positions. Draft so that you can play all players of a given position on a given night. There's no pain like the pain of seeing an empty space on your active list and seeing an active player sitting on the bench because you can't find a slot for his position. You shouldn't have more than 4 PGs/SGs/SFs/PFs/Cs, more than 5 combo forwards or guards (SF-PF, PG-SG) and you shouldn't have more than 6 swingmen or PF/Cs.

2. High draft picks are overrated. Yay, you got Kevin Durant or Lebron James! Wooo! Now you have 14 turns to wait and while you got the best player, you're also stuck with less options for complementary players. So far this season, the highest I've drafted was 3rd and those high picks don't really offer a lot of strategy drafting. I basically had to decide if I was going to go with Chris Paul or Kevin Love, and let that choice dictate the rest of the draft. I think the best place is mid-pick, anywhere between position 6-9 and you might be a little better off drafting last than first. It's definitely less pressure...but the psychological benefit of saying "I got KD, bitch!" is still strong. Resist it!

3. Point Guards and Centers determine your fate. I don't know if I can prove it conclusively, but I strongly feel that those are the most important positions that you need to fill in the draft. Quality PGs and Centers are not plentiful, and since Yahoo uses two center positions, you need to really fill it up. It's best to get a center who also has PF eligibility, but don't let that stop you from getting Dwight Howard or Andrew Bogut. You can't compete with less than three PG-eligible players, and I recommend getting four. Whenever I draft, I tend to try and get the top-tier PGs and/or PF/Cs. I generally avoid most of the star SF/PF/SG types unless they are unquestionably the best players left on the board, and even then...For example, Paul Pierce is definitely a great player, but I didn't draft him on any of my teams last year because he's a swingman (SG-SF position). I was able to pick up Nick Young and various other streaking players last season off the waiver wire, because those SG/SF positions are the most common ones where unknown players get a chance to break out. It's rare that you find a PG or center on the wire that breaks out. Kyle Lowry was the great exception to that rule but generally speaking if you rely on the waiver wire for PGs/PF-Cs, you are toast. Anchor your point-guard and your centers quickly in the draft, and then fill in the rest later on. Swingmen and shooting guards are a dime a dozen and combo forwards are flashy but not necessarily more important than the PF/Cs. I pretty much never draft Rudy Gay or Gerald Wallace or those type of guys if there's a top level PG or C on the board.

3. Work the wire! Some guys take pride in drafting their team and riding it all the way to the end without changing any players. They got skills if they can predict all that. I don't claim to do that, I'm not afraid to cut my losses and give a hot player a chance. You have to develop a sense of knowing whether that guy at the top of the waiver list is sizzle or steak. If you move too quickly, you may have dropped a good guy from your team for some flash-in-the-pan who had a hot night but flops overall; if you move too slowly, someone else will snatch your opportunity away. My strategy is to watch a guy's average performance over at least four games, and if it's good all around for the past four games and I have a need for his position, I'll pull the trigger. Last year, I was able to snatch Nick Young and Kyle Lowry in nearly all of my leagues, the only places where I didn't pick them up was because the person I had to drop was definitely better than either one of them. Additionally, I picked up Marcus Thornton everywhere I could in the latter part of last year and I know that helped me make the playoffs in all my leagues and helped me win too. Be alert and follow the stats daily. Caveat: don't make a move just for making a move's sake! If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

4. Don't get hung up on trades. I don't know what it is with me and trades, but I've never had anyone accept any of the trades I've sent, and I send fair and equitable trades. Maybe that's why; some guys don't think it's a good trade if they aren't ripping off someone else. Anyways, make them if you need to, send requests if you want to, but I'm not counting on them to improve more than the waiver wire.

The above strategies work best for H2H. Roto is a different kettle of fish that I'm still trying to figure out how to win. I won my first roto league last year and it was completely by accident. Will try to repeat the feat this year on purpose :)

Which is better, "The Wire" or "Breaking Bad"?

I haven't forgotten about my series countdowns, just trying to figure out what I want to say about the rest of them. In the meantime, I did have some thoughts I wanted to share about two great TV shows I've watched/am watching; The Wire and Breaking Bad.

I've seen all five seasons of "The Wire" and I've seen all current seasons of "Breaking Bad" up to and including S4E11 "Crawl Space" which is the most recent episode aired at time of this posting.

"The Wire" is the greatest TV show ever created, thus far. It's probable that no other TV series will be able to reach its level. I have no disagreement with that.

