Archive for the ‘anarchyroll media’ Category

Anarchy JC #2: Inspiration via Devastation

Posted: October 3, 2013 in Anarchy Journal Constitutional
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Part One: My Life
by  @anarchyroll

I used to write poetry, a lot of poetry. That was my entre into blogging in the first place back in the MySpace days when I started posting what I would write on cocktail napkins, scrap paper, copy paper, waste paper, and in notebooks. I had been writing poetry for years, over a decade in fact. People told me it was good, but I often wonder if they meant it or if they were just worried that if they gave me their honest opinion I would slit my wrist. For a number of years they would have been right in that assumption, and no I did not listen to scene music.

I was creatively inspired by negativity, and because I was a depressed anti social at the time, I wrote a lot. I could find the darkness in anything, like any immature negative asshole can. I did a lot of writing, it made me not happy, but feel less shitty to turn the negative feelings I was constantly feeling into something constructive and productive. Back then, that was the only constructive thing I did other than work a day job. Much of what wasn’t burned the day I graduated high school can still be found at darkdawndiaries.com.

When the creative writing well ran dry for the first time since before puberty, I freaked out. Silently, likely creating tumors made of suppressed negative emotions. Even worse, I tried being creative so counterproductive I’m amazed I didn’t create the world’s highest rated sitcom. My 26th birthday brought a literal explosion of creativity, many of those are posted on the above listed website. I started a couple of short stories that day that I was never able to finish because trying to create fiction seemed like trying to speak Mandarin, in search of a metaphoric or literal Rosetta Stone.

During this time I was going to school, pursuing a bachelor’s degree in Media Communications, walking the path of Chris Farley’s character in Tommy Boy. So although I had writer’s block creatively, I was still writing for academic purposes on a weekly basis for a majority of the year. Not only was I writing but I was also receiving training in writing for news, writing for media, audio broadcasting, video production, public speaking, script writing, communication theories/styles, the history of theater, radio, film, and television. I was maturing as a person and as a writer, whether I knew it or not, whether I wanted to or not. This saved me.

I was constantly thinking about writing but not doing it because of my self fulfilling prophecy of writer’s block even though I was routinely getting high marks on lengthy, research based term papers. I saw friends and classmates actually taking action towards their career aspirations and media and achieving them. Me? I just kept riding my hamster wheel of reoccurring personal issues. My journey towards handling and solving those issues through consuming knowledge and applying lessons is being documented in my Stimulus Space Response articles.

What got my actually writing again? I reached a tipping point in many areas of my life. After my grandmother died and my job of eight years went bankrupt I dipped back into full fledged depression. Didn’t leave my bedroom for days (except food & bathroom), didn’t leave my house for weeks. I dropped out of school, stopped exercising, stopped even thinking about writing, stopped anything productive. I was lost in the woods at night, if my life was a building, it was a pile of smoldering rubble destroyed from a fire within. With much help from family and friends I went back to school, started listening to nonfiction audio books routinely, lost forty pounds, got my BA, moved into a house with a friend, started journaling, started reading amateur blogs, started talking with people in the media industry, and started posting blogs.

Why do I write and why did I start in the first place? I love writing, I really do. I’m no longer going to question if I’m also actually good at it or the people who tell me that I’m good at it. I’m going to believe in myself, my ability, my talent, and take action from there. If I am not inspired to write poetry or short stories like I once was, then it’s a good thing I have a formal education and degree of higher education in media writing. So I am going to write about the news stories that I am passionate about while trying to break new stories that are within my circle of influence to do original reporting on. I must write to stay sharp, to improve, and to build a portfolio of material.

What makes me want to keep writing, professionally, with a multi tiered content presentation style in the spirit of VICE and UPROXX? Three things; Syria, Bradley Manning, and Edward Snowden. More on those next time…

Inspiration via Devastation: Part 2: Syria

Posted: October 3, 2013 in Anarchy Journal Constitutional
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by @anarchyroll

I first started paying attention to the civil war in Syria when the body count was 3,000. Back then it wasn’t yet a civil war, there was no Free Syrian Army to begin with, so it hadn’t yet splintered off into seven separate factions. I had heard that essentially the Syrian people were trying to do what the people of Egypt did during the Arab Spring of 2011. The difference in this case was, the president of Syria, Bashar al-Assad ordered his military to open fire and execute all of the protesting civilians. I noticed each day the body count went up by the hundreds, not by the dozens. I noticed when the body count exceeded that of 9/11/01.

