Category Archives: Beyond

Beyond

If a Twitter Joins the Stock Market Does it Make a Sound?

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The other day Twitter joined the ranks of companies that have gone before it in the tech sector and went public.

Yes, the company that introduced the world to #hashtags and retweeting has gone mainstream with an initial public offering (IPO) on the stock market.

Through the years tech companies have entered the stock market with a bang with some weathering the storm and becoming actual players in the market and others faltering and falling by the wayside.

It is of course too early to tell which one of those categories will best describe Twitter when all is said and done but history has definitely not always been kind to internet based companies.

With social media rather young in the grand scheme of things it is hard to put a price on how much owning a piece of the next great thing.

Thanks to Twitter I can now tell the world how I am feeling 140 characters at a time from my phone proving once again that technology fills voids that we did not even know we had. Photo R. Anderson
Thanks to Twitter I can now tell the world how I am feeling 140 characters at a time from my phone proving once again that technology fills voids that we did not even know we had.
Photo R. Anderson

For every tech sector home run like Amazon and PayPal there are the forgotten fads such as MySpace and pets.com.

But while the world waits to see what fate ultimately befalls Twitter investors scooped up all of the shares that they could and the founders of Twitter became billionaires on paper overnight based on the value of their stock.

This of course is not too shabby for a company that has never turned a profit and sees the world in 140 character installments.

A few months back we here at Triple B joined the world of Twitter (@TripleBBrand) because a) we often find ourselves talking in 140 character sentences during the day and we wanted to share them and b) #everyoneelsewasdoingit.

During our time on Twitter we have followed a few news sources and learned a few things but for the most part Twitter has not really grabbed and held our attention the way we thought it would. #muchtodoaboutnothing.

The world of Twitter has also brought the need for rampant in game updates by journalists. While this is meant to tease their stories I would much rather wait for a fully formed story than to be bombarded by in game updates such as “Sources tell us @Ferguson just ate a burger on the sideline, says he is ready to reenter game #Spartanfansrejoice.”

So the news of Twitter going public has us wondering if that means that Twitter will suddenly change in some way to make it more exciting or offer new features to rock our 140 character worlds.

Ironically, I can be far more verbose in the world of SMS messaging on my phone with 160 characters to play with in my messages as opposed to the 140 Twitter allows. #Twittergotschooledbyalexandergrahambell

The business model for Twitter appears to be making money through advertising on

Beyond

I Wanna Go Fast

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For as long as I can remember I have had a need for speed.

Of course as a reporter working on deadline speed is an essential job qualification.

In terms of breaking news there is the speed of needing to be first on the scene when the story is breaking to be able to interview all of the main subjects.

Once back in the office, speed is essential in order to get the story written by deadline to ensure that the story makes the next day

Beyond

The Skies are Alive with the Sound of Airplanes

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This past weekend the skies above my part of Texas were full of vintage airplanes as part of the annual Wings over Houston airshow.

The airshow, which takes place at Ellington Field Airport, allows visitors the chance to see planes up close and personal while thinking back to an age where air power involved actual pilots and crew risking their lives for freedom and not some pilotless drone or guided missile.

Nothing against pilotless drones and guided missiles but few can argue that the amount of sacrifice is the same compared to the risks taken by aviators of the past.

Airshows, such as Wings over Houston, allow visitors the chance to see planes from many eras of aviation in action. Photo R. Anderson
Airshows, such as Wings over Houston, allow visitors the chance to see planes from many eras of aviation in action.
Photo R. Anderson

I was given the opportunity to cover the

Beyond

Appearance Matters or What I Learned From

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Last week I went to the doctor for my annual physical.

Over the past few years the actual time spent seeing the doctor has decreased while the amount of time waiting in the lab area for the drawing of blood and the giving of urine has increased.

Now, I know that the urine and blood are the areas that give the doctor the most data in terms of how my internal organs are functioning so I don

Beyond

Favre Says No to Comeback Offer from Rams, World Shocked

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So far the NFL season has been one for the ages.

Whether it will be remembered as a good age or a bad age is still a matter of debate.

With a series of teams battling for the number one draft pick next season it seems that there is very little good to say about the play of a quarter of the teams in the league as the season nears the halfway point.

Currently 7 of the 32 teams in the NFL have won less than two games. Conversely only four teams have one loss or less showing a huge divide between the haves and the have nots.

Aside from being a season of poor play by a quarter of the league the 2013 NFL season has turned into a season of last quarterback standing with several teams already using their third or fourth quarterback of the year.

Some quarterbacks have been replaced by injury, while others have been replaced by poor play. One quarterback was even cut by one team for poor play and then injured the following week for an entirely different team.

