The Sports Mixer - For the love of Kevin

Before I get too far in to this, let me say that there are a couple of articles out there that get into far more detail on the subject of Kevin Love than I ever could wish to, but I do want to add my two cents worth at some point.

The first article is by Thomas Pestak and does an outstanding job of detailing how well Kevin Love has actually fit in with the Cavs overall. You can read it here.

The second is by Russ Bengtson and is an actual interview with Love that covers a number of topics, starting with how happy he is. You can read that one here and it's pretty outstanding as well.

Now then, on to what I actually wanted to write about the Cavs last game and the Kevin Love media parade yesterday.

On Sunday, the Cavs played against the Milwaukee Bucks in what could be a future playoff matchup depending on where the Bucks finish (then again, with the bottom of the East an absolute mess, who knows what team will actually finish opposite the Cavs). It was an odd start time and the Cavs got off to a really slow start against the Bucks, who seemed overly energized.

The Cavs seemed slow and almost disinterested on most defensive possessions, and eventually fell behind by as many as 11 points in the third quarter before LeBron James decided enough was enough. They woke up on both ends of the floor, turning that 11 point deficit into a 2 point lead at the end of the third, highlighted by two dunks by James and a basket at the buzzer by Iman Shumpert.

They continued the onslaught in the fourth as JR Smith hit a trio of triples, James hit a three, Smith hit James with an exceptional alley-oop, and the suddenly overwhelmed Bucks completely folded. The Cavs ended up winning by a score of 108-90, which was not anywhere close to indicative of how well the Bucks played for 2 and 1/2 quarters.

David Blatt rode a lineup of Matthew Dellavedova, Smith, Shumpert, James, and Tristan Thompson through the entire fourth quarter, which meant that Kevin Love, Kyrie Irving, and Timofey Mozgov never saw the floor in that quarter. Oddly enough, Love was the only person people seemed to wonder about (again, more on this later and in the previously mentioned articles above).  Simply put the five on the court were blitzing the Bucks and there was never a need to bring anyone back in as the game quickly got out of hand.

It made the Cavs 27-7 since January 15th and left their overall record at 46-26 and firmly in control of the second spot in the Eastern Conference.

Cavalier Caveats

• This was the rare game where Delly came in and made a huge difference defensively for the Cavs. For the most part, Irving's defense has been much better, but in this game he was having issues, as was Mozgov. Delly, along with Shumpert, Smith, James, and Thompson, took complete control of this game and made it a laugher in a matter of minutes.
• Of course, someone always has to ask Blatt about his rotations, but in this game it was pretty simple why Irving and Love stayed put on the bench. The group that was out there was dominating the Bucks. Why make a change just because?
• One area of concern is that the Cavs are starting to allow more dribble penetration again, something that they had been cutting off relatively well after the trade for Mozgov. Obviously, the vast improvement on defense was going to ebb and flow some, but you'd like to see them shore up some of the issues they've been having lately on that end.
• Offensively, this team is unbeatable when they move the ball and get the ball up the floor quickly, which is why I find it aggravating when they slowly walk the ball up and dribble off the shot clock until it's down to 7 seconds. Iso ball needs to go and it needs to stay away. As we've seen against better defensive teams, it doesn't typically end well for the Cavs, even if hero ball has saved them a few times.
• Much continues to be made about Kevin Love and his level of happiness with the team, his future, and his role on the floor. As I mentioned earlier, the two links provided provide excellent articles discussing Love and I'm not going to get too involved in it because it's simply overbearing and stupid.

I just can't stand the fact that ESPN and others HAVE to have some kind of narrative to talk about with this team. Yes, Love sometimes looks lost on offense, but I don't necessarily think that he's as lost as some of us want to think.

Love himself has talked about how he's trying to get in the post more, but from what I've seen, he's getting mauled down there and isn't exactly getting a lot of fouls called, which makes going in the post a lost cause. The Cavs as a team have been on the receiving end of some interesting calls and non-calls, but then again, officiating across all levels and sports has been getting worse over the years.

The fact is, when you have a team with James and Irving on it, Love being in the post actually allows an extra defender to be in the vicinity of the paint, thus cutting off some of the driving lanes that those two could take. Love and Smith being outside the 3 point line gives them that room to operate better. Sure, they should run more plays for Love in the post, but they don't and for what it's worth, Love isn't complaining much.

Another issue to keep in mind is that it has appeared that Love's back has been an issue for much of the season. Couple that with the large number of blowouts the Cavs have had, there's no reason to drag him back into a large number of the games they've had.