I never stopped paying attention to Syria, anyone who frequents my Twitter account would certainly agree with me. The sheer numbers of dead, wounded, and refugees has never ceased to boggle my mind. What happened in Libya and Egypt definitely led to me focusing even more on Syria. I think, without judgment, those two had the opposite effect on most people. I understand completely the fatigue of the American public after over a full decade of seeing wars in the Middle East. Afghanistan and Iraq, each day a new bombing, another dozen or more dead, more money spent (or missing) abroad, more fear mongering at home. I empathize rather than demonize the public who just seem to not care about Syria, after all there is no oil there.

The American public’s desire to not care about Syria was only aided by the fact that the main stream media didn’t focus on the country’s civil war, despite the staggering body count, until after the sarin gas attack last month. If you get your news from the internet, then you can’t not know about Syria for at least a full year. Even the websites of NBC, CBS, FOX News, and CNN have had regular stories about the conflict, the television stations they are subsidiaries of however, did not. If you get your news from newspapers or magazines, you’ve known about Syria since maybe the beginning of this year. TIME magazine, the New York Times, and Chicago Tribune have all had front page stories on Syria that I have seen with my own eyes.

Now, in September of 2013 only the young and the ignorant don’t know about the situation in Syria. It is the lead story online, in print, and on television. Local news, national news, cable news are all leading with Syria. I am happy that the light is finally getting shined on this very bleak and black news story. The death and destruction match any conflict in recent memory. Syria’s civil war is not an indie band that  just got signed to a major label, I’m not proud that I was calling for US intervention before it was cool. But I am a supporter of US intervention.

I was not a supporter of Operation Desert Storm or it’s much less successful sequel. I was a supporter of  intervention in Kosovo. I was not a supporter of invading Afghanistan after 9/11 since it was not a country that attacked the United States. I was a supporter of the small scale, special operation, tactical assassination of Osama bin Laden which I believe should be the blueprint for all of the military presence of the United States in the Middle East for the last decade should have been. I was not a supporter of our involvement in Libya. I am a supporter of the intervention in Syria.

I wish I had a year and a half backlog of blogs and articles to show the consistency of my stance on this issue, but I don’t. I wish all of my writings on the topic would give me some credibility with anyone who reads this article, but I don’t. I haven’t been writing for anything other than academic purposes for the last two years. Syria is a major factor in changing that. I thought the United States military should have intervened over a year ago. We have after all, along with the United Nations, been arming the rebels. That is going half pregnant, either we support the rebels or we don’t. Since Obama has proven to be just as much a supporter of the Military Industrial Complex as his predecessors, then let’s put that machine to use when literally hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians are being slaughtered.

I long for the day we as a country are officially isolationist, with an eye on the military operations of other countries akin to what is happening in outer space. The money we need to pump into our schools, bridges, roads, and social safety net programs is being spent on a rubber stamped military industrial complex budget every year. I will be the first to say spend that money at home and not abroad. I’d love to have an embassy in every country and not a military base. Until that day comes, and by day I mean peaceful upheaval of basically everyone in power in national office, America is the World Police. If we are going to play World Police so we can control the price of oil, then we can play world police for thousands of innocent civilians being slaughtered every day.

