2023 Creative Process

I started this blog on WordPress in 2013. Ten years later the world has changed in so many ways. My life has changed in so many ways. Based on the multiple endings and re-starts, many would’ve expected that Cat Lady Prophecy (of me) to have come to fruition. But as it sits today, just the two felines reside in my home. However, I’m simply a modest lotto win away from adding to that number to create a fluffy, spoiled Pride.

In 2013, many people read blogs on the daily. In today’s world, I think that practice is not very likely to be happening. It seems that everyday life moves too fast and no one has time to invest in reading a 8-15 minute piece about random riff-raff. Most digestible ideas and concepts need to be meme ready or reeled in by TikTok videos. Our society as a whole is so geared towards instant gratification that I fear at some point, the old ways will soon be lost to the current generation because the process(es) takes too long or there simply is an APP that does the task quicker (and better) for you. Some of the tasks made obsolete were perhaps better for our daily lives, but within those tasks sometimes there were life lesson on patience, discipline and attention to craft. Anyone, who ventures out into a public venue on a daily basis, should easily be able to see several examples of those three things being short-changed or short-cutted with regularity…and it’s a sad thing to behold.

I have always been stupidly optimistic. Ultimately I expect that quality will figure into my death somehow. Stay tuned. It took me quite a long time to understand my most effective internal process when it comes to being ‘creative’. Sometimes you have to release or put down what you’ve been holding onto instead of rolling it over and over in your mind. This can allow the next idea or concept to come along and not compete with the distraction of the other thing(s). Sometimes you may actually be able to get to the next level of an idea by purging the first phase that wasn’t able to cohesively come together. Just a little tip that has helped me decompress and get to new (better?) ideas and thoughts.

In closing, let me share with you, one of my favorite expressions over the years (one that I’ve used in many job interviews). It is:

If I got hit by a bus tomorrow, I’ve left the person following me a map of how to pick up my work or what was still needing to be accomplished. This fatalistic scenario is utilized to infer that everything can change in an instant, for good or ill. If the world internet got hit by a bus tomorrow, what would we be left with and how would those left move on?

Make me the 11th Commissioner of Major League Baseball

Anybody wanna play ball?

Hello and good day. Here we are well into the month of February of the year 2022 and the start of the 2022 spring training has been delayed. In my estimation, Rob Manfred has failed to be the leader Major League Baseball needs and thus he needs to be replaced.

Let’s look at the man’s recent activities in relation to his job duties, shall we? Last year he spearheaded a political play to steal millions of revenue dollars from the city of Atlanta, Georgia (hey Denver, Colorado! Would you like 10’s of millions of dollars?) over a political play that was essentially none of Major League Baseball’s business. Eventually the city of Atlanta was able to recoup some of their losses by ultimately being triumphant in the fall classic aka The World Series. How did good old Rob parlay this great underdog story into momentum for the offseason? By not being proactive in the slightest and sitting on his hands for literally months whilst the franchise teams engaged in a lockout with their players’ union.

Strike one.

Manfred and his focus group of bean counters are worried about the length of games being 45 seconds too long. His fix-all solutions are to try to curtail mound visits and other insignificant rules that add about six minutes to a game. True baseball fans (aka baseball’s core customers) will watch a baseball game if it last 2 hours and 30 minutes or 2 hours and 45 minutes or 3 hours and 6 minutes. He needs to stop obsessing over the micro when the macro is fine. His agenda is letting the sponsors dictate how the game (product) is presented and portrayed. Does anyone remember when the St Louis Cardinals of the National League played the Minnesota Twins of the American League in a daytime World Series game in 1987? That was 35 years ago by my count. Stop making everything about primetime advertising leverage and trying to squeeze an extra 50 Cent, er…50 cents out of each telecast.

Strike two.