The thing that I've learned, and obviously Love has learned this as well, is that the media microscope is on the Cavs this year and anything that's said and done are being scrutinized to death.

Is it fair? No.

Comments about who should win MVP are getting blown out of proportion, as is the speculation about whether Love and James are friends. It's ridiculous really.  But it's what happens when James is on your team and you have a rising star in Irving as well.

Don't expect it to stop either.

After all, we still have the playoffs to deal with.

Thanks for reading everyone!

TBT - The Sports Mixer Edition

At the beginning of November 2014, I wrote this little piece about the Cleveland Cavaliers and their struggles through the first 3 games. Yes, I was that proactive about it because I had seen so many disturbing things, but things I believed could be fixed.

I also added a bit about the Browns, but we know that season ultimately turned out and while the Thursday Night game with Cincinnati may have been the highlight of the season, it was ultimately the last time the team looked great on the field last year.

Much like my post about awaiting the arrival of Kylie Brooke that went up recently, I'm going to select some items that I wrote about and see how things have played out since this post. As of now, the Cavs are 44-26 and in the 2nd seed, so they've recovered pretty well.

In fact, the low point for this team came well after I wrote this when they fell to 19-20 and seemed completely in disarray.

Here now are my thoughts on what I wrote, followed by some thoughts on the team as it currently stands. As in the previous post like this, statements from the original post will be in italics, while updated thoughts will be in bold.

How many of you thought it was going to be easy for the Cleveland Cavaliers?

Go on, raise your hands. Plenty of you were out there before the season started.

LeBron James, Kevin Love, Kyrie Irving, and the rest were just going to seamlessly blend under the guidance of David Blatt and become the greatest team in the history of the NBA. They were going to win more than 70 games and walk to the first championship in Cleveland since 1964. Every game was going to be a party and they were going to win by more than 20 every night.

If only it were that easy.

Three games in and the Cavs are far from a finished product. Blatt has no idea yet who to play together and when, and the overall effort from select players has been questionable at times. James looks like he's either irritated with the team, or in considerable discomfort from his back being worse than we're being led to believe.

Most everyone who watched James KNEW something was amiss with him from a health standpoint. He was either slowing down (or losing his hops as some tried to say), or he was bothered by some sort of injury that we weren't being informed of fully. Well, he ended up sitting for a couple weeks at one point in the season and the LeBron we've seen since his return is pretty much what we had expected.

The effort from other players was a different story. It took a while for many on this team to buy into Blatt and it took a while for Blatt to find a group of players he could rely on to fill out his rotation.

An opening night loss to the New York Knicks was followed up by a gritty overtime win against the Chicago Bulls. Then last night, after playing even with the Portland Trailblazers through the first quarter, the Cavs were completely blasted the rest of the way, losing 101-82. James was clearly disappointed in the effort put forth by some of his teammates, and probably himself as he didn't appear completely engaged.

The Cavs had several more of these games as the weeks went by. They'd get off to fast starts, then the bench would come in and the lead would get obliterated. It simply took time, and few key moves, for Blatt to find a system that worked for him and his players.

What does it all mean?

According to Twitter, it means that this team is destined to fail, James is going back to Miami next year, Blatt will be fired by mid-season, and Dion Waiters will be traded in the next two weeks as he clearly can't exist on this team.

There's something funny to me about this paragraph. I mean, all of it was said in jest, but I had NO idea that Waiters would just continue to struggle on this team and would actually end up traded. Turns out Waiters not fitting in was what may have saved this season. The LeBron back to Miami conversation really came to a boil on Christmas Day when the Cavs faced the Heat in Miami and LeBron seemed way too happy to see his former teammate Dwayne Wade. Turns out they are just really that close as friends.

As for Blatt, his confidence as an NBA coach never wavered, and may have actually become stronger once players started buying in and accepting what he was preaching. Some ESPN people still think LeBron is going to force the Cavs to fire Blatt, but you know how accurate ESPN is when it comes to James, right?

It's easy to overreact though. It's easy to watch the game and see all the things that are wrong with this team. It's easy to forget that many of them are playing together on an NBA team for the first time.

In other words, it's not going to look great right away.

It's a bit of a cop-out, but the best example is to look at the Miami Heat from 2010-2011 when James first joined that team. It was a disjointed effort through the first 17 games as the Heat were 9-8 and many wondered if this "superteam" was a bad idea. Then they ripped off 10 straight wins and 20 out of 21 to silence the critics.

