My old ish

Around the time that I decided to get this blog off the ground again I took a look at another discarded page of mine hosted on blogspot that I'd almost forgot about. Out of my supposed college hot-shot edginess I called it "Da Meanest Blog" and to my slight surprise I think I did a better job then I originally thought in documenting a key part of my life thus far.

The blog started in the summer of 2006, I was an intern at the Wausau Daily Herald and unbeknownst to my then-self was starting my grand, still-evolving adventure in central Wisconsin. I started it as part of my obligation as a Chips Quinn Scholar, the name of the fantastic organization which every year places dozens of the best aspiring journalists of color and place them in many of our nation's newsrooms for intensive runs as interns.

In this blog you can see some of my stories that I wrote for the Daily Herald back then (such a different place journalism was in then, such a different place the Daily Herald and the regional Gannett Central Wisconsin Newspapers operation was then. That summer I wrote only one article that had anything to do with Stevens Point, which is where I work now. Today we use part-time stringers out of Point and every other thing they cover has to be good for at least two coverage areas. We hardly cover anything nowadays that is specific to one paper- aint enough people working here for that kind of specialization) and I continued it through my final semester in college, mostly posting up opinion articles and editorials I wrote as the opinion page editor for the Daily Egyptian at Southern Illinois University-Carbondale. Fair Carbondale, the dale of the Carbons, how I miss ye (sometimes). Anyhow...if you want to get to know more of the enigma that is Kyle Means, this is a good place to start.

http://dameanestblog.blogspot.com/

A new day in the WIAA

Hate linking to my newspaper blog because of the way we host it, but this is for anyone who's ever followed high school football in Wisconsin. Drastic, DRASTIC realignment may be on the way.

Take a look at my breakdown of the proposal by the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association to re-organized the group's seven divisions into enrollment-specific districts. With this new way of doing things many decade-old conferences and rivalries just as old could be wiped out for the future.

*Clever sports reference*: WIAA football may never be the same again

Clearing out the bookmarks

Roundup of stuff I've kept bookmarked on my computer for too long and now have to let out here even though they are already dated. Enjoy:

One link and another, better one of LeBron being dunked on.




Really a trip how this turned out to be such a big bit of nothing. Nike and LeBron played themselves with the cover-up, making this whole getting dunked on thing bigger than it ever needed to be. In the end this was just a wasted flexing of corporate muscle. Good thing the swooshers can't control NBA footage or we'd have missed out on memorable moments such as those to the right.

I liked this Michael Silver story as well, it tells about the unlikely burgeoning relationship between Chad Ochocinco (I will try my hardest to make sure I can write that name as much as possible on this blog) and Denzel Washington (or as his increasingly aging female fanbase would say Denzel!).

Its good that someone has taken an interest in molding Ochocinco as a man cause he needs it, when he is able to fully measure his abilities as a football player with his abilities as an entertainer he's as interesting a figure as there is in sports. Sure, who the hell wants to be stuck in Cincinnati but Chad has a chance to be a hall of fame player- don't ruin that, cause it looks like that ring aint coming.

More NFL as we get closer and closer to training camps opening (Oh, boy! (c) John Witherspoon) — the changes in the NFL draft programming format.


I can get with this, I usually have to watch NBC's Thursday lineup (Office and 30 Rock in particular) on Hulu anyway because of work so I'm not worried about what runs up against the draft. What sucks though is that it changes the whole weekend culture of watching the draft nonstop on what would have otherwise been a lazy Saturday afternoon (also occasionally checking in on Sunday). Now a lot of people might be working during the draft, including a co-worker of mine who for years has had an all-day party at his place for the first day of the draft. People will adapt but I think a lot more people will have to settle for checking in updates for the picks while their boss isn't looking or worse, being forced to tune in during commercial breaks of "Grey's Anatomy." (My married brothas, don't give in).