The farce that is the Hall of Fame selection process is EMBARASSING. Your all-time hits leader and all-time home run leader are not inducted into the baseball Hall of Fame. Regardless of the speculative circumstances surrounding a player’s accomplishments, if their stats are in the record books and acknowledged as the yardstick for the sport, then these players are legit and should be considered on their accomplishments (period). Case and point, recently the besmirched designated-hitter David Ortiz was inducted into the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame. In 10 category comparisons (seasons played, hits, runs batted in, home runs, walks, runs (scored), doubles, Gold Gloves (defense), stolen bases and strikeouts) between Ortiz and Home Run Champ Barry Bonds…Ortiz only is above Bonds in one of those categories (career doubles 632 vs 601). What is missing here is the ‘good guy’ double standard MLB and its coverage crusties employ. Ortiz, despite getting caught with his hand in the performance enhancing cookie jar, is a personable and likeable personality. Bonds on the other hand was viewed as kind of a ‘Richard’ throughout the sport and thus is not given the same chance to rehab his legacy. As far as the All-time Hits King in Pete Rose Sr…he should 1000000% be in the Hall of Fame as a player. If the sport wants to permanently disbar him from the Hall as a manager, I’d support that no questions asked. As a manager, Charlie Hustle was middling at best. But as a player, competitor and recordholder (for a record that was set three dozen years ago that will never be touched again), the now 80-year-old Rose deserves to be pardoned by Manfred and enshrined.

Strike three…YOU’RE OUT ROB!

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The Perfect Fantasy Football Season Doesn’t Exi…

Oh hi there! Welcome to my Blog site.

I don’t often get to brag (read NEVER) about my success with a fantasy football team. In most realities, my fantasy football teams generally leave me feeling like a Dallas Cowboys fan in the second round of the playoffs. Eeesh…too soon? But this year I was part of three fantasy leagues. In one ESPN league, I was the commissioner. Then in another ESPN league, I was a participant. And last but certainly not least, I was in a Yahoo league as a participant. In my ESPN leagues, I did respectable (by my low standards) by going 9-5 and qualifying for the playoffs in each before being rudely dismissed in each. I’m sensing that you may not be impressed with my my regular season .643 winning percentage. OK fair enough. Let me up the ante…

How about a perfect season? You heard correctly!! I matched the 1972 Miami Dolphins of the NFL (year of my birth btw)! In my lone Yahoo league entry, I posted a 15-0 regular season before sweeping the two rounds of playoffs to claim the undefeated, undisputed crown! Here are the screen shots of the standings, roster, bracket and recap.

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Top 10 List of ill-advised times or moments to shotgun a beer

(as heard on the Chuck and Dave Podcast)

Chuck and Dave Podcast – Episode 91 – Business Jargon III

** Note: Shotgunning a beer definition – Taking a can of beer, turning it sideways and using a key or sharp instrument to puncture near the base of the can. Then, using the tab on top of the can to open, drink from the punctured area while tipping the can upright until the contents of the can are consumed. It is basically a party-way to ‘chug’ the beer.

10) “I’d like to call to order, this meeting of the Cub Scouts…”

9) When drinking from a glass beer bottle.

8) At the front of the line to pass through the metal detector to go into the court house.

7) After receiving Communion. (to lose the wine aftertaste…and possibly a chance at the afterlife)

6) To conclude your job interview (job applicant).

5) To celebrate your friend’s one year of sobriety at the AA meeting.

4) On a float trip with a beer found at the bottom of the river.

3) To successfully complete the 12th beer in the 12 Minute Shotgun Beer Challenge.

2) Before heading out to walk the tight rope at the circus.

1) To kick off the baseball game…as the home plate umpire. Play ball!

Enjoy. Have a great evening. Peace. #33 – The Freak <<09-26-2021>>

TV Time Warp – 07-25-2021

Hello all. I hope your month of July has been a thing of smiles and laughs. For myself, it has been like mentally stepping back in time. From a weather pattern perspective, this July here in Missouri has contained some of usual steamy days packed with July hotness. But it has also featured more than a few weekends of significant rain. With the presence of this rain, my usual outdoor activities have been prone to cancelation. With these freed up hours, enter into the equation some TV classics! Re-engaging these old favorites has been nostalgic and almost like entering a mental Twilight Zone. (cue the dramatic theme!)

For those younger readers, if I mention the TV series One Day at a Time, you may think I’m talking about the recently concluded remake/reboot featuring Justina Machado. But hold up, that is not the show I’m talking about right now. The OG One Day at a Time show debuted in 1975 and ran through 1984. I think I discovered it in reruns as a kid some time around 1980. I would’ve been 7 or 8 at that time.