While the Cavs did rip off an 8 game winning streak at one point, the worst struggles were still to come actually.

Will the Cavs do the same? I doubt it. This team has multiple players (Love, Irving, and Waiters) that are deficient defensively, and while you can hope for some improvement, Irving and Waiters in particular showed some of their bad habits last night. Waiters in particular seemed lazy on the defensive side and while Irving has shown some effort, it seems when his man starts to score on him, he shrinks defensively. Damion Lillard had struggled from the floor his first few games, but last night couldn't miss and often Irving failed to even attempt to close out on the shot.

Love and Irving have both improved their defense just by showing better effort. Irving in particular went through a stretch where opposing point guards played pretty poorly against the Cavs. I'm trying to think of what made such a big difference though...

All you need to know about Waiters before he was shipped to OKC was Joe Harris was playing the fourth quarter of games early on while Waiters sat on the bench. Ultimately, the trades that brought Timofey Mozgov, JR Smith, and Iman Shumpert saved the season and certainly improved the Cavs defensively.

Mozgov being in the middle has made it easier for Irving to decide how to defend his opponent, often forcing them right at Mozgov while simultaneously eliminating the ability of said player to outlet to Mozgov's cover. Teams have adjusted some since, but the trade for Mozgov was huge. Literally and figuratively.

The team overall is still occasionally lazy, but Smith has been a far better defender than we were led to believe and Shumpert has done what he does best: get in the passing lane, keep his man in front of him, and contest everything.

Yet they may only need to make small strides defensively if the gel on offense. Right now, players still aren't sure where they need to be on the floor. More than once, we've seen a pass made to a player that's either vacated the spot, or failed to move to where the pass was intended. These type of errors will disappear as they become comfortable with one another.

Defensive rotations have improved significantly since this point in the season. There are far fewer moments trying to figure out who blew their assignment. 

The more disappointing thing from last night was that the ball movement screeched to a halt once the team faced adversity. It turned into 2013 all over again with Irving and Waiters taking turns dribbling the ball into oblivion, then hoisting a last second shot. Compounding things was the fact that they both shot the ball poorly. Waiters overall is only shooting 30% on the young season, and while there's still the likely possibility that he'll get it turned around, he clearly is out of whack.

Waiters was the one that worried me, as well as most everyone else. He has the potential to be a borderline all-star, or completely flame out depending on how he fits in, or doesn't fit in. The point that can't be overstated is he needs to show more consistent effort on the defensive end. I truly believe he could be a top 10 defender if he tries, but more often than not, he fails to do so.

On offense, he needs to find where he fits in on this team. He seems undecided whether he's going to pull up and shoot the jumper, or drive to the rim. On the few drives he's made, he seems more concerned with drawing contact than actually trying to make the shot. He's not getting the calls, he's getting frustrated (as is James on his drives), and then fails to get back defensively.

Maybe he does need to come off the bench. I don't know, and he doesn't seem to know either. This is just one of the pieces that Blatt has to figure out going forward.

Oh Dion. There was so much promise, so much potential for you, so many opportunities to show what you could do. Waiters just could never consistently provide the Cavs with any offense or defense. Even now in OKC, his effort level is wildly inconsistent and he can't hit the open jumper.

Many thought trading him and receiving JR Smith was equivalent to getting an older Waiters. But Smith has completely bought into this team and the coaching staff, something I never thought I'd say about him. He's taken mostly smart shots, passed when necessary, has rebounded exceptionally well, and has played very solid defense.

Blatt also needs to figure out a consistent bench rotation. This is another trial and error thing that the team is going to struggle with initially. Remember, most of these guys haven't played with each other. It's going to take time. Blatt not only has to find the right mix of guys on the floor, but they have to figure each other out as well.

Then, once you think you're starting to figure things out, you lose Anderson Varejao for the year and a bunch of trades are made while your best player is resting his sore knee and back for a few weeks.

Yeah, Blatt has made rookie mistakes, but he's had a lot thrown at him in his first year as an NBA coach. Overall, I think he's done a very nice job of staying the course, mixing new players in, and making adjustments in the game.

I also really enjoy how he goes back at the media, who more and more anymore, act like they know everything. I particularly enjoy when members of the media start whining about how Blatt fires back at them. 

You could make the argument that's what training camp and the preseason is for, but the reality is that until you're playing the games, you'll have no idea how it's going to go. Teams are very vanilla in preseason, so how you were defended then is vastly different from how you'll be defended come the regular season.