What should be and what is, believe it or not aren’t always the same thing. I think it is the right thing to do to get the chemical weapons from being used against civilians, and we should do something to help all of the refugees. I’ll have much more to write on Syria, so I won’t write a novel’s worth of material in this one post. I am happy to be in a position where I both want to and can go on writing for a long period of time. It was a long trip to get to this point. I needed to reignite the fire within me that had dimmed to a searing hot coal. I needed flames, the situations involving Bradley Manning and Edward Snowden applied the gasoline after Syria stoked the ambers…

Potato Shooter #2: Carpenter Needs More Tools

Posted: October 1, 2013 in Anarchy Journal Constitutional
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by @anarchyroll
September 4, 2013

 

What mixed martial arts fan doesn’t like Clay Guida? How can you not root for someone like that? He is far and away the most unique mixed martial artist of the last half decade. His look, his entrances, his fighting style, his lifestyle away from the cage. He doesn’t talk shit, he only fights top tier competition, he is humble, and gracious to all of his fans all of the time. Clay Guida’s nickname is “The Carpenter” and he goes to work with a hard hat and lunch pail each time he sets foot inside the UFC Octagon.  Unfortunately for him and his fans, the Carpenter has become a screwdriver in a power drill era.

 

Guida’s greatest strengths; stamina, wrestling, unique fighting stance have evolved into his liabilities. Guida has gone from the precipice of a title shot in two divisions, to the veteran gate keeper. A slot any and every independent mixed martial artist would kill for, but a spot on the UFC’s roster Guida is too young and too talented to be typecast into in 2013. However, Guida like many fighters of the generation before him has done it to himself by refusing to evolve. Moving to New Mexico to train with Greg Jackson isn’t a cure all. Dropping a weight class to have a size advantage isn’t the missing piece. Guida has consciously or unconsciously resisted evolving into a more well rounded fighter.

 

At UFC 165 this past Saturday, Guida was stopped for the first time in his career by Chad Mendes. The fight was never in question. The Carpenter has only two tools in his belt, wrestling and boxing, Mendes is better than Guida at both. Guida’s split decision win in his featherweight debut against Hatsu Hioki was the definition of uninspiring. That fight was proceeded with back to back losses to Gray Maynard and Benson Henderson that convinced Guida to drop down to featherweight. But it wasn’t Guida’s size that lost those two fights. After all, he looked like a giant when he ground and pounded his way to a unanimous decision victory over Anthony Pettis in Showtime’s UFC debut in June 2011. It is Guida’s lack of technique that has caused his career to stagnate.

 

Being a boxer/wrestler is no longer good enough for any mixed martial artist to succeed at the highest level of competition, which is the UFC. If you want to be a champion in the UFC, this side of the year 2009 you need to be proficient in three disciplines and have a size advantage at minimum. Guida’s move to featherweight was a step in the right direction. Training with Greg Jackson and his murderer’s row of fighters at that camp in New Mexico is another great step. But if Guida is going to keep fighting the same exact style as before training at Jackson’s MMA, then all he’s doing is burning money and wasting time. If like me, you watched Guida’s last two fights, you know that he hasn’t changed his style at all.

 

The infinite gas tank, the never ending head bobbing, constant movement side to side, inside to outside which make him fun to watch, has made him easy to game plan. His opponents now know that if you can stuff his takedowns and keep out of his hand swinging range, that Guida is nothing more than entertaining to watch. Guida is a great wrestler, but it’s 2013 not 2003 and the sprawl is not a new craze just making the rounds at elite camps anymore. Takedowns need to be set up with striking now, it’s only optional if you have one punch knockout power, and Guida hasn’t had a KO or TKO since 2008. Guida can be classified as a submission artist when he gets his opponents on that mat, but he has proven himself unable to consistently get people off their feet for the last two years.

 

I live a half hour from Clay Guida’s hometown, I’m a big fan of his. It breaks my heart to see him repeating the mistakes of the great boxer/wrestlers who became irrelevant by refusing to evolve before him. Tito Ortiz, Rampage Jackson, Randy Couture, Chuck Liddell, Chael Sonnen, Matt Hughes, Tyson Griffin, Rich Franklin, and Gray Maynard all refused to change with the times despite achieving great success. Each one of those men can say that father time eventually caught up to them, that they were champions, and/or fought in big money fights. But each man listed before retiring was made to be merely an attraction fighter, in no way a legit title contender, because they had been exposed as being a two tool fighter, in a three tool or more era and refused to evolve (learn a new discipline). I don’t want to see Clay Guida’s name on that list, Clay Guida can still be a legit title contender.