Coming soon

More of that goodness...the Resurrection of "The Official"

Verse One:
I stagger in the gathering possessed by a patter-in
That be scatterin
Over the globe will my vocals be travellin
Unravellin my abdomen it's slime that's babblin
Grammatics that are masculine
I grab them in, verbally badgerin broads
I wish that Madelline, was back on Video LP
I went against all odds and got a even steven
Proceed to read and not believin everything I'm readin
But my brain was bleedin, needin feedin, and exercise
I didn't seek the best of buys, it's a lie to textualize
I analyze where I rest my eyes
And chastise the best of guys with punchlines
I'm Nestle when it's Crunch-time
For your mind like one time
If poetry was pussy I'd be sunshine
cause I deliver like the Sun-Times
Confined in once-mines on dumb rhymes I combine
I'm hype like I'm unsigned, my diet I unswine
Eatin beef sometimes I try to cut back on that shit
This rap shit is truly outta control
My style is too developed to be arrested
It's the freestyle, so now it's out on parole
They tried to hold my soul in a holding cell so I would sell
I bonded with a break and had enough to make bail
A misdemeanor fell on his knee for the jury
I asked No for his ID and the judge thought there was two of me
Motion for a recess to retest my fingerprints
They relinquished since, cause I was guilty in a sense

Verse Two:
I ride the rhythm like a Schwinn bike when in dim light
I use insight to enlight devices hit the skin tight
Words of wisdom wail from my windpipe
Imaginations in flight
I send light, like Ben's kite I've been bright
Get open like on gym nights
And in fights I send rights
Don't hook with skins my friends like
I spend nights up in dykes
In spite I've been indicted as a freak of all trades
I got it made
I bathe in basslines, rinse in riffs, dry in drums
Come from a tribe of bums
Hooked on negro and mums
Had to halt with the, malt liquor
Cause off the malt liquor I fought niggaz
Now my speech is lost quicker
Cruisin Southside streets with no heat and no sticker
U Ak got my back and we don't get no thicker
U Ak got my back and we don't get no thicker
U Ak got my back and we don't now check it
I'm a hoe but not a hoe nigga, ain't scared of no nigga
But it's my turn to go I gotta go
And I'm gone with the storm

Iowa's a bigfoot program?

Must we always get overreaction, baseless prognostication and snarky comments from those ESPN "experts."
Really, that whole operation needs to change its name to Overreaction, Baseless Prognostication and Snark, Inc. Although that wouldn't make for that great an abbreviation, I guess it'd be OBPS or something.

Anyway, check out the gems delivered by Gene Wojciechowski in his column "Coaching moves make Sweet 16 into job auditions" posted on ESPN's website today.

Feel free to read it, but if you don't have the patience I'll summerize it: Apparently, since Tubby Smith left Kentucky, half the coaches in Division I will also go somewhere else in the near future. Oh, and I just love this paragraph, its the fifth one down:

Southern Illinois' Chris Lowery is being romanced by someone. Has to be. No one stays in Carbondale on purpose, do they? Some bigfoot program (paging, Iowa?) will drop its share of zeroes and commas on the guy and he's gone, right?

I'm sure Wojo likes the sound of his own voice (who doesn't on that channel) but he really need to shut up with that one. Now, as an SIU alum who was there to see two different coaches (Bruce Weber and Matt Painter) leave in two consecutive years, I am greatly fearing that we won't hold on to Lowery for long. But I also have faith that Lowery will stay. Unlike those previous two coaches, Lowery is an SIU alum. No one stays in Carbondale on purpose? Well why has Lowery come there three different times- as a player, an assistant coach and a head coach (Lowery left an assistant spot at Illinois to take the helm at SIU)?

And Iowa is a bigfoot program? Please, who did they play Thursday night? No one. Meanwhile, SIU gave Kansas the fight of its life. They have more 000's in cornland but their program is hardly on SIU's level right now. If anything I'm more worried about Kentucky coming to call after coach after coach rejects their shadow of a program (see: Alabama football).

The Sweet 16- not so sweet for me

When Jamaal Tatum missed that tip-in attempt in the second half I knew that my beloved SIU Salukis, the team whose done such a good job representing my alma mater, the team who's stars I interviewed not to long ago just didn't have enough to overcome the mighty Kansas Jayhawks.

Actually, I didn't know right then, I'm a little less fatalistic than that. That shot though, wasn't a good sign.

We came as close as that shot did to falling in. Such is March. That's why you can love it and hate it all at once.

I'm also hating on that A&M/Memphis finish. First you have that lame foul call that led to Memphis getting the lead then you have more than a second getting took off the clock after that bad inbounds try by the Aggies.

A&M may not have deserved to win that one but they didn't deserve to lose it the way they did, having to hurl up a half-court shot with less than two seconds left.

Now Ohio St. is down six to Tennessee. My elite 8 is looking shakey. Oh well, I don't feel as bad as they do in College Station or in Carbondale, which I don't mind leaving behind, but I wish I could have been there tonight.