Moving, "Summer of Mark" and The Sports Balcony

Nothing but the TV and an empty bookcase...

After finally battling the last bit procrastination, my sister finally helped me pack all my stuff away, and its safe to say I finally am through with stressing about moving out.

I will say that the next time I do move I do plan on making sure my move out date works perfect with my next places move in date. Because this one didn’t work out that way, and for one week I will be staying in my parent’s house.

And my bed/transformer love seat I used my last night/day

Toughest part so far of staying with my parents:

-waking up this morning and participating in a scavenger hunt trying to remember where I packed my toothbrush.

It’s not too bad commuting to Yorba Linda from West Covina, but after taking the drive this morning, I realize I can now listen to full episodes of “This American Life” to help make the drive a bit more enjoyable.

I think Ira Glass makes routine tasks like driving easier to do.

I move into my new place next weekend, and hoping that by next Sunday not only will all my stuff be moved, but that everything be setup and ready for me to just chill and get back to business.

As far as a house-warming party?

I am not too sure yet, after how exhausted I feel after this week, I think after moving in I am just going to crash.

I decided to register for one summer school class so in between now and June 26^th I plan on doing a ton of reading and writing, and focusing on building up more content and new ideas for the website.

The website The Sports Balcony, actually launched this morning at 9 a.m. and I am excited after editing the first articles and looking forward to bringing on some more writers and working closely with them to come up with quality content.

In fact check out the link below and “Meet the Writers” currently writing for site now.

On a more personal note with all the money I plan on saving by getting a roommate I plan to do a lot more traveling.

What kind of traveling? Well let’s just get settled in first. I haven’t got that far yet.

In the meantime its now time for the "Summer of Mark" in the most non-Costanza way possible....

-Mark

Mini-Ode to Karissa A. Montes

Hello Real World….. Meet Karissa Montes

As I head into summer of 2012, I can’t help but smile at how quick time has flown by. I feel like just yesterday my brother Chris and I were arguing over foul balls while playing backyard baseball. Heck it feels like just hours ago, I was arguing why I found it necessary to control the remote all day every day for the entire summer, of course Judy Montes never allowed this, but I always tried. And well wasn’t it just this morning I was pushing all my siblings out the door so I could get everyone including myself to school on time.

Life truly does fly right by, and tomorrow my 23-year-old sister will graduate with a degree in Bio-Chemistry. My sister has always been my soundboard and even though I wasn’t always the easiest older brother to follow, her loyalty as a sister never strayed. I owe Karissa Montes so much more than any check can offer, and even if I could, I wouldn’t have enough zeros in my bank account to even scrape the surface of how much debt, love and gratitude I have for this amazingly beautiful woman.

I have never once in my life worried about my sister, she is easily one of the most responsible women I know. I say this because, I wasn’t exactly a model citizen as a young kid, teenager, and young adolescent, and I didn’t exactly map out the path my siblings should take. My sister is a huge tool and important piece in the puzzle of our family that both my mother and father have created. I always thank the Lord for allowing me to have been blessed with good parents, but I don’t say enough how much my beautiful little sister has meant and will always mean to me.

I love you unconditionally little sister, you get more and more beautiful every year, and your hunger for knowledge and education is contagious. I have no doubt in my mind that you will be successful, whether that is in the doctor’s office or with a lab coat and goggles on. You’re my favorite little chemist, and I won’t be rooting for you quietly, instead I will become the obnoxious fan who paints his body and screams at the top of his lungs, for the simple fact that, that’s the only way you ought to be celebrated.

If I have taught you anything, I hope you have learned that even in the most serious times, life can always be funny. I hope you never forget that comedy is in our blood and finding things to laugh about is second nature. You may be on the path to “scientist stardom” but you’re hardly a boring slub in a lab coat. Besides Judy, you are by far my favorite Montes woman, and by far one of my favorite people of all time.

I love you and I am so damn proud of you!!!!! Now go cure some disease so I can brag about you even more

Love,

Your Big Brother

The Lakers and the So-Called Intangible Heart

As I watched Ty Lawson decimate the Lakers and watched Kobe Bryant leave it all out on the floor one thought popped in my head:

Kobe can you shoot you in a game, then shoot you back out of the game, and then shoot you back in. The point being whether he is down by 40 or scoring 40 Bryant will never give in, the flip side of that is Andrew Bynum who in his own right can dominate but his poor attitude gets the best of him, he wont go down with the proverbial sinking ship, naw instead he will just “Barea” the shit out someone so he doesn’t have to play the rest of game. If Kobe were the captain of a sinking ship he would be at the helm of the ship ready to go down, while Bynum would be the second officer in command fighting civilians for life boats.

I bring this up because I feel what separates talented people from lasting successful people are the intangibles that can’t be measured. Primarily people who have “heart” are my favorite kind of people. I am sucker for an underdog, and even more so with someone who symbolizes drive and my favorite word “hustle.”

While game 7 for The Lakers will be tough, looking at them objectively as I have the whole season while covering them has helped me really be able to enjoy the NBA as a fan instead of just a Laker fan. With all that said, The Lakers are on the fence right now, and well its time for Kobe to pass on his legacy to the next great Laker, the problem with that is, who is the next great Laker?