The important thing to constantly remember is that it's going to take time. If after 30-40 games they still haven't come together at all, I'd be concerned then. Right now? I'm looking to see how the team responds to adversity, not just in the game, but from one game to the next. Tonight I'm going to want to see how they respond to last night's game when they play the Utah Jazz.

After 40 games, they were 20-20 and found their groove at that point in the season. The new players fit in perfectly, James came back healthy and full of energy, and Irving unleashed holy hell on opponents on more than one occasion. While it hasn't always been pretty, they've been more consistent on both ends of the floor.

I don't think they'll ever be a defensive juggernaut, but I do think by the end of the season, they will have figured it out and will be a lot of fun to watch.

It just takes a little bit of patience.

But we all know how much patience people have. 

We saw it most of the first half of the season. Many fans took to social media with #fireblatt and declared that James was leaving, Love was going to go to the Lakers or Knicks, and Irving was probably only trying to play for his own numbers.

ESPN was particularly brutal towards the Cavs. Chris Broussard and company insinuated that James was playing poorly so that the Cavs would fire Blatt. Much was made of Irving having 30+ points against but no assists in a game in Utah early in the season. Of course, they failed to note the number of misses shots off of passes by Irving, but ESPN more and more has its own agenda to look after, one that doesn't always revolve around facts.

Some fans even speculated that the Cavs should consider trading Love away since there was no way he was going to return next year to play on this team.

It was insane, it was absurd, and it was all based out of panic.

Since a loss in Phoenix in James' return to the lineup, the Cavs are 25-6, which is the best record in that span. Their average margin of victory is over 10 points a game. While defensively they've slipped of late, the effort and results have been much, much better. Offensively, they still have hero ball moments, but the ball movement has improved and more players are involved than early on.

Last night the Cavs had 32 assists against the Nets after having just 17 against the Miami Heat in a loss that concluded an otherwise successful 4 game road trip.

There were a few of us rational fans who said have patience with this team, but it's hard for Cleveland sports fans to have any. It's been so long since we've had a championship that we don't want to wait for a process, we want instant results.

It was even worse with James coming back to the Cavs. Teamed up with Irving and Love, it was going to be our own super team.

All the negativity early on aside, this team has been scary good for the last couple of months. Irving has continued to improve within the offense, Love has slowly found his way into being more involved (and not just jacking up 3 point shots), and the new additions have been more than any of us thought they'd be.

Now the key for the Cavs is to hold on to that second spot, stay healthy, and see how far they can go in the playoffs. While I'd like to believe that Irving will be fine, you just simply don't know until each individual player is facing those bright lights.

What I do know is this team seems to be extremely close, which bodes well for the future.

Cavalier Caveats

• I won't pretend that I watched last night's game, because I didn't. I was busy playing with the girls and just checked Twitter every now and then to see how the game was progressing (btw, you can always tell how the team is doing by how frequently people are tweeting; the complaints come much faster than the compliments). It became pretty clear that after a slow start, the Cavs woke up and pretty much dismantled the Nets.

• One thing that people seem to really enjoy doing is try to figure out Kevin Love's body language. It seems every day someone has some new theory as to what his body language is saying. Most every media member outside of Cleveland firmly believes that Love is not returning, and the Knicks and Lakers typically are mentioned as top destinations. It's borderline insanity that so many people spend so much time trying to figure out what a player is going to do next, but it's become too much when it comes to K-Love. While he has said repeatedly that he's here for the long-term, until he signs a new deal with the Cavs, the rumors will persist.
  
• The Knicks and Lakers just don't make sense though. Why would Love, after getting his first taste of playoff basketball, go to either of those franchises? The Lakers are hoping to hit it big in the lottery and get one more year out of Kobe, while the Knicks are just a mess overall. If Love wants to win, going to either of those teams makes little sense. Yet all we hear is that's where he's going to go.
  
• Kyrie Irving is finally starting to get some national respect after torching the Spurs single-handedly, then followed that up with a efficient performance against the Magic. Irving has quietly become more efficient with his shots, better with his passes, and much improved on defense. In fact, he's looked better defensively than Matthew Dellavedova, something we didn't say last year ever.  Irving just seems to know when to pick his spots and Blatt has given him ample opportunities to go out and attack the opposing defense as he sees fit.
  