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Cleveland Indians 2021 (First 16 games) – 10% Check-In

Hello all and welcome to my blog! I usually address my Indians at least once or twice a year in blog or podcast form. I’ve already done a preseason preview for my SoundCloud podcast – that did not predict some of the 11th hour curveballs from a rostering standpoint. But in today’s piece, before the first pitch against the New York Yankees, I will break down some early season trends and give my two cents worth of insights. Without further prologue, here we go.

So far the Indians have started six series (3 home, 3 away). In those first games of each series, the team has one win (1-5). The goal for every team starting a series is to win the series. Typically most series are three game sets…so to lose more than 80% of those first games, that makes it an uphill battle to win the next two all the time. Of those six series (the last set with the White Sox was snowed out for the second game and postponed until later), the Indians have only won one series. To the point of this paragraph, their lone series opening game win was also in the only series they have won so far this year (vs the Detroit Tigers at home).

Here are the results by series so far: at Detroit (1-2) lost series, versus Kansas City (1-1) tied series, versus Detroit (3-0) won series, at Chicago (2-2) tied series, at Cincinnati (1-2) lost series and versus Chicago (0-1) temporarily lost series.

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The Postal Service in 2021 (02-16-2021)

Good evening y’all readers! Hope everyone is staying stay and warm during the Snowmageddon Polar Freeze (SPF -75) event presently underway in the Midwest of the United States. As bad as it is here (Missouri), I imagine it must be infinitely worse up in Michigan, New York et al and on into Canada. How do human beings acclimate to such harsh temperatures? I feel sorry for the people that live in places like Texas and the nearby states who are completely caught off guard by stuff like…snow.

With The Pandemic still motoring on, like a dude on a scooter holding up highway traffic, I have found a tad more time to blow some life into the embers of my blog. Over the last 12-14 months, I’ve noticed a huge change in how a particular institution has performed.  That institution that I am referencing is none other than the US Postal Service!  (cue the dramatic reveal music!)

If we take a look at grocery stores, big box stores and the other online giants – they have had to modify their day-to-day operations for Covid. But for the most part, they are still selling things and people are buying them pretty close to on-par with before Covid time if not performing better, sales-wise. Meanwhile, smaller mom and pops shops along with dine-in food restaurants and bars have taken huge losses or been forced to close permanently. The main difference between these two groups and their survival has been the online presence. Larger corporate based entities with online capabilities have thrived, while local sole proprietors have shuttered their doors or barely kept afloat. Even with the online companies being adaptable, there are still glitches in the matrix.

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Can We Have A Little Debate? 02/14/2021

Riddle me this: Is Debate class even part of school teachings anymore? As someone who is (eesh) 31 years removed from high school, I am a bit out of the loop on whether or not Debate is taught in junior high or high school anymore.

For those who may be wondering, I had this topic settle into my brain probably about five to six months ago after mindlessly falling down an online thread rabbit hole. This topic should go hand-in-hand with the freedom of speech concept, which sadly that is all the notion of freedom of speech can be considered at this point…how can you have any sort of real debate without examining both sides to an argument? This is not to say there isn’t a third or fourth side to arguments, but in principle there are usually two stark opposition positions to a topic. I would have to think that there would have to be something along these lines because there are still thousands of students in law school and many newly licensed attorneys over the last two decades. But is this only something that occurs when students go off to college? Enquiring minds want to know!

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Picture Purge January 31, 2021

So it’s that time again to de-clutter ye ol desktop and the accumulated pixel dust ends up here. So feel free to check it out…and judge me as you wish.

Everyone stay safe out here and on to February!!!

Peace. <<01-31-2021>> — Freak #33

MLB Names – They’re All Offensive!

Good afternoon to one and all! Also Happy New Year!!