 

Clay Guida can still be a UFC champion! But he has to evolve, he has to learn a new discipline. Muay Thai or kickboxing would be my recommendation because the threat of kicks from a distance and knees in the clinch would open up his opponents to takedowns. Once Guida gets them down, he knows everything one needs to know. But he can’t get them down consistently anymore. He needs help, he needs to learn, he needs to evolve. His trainer is Greg Jackson, so he’s not just in good hands, but the best hands. Guida is surrounded with some of the best strikers in all of mma. You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make him drink. Clay Guida must choose to learn from the failures of those who came before him, as well as the rest of the fighters in his camp and add another dimension to his game. If not, well then he can be a fan favorite, two division gate keeper who regularly appears on FOX and pay per views for the UFC. Still not bad work for a kid from Round Lake, Illinois.

Excess and Algorithms: Mission Statement

Posted: October 1, 2013 in Excess and Algorithms
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by @anarchyroll
August 26th, 2013

 

Economics is not complicated, it’s taxing, pun intended. Studying the subject at a novice level reveals that the entire field is nothing more than a simple field purposely hidden under a camouflage tent of complicated sounding language. One must become familiar with these terms because they build upon each other, layer after layer after layer after layer until it is believed that only computer algorithms can be used to do the work of insiders and professionals that are hired by normal people because they just don’t want to think about it. Why? Because the terminology is so complex looking and sounded it makes someone who spends forty hours a week or more working a “normal” “day” job believe that they need someone to do it for them. Putting computers in charge of making trades by the millisecond was not a victory for simplicity either.

 

Studying economics and writing about it is as fun as it sounds, in that there is reward for the time invested, that reward is of course knowledge. There is a flood of knowledge available for consumption in the field  of business and economics, and it is almost too easy for one to drown in it.  I personally do not have a background in economics, I did not formally study it, I have not worked for a hedge fund, a brokerage, in New York trading stocks, or in Chicago trading options. I listened to The Warren Buffet Way on audio book and became fascinated with the field. Several books later I found myself compelled to regularly check websites like Reuters, Business Week, Bloomberg, The Economist, and CNBC so that I could regularly bathe myself in daily economics and market terminology.

 

So what is Excess and Algorithms? It is the business/economics blog for me, @anarchyroll. My other blogs feature my writings on hard news/journalism, pro wrestling/mma, philosophy/spirituality, and sports. I originally wanted each blog to be a separate website, but I got mentally buried in concern of the aesthetics/design of each one and used that as an excuse to procrastinate. So I’m going to start writing and posting content online and go from there. Eventually I would like to combine all five blogs into one website and present the material like a digital newspaper/magazine akin to VICE, Uproxx, and Kinja.

 

I am passionate about each subject I blog about and aspire to be a professional reporter/writer of. I received my bachelor’s degree in media communications from Northeastern Illinois University this past May. I want to make sure that I am applying what I have learned, that I am keeping my writing skills sharp, that I am staying productive as a person, and that I am working towards my overall goal achievement desires. Writing about economics truly tests me as a writer. Presenting the information in an easy to read manner for anyone regardless of education level is difficult and time consuming. Researching the articles takes hours and sometimes days.

 

I will be writing an article on quantitative easing in the coming week. I started doing research and before I knew it five hours had gone by and all I had was a thesis statement. This both exhausted and excited me, because I knew that I was challenging myself as a writer. Writing about wrestling/mma is easy for me. Writing about sports and philosophy are both easy for me. Writing about hard news as a journalist isn’t easy but isn’t hard because I have so much formal training in it. Writing about economics is as challenging as investing. I hope to learn as much about the investment world as I learn about myself as a writer. I will be buying the knowledge and information with my time and energy, then selling it to you at a discounted rate of a thousand words or less. Fair trade?

