Above the Fold

My voice was still gone today after losing it last night, and it never really got any better all day. I had to run to the high school to pick up something from Dale’s office, and Al caught me in the parking lot to ask for some personal PC care. I offered to come by his place since he’s not far from my parents’ house for a measly 20 bucks, which he giddily accepted. Then he mentioned that the esports article had already hit today’s paper. I ran into Karen as I made my way inside, and she made a comment about me being a celebrity, so I stopped by the library to take a look at the paper there. She let me keep a copy, and I made my way back through Oakland and then to the shop to show everyone.

Jason was finally back to work, at least for a half day. He seemed much softer spoken than before. I didn’t notice the weight loss the way Gary had, but hopefully it helps him kickstart the changes he needs to make in his life anyway.

When I finally got to the junior high, Ronda and Jessica called me down to give me a collage they made of the newspaper clippings. Jessica even designed a gamer cow clipart, complete with a little cow patty. It didn’t stop there, though. After a quick lunch at McAlister’s with Zach, Gary, and Heather, I came back to a shirt with “DIRECTOR COW” on the left breast, and “CYCLONE ESPORTS” on the back. It was really all a bit much right off the bat, but I was excited that they were happy.

I finished up the day by wrapping up a bunch of work orders, and even took Autumn with me to Oakland to do a couple before picking up Noah. From there we met Summer at CiCi’s for dinner. We ran into Karen again while we ate, and eventually I headed home for the evening where I did anything I could to clear my congestion before going to bed early.

I don’t know anybody that’s ever been in the paper and said afterwards, “yeah, I said that!”

The Interview of a Lifetime

I woke up this morning congested with all kinds of crud, but felt just barely well enough to get home and showered before work. I went to the shop to call Rachel so she could coach me for my interview with Travis at The Courier. We joke about it a lot at work, but it was kind of funny to hear someone actually tell me in an official capacity that my role was to promote the district and myself as the esports coach. Obviously we’re selling something here, but some of our guys give it such negative light because it seems like it’s the same few people parading about as though they have some idea what’s going on, and those are the ones that always seem to get paid the most while the hard-at-work get whatever pickings are left.

I had only just made it to the junior high when Ben said we could meet up with Johnny. I did a quick work order, and then went to meet them. As if it was to be a day of only poor timing, I no sooner shook Johnny’s hand than Ben asked me to drive across campus to pick him up. We eventually got settled in, and Johnny had a lot more to say and lead the conversation than I expected. I actually didn’t even really break out the list of questions I had been curating, particularly after he got to the point where he said classified staff likely wouldn’t be payable in a coaching role. There are loopholes that we may be able to jump through, and different things that may be possible to offset my time out, but it seems like things are going to have to change quite a bit before what actually happens aligns with that which is right.

We wrapped that meeting up with just barely enough time for me to make my way to The Courier, where I met up with Travis, who I hadn’t seen in a decade. He was relatively cold, direct, and straight to the point, but relatively professional given our history. I still don’t quite know his angle on the story after trying to answer the questions he had for me, but I’ll have to trust that he’ll continue the “good relationship” Rachel spoke to me about earlier in the day. When it was all said and done, Joshua took my headshot and walked me out.

From there, I went to a late lunch. Solo, melancholy, free grand slam at Denny’s, as years and years past. I think it was good after a bit of a nerve racking few days. Nobody else from the team even mentioned lunch.

The afternoon flew by pretty quickly, and I found myself rushing to get back to the junior high for esports practice. Kids poured in like never before, and I ended up with one more student than computers. I’m not sure where they went, but at some point it evened out. I don’t know if maybe someone’s parents showed up, or what. I’m not even sure how responsible I am for that at this very volunteer point in time. Gary stopped by for a while and was impressed. Then Joshua showed up to take some pictures. Our conversation went much better than the first time. I think Gary helped, as he is wont to do. The highlight of the entire day was talking to a father of a student, and hearing him say, “no son of mine is going to be a filthy casual!”

Validation to my ears!

That wrapped up my work day, so I went home to do what little housekeeping I could muster, then ran the birthday freebie gauntlet all the way to Summer’s. Three free sandwiches with the purchase of two drinks. Not too shabby.

Esports! Will It Turn Your Teenager into a Mass Murderer? Click here to read more!

Freesports

I was locked up at Oakland again today with a menial data entry task to keep me busy. The day actually went by pretty quickly, but it definitely wore on me. I enjoyed the break at Taco John’s with Dale and Allen. I talked myself into trying their quesadilla tacos for $too.much, and though they were good, they still felt like they should have been nearly half that price.

I finished up testing in the early afternoon, then got to pull the fire alarm on my way out. I stopped by the shop for just a few minutes, and then headed to the junior high to meet up for esports. I had nearly as many there as I did last Saturday, which was both good and bad considering there is still only one of me running the show, and I’m not having to put any effort into drawing people in. It will be nice to get some true answers on funding and AAA regulations, so hopefully Johnny gets back to me on having a meeting. At least Matt came by to see us this time.

