- Peaceful Journey: About three weeks ago, my aunt Sandi White passed away after a fight with cancer. Before I continue here, I want to say my thoughts and prayers continue to be with my cousins (and her kids) Scotty and Stacey and their families and to thank all of you who sent prayers and condolences their way. If there was one word I could say to describe her, it would be this one: rock. She was a rock. She didn't just take care of her own immediate family, but she looked after her brothers and sisters and some of their own individual families. She had one of the biggest hearts of anybody I knew or know and was such a supportive person. I knew this firsthand because she was so supportive of my efforts here with DJ's Random Thoughts and we had a couple of discussions about stuff I talked about in DJRT. Her support meant the absolute world to me. I believe everyone who knew and loved Sandi could probably give you a similar story or two about how accomodating she was or how supportive she was and how she did all that with her absolute faith in the Lord Almighty and despite whatever was going on around her. I already miss her. Rest in peace, Aunt Sandi.
- DJ Custom: I used the subtitle "rated" for today's edition because of a pic I was inspired to design a couple of weeks ago which you can see at the top of this edition. I customized the pic based of the ESRB graphic that is used on most current video game packaging. When creating this particular pic, I was attempting to come up with a unique way (or crazy idea depending on who you may ask) to put a stamp of approval on something or anything I liked or approved of while at the same time promote DJRT. I believe I accomplished that with the above pic which I'm calling the "Rated DJ" pic. I'm not sure I'm ever going to seriously use it as a seal of approval for something I support, but if I wanted to, it will be there for me to use down the line. I will be using it to help promote DJRT as you can tell by it's use on DJRT social media pages. I am also now selling several items with the Rated DJ graphic in the DJRT Store for those of you who might want to buy them.
- As I noted in the last edition, my birthday is coming up in one week. I will be 41 years old...yes, to you young people out there that means I'm old. The gameplan I laid out in the last edition for celebrating it this year...and yes, I actually do feel like celebrating it...has not changed. On Sunday (a couple of days before the actual b-day) I'll be heading up to an afternoon showing of "G.I. Joe: Retaliation" in Kent. After that I will be heading to a Pizza Hut restaurant at the corner of Canton Rd and 224 in Springfield for my customary Pizza Hut tradition. After dinner I will be watching this year's Wrestlemania event. I already have one taker, but if anyone else wants to celebrate my birthday with me this year, hit me up on Facebook. I am looking forward to a good time.
- I know it's ending soon, but I am getting sick and tired of the cold weather in NE Ohio. I mean, isn't it supposed to be spring already? Oh, yeah, right...this is Ohio...
- A friend of mine passed along an article recently about scapegoats in the family. I'm fortunate to not be in that type of situation but I do have friends that unfortunately are. I'm posting a link to this article in the hope that it helps some of them out if they are having any trouble dealing with being considered one. Here's the article: What To Expect When You Are The Family Scapegoat.
- There have been rumors and murmurs that hashtags are coming to Facebook sometime soon in the future. The only thing I can think about that is how much it might help me promote DJRT. Is that wrong?
- The Ohio State Buckeyes men's basketball team had a heck of a run in this year's NCAA tournament after winning the Big Ten title tournament. I honestly expected them to go out after a game or two in the tournament but their bracket had so many upsets that the possibility of them heading to the Final Four was becoming more of a reality. They came up just short when they blew it in their last game against Wichita State, a mid-major. They still had a heck of a season though.
- Speaking of the NCAA tournament, I wanted to talk about the mid-majors vs. the major conferences in the tourneys for a moment. In most years there are a lot of major conference teams the comprise a majority of at-large bids with mid-major conference teams mostly or only getting in through automatic bids. However, despite the low number of mid-major conferences in recent NCAA tourneys, mid-major teams are having greater and greater success as the years go by. This year was the first that a 15 seed, Florida Gulf Coast University (and ironically the first team overall to qualify for this year's tournament), went to the Sweet 16. I do not believe this is an accident and that is due to something related to the NBA. A few years ago, the NBA instituted a rule that players had to be one full year removed from high school to be eligible for the NBA after having a bunch of kids considering jumping straight from high school into the NBA Draft. With this delay, that means a lot of kids are heading to colleges where they would likely regularly get the attention of NBA scouts. That means a lot of major conference schools are getting a lot of potential one-and-done players that would not end up helping the long-term continuity for their basketball teams. More than likely, if a player went to a mid-major conference school they would most likely not be of the one-and-done variety and thus contribute more to the long-term stability and continuity of that school's basketball program. Despite the glitz of big-time college basketball programs, such continuity is starting to become a bigger factor in the NCAA tournament and more big conference teams than ever don't have that continuity any longer. Last year, Kentucky won the NCAA championship yet this year they lost in their first game in the NIT tournament. As the top seed in that tournament based likely on their name recognition and reputation alone, they lost to Robert Morris, a mid-major. It's likely we will see more and more mid-major success in NCAA basketball tournaments and there may be a day where an Elite Eight might solely be comprised of mid-major conference teams.
- I'm not into video gaming as much outside of a few Facebook games, but there is one that I am looking forward to. It's a MOBA (multiplayer online battle arena) game based on the DC Comics Universe called Infinite Crisis. Since the storyline of the game is based on the DCU Multiverse, there will be multiple versions of heroes and villains in the game...for example there will be regular, vampire and steampunk versions of Batman...as they fight to save said multiverse. I heard it's going to be free to play online but of that I'm not certain of yet, but I am excited about it nonetheless. If you want to find out more about the game, here is the game's official website: Infinite Crisis.
- Song on Repeat: "Timshel" by Mumford & Sons. It's hard to believe it's been one full year since One Tree Hill aired its series finale. This show changed a lot of things for me including my outlook of the future. It had a life-changing effect on me even at this age. It also influenced my taste in music. This song was featured at the beginning of the 8th season finale and it's just such a beautiful song to listen to.
- Shoutouts: Cory, Kristin, Joe Dawg Brother, Carl, Debbie, Scotty, Stacey, Josh, Ernest, Todd, Tom, Tammy, Mary K., Mike L., Ron, Paul AKA Stone, Richard C., Holly, Paula, Lynn, Cathy, Griff, Stan, Bob and Terry B.
That's it for this edition. By the next edition, I will be officially considered one year older than I am currently. Until then, take care and God Bless.
DJ