However, it can be argued that it's not necessarily BETTER than "Breaking Bad." I personally wouldn't agree with that argument, but I acknowledge that the argument can be made, and I wouldn't ridicule the one who made the argument, as long as he/she gives "The Wire" its props. It reminds me of a review I once read that compared "Huck Finn" to "Tom Sawyer", saying that "Huck Finn" was a greater book than "Tom Sawyer" (deeper themes, more pointed commentary on social issues) but not necessarily a better book (more entertaining, vibrant, etc). "The Wire" = "Huck Finn" , "BB" = "Tom Sawyer."

I would not compare what "The Wire" is trying to be to what "Breaking Bad" is trying to be. "The Wire" set out to show what was broken in the American city systems. This is a very ambitious and encompassing goal, and David Simon's genius was able to accomplish most of that (newspaper angle in S5 wasn't really all that). "Breaking Bad" has a very simple goal: Take Mr. Chibs, and turn him into Scarface. On the surface it sounds simple, but the beauty of that trip is in the journey, and the crazy turns and twists that Vince Gilligan has taken in that journey thus far are mind-blowing and tension-inducing. I would not denigrate any of the lead acting on "Breaking Bad"; Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul deserve the Emmys they've gotten, and all of the other actors are exceedingly good as well. As evidence, I post this clip of the end of "Crawl Space." It can be considered a spoiler, but the scene doesn't talk about the events that lead up to it. I think you can view it even if you've never seen BB before; just be sure to watch the entire season to find out what leads up to this scene :D



I admit that it took me a while to get into BB, as I started watching the first season and paused my watching sometime into S1 episode 3 when I realized that I would like the series but wasn't in the frame of mind to continue at that point. Once I was able to start watching again and go up to episode 5 and 6, I got sucked in, especially once Heisenberg appeared :-D Season 2 was really good, and from Season 3 till now, I've been convinced that this show has earned its place on the pantheon just below The Wire, and alongside Ron Moore's Battlestar Galactica. In the same way that you have to get through the first three episodes of "The Wire" Season 1 to get hooked, it's similar to this.

If you love "The Wire" you owe it to yourself to watch "Breaking Bad." You're totally missing out if you don't.

Twitter address update

I changed my twitter ID from @marshallgeoff to @geoffmarsh.

Geoff's ranking of TV Dramas. #12:Star Trek: Deep Space 9

First off, I'm not a Trekkie/Trekker/whatever you want to call it. I have to state that from the outset, lest people think I'm prone to attending conventions, speaking Klingon, and kneeling at the shrine of Roddenberry. I will admit that am a Star Trek fan, I'm familiar with the Star Trek universe and I watched most of the shows and movies, but I'm not a hard-core fanatic. My Star-Trek viewing is selective; I've never watched an episode of the original Star Trek, and I doubt I ever will. I've seen all of the modern movies, some of the older ones, and I watched some of Voyager and very little of Enterprise. The two main Star Trek shows I really watched were The Next Generation (TNG), and Deep Space Nine (DS9), and for my money, Deep Space Nine was/is the best Star Trek series ever produced. TNG admittedly has the more iconic crew (thanks mostly to Captain Picard, Worf and Data) but DS9 had more interesting characters and situations and was a much more interesting show for it.

Geoff's top 15 TV Dramas #13: Boomtown

There aren't many "mainstream" cop shows on my list; you won't see any of the CSI's or L&O's. Its not because I actively hate those shows, but in my experience those shows are mostly about catching and cooking the bad guys, with very little room for overarching stories or character growth. I watched Law and Order reruns religiously in my sophomore year, but only because they came on at lunchtime so I could eat and watch 'em. I like NCIS a lot, yet I don't follow it or watch it often because I know it will be in re-runs perpetually; its more of a guilty pleasure that I'd watch more if I had a TV and more time. So, the normal cop shows don't really do much for my critical TV watching mood.

Boomtown (NBC, 2002-2003) was not a normal cop show.

Geoff's ranking of TV Dramas. #14: ED

ED (NBC) was a dramedy that ran from 2000 to 2004, just before the Internet TV critic craze broke out. The premise behind this show is that the titular Ed Stevens(played by Tom Cavanaugh), a lawyer in New York gets a double whammy in losing his job at a law firm, and coming home to find his wife banging a mailman in his bed. He decides to return home to Stuckeyville, Ohio (admittedly the squarest name one could ever imagine) where he meets his high school crush Carol Vessey (the lovely Julie Bowen) who is now a teacher at the Stuckeyville High School. For some reason, he decides that he’s going to win her heart now, so he decides to return home for good, buys a bowling alley and sets up a law practice. He runs a bowling alley, and he’s a lawyer. Two separate things. Other characters include his best friend Josh and Josh’s wife Nancy, Carol’s best friend Molly (also a teacher), the bowling alley employees Phil, Shirley and Kenny, plus Warren (Justin Long’s breakout role) who’s a high school student.

