As an unapologetic and passionate sports fan, numbers have always fascinated me. My dad was an accountant and tax preparer, and at least until calculus I was actually better at math than I was in writing and creativity. Those damn functions derailed what could have been a promising career in physics, which I am certain anyone who has been on a flight recently is thankful for, because I sure wouldn’t want to be on any plane I designed.
As evidence for my poor design skills, I had signed off on a personal website a friend of my spouse had developed for me shortly after my most recent corporate gig left me, as a “favor”, so as to help me get my resume seen by more and younger people. Because, this person opined, a mere pdf can’t possibly get anyone’s attention, and given my advancing age it was important that I not been seen as a dinosaur. That person’s words, not mine, from a person that was roughly my age. For roughly a year, I used that site as a landing page for people to see my career highlights. Nary a full-time gig emerged from it. Of course, the earliest days of the pandemic, when people’s attention spans were negligible and media companies began to merge and begin the first of many rounds of layoffs didn’t help.
But neither did my website. It was hard to navigate, difficult to update, and aesthetically unpleasing. At least, that’s what someone I respected who I had come to know through a regularly scheduled Zoom call to help remain sane and to play some games opined. Roseanne Ullman was one of the few people in our little band of game show zealots who had a date of birth on her driver’s license remotely close to mine. She’s also a respected author and journalist who had developed her own site with the help of a friend of one of her children. I looked at her site, and I read her work. One of the sites she contributes to is called Sixty and Me. It resonated. And I was inspired. (I’ve provided the link to it below; see what you think.)
When I did get on a plane to visit Florida, roughly a year after my futile job search and that old site began, it was a milestone event for me. Florida had reopened enough to allow fans back into sporting events, and, pure and simple, I needed to be in the stands again. 2020 was the first year since I was six years old that I had not attended a live sporting event. The closest I came was driving through the Dodger Stadium parking lot, alone, to attempt to navigate an obstacle course of a holiday salute to the World Champions, with the Vin Scully-narrated highlight film blaring on video screens that accompanied light shows borrowed from It’s A Small World. So I saw a few spring training games, for the first time in years, my first-ever Miami Heat basketball game, and for those that know my journey that was a particularly emotional one, and I was able to not only meet Roseanne and her husband, but they even let me stay over for a night. In a world where so many of my friends in California were (and still are) petrified by the mere concept of allowing another human being into their home, their courtesy could not have been more appreciated. They were fuily vaxed by that time, I had finally gotten my first shot, and, more importantly, they thought NORMALLY. Unlike a whole lotta other people on our Zooms.
Roseanne offered up the young man who designed her site as someone who could potentially help me create something that more people would want to actually look at. Moreover, she added that perhaps I incorporate other ways to communicate to prospective employers that I waa still current and relevant with my skills and opinions. Start a regular blog, she offered. Express yourself. And, as she reasoned on an energetic walk that reminded me that she was in far better shape than I was, despite my recent focus on health and fitness, what else are you doing these days anyway?
That young man has a name that devotees of my other site, TheDoubleOvertime.com, might recognize. Davood Denavi runs a consulting company called Binary Web out of his Chicago apartment. He’s a huge fan of the Cubs and the Bulls, and he immediately identified everything wrong with my website. He considers Roseanne and her family as both friends and clients, and offered me a rate I simply couldn’t refuse. And, most importantly, he quickly taught me WordPress, which would allow me to easily channel my thoughts and opinions as often as I wanted, on my own, without having to have someone else edit the site to do so. He’s an invaluable and tireless (well, most days) partner with skill sets and patience I only dream to have.
And, today, somehow, this unlikely team effort has produced the 500th published blog in what we humbly call Leblanguage.
I try to keep these observations grounded in my knowledge of media, current events and sports fandom, three areas I have excelled in for decades. But in a world that had inexplicably become one where people were absolutely petrified of any thought of contact, and at a time when I was encountering every possible degree of rejection and gut-wrenching heartbreak, not to mention still dealing with some lingering issues related to my near-fatal incident of Christmas 2019, and with the attention span of people I thought were close friends so resolutely against even listening to my anguish, I needed to tell my story and to express my thoughts in those areas, too. With the same level of sometimes brutal but necessary honesty that served me well in many of my career stops, and that my “friends” would regularly offer up in chastising ways, but pull away if I even tried to do the same to them.
Sometimes my observations are nuanced and non-incideniary. For example, today is Pi Day. Did you know this is the 35th time it’s been “officially” observed? Well, Wikipedia did:
In 1988, the earliest known official or large-scale celebration of Pi Day was organized by Larry Shaw at the San Francisco Exploratorium,[7] where Shaw worked as a physicist,[8] with staff and public marching around one of its circular spaces, then consuming fruit pies.[9] The Exploratorium continues to hold Pi Day celebrations.[10]
On March 12, 2009, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a non-binding resolution (111 H. Res. 224),[4] recognizing March 14, 2009, as National Pi Day.[11] For Pi Day 2010, Google presented a Google Doodle celebrating the holiday, with the word Google laid over images of circles and pi symbols;[12] and for the 30th anniversary in 2018, it was a Dominique Ansel pie with the circumference divided by its diameter.[13]
Did you just learn something you may not have already known? Or realize you already did but had forgotten that you knew it? Welcome to my world of market research methodology. Imagine if you were a company, or an individual who knew someone who could actually pay me for that skill.