I had to pick up the slack on a few work orders before I left since I haven’t really done any work at the junior high since the middle of last week. I’ve also gotten some criticism for my office lately, so I need to make time to clean that up as well. I simply don’t have enough hours in the day.

Summer went to Autumn’s band concert, but as late as I got home and as hungry as I was, I just stayed in and tried to take care of as much as I could there. Grey still didn’t seem to want to eat, and I assume she’s not eating dry food while I’m away. She’s not acting like she’s on her last legs, but she’s not acting well either. She won’t even perk up for gravy at this point.

The last of the evening was spent parsing through every photo I’ve taken since Summer and I went to the football game. There was no way I could pare it down to just 20 photos, but the end result of twice that many pages really seemed priceless anyway. I’ll always have the digital copies, but now my coffee table will have them too.

If Fi only had a heart!

Testees

I really hardly did anything today, but it still seemed to go by pretty fast. Oakland started a week long session of all-day ELPA testing, and I’m being made to sit through the whole thing. I had just a couple of things come up there that I could work on, but the rest of the time I was burning through my phone battery. I was down under 40% battery well before school even let out.

I met Dale and Allen at Arby’s for lunch, but that was pretty uneventful. It was kind of nice to chat with Dale for a minute after Allen left though. On the way back, I stopped by the house to pick up my new Rocket League stickers from Sticker Mule.

I spent a little bit of time at the shop chatting with Ben before heading home to clean up. I had to stop by Walmart for some bacon on the way up to Summer’s for dinner, where she grilled pork chops and fried some potatoes and Brussels sprouts. After dinner, we watched an episode of Parks and Rec with the girls before they went to bed. Then I spent the rest of the evening contemplating esports and the Arkansas Activities Association. I never anticipated so much bureaucracy.

Coach Math Tutor

The girls took off this morning for the quiz bowl tournament. I got to follow about an hour behind, and walked into a lab already full of kids. I really didn’t expect that many of them to wake up early enough to actually be there by 9, but they did. We had nearly a full lab by the time it was all said and done, so I was pleased with the turnout. More than a couple more would have been too much, so it really was just about perfect.

They got a little loud a couple times, but nothing too crazy. Johnny came in and scolded them for being loud at one point because they got excited when I suggested they try a local 5v5. Once they got into the gaming it really quieted down though, and everyone seemed to have a pretty good time. A few of them got some food, and then I ended up grabbing some Little Caesar’s for some others that had money but no way to get it. I picked up a couple pizzas on top of what they had to help feed some other hungry but broke ones. The real highlight was a parent coming in looking for a kid that was supposed to be getting some math tutoring. We had to sit down and have a talk about that one. I guess I’ll have to figure out academic requirements before the end of the year.

When we wrapped it all up, I brought the leftovers from quiz bowl’s lunch home while Summer went to the gym. It took me a while to clean everything up, and then I started messing with my computer for just a little bit before she got back. We had just a little bit to eat and watched The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, which was nothing like I expected. We both thought it was pretty amazing.

I, too, have been known to violate the statutes of man… and not a few of the laws of the Almighty!

Failure to Launch

I had a little bit of a slow start this morning, and even got to embarrass myself in front of the whole crew when Ben wanted to go over some relatively convoluted phone stuff as soon as I walked in at 8am. I made it though, and I even managed to get out of any project work in the morning. At one point, Ben and I ran to the aquatic center to help someone before a swim meet, but by the time we got there he had already figured it out.

Everyone but Ben went to Western Sizzlin for lunch, which was an amazing feat in itself. It was a pretty quiet meal too, I think it was partially because everyone was hungry, and partially because nobody could talk shit about anyone else because everyone was there. I cut myself a little short on food, but then ran long on dessert. I couldn’t resist the brick of Rice Krispie Treats. Or the pecan pie. Or the no-bake cookies. Or the blueberry cake. Or the banana pudding. Or the ice cream. But mostly that first one.

After lunch, Dale, Allen, and I hung two touch panels. I had one at Oakland, and then Allen had one at Crawford. We had gotten a slightly newer model than the ones we were purchasing, and the software on them is pretty significantly different. I didn’t get a whole lot of time to play with them, but it definitely seemed less intuitive. I wasn’t a huge fan, but Dale loved the fact that they had handles on both sides. They were mounted a little low on the panels though, so the thing was top heavy and would tilt over when we picked it up.

When I got home, I cleaned house until the girls got there, and then we went to my parents’ house for some leftovers. I was really proud of Autumn for letting herself be forced to eat more than just egg rolls for dinner, and she even liked the bite of weird beef she originally didn’t want to eat. We didn’t stay very long though, because we had to get home to rest before the big day tomorrow.

