Digging the intolerant

Jeromey Balderrama

Digg has been one of my favorite sites on the Internet.  It’s a great resource for keeping up on news, finding great links and gauging reaction from the community.  In my 18 months in visiting Digg I’ve noticed some established traits in the stereotypical Digg user:

  • They love the Wii, hate Sony
  • They love Apple and their products
  • They hate Microsoft (or at least love to bash MS)
  • They love to make smart-ass chauvinistic comments
  • They hate Republicans (and love Ron Paul)
  • They are committed atheists and despise religion
  • They are intolerant of opposing views

The last bullet has become more prevalent in the last few months, reducing the enjoyable community experience.  My most recent visit to Digg epitomizes degradation.  I’ve been following the story on Bills TE Kevin Everett, who suffered the spinal cord injury during the Broncos game.  News broke that he has gained voluntary movement and is hopeful to walk again. On Digg someone posted the story with the headline: “NFL Player may walk again! He is moving his arms & legs again! Digg & Pray!” This is great news, but of course the stereotypical Digg user can’t get past the fact that prayer was referenced in the headline.

If you go to the story on Digg you’ll find that a few comments praise the good news, but most of the criticize the fact that prayer was added.  The further on you read the more intolerant and offensive the comments become.

It’s one thing if you don’t believe in religion or prayer, but these people are so threatened that they feel the need to attack prayer and anyone who believes that.  What makes this so disgusting is that people completely forget about Everett and his situation just to drive their own point home.    They are so stuck on themselves and their own views that they managed to take a tragic story on Everett that has some hope, and make this about themselves.  Why do they feel the need to inject their beliefs somewhere it doesn’t belong?

This represents what’s wrong with the Digg community and why this site is hitting a glass ceiling.  I’m not sure how Digg can expand their userbase when their core users are so territorial, intolerant and mean-spirited. Their users are more interested in protecting their safe haven for their views that they refuse to be welcoming and accepting of other views.  It’s been said that Digg is essentially the inmates running the asylum, and I’m inclined to agree.  Rather than bringing in new traffic, it’s going to just drive more people away.

Technorati tags: digg

The games of NFL Football

Jeromey Balderrama

The NFL kick-off is about 90 minutes away, and I couldn’t be more happy for a new season of football.  I try to get interested in other sports, but ultimately it’s football that I thrive in watching.  Not only do I love watching football, but also playing games around football: specifically fantasy football and NFL pick’em.

I fear this year I may be in football games overload, as I prepared myself for tonight’s Saints/Colts matchup, I ended up visiting 7 different web sites to get things ready.

On the fantasy side I have 5 fantasy football teams I had to prepare:

  • On Yahoo:
    • TJ Who’sYourMama – In my Raidah Hater’s league – this is the league where I personally know everyone and consider it my "serious" league.  We do Yahoo Fantasy Plus.
    • YouPlayToWinTheGame – In my Facebook Friends – a friendly game of Facebookers (obviously)
  • On ESPN
    • Dhani’s Bow Tie – On "Broncos Breakin" a random league that I joined to see what ESPN Fantasy Football was about
    • Dhani’s Bow Tie – Denver Steelers – got bit by the fantasy bug
    • Team Gaudreau – Indianapolis 477951 – this was a result of an evening I stayed up too late and decided to join on a whim

On the football-picking side I also have a lot of activity

  • Balderrama Football Pool – Family football pool – this has been a long-time tradition and we’re bringing it back after a year hiatus
  • 950 the Fan Football Pick’Em – This is something that a fwe of my friends do for fun.  The winner of EVERYONE gets a big screen TV.  It’s free, so if you’re like to play, join "47 Lynch Fans"!
  • HBO’s Inside the NFL – Beat the Hosts – This is something just for fun
  • ESPN Pigskin Pick’em – Another fun one
  • Pro Pigskin Pick’Em on Facebook – This looked interesting, and what the heck

So as you can see, I’m going to be making the rounds on Saturday nights, frantically trying to take care of everything.  But I wouldn’t have it any other way, I’m so glad football is here!

If Mascot Miles can’t talk, how can he blog?

Jeromey Balderrama

Believe it or not, Miles the Broncos Mascot has a blog.  I was goofing around on the web this evening when I ran across Andrew Mason’s blog, the Broncos website’s managing editor, who also covers the Broncos from the inside (I found out that he live-blogs each of the games and does a great job!).

Back to Miles: Mason has a blogroll of other Broncos blogs including various Broncos players, officials, but what caught my eye was that the friggin’ mascot has a blog.  When your primary of form of communication is gestures and crazy antics, how can you be articulate enough to blog?  You can’t physically open your mouth, but some how you can spat off ramblings using your cloth hooves?  All joking aside, it’s a pretty cute way to outreach to fans, but I still have to stand by my previously-blogged stance on mascots.  They’re one (small) step above mimes, and would you really want to read a mime’s blog?

Mason’s blogroll has an awesome list of Broncos links, including CB’s Domonique Foxworth’s blog.  It’s really encouraging to see the Broncos embrace blogging as a way to outreach to their fans.  It’s a bummer that these things aren’t better publicized.  I’m a blog/rss junkie and this is the first I’ve heard of these blogs.