• Speaking of Delly, I love the guy, but the more I watch him this year, the more I think he's a guy who looks better as the team around him gets worse. Last year you'd see him come in and be the solid defender that Irving wasn't and occasionally make a shot or two. This year, his defense seems to revolve around fouling players as they run by him. He has been particularly exposed when Irving has missed games with injury. Again, I love what Delly brings, but his value has definitely decreased.
  
• Tristan Thompson may not wow you with numbers, but he never stops. He still resembles a baby giraffe attempting to walk for the first time at times, but he is one of the best offensive rebounders and can handle defensive switches onto smaller players, which is primarily why he's in the game late instead of Mozgov.
  
• LeBron James is still good people. Enjoy and appreciate what you get to watch from him night in and night. But also enjoy that he has perhaps his best running mate in Irving. Dwayne Wade was still good when James joined the Heat, but was definitely on the downswing. Irving is only 22. The next few years could be crazy fun with the two of them running around out there.
  
• I'm going to try and do these things more frequently, but I make no promises. Thanks for reading.

TBT - Revisiting an Old Entry

Back on 10/22/12, I wrote this piece about what I was thinking about once I realized I was going to be a dad for the first time. It was an exciting, yet scary time for me personally, but has been one hell of a ride since her birth.

Now that Kylie is approaching 2 years old, Rachel came up with a great idea to revisit this post and respond to some of the things I had written. Sections of the original post will appear in this entry in italics, while my responses will be in bold.

I hope you enjoy this look back at how I originally felt and how I see things now.

I don't want that same experience for my future kid (or kids).  I don't want them to grow up and wonder the same things I wondered.  I always envisioned myself being a better father to my kids than my dad was towards me.  I want for them what I missed, what I wished I would have experienced.

This is still something I strive for. There are so many "what-ifs" revolving around my childhood experience, and while there will always be missed opportunities, I want to keep those to a minimum with Kylie and Payton.

I can't overstate how awesome it is to have a girlfriend in Rachel who loves football and baseball though.  Guys, always appreciate it when you find a girl like that because there are certainly a number of them out there who could care less about sports in general.

This is no joke. It's always easier to be in a relationship when both of you have similar interests. Hell, she even sits and watches the Cavs with me. That type of thing goes a long way.

I don't want my child to have to do that.  I want him/her to relish the moments we have, grow up and know that I'm there when they need me to be, but also to push the way my mom tried to push us.  I want my child to fondly remember his/her childhood moments, not possibly be the plot behind some made-for-tv special about child abuse and drugs.

I admittedly probably enjoy this last line a lot more than I should, but it's still true.

Why all this gibber gabber?  Rachel is pregnant and expecting her second child and my first.  We were trying to wait to make an official announcement, but the cat's out of the bag and I can now openly write about what will be first experience in fatherhood.

What are my emotions?  I'm excited, I'm happy, I'm anxious, and even a little scared.  This is as unknown a territory as a person can possibly enter.  Sure, there are thousands of books, online articles, and other sources of information on being a parent.  There's the expertise of Rachel, who has three years experience now.  Yet you never really know what to expect.  Is it a boy, is it a girl, will they be a loud baby, a quiet baby?  Will they listen when they get older or will they be defiant?  Will they need meds?  Will everything come out okay?

The emotional roller coaster went on the entire time Rachel was pregnant, maybe more so for her, but I definitely experienced them. You start thinking about what if the child has some kind of birth defect, or genetic issue, or anything that could be bad.  You see stories online all the time of babies not living beyond a few hours or days and you hope and pray that isn't you.

In summary, all the books in the world won't prepare you enough, but being mentally strong will get you through most anything. We found out it was going to be a girl, and after some wrestling with names, we settled on Kylie Brooke. For the most part she was quiet, but she had her loud moments. She's become somewhat defiant as she's gotten older, but nothing too horribly bad. And while she tried to scare us all by not breathing on her own initially due to her cord being around neck, she pulled through and is a completely healthy, feisty, yet small little girl.
Yet despite all the uncertainty that comes with the pregnancy and then actual raising of the child, I'm excited.  I look forward to being the dad that squishes his kid's face just because it looks funny to him.  I look forward to carrying him/her around as an infant, then complaining when they can walk but still want to be carried.  I look forward to their first words, then getting irritated because they won't stop talking back to me because they want that one singular toy.

Rachel mentioned last night as we discussed me writing this that one thing that's unique about us as a couple is either one of us is likely to mess with Kylie. Carrying her around and watching her take in the world was amazing to me, and while she still likes to be carried (more I think because she likes snuggling up to us), she can move pretty fast on her feet. The words are coming more and more with each week, and while she doesn't babble on about wanting a toy, she will grab anything she thinks she wants off the store shelves.

