FanNation

Reaching a Milestone

So I see people on this site periodically extolling their accomplishments. People will spend their hundredth blog post thanking the people who befriended them en route to their milestone, or they will gain admittance to a group, or win a particular tournament and speak out. But what is behind these achievements?

A lot of people know my feelings about the entire concept of "blogging" -- as an aspiring writer, it has always been my goal to put forth writing for the public which I feel would stand up against any writer who gets paid to do this for their daily bread. So with that in mind, sitting at 130 blog posts according to FanNation, I set out to see what I had really accomplished in attaining that number...

This site is replete with groups dedicated to nothing more than chatting with other sports fans. Some are centered around a specific sport or event; others take place during specific hours. Recognizing that starting these threads can be a necessary evil, it nonetheless inflates and artificially enhances those numbers like Jose Canseco on a Winstrol binge. So the first thing I did in culling that number was to subtract all the various threads begun for groups like the Night Owls...

Next, I took a look at various posts put out there to inform people of my whereabouts. For instance, one involved when my laptop was malfunctioning and I was going to be absent from the site for a while; another was a reminder to people that I would be gone for a week visiting my wife's family on the east coast. While heartfelt and meaningful in their own way, they nonetheless serve little purpose beyond their immediate message and therefore are as extraneous as group thread posts...

So what I was left with astonished me, for it seemed as though fate had intervened to force me to catalogue my writings posthaste. I had written ninety-nine articles for FanNation. For better or worse, thousands of words have been lost in the cerebral vortex that is this website. Now instead of just going about praising my achievements on this, my hundredth "official" post here on FanNation, I'll do one better: I'll SHOW you what got me to this point... so sit back, because here comes the archive from the mixed-up files of Alfred E. Bigalke...

INITIAL FORAYS INTO FANNATION BLOGGING

1. Tradition Left College Football Long Ago...

2. Week One Remembered...

3. Musings and Motivations on the Mitchell Report 

4. The Best Team No One Wants To Acknowledge - Volume One 

5. Rose Bowl Reminiscing... 

6. 2007 Holiday Bowl Running Rant... 

These first half-dozen pieces came after I had gotten my first fill of throwdowning out of my system. I had been writing on other websites for over a year when I joined FanNation, yet still had not found the right outlet for my various long screeds on sports. Some got posted on Helium; others, like the Running Rant, sat on my computer, ten-thousand words of unviewed effort. I started testing the waters with college football and NFL articles (incorrectly picking the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to make some noise last postseason), and gave my thoughts on the Mitchell Report...

THE SPIN ROOM

7. What's In A Name? 

8. Out-of-Control Calendar & Thoughts on Change 

13. Formidable Opponent #2 - From Watchdog to Watched? 

14. Is the U.S. becoming a fascist state?

What Do Ducks Eat?

Recently at University Catering on the University of Oregon campus in Eugene, the crew has been forced on short notice to prepare for the Oregon Ducks football team a daily late-night buffet spread for their team meetings. With all the items being cold, the kitchen crew is not required to stick around to fire any hot items, though students must be scheduled to deliver the cold smorgasbord to the opposite side of campus every night for a 9:30 pm start. So the question remains to be asked -- What do Ducks eat?

From the guy who prepares their bedtime snack most every day this month, here's the formidable list:

TABLE ONE: ANTI-INFLAMMATION TABLE

• One pound of trail mix (nuts/dried fruit)
• One large platter of strawberries (eight pounds)
  Read the Rest

Hall of Fame Induction Speech

The birds overhead continue gliding upward on the thermals rising from the earth, their shadows growing smaller and dimmer as they rose further and further into the stratosphere. The waves of people begin gathering around the dais set up in Autzen Stadium for the momentous occasion. The turnstiles spin with anticipation as the FanNation masses congregate to pay tribute to their newest Hall of Famer. Bigalke steps up to the podium, the crowd hushed and waiting with nervous energy to hear the eclectic and obscure speaker make his first public speech after the votes were tallied and his ascention to Hall of Fame status was determined...

Thoughts on the State of FanNation...

Ever sit up late at night on FanNation, roaming through the dead message boards and throwdown screens, streaming through the archives of obscure blogs on long-forgotten topics? What does one think to himself as insomnia keeps him creeping through the assembled detritus, fishing for those nuggets of wisdom to sustain the lust for intelligent thought? Here's one... what am I doing here?

People have become introspective lately, looking at why they are here and what the future holds for the place we call FanNation. A lot of ire has been flung at the moderators, at the site administrators, at Sports Illustrated and STI and the powers that be. Certainly, there are glitches that are truly maddening and deserve some constructive criticism from the community which best knows what it seeks from the site. However, that community must know its goals for the advancement of that site as well... 

Back Issues of "A Non-Traditional Sports Fan..."

 Here is the archive of back issues of A Non-Traditional Sports Fan in America, the weekly column produced for SIFS by Bigalke...

• Volume I
• Volume II
• Volume III
• Volume IV
• Volume V
• Volume VI
• Volume VII
• Volume VIII
• Volume IX 
• Volume X
  
• Volume XI 
• Volume XII
• Volume XIII
• Volume XIV
• Volume XV
• Volume XVI (Part One)
• Volume XVI (Part Two)
• Volume XVII
• Volume XVIII
  
• Volume XIX
• Volume XX
  
• Volume XXI