What I will tell you is that things are changing. One example, my lead for the past 10 months or so, Blake Christenson, is leaving us tomorrow for Carbondale, Illinois. After seeing him almost every day in that period, it will be hard to imagine that after tomorrow, he won’t be there.

His departure comes on the eve of Game 1 in the Stanley Cup Finals, which his beloved Chicago Blackhawks are taking part in. They’re playing the Philadelphia Flyers in what’s sure to be a fascinating series, if not for the matchup itself (Blackhawks were the second seed in the Western Conference, while Philadelphia was seeded seventh), certainly for the two cities involved.

I’ve been looking over posts at one of the Chicago Tribune’s sites, and notice an awful lot of trash talking between Chicago fans and Philly fans, who seem to have infiltrated the message boards. To people who follow sports closely, this shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise, as both the Windy City and the City of Brotherly Love are very passionate about their teams.

Perhaps a little too passionate. No doubt you’ve read stories about fans from each city being obnoxious and doing things they shouldn’t. There was the Santa Claus incident during an Eagles game some time back, which I believe I discussed in an earlier post.

But more recently, there’s been the fan who intentionally vomited on someone during a Phillies game (that’s just nasty) and a reporter from a Montreal newspaper who returned to his car after the recent Eastern Conference Finals to find it had been messed with.

Chicago has also had its moments, perhaps the most notable being Disco Demolition Night. For those not familiar, it was a promotional stunt held in the middle of a 1979 doubleheader between the White Sox and Detroit Tigers at the old Comiskey Park in which a local radio station blew up disco records. Fans immediately rushed the field and caused so much commotion and destruction, the White Sox had to forfeit the second game.

In the last few years, members of the Los Angeles Dodgers got into a brawl with Cubs fans at Wrigley Field after a Dodgers player “was allegedly punched in the head and had his hat taken from him.”

There’s also the father-son pair who ran onto the field at U.S. Cellular Field and took out the first-base coach for the Kansas City Royals. Finally, last year at the Friendly Confines, a fan deliberately spilled beer on Shane Victorino of none other than the Phillies while the outfielder was in the process of catching a fly ball.

I’ve gotten to attend sporting events in both cities. I like Wrigley Field at the neighborhood surrounding it a lot, and I enjoyed my visit to Citizens Bank Park last summer (the Phillies house staff is one of the best in baseball, if you ask me). I did notice some fans acting up in each venue, though.

At Wrigley, we ended up seating next to this 20-something guy who came to the ballpark with his friend. I don’t remember his friend saying much, but the kid complained about Derrek Lee, dipped a dollar bill meant for someone else into a cup of beer during a beer-money exchange and called a red-haired kid wearing a St. Louis Cardinals shirt “ginger”. Not very nice, if you ask me.

Of course, the Cubs weren’t playing the Cardinals that night, they had San Diego. When I went to see the Phillies, it was the Pirates in town, and I seem to recall Philly fans getting into a verbal match with a guy from Pittsburgh.

I don’t remember what the Philly fans said about the city on the other side of Pennsylvania, but the Pittsburgh guy had a comeback, something about winning the Super Bowl. In the modern NFL era, the Pittsburgh Steelers have six Super Bowl wins, the most of any team. The Eagles, meanwhile, have not won a Super Bowl.

I’ve made it a rule not to pay attention to ESPN outside of live sporting events anymore, so I don’t know whether they’ve posed the question “which town has the worse fans: Chicago or Philadelphia?” on one of their shows or not. I wouldn’t be surprised if they did.

After careful consideration, I think it’s a question that’s better left unanswered. I’ve made arguments for both cities. As disgusting as I find the vomiting act, is it really any worse than running onto the field and hitting a coach who was just minding his own business?

It’s also foolish to think that this type of behavior couldn’t happen anywhere else outside of Chicago and Philadelphia. Just about anywhere you go, you’ll find a lot of friendly people mixed in with a small handful of people who I don’t want to say are bad, I just don’t think they care. And too often, it’s that minority who have the loudest voice and can garner the most attention.

My old man keeps telling me I have options, and he’s right, I do. It’s just a matter of me figuring out which one puts me in the best chance to succeed. So I took a few days to think about it, and decided the best thing to do would be to prioritize the three core options I have to choose from, based on where I am and where I want to be.