Speaking of Broncos blogs, if you want to get amazing coverage of everything Broncos, you need to check out Mile High Report.  I’ve been reading them all summer long and the content is excellent. 

Now that pre-season’s over, it’s going to be exciting to watch and see what the final Broncos roster will look like.  NFL kick-off Thursday can’t get here soon enough!

Technorati tags: broncos, miles, mascots

They try to make Winehouse to go rehab…

Jeromey Balderrama

AP story found in International Herald Tribune:

The father-in-law of the British singer Amy Winehouse is urging her fans to boycott her music and said she should be ineligible for awards until she seeks treatment for drug addiction, the BBC reported. In an interview with BBC Radio 5 Live, Giles Fielder-Civil said that Winehouse and her husband, Blake, Fielder-Civil’s son, would die without medical help. “Perhaps it is time to stop buying records,” he said. “It’s a possibility, to send that message.” But Winehouse’s father, Mitch, said, “It won’t send any message to Amy at all, unfortunately,” adding, “If I thought it would, it would be a great idea.” Fielder-Civil said he believed that Winehouse, a nominee for a Mercury Music Prize, an MTV Video Music Award and four Music of Black Origin (MOBO) Awards for her 2006 album “Back to Black,” had been using cocaine, crack cocaine and possibly heroin. Winehouse, 23, was hospitalized this month for “severe exhaustion” and withdrew from concerts in the United States and Canada “to address her health.

Yeah… That “Rehab” song she sings isn’t quite as cool when’s it’s based in reality as much as it is.  Maybe Amy should stop saying “No, no, no.” Maybe we should stop patronizing her by buying a song that glorifies her defiance of drug abuse intervention.

Having a really good gig

Jeromey Balderrama

It’s definitely been a long, but productive summer for my band, Greenfoot.  Since the beginning of June we have played 10 shows throughout Denver and the Front Range.  We seemed to be playing 1 show at least every 10 days, with a few shows being only 2 days apart from each other.  This tends to ware on a  band where all members have day-jobs, families, business & family trips, and numerous other summer activities.  We’ve seen a lot of success as a band this summer and have accomplished a lot.  Nonetheless, this summer has definitely been a trying one in our struggle to balance our time.

Throughout the winter and spring our practices were loosely organized, but productive.  We spent rehearsals balancing practicing established songs, writing new material  and working on covers.  When our aggressive summer schedule came about, our practices became very focused, centered around preparing for the next show.  While these practices were productive, it was definitely a radical departure from our previous rehearsal format.

After a while, it’s easy for the shows to start blurring together.  We had some pretty rocking gigs, but we also had shows where our sound just wasn’t there, or we struggled to get things together.  In my 15 years of drumming I’ve performed countless times, but it still seems hard to shake off a tough show and not let if affect you.  Due to my travels, I had a tough time logging practice on the drums or with the band and ended up knocking off rust while playing at shows.

As easy as it is to get disparaged by tough shows, having a good gig can be just as powerful – and that’s what happened last weekend.

A friend of the band asked us to provide music at their company picnic, and we graciously accepted.  Original music artists don’t get too many opportunities with these kind of gigs, especially one that delivered a decent paycheck.  As the show was approaching, I was beginning to experience doubt about how we’d be received.  Would this group like our music, would they feel alienated about  not hearing our songs before?  Would we have enough material to last the picnic?  I would be lying if I said I wasn’t hesitant and cautious about this show.

We arrived at Maple Park in Golden to a beautiful summer morning, and there was just an aura of relaxation that filled this place.  We got in early enough to take our time setting up and making sure everything was just right sound-wise.  This was a stark contrast to 2 nights before when we rushed on without even a sound check. 

With our relaxed setup experience, we also took a relaxed approach to the show – almost a healthy form of apathy.  We realized that people here don’t really know our music and don’t really have high expectations as compared to a night-club experience.  When you’re playing a bar, you’re often the focus of the venue – many are critically judging you. However, here at the picnic, people were just looking for some good background music to help them have a good time.  This freed our minds and our music, opening up an awesome musical experience.  We jammed out, enjoying ourselves and having a good time.  We conveyed our relaxed state of emotions through our instruments, and this resulted in the tightest show that we’ve ever played.  We were on fire – everyone was locked in, our solos were pretty raw and you could hear the joy coming through our music.  Incidentally, we got some of the best fan interaction from this show.  People sought us out to get more info on us and get a CD, instead of us placing them on a table and hoping they get handed out.  A lot of people asked about our next shows and said they look forward to hearing us again.

This may sound cheesy, but on Saturday in the park, under a gazebo – we fell in love with our music all over again.  We also learned a lot about us as a band, and with this great show we were able to constructively apply the tough lessons we’ve learned with our bad shows.

Although we do have one more show left, I consider last Saturday a great way to wrap up our summer.  We’re going to be taking some time off “in the basement” and regroup ourselves for the upcoming months, but now we’re fueled with energy to plot our next goals and develop a plan to attain them. This is why I love playing music. 

Technorati tags: greenfoot, great gigs, bands, musicians