Geoff's ranking of TV Dramas. #15: CHUCK

SPOILERS BELOW.

Chuck (NBC) will go down in history as "the little show that could, and did persevere". On paper, it looks as the type of show that wouldn't garner much ratings (it hasn't), that has a limited appeal (I wouldn't agree but I admit that its audience is pretty set at this point), and that would be canceled after its first season. Yet, from its premiere in 2007, at the end of each season, this show has stared cancellation in the face. Each time, cancellation blinked.

Geoff's top 15 TV Dramas, part 2: Almost made its...

Welcome back. This post series looks at my fave TV shows and why I like 'em. This particular post is the last one before i actually start the countdown, and focuses on the shows that just missed out on making the list. Many of the shows in this post are shows I followed regularly and liked/still like, but for one reason or another just didn't make the cut. These include:

Geoff's top 15 TV Dramas, part 1: Honorable (and dishonorable) Mentions

Welcome back to my analysis of the top 15 TV dramas I've watched. If you want to know the background behind this series, take a look at the post previous to this one. In this post, I will do a brief analysis of shows I watch (or used to watch) that for some reason don't make the top 15. These can be grouped into three groups: Guilty Pleasures, Used to Love 'Em, and Almost but Not Quite.

Geoff's ranking of TV Dramas: the beginning

To jumpstart my attempt at regular blogging about various things that interest me, I decided to examine the various TV shows I've watched and followed. I usually read other persons reviews (like Alan Sepinwall, Mo Ryan, the AV Club, TWOP, etc etc) and enjoy their thoughts but never got into looking at my own views/thoughts on these shows. Thus, I've decided to list the top 15 dramas I've seen and rank them up to #1. I won't be doing them all at once, probably one per day.

This list will cover only 1-hour dramas that I have actually seen and can comment on. Thus, there are shows like "Treme", "Mad Men", "Boardwalk Empire", "Men of a Certain Age" and "Dr. Who" that I am confident will find a place on the list, replacing other contenders...however, since I haven't been able to watch those shows for one reason or another, I can't place them. Yet. Edited July 24 to add The Good Wife to this list, I'm pretty sure I will like it, once I start following it more.

I've also left off sitcoms and comedies. I find that I don't really watch the live-action ones anymore, but I lean more towards the animated ones like "Archer", "South Park", Fox Sunday Nights, and others. "Archer" is one of the best shows on TV though, and I'll give it it's own analysis one day. Maybe I will get back into the live action comedies like "Parks and Recreation", "Cougar Town" and others, but at the moment they just don't really grab me like the dramas and animated comedies do.

There are also shows I watch regularly and like, but I know that they are either guilty pleasures, or they aren't deep enough to be on a ranked list of TV dramas, as well as shows that were ALMOST good enough to make the list but didn't, for one reason or another. This category will be the first detailed blog posting, and I'll post it up soon.

So, here goes something! Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoy my views.

Blogging...

Why don't I blog more? I have a lot to say and the skill to say it, yet I don't. Why not?

Laziness and procrastination are the main ones, but I can change that. I do believe I will change that.

But, what to blog about?

Whatever's on my mind :)

Watch this space...

Hoffman Enviromental Research Institute from Daniel Houghton on Vimeo.

Trusted Unlock

If you want to get your blackberry unlocked, go to www.TrustedUnlock.com and check 'em out!

Fantasy Basketball results

This was a pretty good year for me in Fantasy Basketball, at least in my public leagues. I went hog-wild and maxed out all three of my yahoo IDs with eight teams each, but I only paid attention to two of the IDs and I think I will follow that same format next year. I learned that I really don't care for roto ball, so that means next year I will make a concerted effort to really win one of the roto leagues on purpose and not by accident.

For my main Yahoo ID, I had five public leagues, two active private leagues (including one I'm commissioner of) and one private league that was locked due to commissioner error. All leagues were H2H. I won three of the public leagues, and came third and fourth in the other two. I got my ass kicked in my own league due to autodrafting, grrr...I had a good run in the other league but injuries towards the end of the year doomed me to a 5th place finish. If my guys were healthy, I could have won it all.

