The melting pot...

Funny thing about family. These are the people you are tied to regardless of situation, income, location. The people you are supposed to love unconditionally. The people who are supposed to understand you the most. But often these are the people you practice the least amount of tolerance with. The least amount of patience. The least amount of understanding.

In the real world you begin to develop interpersonal skills. These skills allow you to enter work places, public places and interact with people of different backgrounds, personalities and beliefs. For example, when you are at work you have people that you click with, people that you don't, people that you can't stand, but in the end you have managed to adjust how you deal with each individual so you can accomplish a final goal and get through the day. Why is it that these same skills are not practiced within the family.

Families are made up of people with different personalities, different interpersonal skills, and sometimes different beliefs. Why is it that we never practice what we do outside of the house inside with our own family. We expect for everyone to think like you do, act like you do, work like you do and when they don't it leads to angry conversations, arguments and conversations behind brick walls. We are all people. Thrown together in this long chain by no fault of our own. Spent years and years around each other. You would think that people in these situations would be able to deal with one another better.

If you don't then stop being stupid and start dealing with each other. Use those skills. Accept people for who and what they are and adjust your behavior accordingly. You are all working towards a common goal.

Now go eat some turkey. Happy Thanksgiving.

Part IV...game play...


So ladies, so far we've covered the offensive positions, the defensive positions and the special teams positions. Now it's time to get to the heart of the matter. What the heck is going on in the game???

Today's discussion will center around the offense. After all, they are the main ones responsible for getting points on the board. The goal of the game is to get more points than your opponent. In order to do so, the coaches and players plan and execute specific plays to do so. How they develop these plays varies from team to team and are determined by various factors.

At the beginning of the offensive plays the quarterback will inform the offense of what play is being run. He can do so either in a huddle or as they are getting into formation (no huddle). After the play is called the offense lines up according to the play called at the line of scrimmage. The center has the ball and snaps it back to the quarterback and the play begins. Depending on the type of play the quarterback will either throw the ball to a receiver down the field (a passing play) or he will hand the ball off to someone to run (a run play). Each team has their preference of what types of plays they run. If the quarterback is unable to get the ball to anyone, he may choose to run for the yards himself. Because the quarterback position is so vital to the team, they try to protect him from getting hit and keep him from running as much as possible. Which is why if you see the quarterback run, it is quite often that he'll run for as many yards as he can then try to get out of bounds.

Now the goal is to get down the field and get the ball into the end zone. The team has to move at least 10 yards to keep possession of the ball. They have 4 attempts to move the ball 10 yards. These are referred to as downs. Often you will hear the refs or the commentators say "1st down" or "1st and 10". This means that this is the first attempt to get 10 yards. "2nd and 5" will mean second attempt and they have 5 yards to go to get the down. Why is this important? Because if they do not move down the field they lose possession of the ball. Statistically, the team that has possession of the ball longer, has more opportunities to score more points. And we know the team that has the most points wins. Now, these yards are determined from where they start each play. So if the team loses yards (goes backwards down the field) they end up with what's known as a long field and they have even more yards to get to get the down.

Now there are 3 ways to get points on the board.

#1
The touchdown. This is when the team gets the ball into the end zone. This is worth the most points: 6. After a team gets a touchdown they have the opportunity to get more points. They can kick. This is when the special teams will come out and the kicker will kick the ball between the large yellow poles in the end zone (the uprights). The ball has to go between those poles to count. The kick is worth 1 additional point. (These one points can make or break a game). The other option to get additional points after the touchdown is what's called a 2-point conversion. This is where the team lines up at the 1 yard line and attempts to get the ball back into the end zone. This is used mostly in desperate times or when the team is very confident they can get those two extra points. Remember, one point can really hurt or help a team so most teams use 2-point conversions sparingly.

#2
The field goal. When a team is unable to get all the way down the field, but feels they are close enough to the end zone for their kicker to kick the ball through the uprights, they will kick a field goal. This is a play done by special teams, typically decided on the 4th down. This is worth 3 points and is a good way for teams to get points on the board when they feel that they will not make it into the end zone.

#3
A safety. You will rarely see a safety happen. This is when someone from the other team is tackled in their own end zone by the defense. This is worth 2 points.

So there is a good start to understanding how to score points and what the offense is doing. Next up, we'll cover how the defense is built to stop the offense. Until then, happy football watching.

Can't seem to shake it....

This morning I woke up and realized something. I'll probably never reach the heights of success the way I want to because I'm scared. I know it's stupid, and I know it's completely irrational but I believe that's what's been holding me back. I wasn't really aware of it until this morning.

So I have big ideas. Ideas for clothing, ideas for greeting cards, ideas for websites, ideas for a lot of things. I've got sites set up for my special occasions designs (wedding invitations, save the dates, baby shower invites, etc). But I haven't promoted them. I've got a holiday mailer made up to advertise all of my Christmas card designs. But I haven't mailed it out. I'm scared that if people really like them, I will not have the time nor the resources to put things out by myself. I know that if I get my ideas off the ground, I know that I would not be able to maintain the company alone. Bringing in other people into my ideas scares me. Not only will they be exposed to "my ideas", but I'll now be responsible for taking care of them. I'll be responsible for the taxes and all the other things that come along with running a business. Plus there are so many unknown factors that I don't feel adequately prepared for what could happen.

I'm also scared of what people think. Now in my every day life I could care less what people think about me. But when it comes to my designs, my art, I'm terrified of not being good. Oh sure people have given me accolades on what I've done. I guess it's just the artist in me that knows I can do better. I mean I have my moments where I look at things I've done and had to completely pat myself on the back because I know it's dope. But even those moments I'm scared to share with people outside of my creative circle. This blog allows me to do it because so few people from my waking life read it. It's safe.

Then I'm also scared just about my skills alone. Like for instance right now, I'm in a design low. I have little to no inspiration. I'm able to go back and modify and create new things out of what I've already done, but I haven't been inspired to create anything new in a long time. If my design business was to grow much larger than it is now, then I would have to figure out ways to get out of these creative slumps and I haven't been able to figure it out for years. I know that eventually it'll go away, it always does. But my possible clients don't care about creative slumps.

This is what always gets me. I have this need to feel like I'm prepared for everything. Even if I'm not, I have to have enough of an idea of what's needed to feel comfortable to proceed ahead. And I 'm not comfortable. I know I don't have the resources for a start up financially, so I have to continue to work. I know that if I continue to work I will not be able to put in as many hours as I'd need to, to get prepared. I know that starting it could bring me more money and eliminate my only stress in life. But I'm not willing to risk the stability the job brings me now. I'm not a risk taker. While people on the outside may look at some of the things I've done as risks, I always had a plan. Whether I shared it or not, I had a plan. Maybe I'm not scared of success after all. Maybe I'm just becoming impatient with how long the planing has taken. I want to be in it now. And right now, I'm not ready. Maybe it is the fear that's causing my planing to take too long. Maybe the longer I continue to write this the more I'll be able to work out the maybes. Maybe not.