The Existence of Multiple Timelines

I have had an interesting string of conversations with new friends I have recently made and friends who I have always hung onto and I have yet to come up with a definitive answer or logistical theory about whether or not there exists “life altering” decisions that will change a path our life was heading into.

Anyway I believe in all powerful greatness, but you do need to believe in anything to understand the questions I am asking, you just need to believe in some form of destiny.

I have always wondered if our lives are laid out for us, or if we create the opportunities that are before us. You know? You here stories about people getting jobs because they were in the right place at the right time, stuff along those kinds of lines.

But because we are humans and humans almost innately screw things up, does there exist a timeline in our lives that is only used because of bad decisions we have made? Or are the bad decisions mainly a shortcut gone wrong and variably we are somehow brought back to our original times lines?

A better question to ask would be or example would be a fake woman. Let’s call this fake woman Molly, and Molly is fresh out high school and wants to be a teacher, so she works hard and graduates with all the legitimate credentials she needs to be a high school teacher. Great success story, right? I agree, but what if Molly her senior year had got in a relationship and moved out of her parent’s home and being forced to work full time she had to put school off for a couple years. My question is because of a bad decision took her off her planned path would she ever become a teacher in this different timeline? Or are her chances closed out, because she didn’t follow her original plan?

You see I made questionable decisions starting at about 14 and I can count on 10 hands some things I have done that weren’t the most beneficial thing for me, but I wonder about the practical things in life potentially not being there. Like if in high school I chose to continue focusing on baseball, would I have found my love for writing? That’s troubling to me, I remember how lost I felt as young teen and I cant imagine how I would have maneuvered through life without my love for reading and writing away from the classroom. Though because of the hard work being a successful baseball player takes, I shutter to think if I would have had any downtime to deal with any issues that might have arose.

So in this timeline of my life, I am a 24 year old aspiring writer, but if parallel universes exist and in all those timelines exist the perfect path or timeline my question is, am I on the golden timeline, or is it the silver timeline? And if that’s the case which timeline am I most successful in?

Moreover what about you? Is this the perfect timeline for you? Or have you strayed? And if you have strayed can you see yourself getting back or is your original dream long gone and unachievable?

The Tiny Lizards...

Disclaimer: Most of my income derives from being a marketing assistant for a very successful real estate agent. I spend about six hours a day doing anything from website maintenance to helping stage homes for sale. I enjoy what I do, because it allows me time to go to school and watch and cover sporting events. While the realtors I work for are very smart, not much can be said for the rest of the industry. Majority of realtors are just plain dumb, they make grammar errors in their brochures for clients and more importantly make spelling errors on a public forum that every realtor in California has access too. It’s actually quite funny at times and it gives me laughs. Today while going through documents I found this little gem on a contract.

For those who can’t read the small print it says:

"4. The purpose for the whole in the ground is unknown by the seller. The tiny ladder is for the lizards to climb up and down."

Well first off they mean "hole" not "whole" but the sad truth might be that this person is so oblivious to this. Second, lizards use ladders? Hold up!

This realtor is completely leveling the rest of us and if that’s the case "well played sir!" though I think just plain silliness might be the true culprit.

At any rate, does anyone know how much a lizard ladder costs?


-Mark

Did Mark Zuckerberg just “Coke” us all out?

Mark Zuckerberg and his virtual world of Facebook made another huge splash in the social media industry, when it was announced that Facebook purchased the photo app Instagram for what I’d like to imagine its extremely wealthy founder would probably call “a cool billion dollars.”

In 1931, the depression was still wreaking havoc on the country, and the Pepsi-Cola Company entered bankruptcy, due in part to the failing economy and to heavy financial losses obtained through questionable investments in the market.  Coca-Cola often referred to simply as “Coke” had the luxury of being number one in the Cola Industry, yet on three separate occasions between 1922 and 1933 Coke declined the opportunity to purchase the sinking Pepsi.

While Coke still remains number one in the Cola Industry, it doesn’t take a business degree from Northwestern to be able to see how much money and market share Coke unknowingly gave up all those years ago.

Mark Zuckerberg the genius Harvard drop-out is exactly that, a genius.

It took 551 days for Instagram to be worth $1 billion.  At its core the app is essentially a creative picture cropper that allows its users to share photos with their friends. Yet this simple app’s ownership rights were traded for a check that contained nine zeros in it.

Instagram users are said to exceed 30 million users and Zuckerberg put it ““This is an important milestone for Facebook because it’s the first time we’ve ever acquired a product and company with so many users. We don’t plan on doing many more of these, if any at all.”

Translation: Yeah we essentially paid a billion dollars for a photo sharing app, but don’t think we’re going to be making every app developer insta-rich, we bagged our Pepsi, so app developers hoping to strike gold, keep dreaming.

More importantly Instagram’s meteoric rise in popularity began making Facebook honchos like Zuck very nervous, “allegedly.” So Facebook didn’t waste any time and instead of facing a possible risk, Facebook created another opportunity for itself and purchased Instagram while it still had the chance.