For my secondary yahoo ID, I had five public H2H leagues, two public roto leagues and one private H2H league. I won two of the H2Hs, came second in another and third in the last two. I came fourth in the public league, which was a kind of deep team league. I liked the format but I have some suggestions for the commissioner...I will either win or come second in one of the roto leagues, but that was by accident. I didn't even think that team was going to do well, but as the year progressed I saw that it was on top of the league so I started to pay attention to it. Ironically, the other roto league was where I thought I'd do better, and I didn't. I ended up ignoring that team.

My last yahoo ID, I just drafted roto teams for drafting sake and didn't pay attention to 'em afterwards. I'm not that crazy for fantasy. Thus, they sucked :-D

So, it was a pretty good year. I'm looking forward to playing in winner leagues next year, I haven't done well in those but I plan for that to change.

fantasy basketball update

By Jove, I think I'm getting the hang of this thing...

My performance this year is a whole lot better than last year's even with the three yahoo IDs I manage. I'm pretty sure I'll be in the playoffs for all of my head-to-head leagues except one...it's a bit embarassing that the exeception is my own league where I'm the commissioner but since I won it last year, I don't mind too much. My roto leagues have been much less successful...I'm leading in one league and crashing in all of the others. I'm still not sure whether that's because I can't monitor more than 2 Yahoo ids on a regular basis, or because I just am not a roto fan, but I have clearly defined my limits. Two ids, main one with all H2H, other ID will be six H2H and two roto, if I do the third ID, it's just all roto and no regular observation...

That's assuming that there will be NBA basketball next season :(

A new year

Every January 4, since 2006, I distinctly remember how the Lord directed me through His Spirit, and I've always remembered how important it is to wait on the Lord. From Dec 31 2005 until January 6, 2006, I was in Detroit, Michigan for a job opportunity. They had promised to provide me with visa sponsorship, they promised training and all I would have to do was work with them for one year. I thought it was too good to be true, I had heard it before; but at that time, I was pretty desperate and had nothing to lose...or so I thought.

I was blessed to get a ride to Michigan from Chatannooga, TN where General Youth Congress was held that year. I don't remember the dear sister's name, but I know that without her, I would have been so lost and spiritually sunk. She provided me with transport, food and encouragement when it became clear that the opportunity I was seeking was definately something fishy. That happened when I arrived at the apartment I was supposed to stay at, and found it to be bare of furniture, smelling of mould, and having signs of occupation but no-one else living there. Another guy arrived just after me, he didn't know what was going on either.

The first few days of my stay, I went to the workplace with the other guy and pretty much spent all day on the computer waiting for something to happen...nothing did. I felt that I had made a mistake in coming, but I couldn't bail out yet, what if I was wrong? What else was I to do? There were other people there as well, all of us were just sitting down waiting to hear what we should do, and the persons in charge weren't really speaking to us.

On January 4, 2006, I read a devotional from "My Utmost for His Highest" which spoke about waiting on God to show you what you need to do. Even if you have a clear impression on what you must do/need to do, wait for God to make it plain, rather than jumping the gun. That devotional had a major impact on my thinking, and it gave me peace of mind for the remainder of my stay. I waited, and I'm glad I did. On Thursday January 8, we got the details of what we would be expected to do, and it became clear that one of those details was for us to lie on our resumes about our years of experience so that we would be able to work for the companies that would be hiring us. That was all the incentive I needed to be back on a bus to Maryland that same weekend, and that led me to come back home and to everything that has happened in my life since.

I don't know what would have happened to me if I stayed, and I wonder at times what happened to the people who were in the program with me, whether they stayed, and how things ended up for them. Nonetheless, as I am here five years later to the day, making major changes in my life already in 2011, I'm thinking about that same devotional and wondering what I need to do in this coming month, these coming weeks, this coming year. I've made bold steps, waiting until I felt that it was time to move, feeling that if I lingered I would be in problems. Other moves, I know I have to make them but I am not sure when the time to make them would be. In all of this, I draw on the experience that God gave me, in telling me to wait on Him. He will show us when the time to act will be, if we simply put all our trust in Him.

So as I continue on to make changes in life for 2011, I pray that I will wait for God to show me when to make the moves, and what moves to make. I hope you do the same.

Twitter

I succumbed to the twitter phenom about a year ago, but i've only started to get into actual tweeting after I got my blackberry. There's a gradual progression of mind-control/assmilation going on there, but what to do...

Anyway, I can be followed at @marshallgeoff.

I take it back...

...I'll be using Blake Griffin quite a bit...