Bowling – The Ball or the Bowler -The Evolution of an Old Sport
Today I went bowling again. I have long been a fan of the lanes growing up. I belonged to leagues throughout my youth and now finding love again for the sport. I used to be quite the avid bowler with a 210 average. I contemplated going professional for a long time but never followed the dream of going on tour.
The last few years the sport has changed a lot. I walked into a local alley tonight and now they have Rock and Bowl throughout the week! They have couches instead of chairs, and LCD screen TV’s alongside the scoring screens. The alley has drop down projector screens where you can watch music videos as well. All that I can say is WOW!!! What a difference from when I was growing up and scoring on a written score sheet!!
Not only has the atmosphere changed but so has the ball technology. I see guys throwing 200+ with ease with these new balls. Even bad shots are making their way to the pocket every time. The balls almost home in and strike through the pins with little or no effort. Guys show up with 2, 3, even 4 balls. I have 1 ball and it’s about 10 years old if not more.
I took a look in a pro shop recently and was astonished to see how balls have evolved. They give you graphs and statistics on lane conditions, how the balls will react on the lanes with certain oils, and to add to that there is a mass of them. I was contemplating a new ball but what do I buy???
I thought all this was interesting but does it take away from the game? Are bowlers just getting to be this good that bowling itself is less of a challenge?
I will discuss some other time the sport of Foilbowling which I created about 5 years ago. Foilbowling proves to be unpredictable and challenging two factors which I feel are slowly being removed from the true game of bowling.
Categories: Life, Hobbies, and The Start of it All Tags: Bowling, Bowling Balls, Foilbowling, Sports
Batman – The Dark Night – Movie Review
I went to see Batman last night. The movie was over two hours of non-stop action. The effects were well done throughout the movie. I like to see movies that have lots of effects without being overdone and completely unrealistic.
The story line was well thought out with Heath Ledger and Morgan Freeman, whom is one of my favorite actors taking on excellent roles. Heath was a pretty wild joker and his demeanor throughout the film kept you on your feet. Batman played by Christian Bale was terrific throughout the film.
The Joker’s motives were interesting and some of his meaning was revealed throughout the movie with key commentary coming from Morgan himself who played Lucius Fox.
There was also the introduction of another character Two-Face (Aaron Eckhart) in the film which added to the plot and twisted it a bit in the last third of the flick.
Check out more about the movie if you want to get the nitty gritty. The Internet Movie Database is where I go to get the low down.
Click here for More Info on Batman – The Dark Knight
Without giving away the movie I will sum it up by saying – GO SEE IT!!! You will get your money’s worth.
Categories: Movie and Dining Reviews Tags: Batman, Batman Movie Review, Batman The Dark Night
Social Networking – The Corporate Realm – Just or Unjust?
It is increasingly becoming the norm for companies to explore Social Networking opportunities as a means for marketing.
What does this actually mean?
Social Networking as it is dubbed refers to such sites as
www.myspace.com
www.facebook.com
www.friendster.com
www.linkedin.com
Sites such as these offer companies great exposure to a mass of different audiences. Some companies are now even requiring membership into these social websites. They are even hiring people to explore social networking as a real marketing position within the company.
In lamens terms social networking sites turn users into profit generators.
On the flip side…..
Not only is it a great marketing exposure medium but it also a great way to find employees!!!! This has a good and a bad side. One the company can see who you really are and two the company can see who you really are!!!!!
To me this is almost an invasion of privacy however when you decide to build your profile you are putting yourself out there for anyone to see pretty much. Is it lawful and moral to use your personal life, friends, groups, and demeanor as a means for hiring? I guess it is, they do it already with checking your criminal background, credit, driving record, etc.
Recently a friend took down her profile on one of these sites and when I asked her why she told me that the job she was applying for asked for any of her online profiles so they may take a look at them. Can they actually ask that?
Where do the laws protect citizens and their private lives?
In an article by Gartner they warn companies about “getting caught up in the hype”
Gartner says,
“the hype around social networking doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a mature enough technology to make it a critical business requirement.
There is also little evidence that social networking will be as beneficial for businesses as other Web-based communications technology, such as instant messaging.”
The question is will business listen?
I hope so and for everyone’s sake…. I know in my case my personal life has never affected my business ethics and morals but apparently it is increasingly becoming more popular in the evaluation of employees to explore these areas as a deciding factor for hire.
How you can protect yourself
I suggest if you would not like your company to know your personal life to adjust your profiles to a privacy setting or at least filter your content to “business acceptable” whatever that may mean. I am sure you get the drift.
Free Nikon Jones Beach Concert Tickets
Yes, that’s right FREE tickets. Well almost free but they are a lot easier to get than you think and best of all you get food for doing it!!!!! This is not a scam or gimick by any means.
For anyone in the New York Area this is what you do:
Right now B&G products (Ortega Taco Kits, Pickles, Beans, etc) has a promotion going on that if you buy $15 worth of B&M products you can get free Nikon Jones Beach Tickets.
Steps:
1. Buy $15 worth of B&G products
2. Go to http://www.bgfoods.com/freetickets/jones.asp
3. Fill out Official Request Form
4. Print completed form
5. Bring form and receipt to Nikon Jones Beach Theater Box office before 9pm on night of show.
6. POW – FREE TICKETS
It’s great!!! Last week I saw Steve Miller Band for FREE!!!!!
Categories: Life, Hobbies, and The Start of it All Tags: B&G, Free Tickets, Nikon Jones Beach Theater, Ortega, Steve Miller Band
Adult and Child Learning Theory
One of my specialties is the development of educational curriculum for the technology sector. I have built training and certification programs for such companies as CompUSA, TigerDirect, Symbol Technologies, and Motorola.
I focus mainly on developing content based around adult learning principles. One of the biggest challenges in the corporate world is delivering training quickly and efficiently while maintaining budget. The challenge of providing students with a kinesthetic learning path is quite difficult in large organizations given some of these constraints. Building online learning that is both engaging and challenging is usually a difficult task given the vast global audiences that need to be reached and the large technology areas that need to be addressed.
Recently a friend of mine whom is a high school math teacher proposed a new methodology for teaching math to students in his classes. He works in a educaction challenged environment with a large diverse population in the inner city.
His principles have intrigued me to the point where I feel they need to be shared and embraced.
Current learning Methods-
1. Students generally learn math and then try to apply this math to life, situations, events, work, etc.
There is one main flaw that I always saw with this type of method. Where does a student use such things as trigonometry in real life? If they follow a math focused field such as engineering these fundamentals are essential but are they always useful and to whom?
In my experiences students use filters when learning. They pick up on what’s relevant and needed for them in life at that moment. The rest of the information is diffused or put on the back burner. Students memorize formulas in school because they have to but do they know why or how to apply them to any real life situations?
New Proposed Learning Methodology –
1. Rather than teach students math and have them go on their merry way trying to apply it to life the new theory suggest the opposite. Give students a situation and have them apply math to it. Simply Amazing.
My friend gave me a host of ideas and real life projects he is planning to give the students to show how they can apply math to them. He gave me a number of them in a discussion we had. I am going to ask him to share some of those with us over the next few months and hopefully he will.
Quite simply – Everyday we go through life and don’t realize just how much math is around us. If students could take real life events, objects, nature, situations, and apply math to them then they really learned something usefull. You start to get students thinking mathmatically about the world and their surroundings rather than trying to figure out what to do with the abbundance of theorems they receive in class which more than likely slip their mind right after they take their exams.
We need to look to change the mindset of learning. Teaching students how to pass exams gets them nowhere.