I have a chance to do the things with this child that I wanted my dad to do with me.  If I'm lucky, this child will enjoy video games like me and I'll have a video game buddy (even better if Payton and Rachel join in).  I've always admired a youtuber by the name of paulsoaresjr who plays and records Minecraft, but also plays with all three of his kids and his wife on occasion.  It may not seem like much to most, but it's a way for him to stay connected with his kids as they get older, something most parents have to face at some point (two of his kids are in high school now).

Payton has shown a mild interest in games, so I'm fairly certain in a little while she'll be able to play some with me. Kylie likes running around with my broken Xbox 360 controller, but I can't say for sure if that means she's going to be into games or not. I still have an admiration for any gamer/YouTuber who plays and records games with their family. It's pretty cool to me.

I look forward to all the appointments leading up to the child being born, the first laugh, the first cry (after that, I'll probably be done with the crying), the first time I have to get up to take care of the baby in the middle of the night (again, probably done after that), the first crawl, the first steps, the first fall, the first run, the first big fall, the first teeth, and so on.

This is when things started to get wild. Hearing her heart beat for the first time, seeing the ultrasound pictures, and seeing the progress being made prior to her birth are things I won't forget. Nor will I forget the first time I was able to hold her. The crying is disheartening when they're younger because they can't tell you what's wrong and it's not always super obvious. It's sometimes trial by error as you try to figure out what's wrong and hope you hit on a solution.

While Rachel was breast feeding, we were both getting up in the middle of the night. I'd change Kylie, then hand her off and we'd all pass out in the bed together. Once Rachel stopped feeding her and started on a medication to help her sleep, it became and has stayed primarily my responsibility to grab Ky when she wakes up in the middle of the night. More often than not she's sleeping until the 5-7am range, so it's not too bad.  Rachel will attempt to grab her if she happens to wake up before she goes to bed, but that doesn't happen a lot.

I wasn't around for the very first crawl, but I did manage to catch her next attempt (which was motivated by pizza). I happened to be recording her again when she took her first big steps by herself, and while it's hard to say if I saw her first fall, I've seen plenty, including her rolling off of the couch and the bed. Her first teeth led to an explosion in what she could eat. The kid had already become a vacuum towards food, but having teeth has made it easier for her to eat just about anything.

The words are most exciting right now though. She's learning different words and phrases and hearing her use them correctly is more than a little exciting.
So while there are uncertainties and questions, there's also excitement and joy.  I get to be a dad, and it gets to be my minion.

Yes, I've been calling it a minion.  There's nothing any of you can do about it either.

She was also a Velociraptor for a long period of time too, which was only reinforced once she was born and would make this ungodly squealing noise when she'd see the cats. She doesn't make it as often anymore, but it was her battle cry for many months.

The end of May is a long way away though.  That means there's plenty of time to prepare for all the things that come with having a new baby. Supplies will be bought, a bigger living arrangement will be pursued, and we will try to be as prepared as possible when the new life comes into the picture.

The truth is, you can never be fully prepared. Many times, you will realize you're out of diapers or wipes. The baby will need Motrin when you can't find it or have just run out. That said, we did move into a bigger apartment (that's no longer big enough) and have tried to at least keep up with how she's developing.

Our minion will need a name once we know whether we're having a boy or girl, and that to me is going to be one of the more challenging parts of the equation.  In the past, I had thought about names, but when I go through and think about it now, nothing jumps out at me yet.  Maybe it's because we don't know the sex of it yet, but as of now, even going through some lists of baby names, nothing has jumped at me just yet.

Kylie Brooke!

Life will certainly change come the end of May.  Rachel is still encouraging me to sign up for next year's Warrior Dash, but I've been hedging since it takes place at the very beginning of June and I don't want there to be a conflict.  Now, don't get me wrong, if Rachel is in labor when the Warrior Dash takes place, I'm not going.  Simple as that.  In an ideal world, the child would come either before or after the actual event.

Kylie decided that she was done playing in Rachel's belly and was born May 19th, which was about a week and a half before her actual due date. It ended up working out in the long run.

The world isn't ideal though and things already somewhat revolve around the unborn child.  I have to consider the idea of buying as many baby supply items as possible so that we don't have to worry about that as much during the first couple of months.  I have to make sure I have money set aside because there is going to be a period of time when Rachel isn't going to be able to work.

Money...it's always an issue, isn't it? 

