Back for more?

So I may have forgot to mention I was going on vacation which is why this blog hasn’t been updated for a while.  My fault.   Hopefully you missed me.  Lot’s to discuss since I’ve been gone so bare with me while I start with some sports opinions I need to get off my chest…

Back for more?

1.  NCAA Final Four – honestly this was the worst tournament that I can remember in years.  If it wasn’t for the feel good story that Butler provided us (or almost provided us), this tourney would have been a complete bust.  Yes I say that partially because my team, the Kansas Jayhawks choked but mainly because the teams who made it to the Final Four were not that good compared to usual.  Upsets are great in the early rounds but at the end of the day you need a couple solid teams to make it through and that did not happen this year. 

2.  Speaking of basketball, some idiot in the Kansas City Star today picked KState to be a Final Four team next year based on the fact that they only lose Dennis Clemente and Louis Colon (I can’t find the online link).  (I will give him credit that he said incoming freshman and NBA decisions can change the picture obviously.)  Let me just say I do not like KState for various reasons so I am biased, but trying to speak strictly from a knowledgable fan perspective, Dennis Clemente was THE team this year.  Without him, they are not nearly as effective.  Frank Martin’s strategy of playing tight defense and using his entire bench of big guys to keep the opponent on the foul line and out of game rhythm will still be there but you see how well that worked against a good, deep team like KU this year.  I’m sure they will still be good but writing them in for the Final Four next year without two starters (even if Colon is goofy), is ludacris.  What a homer. 

3.  The Apple iPad is not living up to the hype so far.  To be fair, they will keep interating and making it better but let’s just say sales are not as brisque as they planned with many stores not selling out and a lot of the reviews I have read basically say they would rather keep their iPhone and MacBook.  Here is a good review from a respected source. 

4.  Right before my trip, I read a blog about how the new Dodd Banking Reform bill included a provision that would change the current definition of “accredited investor” thus making the angel investor pool even smaller.  You can read more about it here but let me just say adding this “rider” to a bill that will most likely pass in some form would be a huge mistake that most voters won’t even realize until it’s too late.  I wrote an email to my contact at The Enterprise Center of Johnson County and to a person at KTEC about how I was disappointed I hadn’t heard anything about this here locally even though it affects a lot of people.  After all it sure seems like we were bombarded with information about the benefits of the KTEC program and why the State of Kansas shouldn’t cut the program out of its budget last year when that was going on.  Why is this different if not even more important?  The response I got was that this “rider” was brought to the attention of Kansas congressmen.  Will that be good enough?  We shall see.

5.  Upon some nudging from some readers of my blog (disclaimer:  my parents read this blog), I contacted the Kansas City Star about possibly writing for their business section.  I have no writing background or formal journalism education however after thinking about it for a while I figured I had nothing to lose.  I even put some thought into where I fit in to their current mix of writers and basically why me which seemed like a logical question that was going to come my way.  Unfortunately my simple proposition has really lit a fire and I wouldn’t be doing the subject justice unless I devoted an entire blog post to it so stay tuned…same bat time, same bat place.