My interview with Ronnie Lott

I don’t want to go into too much detail as the actual article won’t go up until tomorrow morning. But I got a chance to talk briefly with Ronnie Lott and Mike Haynes on the phone today. They were doing prostate cancer awareness and they wanted to use me to help promote the cause. Of course, I had to throw in some 49ers questions to make it relevant to some of my readers.

It was brief, only five questions and three of them were cancer-related. I didn’t get to talk too much with them but it was nice to talk to two Hall of Fame players.

Not so nervous but more or less just me getting the most out of the opportunity.

Here’s a little snip of what we talked about…

SL: Since I cover the 49ers, let me get this question out to Ronnie first. A lot of people have talked about the rookie Taylor Mays and how he’s from USC and Ronnie you’re from USC, and there are possibilities of comparison. What have you seen in Mays and have you seen anything in him that resembles what you had when you played.

RL: I look at Mays as (number) one: he has a lot more speed than I ever had. Two: he’s a lot bigger and more physical than I ever was. I think when you think of the combination of speed and the combination of size, those two remind me more of a Tim McDonald…

If you want more, go to my examiner.com page on Wednesday morning.  How’s that for a teaser?

First day at the new internship

Today was my first day at Bleacher Report. It was only scheduled to be a two-hour training day and I showed up late. Looking for parking at the BART Station and trying to catch my train in time. Missed it and showed up 10 minutes late. It wasn’t a big deal but I’m not letting that happen again.

Just ran through a lot of the things I’d be doing and I got the hang out of it. The hardest thing might just be finding the information all throughout the web and weeding out the garbage with the good stuff. Plus I need to work on sexy headline writing. It’s totally different than what I write for examiner.com in terms of headlines. Here I need to sell it like an advertiser, gotta have a nice hook.

I gotta sexy up myself and my headline writing tomorrow. Now it’s time for me to relearn sports in a whole different way.

Also met my kinda tag team partner for the day. He’s from Ohio and is an Indians fan. Also a Giants fan. We chit chatted at Peet’s after work. Cool cat. He might find me on Facebook which in turn will lead to finding this blog which means my secret is out about who I am. Just kidding.

Anyway, back to coming up with sexy headlines for sports articles.

Look at what I just bought

My new baby.

Look at what I just bought! Yes, I finally have a new console so I can continue playing Beatles Rock Band and so forth. Will probably end up getting the new Madden soon.

What a great deal too from Target. Buy the console at retail value at $299.99 and get a controller ($49.99 value) for free! Nice nice. And I chose the white one just because I wanted to have it be different.

Also my dad wants to get a new TV, so this kind of helps factor into the decision that I wanted a console to play on the new TV.

But I want to be good about this. Much like if I was in high school, I want to earn this. I won’t open this and play with it until I earn my first paycheck from my new job. I don’t deserve this right now and I want to at least know that I have the money to balance out this purchase. The rest of my money will be saved for bigger and better things.

But yes… finally I have it! Come over to my house in a few weeks and we’ll party!

I commit to it and then it ends so terribly

The ending: Disappointing

Remember when I wrote about this show in a blog entry? I finished the last episode and I am disappointed. Persons Unknown was a 13-episode series that was only was supposed to be a summer fling. All that confusion in the beginning was supposed to be answered at the end. Instead it leads us right to where we started. A cliffhanger for season 2 if you will. The only problem is is that there is no season 2!

This is one reason why I don’t commit to TV series. They either just turn out real bad (“Heroes”) or according to some people, the ending sucks (“Lost”). Thirteen hours of my life dedicated to this show and it just goes to poop. If there was a season 2 maybe I could accept it. But the ratings were too low and it was advertised as a 13-episode series. No season 2 and full of disappointment.

My interview killed the radio star (my first ever on-air radio talk covering the 49ers)

I just got off the phone with KDOW 1220 AM (a business/stock market talk radio station based in Fremont/Palo Alto) doing a talk show dealie talking about the 49ers. They had an hour segment that’s dedicated to sports. My buddy Ryan who does Bay Area sports radio was on the show and had me on the show to talk about the 49ers. It was very fun to do it and I was surprised that I didn’t sound like a confused fool on the radio.

Having listened to sports writers talk on the radio in the past sure helped a lot. It taught me to be able to know what to say, how to say it and when to stop talking. The host was fun and it was a laid back environment. We talked about a myriad of things including the expectations of the team, Singletary’s job security, Nate Davis as the #3 QB and my virginity to the Coliseum for a football game. It was cool just talking about my first time at the Coliseum for football and making sure I told fans that I was an A’s fan and that’s what the Coliseum was for me.

They also asked me about Canton which was nice. It seems that Ryan grabbed a good load of info from my blog and my Facebook about my recent doings. But overall, it went well. Got a few of my friends listening online and giving me e-props on a job well done. I liked it. Radio was fun. Wouldn’t mind doing it again.