Well, somehow, I just can’t seem to find an actual connection to someone who actually knows someone who actually has a current job opening for an actual job. LinkedIn is a valuable way to distribute content and at least start or rekindle personal connections, but, for me, it’s a thoroughly useless way to find an actual job I’m qualified for. Maybe your experience is different. All I know is that another milestone being observed today is that I’m now into my fourth year of trying to find a decently-paying gig.
Some people have been quick to point out that my opinions may be THE reason for that. In their view, even HAVING opinions is a fool’s errand. Most recently, coincidentally after I wrote of the rideshare driver whose account was suspended because he took what I view as an entitled, woke attitude toward his work, the same fate happened to me with one of them. I’m still waiting to find out why it happened, and although people assure me in may have just been a coincidence, all I know is that right now one way for me to even make a small dent in my massive debt has been taken away from me. Which is even more inexplicable because had a human being actually read what I wrote, I took the side OF THE RIDESHARE COMPANY.
Could it be possible that I could be penalized for writing something SUPPORTIVE? Well, I guess if someone can accuse me of “stalking” when a) it was my hacked account that was being noticed and b) anything that has been said publicly has been nothing but complimentary and appreciative, anything’s possible.
All I know is that my net worth dipped to TWO figures earlier this week. Thankfully, that’s no longer true as I type this. But even having a millisecond of such panic is torturous.
So, yes, dammit, the link many have offered I should never, ever, EVER have started appears below as well. Some of you have been decent enough to read the fine print there, and even more have been wonderful enough to read the fine print here. 500 times. And counting. God, I wish someone at a rideshare company would join you.
Links to job openings DO NOT WORK. If you don’t already have a personal connection to someone who actually knows someone, job boards seem to be, for me, nothing more than fantasy compilations of blind alleys. My other milestone today is 782 jobs applied for that have passed on me. I applied to number 783 just before I began this writing.
So I ask you, if you’re even capable of feeling anything if you’re one of the blessed who gets to earn money consistently, rarely leave the comfort of your home, your loved ones and your pets, not face any health concerns that nearly killed you, face mounting legal issues from people who simply won’t let you live your life because they incorrectly believe their views are accurate in spite of all empirical evidence to the contrary, and for whom the very act of communicating with someone who right now can’t do anything for them except write and express–if you were me, what would you do?
Besides wish we could somehow balance out our respective existences? Perhaps a bit of my physical transformation in exchange for some of your emotional and financial security?
Ooh, I ASKED. Bad, bad me.
When will I stop this? I’m not sure. I’ve somehow made it to 500. That’s a magic number. 27 baseball players have hit 500 home runs. 47 hockey players have scored 500 goals. Not a single current primetime television series has produced 500 episodes. So this is indeed rarified air.
Maybe when I do land on my feet somewhere that wants to take advantage of my expertise, my genius, my passion, my energy–I might post more infrequently. I do this on a regular schedule to keep some semblance of continuity and sanity, much as I’m advised by objective people to do. I can’t tell at this point when that might be. Honestly, the frequency of rejection overwhelms me. I still remain hopeful. I have no choice.
But it gets harder and harder as my net worth continues to dwindle, along with my credit score. I’m ashamed to admit 500 is closer to where my credit score is currently. Unlike other people I used to know, I won’t be posting mine on Instagram any time soon.
But I will continue to post here. So while we’re still stuck with each other, let’s celebrate. 500’s a big deal. Maybe someone could buy me a Fiat? 
Nah. Too much to ask.
Perhaps with a slice of pizza or my personal favorite, hot apple pie? I’ll even split mine with you. I don’t feel much like eating today.
Until next time…
2 thoughts on “Another Milestone. Wanna Celebrate With Me?”
I hope you continue blogging. Enjoy this and dispite not following sports, even On Double Overtime very much. Looking foward to issue 1000.
In terms of being upfront and critical, someone you looked up to was that way in print from his first Laker Beat at the L.A. Times in the 70’s to his last swan song at KTLA where he was a producer and writer critiquing the Dodgers and Dodger organization. Unfortunately the last time he did that was during contract negotiations for the next set of game broadcast rights. He was shown the door. However that was a 42 year career.
Question for you and your partner: How do you get these monetized, i.e. selling ad space?
We are still working on it. And no one ever accused Tribune of being smart in any negotiations. Least of all me 🙂