What should be said for the man who can prove that studying history is actually worth something?

In my opinion a whole hell of a lot should be said. At every possible progression a company can take Facebook has been able to rise above expectations by showcasing its ability to innovate an industry they righteously pulled from Tom at MySpace.  For Zuck and Facebook to purchase what allegedly could’ve been their number two competitor is incredibly brass and insightful.

While I am sure Coke executives cringe and roll their eyes anytime someone mentions the missed Pepsi opportunity, (not once, not twice, but three times) Facebook head’s may leave its future heads resting assured that when the day came for Facebook to extend the curve in the industry, they didn’t just bite at the opportunity, the mauled it to death.

Friday Night Sports Fest!!!! Vin Scully and Life

Friday night sports fest!!!!

Every now and then sports seasons bleed into each other. The best time for this is the beginning of baseball season and the last month of the regular NBA season and two more months of playoffs.

Tonight was opening night for the Angels; The Dodgers played game two of their new season at San Diego, and the Lakers were home at Staples Center; today was a good day to live in Southern California.

The 10 Year Ago dilemma:

Royals at Angels @ 7 p.m.

Dodgers at San Diego 7 p.m.

Houston at LA @ 7:30 p.m.

What to do???

Obviously this would have sucked 10 years ago, but with the amazing advent of the DVR this hasn’t ever been a problem for me J

Either way I DVR’d all three and decided to tune into the Dodger game first to hear Vin. I waited 15 minutes so I could forward through commercials. The plan was to watch the Dodger game till I couldn’t forward anymore and then tune into the Laker game and do the same thing with the Angel game. Surprisingly enough I got to the 7^th inning before I had to change the channel.

I was going to email my little brother today and tell him to watch as many Dodger games on TV as he can this year. Vin Scully is the greatest sports broadcaster of all time. His story telling skills are unmatched, and just flat out amazing. Men like Vin Scully only come around once, and while we can still hear him call games we should all watch as many Dodger games as we can.

I have never watched one Dodger game and NOT learned something by hearing Vin call the game. I can only hope Magic can convince him to stay forever and that science figures out a way to keep Vin alive forever.

Last year when it was rumored that it might be Vin’s last year I heard a rumor about him possibly being encouraged to call the World Series games as a farewell to MLB, fans, and just for the sheer greatness of hearing him call the fall classic. I think this would be great, I mean who wouldn’t watch all seven games with Vin calling the series? Why hasn’t baseball dropped the cash cow on him to do this every year? I think with baseball’s popularity fading they need a grand move like this. Nothing against Tim McCarver or Joe buck, but imagine Vin Scully doing 3 years of the world series? I just think this would be great for all fans across the country. Dodger fans are so extremely lucky to have Vin call the home games, the country would be in for a treat if he was shown and heard nationally all over again.

"Vinnism" that made me laugh the most tonight:

The Padres were coming to bat at the bottom of the fifth inning and Vin was reading he box score and the camera had a perfect shot of a full moon and this is what he said…

Vin:  and a magnificent shot of the moon, can you believe we put a man on there? But then again I will never forget, I told this story before, in Las Vegas on an elevator the night that they were televising all the historic things that were going on, on the moon, two men got on the elevator and one said to the other “you watch the guy on the moon?” and the other man said “yeah.. how long can you watch?” yeah how long can you watch? One away.

I mean this is classic Vin, tells a story, and right as the story finishes Dee Gordon catches a pop fly and vin gets back to baseball “one away.” Perfect!

Random thing your learn listening to Vin:

When Jerry Hairston Jr. came up to bat in the top of the eighth Vin dropped this lil gem for everyone.

Vin:  and the batter Jerry Hairston…. Jerry will be 36 at the end of May, he is a 3^rd generation MLB’er….and like so many, these are all fine athletes, he also played a lot of basketball, in his area Kevin Garnett and Antoine Walker also lived there, fouled away still 3-and-2.

Who knew KG coulda been balling with Jr.?

Min Life Update:

So this week was pretty mellow, it was spring break for school so I just chilled and watched the national championships and Laker games. I so wished I had planned a cool trip somewhere, I kind of feel like jetting off somewhere. I know that when I figure out my situation with what to at the end of my lease, I plan to  save a ton of money and spend the summer taking weekend getaways, and trying to find a week in the summer to just go somewhere cool.

I am just hoping school comes out good; I need so badly to pass all my classes I need a momentum booster. I just need two science classes and one math class and then I can bounce and try to get my degree as fast as possible. If I can get good grades I know I will go in to summer wanting to take a class and hopefully get lucky and score a science class haha.

So this has been my life lately, writing, working, and relaxing. I am so blessed to have the life I have and I know this. I wake up every morning and thank God for another day of life. I know we only get one and I am just trying to live it right so I can find happiness and favor with the Lord.

I have a ton of HW but tomorrow it’s a three game day playa!!!! So I will just hang out and maybe do somehow in the night and then crush it all Sunday with some revising and proofing left Monday.

Happy Easter!!!

-Mark