But until then, I’ll still be doing my gig.

Tomorrow I start my first training with Bleacher Report’s newsletter program. After a couple days of that, it’s a full-time 9-5 gig and well, you won’t see me ever again. Should be fun for everyone! Working in SF again will some experience that’s for sure.

Look at what they’ve done to my summer home! (My first trip to the Coliseum for football)

My summer home is ruined!!!

OK. I hate the Raiders. Well, I wouldn’t say hate. Maybe I don’t like everything about them. You see, the Raiders play in Oakland and share the Coliseum with the Oakland A’s. I love the A’s. But when the Raiders play there, they ruin the place. I don’t want Mount Davis there. I don’t want them on the field. I want them to go back to LA where they need to be.

I mean, look at this! It doesn’t feel right watching a game like this.

Another look at why football doesn't belong here.

Anyway, Saturday was the preseason game between the Raiders and 49ers. Being that it was my first time covering the 49ers on the road, I was a little excited as to what would be there for me. Aside from the hideous look of a football field in the middle of my summer sanctuary, here are some cool things about the place.

Unlike Candlestick, the press box is separated into two sections. One side is for the visiting media (left side/my side) and the right side for the home media. The place was a little cramped, but it was still accessible and easy to get through. It was nice inside. It wasn’t great, but it wasn’t bad.

The Mystery Spot sucked my wallet!!!

Lean back! Lean back!!!

Went to the Santa Cruz Mystery Spot today. It was cool. Sure, I know that it’s not really much of anything that the whole craziness is just about the illusion, but yeah! It was cool.

I paid $5 for parking when I could have just not told them and saved my monies. Oh well. Good stuff. It was interesting to try to get my brain to realize that there was nothing really odd about the place, yet everything was hard to grasp. Oh well.

More pictures here.

Tomorrow I go to my first ever Raiders game in Oakland. I am covering the Niners, but I will be angry because the Raiders made that stadium ugly.

I’m still too much of this world

The title says it all. I am still too much of this world. I still have this ideal life in my mind, something that I want to have, yet I know that’s not what I need to have.

If asked right now to drop everything and do what God tells me to do, I’d hesitate. I’d do it, but I’d take a little bit. That’s the thing. I know it’s right in my mind, but my heart isn’t just ready to take it just yet.

Now, maybe tomorrow it’ll be all different for me. But lately I have been really preoccupied with my thoughts on what I want in life: a successful writing job, a future with a wife and kid(s), decent money to make a living and just good people to be around. Now obviously that isn’t something bad to shoot for… but to have it in my mind and toil with my thoughts? Not good.

I think I want too much. I’m stuck wanting so much to be perfect, right that it’s just impossible. I remember in high school one of my teachers told me that life isn’t supposed to be easy, because it wouldn’t be life… I’d probably be dead. I need to accept what God has given me and take it and make the best I can with it. Instead I just am overwhelmed with what I want.

Like I said, if told to drop everything and go (like Abraham), I’d do it… just not immediately. I hold on to too much of this world. I need to be able to just drop everything and go. I’m working on getting there. It’s just not easy. And that’s life.

death by ministry? (via EL’s Dribble)

My dear friend Elton has blogged about the state of ministries. Now, not all are bad but it also is important to remember that a ministry is effective if we continue with what Jesus started. Connecting with people is the most important thing that some churches lack. Actions are important, yes. But connecting with the soul of another human being through Christ is pure beauty. A very sweet read.

(**I hope I did this re-blogging feature right)

I recently read Eugene Cho’s article about why pastors are depressed, burnt out and getting divorced at the same rates as the rest of America. Check it out – it’s a good overview of the present state of the North American pastor. Eugene has always been an insightful blogger… highly recommend. But I feel like the analysis misses the point entirely. The reason why pastors suffer the way that they do is that the role was never meant to be lived ou … Read More

via EL’s Dribble

I now intern at… wait for it… Bleacher Report

So today was my screening interview and I think I did pretty well. Well, so well that they want to have me back next week for training and the following week I will go full-time.

Now what do I do and what is this Bleacher Report? Bleacher Report is a sports site. It has connections with numerous other news sites. Anyway, it’s a decent site but I intend to make it the best site ever! Well, maybe not. But we’ll see.

I basically won’t be doing much writing, but instead a lot of news gathering for their newsletter program. The site produces one of the best, if not the best, sports newsletters on the web. And I will be right in the middle of it researching and gathering news.

The place is right in the middle of downtown SF and it’s pretty much going to suck going to SF every day. But I have to deal with it.

Casual Friday? How about casual everyday? Or in fact, just wear whatever is comfortable!!! The place is really chill and it’s just sports all the time. You’d think I’d get sick of it, and maybe I will, but it’s a good fever to have. The compensation is decent, so I’ll deal with it.

This doesn’t mean I still won’t write about the 49ers or do my bit on SB Nation. It just means that I have more to do and less time for other things. Busy busy…