With more openings for good quarterbacks than available good quarterbacks, teams have had to get creative with filling the vacancies.

Let me just say that with so many quarterback slots open I find it appalling that Tim Tebow is still unemployed with no team seeming to be willing to hire the former Heisman winner who happens to have more playoff victories for the Denver Broncos than Peyton Manning.

While no one has called to offer Tebow a job apparently a call was made to another, albeit slightly older, former Jets quarterback.

Brett Favre, shown here during an event for Snickers during Super Bowl XXXVIII made some people snicker when it was leaked that the St. Louis Rams were interested in the twice retired quarterback. For the record, Favre said no. Photo R. Anderson
Brett Favre, shown here during an event for Snickers during Super Bowl XXXVIII made some people snicker when it was leaked that the St. Louis Rams were interested in the twice retired quarterback. For the record, Favre said no.
Photo R. Anderson

I am of course talking about Brett Favre the man who seems to retire and unretire more times than Andy Pettitte.

If published reports are to be believed the St. Louis Rams reached out to Favre, who last played three seasons ago for the Minnesota Vikings, to see if he was interested in coming out of retirement once again to fill-in for Sam Bradford who is out for the year following a knee injury.

It should be noted that Favre

Beyond

Upsets Aplenty in College Football

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This past weekend nine out of the college football teams ranked in the Top 25 lost to teams that were ranked lower than they were, or in some cases to teams that were not ranked at all.

There are upsets every week in college football but the collapse of nine schools in a single week is a little odd. From Friday to Saturday night the teams ranked 3rd, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 11th, 15th, 20th, and 22nd lost.

While eight of those upsets occurred throughout the day on Saturday, the biggest upset in my mind occurred Friday night when the 8th ranked Louisville Cardinals lost to the University of Central Florida Knights.

The University of Central Florida Knights upset the Louisville Cardinals Friday night kicking off a weekend of upsets where nine of the top 25 teams in the nation lost. Photo R. Anderson
The University of Central Florida Knights upset the Louisville Cardinals Friday night kicking off a weekend of upsets where nine of the top 25 teams in the nation lost.
Photo R. Anderson

While many could have a strong case in questioning the fact of whether the Cardinals really should have been considered the 8th best team in the nation, the fact remains that the polls said they were and the unranked Knights defeated them despite trailing by 21 points at one point in the game.

In the end it became UCF’s first victory in school history over a team that was ranked in the Top 10.

The victory also spoiled Louisville’s homecoming and ended a bid at a perfect season for the Cardinals.

So right about now you are probably asking yourself why a game between two American Athletic Conference teams warrants mentioning since most of college football is focused on which of the teams from the SEC will claim the national title this year.

It warrants mentioning because UCF just happens to be my alma mater and I have a bit of a history with the football program beyond just being an alumnus.

I worked in the Sports Information Office as an intern, and also as the editor in chief of a newspaper covering the college when the Golden Knights, as they were then known, made the jump to the upper levels of collegiate football.

So having been around when some of the early seeds were planted it is nice to talk about the current state of the program as well now that some of those seeds are bearing fruit.

Since making the jump to the highest level of college football UCF has gone from playing games at the Florida Citrus Bowl Stadium to a stadium on campus.

They have also improved their practice facilities from a crab grass covered field next to the disc golf course to an indoor air conditioned practice facility.

After years of playing "home" games at a stadium across town from the campus the UCF Knights got an on campus stadium of their own a few years back. Photo R. Anderson
After years of playing “home” games at a stadium across town from the campus the UCF Knights got an on campus stadium of their own a few years back.
Photo R. Anderson

The football team has not been alone in the facility renaissance. Virtually every team on campus has received new or completely remodeled facilities since making the jump to Division I.

While many other schools have the same amenities as UCF many of them have also been playing football for many decades more than UCF has.

While the improved stadium and practice facilities have been nice they are not the only change in the program.

The Knights have won bowl games and conference championships and occasionally get mentioned as a growing program by the national media.

The truth remains though that despite having one of the largest enrollments of any public university in the entire nation, UCF still does not get the coverage of some of the smaller schools with a longer history of competition.

So defeating the Cardinals during a nationally televised game on ESPN gives UCF more exposure. The fact that the Friday night game was the only televised game on at the time makes it even better.

Whenever the UCF knights are playing within four hours of Houston I try to attend the game and show my support. Of course it was way convenient when they sahred a conference with Rice University and I only had to drive 30 minutes to the game and had ample parking to pick from. Photo R. Anderson
Whenever the UCF knights are playing within four hours of Houston I try to attend the game and show my support. Of course it was way convenient when they shared a conference with Rice University and I only had to drive 30 minutes to the game and had ample parking to pick from.
Photo R. Anderson

While a single victory against a Top 10 team in front of a national audience does not mean the the Knights are ready to compete year after year for the national title, it does show the next step in a growing program that is evolving into something that other schools need to look out for.