The girls put on Coco for a little while, and then they all went to sleep while I tried to catch up on some esports craziness. We didn’t get a tournament team going before the midnight cutoff, but it’s looking like we’ll have a pretty good turnout tomorrow for a LAN party while Summer is hosting a quiz bowl tournament. I’m a little worried about noise levels just because I don’t know how many people are going to show up, but I won’t be afraid to shut it down if they don’t behave.

-Email Signatures

Fly

Gary had to help get League of Legends to work again this morning. I guess they moved some DNS entries around on their update server, which broke SSL encryption for us again. I’m mostly just parroting words, though. He made the blinky thing workie again. Then he took me to the other basement.

I met Allen at KFC for too much food. I still wish they’d reinstall a tray rail along the buffet. They’re just asking for trouble without it. Then I spent the afternoon at the junior high contemplating organized sports. Being under the AAA umbrella means that players can only play for four years, which means 8th graders can’t actually compete. Fortunately that doesn’t seem to mess me up too badly, because I don’t think anybody has actually stepped up to play in the tournament yet. Matt wants to just throw a couple kids in, but all I see is throwing money into a hole.

After work, I wasn’t hungry enough for phở, so I skipped going to my parents’ house and went to Walmart in the rain to get Grey some wet food. On the way out I drove past a guy with no legs scooting himself across the parking lot between cars on a skateboard, so I’d say things are going pretty spectacularly for me.

Back home I got Grey to eat a little bit before trying to play a custom game of League of Legends with Kang against some bots. For some reason it ran horrendously on my computer, and I just left frustrated. I don’t understand why it drops so many frames, yet OverwatchRocket League, and even PUBG will run fine. Generally upset about my computer, I got up and did the dishes and then came back to play some Overwatch with Jack and Johnny, and then Clint after Johnny left. Still fewer wins than expected. Must be tired.

I don’t listen to a whole lot of classic metal, but if I decided to explore it more, I would definitely listen to more Metallica.”

Harmony with Discord

I was excited to wake up without a headache this morning, but I got a little bit of a slow start anyway. I made up for it though, and got to work with plenty of time to spare. I ran pretty much all day, mostly catching up on neglected work orders. Esports has really taken a lot of my focus, but it’s been fun because I’m getting to test my working knowledge of so many working parts just on the technology side alone. Every time I turn around, I find something new that I have to take into consideration, and probably another thing I have to make work in some system.

Today, it was mostly a day of Discord. I’ve gotten the responses. Forty seven students registered for the club. Twenty one of those joined our Discord server. I mostly dismissed Discord when it came out nearly four years ago. The audio quality was rubbish, and still mostly is in comparison to other services like TeamSpeak or Mumble. It’s the rest of the organizational features that make the service truly shine though. I’ve spent probably over eight hours working on this server, and am only just really getting into the meat of what it can do. I’m excited to make it look truly professional, even if it is mostly used by a bunch of new teenagers.

More bots! More bots! More bots! Come on, more bots! K, stop bots!

Coach Brain

I spent virtually the entire day trying to compose an email. There was a lot of fact checking and gathering of second through 20th opinions as well. I truly shirked my tech duties all day for the sake of a solid esports launch. Even after all of that though, I still haven’t actually had my first after school meeting yet. All of this was just to send out a survey and set up a Discord. There are so many moving parts, and it’s great to be on the front and back end of the whole process, but it just means twice the work along with the glory.

Zach chose Morelos for us, so he and Sara drove while Allen and Brice rode with me. We made it there and back in plenty of time in spite of Allen’s whining. After lunch I was approved to unblock Discord from our firewall when, much to Gary’s sarcastic amusement, a certified teacher agreed that he told him so about classroom management being the issue and not the communication tool itself. School let out two hours early, but I made it to the junior high just in time to get everything set up for conferences.

It didn’t seem like there were a bunch of parents there, but I had several stop by my little area to talk about it. I handed out just a few more flyers, but most everyone that stopped by was at least a little bit aware of esports. Evidently there was something on the news about it last night, so it seemed like most of them expected it. Still, it was nice to get a little bit of face time along with a whole lot of validation from parents, teachers, and principals.

I finally left around 7:30 and went to my parents’ house for a leftover egg roll salad. Then it was home for the evening to play with Discord some more. I think, like everything else, I’m making it more complicated than it has to be.

I’ve decided that being called “Coach” is gross, and have promoted myself to the Director of Esports position.

Eat. Sleep. Esports. Repeat.

We woke up this morning and finished up some ancient barbecue leftovers for breakfast. Then it was the struggle of getting children out of bed. I took Summer and Autumn home with me to get their car, and I got to work crunching esports stuff together.

I left for a brief moment to get some leftovers at my parents’ house for dinner since the girls didn’t really have time to come down the hill. Nothing fancy; just some leftover KFC. Then it was back home to try and build a playlist of highschool-appropriate esports promotional videos for parent-teacher conferences tomorrow. I just hope it’s not a disaster.

Feels like cramming.