In the end, I'm excited for the future new addition and the changes it will bring.  I'm excited for the memories that will be created by this addition.

Most importantly though, I'm excited about the chance to be the dad that I wish that I had.

Get ready world, our minion is coming.

And boy did she ever arrive. 

On a side note, we ran in the Run of the Dead this past weekend and it was a pretty good time.  Some of the zombies talked a little more than I thought and some of the zombie kids were a bit rambunctious, but it was still fun and something we'd both do again given the opportunity.  It was down in Plymouth, OH, so it was a bit of a drive to get there, but we got there early and ran at a pretty decent pace considering Rachel hadn't run in a while and is a couple months along with the pregnancy.

But yeah, the main point of this?  I have a minion on the way.

Duck and cover people, duck and cover.

I ducked, I covered, and it hasn't helped. My child is somehow able to break my defenses every time.

Vlog #09 - New Hardware/Channel Art

As part of a test, here is my most recent Vlog on my channel:

If this works out well, I'll be posting future videos in this blog to see if it helps out.

Moving Forward

Now that I've covered life changes in the previous entry, perhaps we can get back to blogging as normal.

I've typically reserved this blog to talk about sports because, well, I like sports. I like them a lot. They're much more fun when the teams I root for are good, but sometimes more entertaining when they're not.

For instance, after LeBron James left the Cleveland Cavaliers, the team was a train wreck, but it sometimes amusing to see how poorly they'd play. Kyrie Irving made things more interesting, but the team was still bad. It became more interesting when Dion Waiters joined the team, but all in all, this team was pretty awful for the most part. Last season was perhaps once of the weirdest seasons in recent memory, drawing some entertaining commentary from social media.

Well, James is back, the team started slowly but has become a powerhouse again, and they are generally fun to watch just because when the team is clicking, they are almost unbeatable.

I also follow the Indians and the Browns, but I tend not to talk as much about them for a few reasons. With the Indians, it's such a long season and there are so many who get much more in-depth with their discussions that it never seems like I should really try to discuss them much. Baseball is probably my favorite sport to attend live, but I don't get too excited writing about it.

The Browns have just been a trainwreck since 1999, so it's been really challenging to find motivation to discuss them. Look at this past season. The team was 7-4 and looked to be on the cusp of something big, yet fell completely apart and resumed being a laughingstock again. I won't even get into all the disasters that befell this franchise, but needless to say, most of it was ugly.

Blogging used to be my way of blowing off steam, my way of dealing with the issues that I had to deal with over the course of a day, week, month, and so on. I've gotten away from that in a lot of manners, but part of me feels I need to occasionally get back into that groove. It was a great way to vent and get things off my chest.

I also have my gaming hobby that I could occasionally discuss, but I've been reluctant to bring them up simply because I'm far too casual of a gamer to feel justified in writing about anything about them. It's another situation where I feel many more people write and talk about games far more competently than I ever could, even though my knowledge of games, consoles, and PC hardware/software has grown tremendously.

So chances are pretty good that 60-75% of the content in here will still be about sports, but I'm going to try and sprinkle more random things in here. I may even occasionally put short entries detailing things that the kids of said/done since it can be pretty wild and entertaining at times.

One of the problems I am trying to tell myself to overcome is the need to write longer entries to justify the act of writing. I've never been big on putting short, concise posts up, but I think I'm getting to the point where I think putting something short and sweet up a few times a week is far better than refusing to write unless it turns into a 34 paragraph essay filled with intense and deep thoughts.

I've also considered when I do Vlogs, putting a post up with a link to that Vlog so people can check it out (especially if I'm able to embed it into the entry itself).

I feel there's so much more I can do to express myself, whether it's via blog or my channel on YouTube, but like I mentioned in my last entry, so much of it comes down to time. It's why I haven't really gone crazy promoting my channel.

It's time consuming and I just don't have the time or energy to do it on a consistent basis. Is it hurting the growth of my channel? Absolutely, just like not feeling I can commit to doing collaborations with other YouTubers is hurting the growth as well. The best I can hope for is to post the video links in here, push the videos on the sites that I do utilize, and see what happens.

In the end, I'm opinionated, but I've been keeping my opinions to myself more often than not lately.

It might be time to change that.

Anyway, thanks for being patient with me as I try to decide what's going to happen here, with my channel, and if I decide to build a web site for my "Kracker Gaming" brand.

Life Changes

It's really hard to maintain a lot of different hobbies as you get older.

