December 1st, 2004 yoshers
- Do not use the polls to determine which teams should go to which bowls
- If you are going to keep polls, then you will need at least a plus 1 system to eliminte problems when you do not have 2 clear cut teams playing for the national championship
- If you are worried about teams playing too many games in a playoff system, scrap some pre-conference games
- Clearly playoffs do not always produce the best team (see baseball) and part of the charm of college football is that each regular season game counts, so be creative and figure a way to do both
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November 1st, 2004 yoshers
- If it is below 60 degrees, you may want to stay inside
- If you have a big screen TV and you have nosebleed seats, stay inside
- If you don’t like loud, drink, obnoxious fans, stay inside
- If your going (or watching) the football game will curse your team, go do something else.
- But if you team is ranked highly, GO AND WATCH IT IN PERSON!
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October 1st, 2004 yoshers
- Be pithy in what you are talking about
- Stress important ideas and do not get bogged down in the details
- Have a plan and be flexible. Have notes, but do not just recite them.
- Follow up afterwards
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September 1st, 2004 yoshers
- Set time line with the maximum amount of extra time for unexpected things
- Try to finish well before the cut off date
- Have everyone in your team on the same page
- Celebrate when you are done
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August 1st, 2004 yoshers
- Nod and smile
- Stay quiet and away from family drama, even if it is happening right in front of you and you are being dragged into the fight
- Make a good first impression and be very hospitable if they are at your place
- Go out of your way, even if it is just to go and show yourself at an outing
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July 1st, 2004 yoshers
- Try steam cleaning your rug before throwing it away
- Try buying your own steam cleaner as that is much more effective than those cheap Rug Doctors that you rent from grocery and hardware stores for $30 a pop
- If you have to rent a Rug Doctor, know that they REQUIRE an in-state driver’s license (we found this out the hard way and was therefore unable to rent one in Chicago, however…)
- It may turn out to be much cheaper to just use some Oxy-clean to get rid of those few stains on your carpet than renting a steam cleaners
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June 1st, 2004 yoshers
- First impression are important (but not the be-all and the end-all), so show up looking nice and prompt.
- Be yourself. The more you try to act like something else, the harder it will be after a few months on the job.
- Blend in. Learn about the way things work at your new place. If you think you can improve upon something, then by all means make a suggestion. Fresh ideas are usually welcomed (at least by people who understand that this is a good thing), but remember you are still low on the totem pole!
- Have fun. I know it is a job and it may even be something you did not think you wanted to do (but have to for whatever reason), but you should at least try to come in with a good attitude and see how things go. You may be surprised by the results.
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May 1st, 2004 yoshers
- Don’t try to buy a house if you know you are leaving in a year.
- Keep decorations to a minimum, but do buy some furniture so you are not living out of a suitcase for a year.
- Plan ahead and determine what you need to move back with you and what you need to discard.
- It may turn out that it is cheaper to give away big stuff like furniture than to hire a moving company to move it for you.
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April 1st, 2004 yoshers
- Do attend the draft if it is an online draft. If you cannot make it, at least make sure you have a good pre-draft list to avoid having Yahoo! draft Eric Gagne for you in the first round because their wacked out system thinks closers can somehow be the second best fantasy player.
- Do not pick your hometown players much higher than normal. I really think you can win with hometown talent, especially if your team has some great stars (like Boston in Nomar, Manny and Pedro or Oakland in Chavez, Hudson, Zito and Mulder), but you should never go into a draft saying you MUST get anyone in particular.
- Strike a balance between offense and pitching. Yes, it’s easier to find a diamond in the rough for pitching, but you do not want your number one starter to be Russ Ortiz.
- Understand the rules of the league. If your league doesn’t have stolen base as a category, Alex Sanchez and Dave Roberts are useless.
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March 1st, 2004 yoshers
- When you are young, getting older is great, because it gets you closer to certain “age limit” stuff like legal drinking…and (at 25), not having to pay more for rental cars!
- This is balanced by, being older = more responsibilities.
- Birthdays are a great opportunity to get stuff and having people treat you nicer.
- But when it is close to other special days (pity those late December babies), “two for the price of one” doesn’t sound so good anymore.
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