I have uploaded a project I started working on several weeks ago. It’s a spreadsheet of all the Major League Baseball teams. This spreadsheet contains their origins along with the status of how long their current nickname has been in use. To poke a little fun at my favorite team, the Cleveland Indians, (because they chose to cave into financial peer pressure) I set out to compile a list of why each and every other franchise should be forced to change their names as well. I hope you enjoy the post and as always, I look forward to your feedback. Have a great weekend!

blog_offensive12252020_oDownload

Peace. <<01-10-2021>> #33 https://scottlatta5000.weebly.com/ – Don’t forget to check out my website for links to all my social media and other projects!

Why don’t you write more?

Hello all. As I type this I am three days into a head cold, yes it’s just a head cold. This sucks. I’m not majorly debilitated in any way, I just have head congestion and a little scratchy throat. In years past, before the C word spread over the globe, I would’ve taken some Sudafed and boldly gone out into the world to carry on in spite of the sickness. Ah but this is the broken year 2020 and all the rules have changed. In the last 9 to 10 months, the old world has disappeared like the ice in a fast food cup sitting on the asphalt during the noon day sun of summer. Gone are the days of ‘toughing it out’. Replacing those sickly souls slogging along coughing and wheezing, are the devout hand-washers and toilet paper hoarders. We are sitting at three weeks to go until the end of this blasted year. I had remained virtually (ha, see what I did there?) sniffle-free for most of the year. Almost made it to the end. Oh so close.

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December 2020 Picture Purge

Good morning! It’s that time again to assemble a random assortment of images that have accumulated on my desktop over the course of the weeks. As you can see, some are personal and some are just memelicious! Hopefully you find something to suit your mood in this stew of snapshots. We are less than three weeks away from Christmas and less than four weeks away from 2021! What awaits us on the other side of that December door? Stay tuned…

Have a great week and rest of the month!

Peace. <<12-05-2020>> #33

You’ve got 35 minutes…

So when you’ve wasted most of the day and you have something you’re supposed to do in a little over an hour, how do you shape a thought process for a topic? Presently it is 3:55pm CST on Sunday, November 29th. I’ve spent the morning and early afternoon playing on my phone (Angry Birds 2), paying bills and surfing the web for Black Friday/Small Business Saturday/pre-Cyber Monday deals. This is extremely wasteful but alas I must own up to it as this is a true inventory of the day. One of the things on the list (paying bills) made one of the other things on the list (shopping for deals) essentially pointless.

Now I’m wondering if The Dollar General (store) sells wire cutters. Hmmm. I have a potential project in mind but it may hinge upon the availability of said cheapo wire cutters. Oh well, hopefully everyone enjoyed the Thanksgiving holiday (US version)…although I guess it’s OK to ask those north of the US border is they enjoyed theirs (October 11th)?

Anyway, good luck to all as we are now less than four full weeks away from the Christmas holiday…

Peace. <<11-29-2020>> #33

Biden vs Trump – 2020 Aftermath Notes

Hello all! Happy days leading up to Thanksgiving!

As I did in 2016, I would like to do a little post mortem review of the now ‘completed’ presidential election. Why? Mostly because I love crunching numbers and secondly because I detest the out-dated concept of the Electoral College system of awarding ‘votes’. If you really are hard up for Saturday night entertainment, go back and read my post on the breakdown of the 2016 election results based on the data provided via the web at that time.

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Pocahontas & Rain Showers

To set the mood, I think we need to step back in time to 1989. If I could borrow from Skid Row’s I remember you:

Woke up to the sound of pouring rain…

Good day to all. Today is November 21st of the cursed year 2020. There are but 41 days left in this calendar saga and with a little luck we can make it through to see 2020 ousted like all of its brothers before. I was supposed to rise early today, which I did, in anticipation of playing a softball tournament in the adjacent state of Illinois. The city of destination in Illinois is/was Pocahontas – yes, like the Disney film and the Native American woman who was born just before the start of the 1600’s.

As you may have deduced, rising early to prepare to go play softball and ambient sounds of rain don’t generally go well together. Alas, the tournament was canceled and after a short amount of time I resumed my fitful slumber. This turn of event(s) allowed me to park myself in front of the laptop to post on my blog. Yes I could be writing this piece on the WordPress app but good gawd that would entail traversing a more difficult road, much like Pocahontas followed when she assisted John Smith (see guys can ask directions).

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