Sure, when you're young, you have time to write a blog, post videos to YouTube, go out with friends, play sports, play video games, and sleep in until 2pm when you have no school/work.

Then you get older and life starts to feel like it's compressing on you. Responsibilities grow as you do. Your body, which used to be able to function just fine on 4 hours of sleep, now needs twice that to function. Those days of getting hammered and then being productive the next day? The dwindle, as does the amount of alcohol you can consume before it leaves you immobile the next day.

This is without a loved one and/or family. Now throw the additional responsibilities of having a family to maintain into the fray.

It becomes a bit much.

But it's so rewarding. So much more so than the nights of partying and friends who turn on you the moment you aren't "available" to be their taxi service anymore.

Now, I'm not saying I know anyone who's like that, because I don't. My friends have been relatively accepting of the fact that I've moved further away and don't go out really anymore. Life is full of changes and many of them have experienced their own that have completely reshaped who they are.

No, what I'm saying is as you get older, the things that are important to you change. Going out, getting hammered, and living care-free become less and less important. Getting to work on time, making sure your bills are paid, and doing honest work become much more important.

I can honestly sit here and tell you that sitting down with my almost 2 year-old little girl and playing is FAR more entertaining then getting drunk. It's far more fun than just about anything that you could possibly do. It's highly rewarding, and seeing her laugh and smile is one of the greatest gifts this life can give me.

Now, I still enjoy my video games, my sports, and taking time to relax, but quite frankly, life isn't really trying to allow me to relax. The responsibilities I have now are far greater than when I was 24. I have an apartment to pay for, utilities to take care of, people to feed, animals to take care of, and any other number of things that require my attention.

I have maybe a couple hours a day after the kids go to bed to just decompress, and that's if there's nothing else that NEEDS to be done.

But there's always something that needs to be done.

Kids really do change things in life though. You no longer can just get up and go somewhere just because you want to. You have to have someone who can watch your child, or that child is going with you. You can't just go out, get obliterated, and pass out. No, you have a child to take care of now. Life dictates that you be able to function in case something happens.

And something will happen.

Kids are mobile accidents just waiting to happen. They trip over things, they fall over nothing, they run into anything that's in their zig-zagging path. They are the equivalent of an adult who's drunk. Until they get older, you don't know what in the hell they're saying to you, and that's without them crying like crazy over some random thing that you have to figure out.

They need constant attention, and if you don't pay attention to them by choice, eventually at some point they'll give you a reason to pay attention.

They cry, they poop, they eat random things they find, and they find the most random things funny.

I love it.

I've always had kids of some sort around me from the moment my sister began popping them out several years ago, to a couple of different relationships where the woman had kids. Even this one I'm in now, I was introduced to a child just under 2 at the time who's now 5 and has the mouth of a 15 year-old (in other words, not good!).

But when it's your own actual kid?

It's different, even if you don't mean for it to be. This is something you helped create, something that is drawing inspiration from you and has many of your traits. For better and worse, it's going to take after you.

And Kylie sure does.

She's small, she's feisty, she eats everything in sight, and she runs like she was shot out of a cannon. She can drive me crazy, much like her sister, but when she needs me, also like her sister, it's the most rewarding feeling to know that they are turning to you to make them feel better.

Kylie and her sister have consumed many, many hours of my life over the last couple of years. It has drained me at times to the point that I've almost severely neglected my YouTube Channel. I haven't played basketball in months.

But I've had the time of my life.

I'm writing this because I love writing and hate that I don't have the time I'd like. By the time the kids go to bed at around 9pm, I have to decide if I'm going to play a game, work on other computer stuff, clean up some part of the apartment, or veg out and watch tv or a movie.

Often, writing isn't even on my mind.

Quite frankly, I could see my writing transitioning into Vlogs in the future, as I do enjoy doing those, but still have to find my comfort with chatting to myself about things that are on my mind.  I enjoy the aspect of recording myself either playing video games or myself alone talking about random things and putting them up for people to watch.  It's an oddly satisfying experience that I don't think I'd ever completely give up, but it's not something that I feel driven to do everyday.

I simply don't have the energy to. Nor do I have the time to go through the process of editing a ton of footage. It's why I tell people who don't have spouses or kids to make the most of their time however they see fit. That free time slowly disappears until you realize you have very little.

Again, I'm not complaining. I wouldn't trade the way things are for anything. It's more of an explanation as to why I don't write much and what happens to the average person as they get older.

Enjoy the time, but more importantly, enjoy the things that matter most to you, no matter what those things may be.