Although I have not made it back to campus to see a home game in the new on campus stadium, I have been fortunate enough to see several away games in Texas and Louisiana over the past decade or so.

Who knows, maybe before long I will get to see UCF play in a major bowl game as well before too long.

As a nice bonus the Knights were ranked in the Top 25 following their victory over Louisville so perhaps that flying under the radar will soon be coming to an end.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to get my tickets to see the Knights play Southern Methodist University in December. Go Knights.

Copyright 2013 R. Anderson

Beyond

Certain Fans Give Sports a Black Eye

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Sunday afternoon the Houston Texans did something that they had done for the previous three weeks, they lost a game.

At 2-4 for the season it is highly unlikely that the Texans, who some had predicted as a Super Bowl team, will even make the playoffs this year.

Such is the nature of sports. You win some. You lose some. And until the game is played one does not know which side of the coin one will fall on.

Sure there are sports like soccer where the outcome can just as easily be a nil to nil draw, but by and large the stick and ball sports that most Americans follow end with a winner and a loser when all is said and done.

With this clear distinction of only two outcomes, it stands to reason that a team on any given day has an equal opportunity to either win or lose.

Of course there is a whole industry from fantasy sports to the betting houses in Las Vegas that try to guess the outcome ahead of time but they are not always successful since no one can predict with 100 percent accuracy what will happen once the players take the field.

This brings us back to the Texans who by most accounts are falling well short of expectations for the season.

By most accounts the Houston Texans are having a disappointing season. The reaction of some fans however is even more disappointing. Photo R. Anderson
By most accounts the Houston Texans are having a disappointing season. The reaction of some fans however is even more disappointing.
Photo R. Anderson

People are blaming coaches and players for the losing streak with some fans even calling for people to be fired or worse.

This came to a head during the game Sunday when the Texans quarterback left the game with a leg injury. Now, this same player had led the Texans to the postseason last year but he is off to a rough start this year and even set a NFL record with four consecutive games where he had a pass intercepted and returned for a touchdown in a play known as a pick 6 which got its name from the fact that the interception, or pick, results in six points for the opposing team.

So when the Texans quarterback was down on the ground in pain there was a vocal group of fans in the stands that were cheering the injury since they felt that it would mean a new quarterback would enter the game and lead the team to victory.

Instead the new quarterback entered the game and threw, you guessed it, a pick 6.

So it seems that the Texans issues are not limited to a single player having an off year and point to more of an institutional off year which teams do tend to have from time to time.

Of course any sane person could see that since rarely does one player win or lose a team sport. It takes the entire team working on both offense and defense to secure a victory.

Still, there are those extreme fans who fixate on a single player as the cause of all of their issues. Normally this just involves yelling at the television but in some cases it can turn violent.

While there have not been any reports of Texans fans getting violent towards any players yet there have even been reports of fans driving by the quarterback’s house and confronting his family.

That is taking things too far. No one, regardless of their profession, should have to deal with people harassing their family members.

Remember it is just a game. The athletes are paid to entertain us and to give their all during the game. They do not owe us anything during their off time and cheering for someone to get injured harkens back to something out of the Roman Coliseum days.

We have moved beyond those days although I am not so sure that everyone in society made that trip and we do seem to be reverting back to a more barbaric society.

Of course there is time to stop that trend and return to a more civilized sporting environment. Watch the games, enjoying the effort but don’t take it too far to the point of cheering for someone to get hurt just because they threw some interceptions.

From 1982 to 1991 the Washington Redskins went to the Super Bowl four times, winning three times against the Miami Dolphins, Denver Broncos and Buffalo Bills. The second of those four appearances resulted in a loss to the Oakland Raiders.

The Washington Redskins went through a period where winning the Super Bowl each year became expected. With the last title coming over 20 years ago it has become clear that winning is not guaranteed. Some fans of the Houston Texans are still trying to learn that after a couple of trips to the playoffs. Photo R. Anderson
The Washington Redskins went through a period where winning the Super Bowl each year became expected. With the last title coming over 20 years ago it has become clear that winning is not guaranteed. Some fans of the Houston Texans are still trying to learn that after a couple of trips to the playoffs.
Photo R. Anderson

So as a fan of the Redskins during that time, winning it all sort of was expected despite the fact that only one team can win it all each year. It is sort of the way that fans of the Dallas Cowboys, New York Yankees and New England Patriots expected to win it all every year during the dominant years each of those franchises had.

During the 1985 or 1986 season I was watching a Washington Redskins game with quarterback Jay Schroeder behind center.