Just spell it out
John Daly with a filter, even though the pants really didn’t need any enhancement.
It has been years since we saw John Daly play in his prime, but he is still bringing the goods on the Champions Tour. The quick-to-grow-on-you Loudmouth pants and the big swing make you stop to watch whenever you get the chance. In this case, I was by myself cutting across the back fairways when I had this chance, and when you get this chance you take it.
LGT Challenger (Binghamton, NY) – With crowds this small, it’s always interesting that they have such tight media rules.
The Levene Gouldin & Thompson Tennis Challenger is happening this week. The tournament fits in as a minor league level event. That means that the best players may be ranked in the 100’s and many are breaking playing their first tournaments. Their claim to fame is that an unknown Andy Murray won in 2005 before going on to win the 2012 US Open and then Wimbledon in 2013 and 2016, so you never know if you are seeing a future star.
What caught my eye was first that there were so few people on this Saturday. Granted it was not the finals and it was a miserable 85 degrees and 90+% humidity.
Next were the signs that basically cut down on all internet fun even though it certainly was needed to help stir up some publicity. I’m sure the reason goes back to some lawyers making sure that no one tries to livecast from the US Open, but this event is a little off that track and should actually encourage this these tournaments to be experimental platforms for broadcasting (text or video) from a live event.
Saddle up to the Bar – Virgil’s BBQ to open at Tioga Downs & Casino, and I had a chance to do a pre-opening walkthru while they were training staff.
The tables are in the new Virgil’s BBQ that is scheduled to open next week at the expanding Tioga Downs & Casino complex. The current Casino has very a sterile all-you-eat buffet style restaurant and a sports-type bar in the lobby, so this will be a major upgrade.
I was there with our local entrepreneur meet-up, so this gave us a chance to see what goes into a large-scale restaurant launch. We also had a chance to check out the restaurant and also got a whiff of some smoked ribs.
This place has saddle bar seats and stage with bands and comedy shows already scheduled. So I don’t see any gamble in making a reservation for Virgils. As soon as they open the book this weekend, my name is going in.
Big picture of Virgil’s BBQ opening soon at Tioga Casino.
Roadtrip – MITCIO and ODSC
The search will take me to NYC later this week, but I have also been able to get passes to both MITCIO 2016 on May 18 at MIT and then ODSC on May 20-22 at the Seaport.
More updates to come…
Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Starring Aerosmith
We did it!! We made it to Disney World, and it was a great all around week. We spent five very full days at WDW. We also added a trip to the Clearwater Marina so Col could see Winter and Hope in person.
As soon as Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Starring Aerosmith was over, I asked if I could go again. I had to. I also learned on this trip that a rollercoaster is even better than coffee for getting your day started. As for the early returns based on our talks on the plane ride home, it sounds like there will be another trip, since all the conversations started “Next time we come to Disney…”
Need more pictures?
There’s a running set of posts at our 7thtee Tumblr site.
And the growing monster set at the family gallery on Flickr.
Big data updates Strat-o-matic
According to the NY Times, Strat-o-matic is rolling out a new digital version called Strat-O-Matic Baseball Daily. Players stats and team information will be updated daily. If this idea existed back in my day, I would know far less about Harmon Killebrew’s new Minnesota Twins franchise. Those were well-worn cards that had been passed though most of my father’s family until I was able to get my hands on them.
Last thing I need to add to my summer fantasy baseball / MLB.TV habit is playing daily Strat-o-matic, so right now I’m, hoping that it costs too much.
Making the Grade: Tackling the Challenges of Big Data from MIT Professional Educational
My plan for 2016 focuses on moving my career by building out my skills. My experience working with large media properties, like AOL, IMG, Lycos and SuperBowl.com, has provided me the foundation of leading the product development team, but now I want to veer back to those days where I got my hands dirty and then built solutions on top of that.
The first step on the path toward moving into the data storytelling world is locking down the big picture. As of this week, I have completed Tackling the Challenges of Big Data, an MIT Professional Educational course. And for this I received a certificate. 🙂
It was a great combination of topics, some that I could get thru easily thanks to past work experience, like visualization (Maxus) and machine learning (AOL / Hakia), and then the more technical aspects which made me buckle down to learn, like database architecture and cryptology. I never had to deal with these directly, but now feel more comfortable knowing how they all fit together.
I’ll add updated posts here as I move more toward this goal where I can work side-by-side with the advanced data scientists and turn their findings into new products and user experiences. This does not have to be on-line, as it would be great to expand opportunities by using data to uncover and predict more everyday activities. We are doing this somewhat at VitalBriefing today; however, the scale is much smaller than the 20 million page views from the AOL days, which even at 20M can still seem small to some of the IoT projects going on today.
Up next: I’ve had a good start with the data architect project at Maxus, but next up is to learn more about the tools, including visualization tools like Tableau which I used at Maxus, but it evolves so fast that you have to stay ahead, and Python which I want to use to crunch my own numbers.
The 2016 New Year Pizza
It’s the annual New Year Pizza. This year I was able to sneak pepperoni on it, and folk lore says that means a great year ahead.
This year my annual trophy responsibility included the President’s Cup.
Each year I seem to be that last one left holding the Dick’s Sporting Goods Open trophy. This year my game must be improving because I have my hands on The President’s Cup. Us and them — I mean the U.S. and the World Team will be playing to get their hands on this in South Korea in October, but on this day it mine.
Let’s not forget the one time I actually was able to attend a practice round at the 2005 President’s Cup which was near our then-home in Virginia.
Cape League – Brewster @ Bourne
Since we had been on the road for two weeks, I had not had my baseball night out in while, so this was huge for me. We didn’t even get to the game until the 5th inning, but the for few innings we saw, it was great.
In the game, the Bourne Braves beat the visiting Brewster Whitecaps 6-4.