Sports Roll: Mission Statement

Posted: October 1, 2013 in Anarchy Journal Constitutional
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by @anarchyroll
August 31, 2013

 

There is not a shortage of sports writers in this country or in the world. There are countless talking heads on five or six 24 hour a day sports television channels on basic cable alone, let alone on premium packages, not to mention written print and digital media. And let us not forget the infinity of negative opinions that is sports talk radio. I have always been a big sports fan and have always been opinionated about what I see when I watch sports. After all, it takes as much effort and skill to be a Monday morning quarterback as it does to be a backseat driver.

 

As I read books and listened to audio books in the subject of philosophy/spirituality/personal development I became less opinionated about sports. I became less knowledgeable on the day to day, hour to hour events of the sporting world. I stopped listening to sport talk radio almost completely. I disconnected from cable television so ESPN, Comcast, etc were also eliminated from my daily media intake. I found that the vast majority of sports opinion was negative, and in most cases not even veiled in creativity, credibility, or objectivity.

 

However, when I would encounter quality sports journalism, it peaked my interest as much as any kind of news or entertainment media I consume. Whether in a newspaper, magazine, web page on radio or television I found that the people who were good at their jobs in sports media were bona fide heroes of mine. The blending of creative writing and news has always gotten my blood pumping and thoughts dancing. Quality sports writers and broadcasters in my opinion are masters at combining creative and media writing.

 

So what is Sports Roll? It is the sports blog for @anarchyroll under the Anarchy Journal Constitution digital media writing umbrella. My other blogs feature my writings on hard news/journalism, pro wrestling/mma, economics/business, and philosophy/spirituality/self actualization.     I would like to combine all five blogs into one website and present the material like a digital newspaper/magazine akin to The Daily Beast, Kinja Network, and UPROXX. These are all subjects I am passionate about and would like to become a professional reporter/writer of. I received my bachelor’s degree in media communications from Northeastern Illinois University this past May. I want to make sure that I am applying what I have learned, that I am keeping my writing skills sharp, that I am staying productive as a person, and that I am working towards my overall goal achievement desires.

 

Sports is entertainment for me, no different than any other television show or movie. That paradigm is why I am such  a pro wrestling fan.  My sports blog could just as easily be my TV show or movie blog, but I watch little of either because my visual entertainment time more often tends to be used watching sports and sports entertainment. Football, basketball, hockey, and baseball will be the sports I write about most, in that order, since those are the sports that I watch in that order of frequency and enthusiasm.  Mixed martial arts may over time bleed into the sports blog because pro wrestling is my biggest passion in life and that blog which is currently split between rasslin’ and mma may over time just become completely dedicated to WWE, TNA, ROH, indies, lucha, and pureoso.

 

Many of my inspirations for pursuing a degree in journalism, which became a degree in media communications are sports journalists and/or sports broadcasters. Michael Wilbon, Tony Kornheiser, Jim Rome, Jonathan Hood, Bob Costas, Dan Patrick, Scott Van Pelt, Jim Lampley, Neil Everett, Bob Ryan, Max Kellerman, Skip Bayless, Woody Paige and Stephen A Smith have all provided me with equal parts entertainment and inspiration via radio and television for many years. Sports writers like Rick Reiley, David Haugh, Bert Sugar, Mitch Albom, Peter King, Bill Simmons, and Mike Lupica have all had me confusing reading nonfiction with being entertained, heaven forbid. These are my inspirations for sports writing/journalism, these will be the benchmarks I strive for as I try to grow and evolve as a writer.

 

Lastly, and what proves to be the main reason that I will be regularly writing a sports blog, is that I have personally been told by more strangers than any to be a sports reporter. From school child age through adulthood people I have met at parties, bars, coffee houses, and through friends have told me that I should be working for ESPN, FSN, Comcast, Dead Spin, etc. This is not simply a situation of me thinking I’m cool because my mom says so. I have been complimented on my intelligence, lexicon, charisma, style, etc by many people. However, it is almost solely been while talking about sports that I have been told that I should get involved with it in a journalistic or broadcasting related endeavor. So rather than resist, I will do as one of my favorite philosophers advises and follow the sign posts that come into my life. But I’ll save the philosophy for my philosophy blog. Now you and I both know the purpose of Sports Roll. Let the games begin.

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