At this time, my top priority is returning to school to get a Masters of Business Administration. I have scheduled to take an exam on June 11. They say to give yourself at least a month to prepare for the test. Of course, Dad thinks I need to start right this minute. I suppose I’ll meet him halfway on this and probably begin next week.

Why am I going for an MBA? Because I’m hoping to learn what I can about marketing, particularly the social media aspect of it, which in my opinion is one of the easiest ways to get your message across to people. I’m currently an administrator for the VISTA Corridor Recovery Facebook page, and would love to do something similar to that for a local company.

Next on my list is get another job. We still have a long ways to go, but there are indications the economy is improving. As of today, the Iowa Workforce Development job site shows 1,643 jobs in the Cedar Rapids area, while Corridor Careers has 482. I don’t know how much overlap there is between listings on both sites.

Whether I can find another job depends on who else is out there looking and what their experience is. There really isn’t anything I can do about that, however. I can only worry about me. If I do get work, I can still go for an MBA either by taking evening classes or going online. So I will simultaneously search for jobs and apply for the MBA.

Finally, I can stay with the VISTA program for up to another year. I won’t rule it out: this is a nice little office I have here in the St. Wenceslaus Gym Building, and not making the money I was slated to make at Gazcomm hasn’t burned a giant hole in my pocket. But complacency can be dangerous. It’s time for a new challenge.

I have received a notice of intent from the national office that I am supposed to fill out before my term is up. I am hesitant to submit it right away, because I really do not know what the results of my efforts will be. If possible, I’ll put it off until I know a little more.

I should also share with you the new “card” I made for myself last week, so to speak. It features all my contact info for networks like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and my Gmail account. I probably should have put my name on it, but this will do for now. If you like what you see, contact me via one of these platforms. I look forward to hearing from you!

I was one of those people who thought he would go to Fox and give the guy who booted him from the Tonight Show–Jay Leno–a run for his money. Nope, he’s decided to do a show on TBS instead.

There’s tons of info on other blogs about this story, so I’ll stick with the key points. O’Brien will host a show four nights a week (Monday through Thursday) at 11 p.m. ET, while the show currently holding that time slot, “Lopez Tonight” starring George Lopez, will move to midnight.

Sound familiar? It’s what NBC wanted to do to O’Brien, move “Tonight” back to midnight and let Jay, who had been struggling in prime time, have the slot he has long dominated back. O’Brien walked away from NBC after saying “no.”

But here’s what makes the situation at TBS different. According to the NYT, O’Brien refused to do the same thing to Lopez and only agreed to come on board when encouraged by Lopez to do so. And judging by Lopez’s verified Twitter account, he is thrilled to have O’Brien as his lead-in.

I think it’s a good move on Conan’s part. Critics were skeptical that he would pan out at Fox, where some affiliates were reluctant to give that 11 p.m. hour they make money off with “Seinfeld” reruns to a network talk show.

Second, TV by the Numbers, citing numbers from Nielsen Media Research, says TBS is the second most-watched cable network in primetime among adults 18-34 and 18-49 for the first three months of 2010, behind NBC Universal-owned USA, but ahead of MTV, ESPN and Comedy Central.

Speaking of Comedy Central, this does leave fans of Conan and Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert at a crossroads, since Conan will now be going head-to-head with Stewart’s “Daily Show” and “The Colbert Report.” But honestly, it’s the same situation they’d be facing had Conan gone to Fox.

Not to mention you have DVR and Internet streaming that will allow viewers to still catch all three. TBS has a channel on YouTube, Conan episodes would likely be placed there the morning after broadcast, meaning even people who aren’t near a cable box can still catch Coco just as long as they have an Internet connection.

Going to cable will allow Conan to do the kind of show that put him on the map to begin with. He’ll be able to get away with more because cable channels aren’t held to the stingy FCC standards that broadcast networks are. It’s just too bad the Masturbating Bear won’t be able to make that trip with Conan to TBS.

What’s better is that since his show won’t air until November, you can bet that TBS will use the Major League Baseball playoff games it will air a few weeks earlier to promote Conan. To use a baseball analogy, I think TBS has hit a grand slam by signing Conan O’Brien.

“I wanted to make a difference in my community and learn more about my community while helping people. I have learned many different skills and also learned about the people and what they go through during a natural disaster.”
–Sidney Thompson

“I chose VISTA, particularly the Corridor Flood Recovery program, for a couple of reasons: I went to college in the area and after spending two years away after graduating, I wanted to come back, but after working in coffee shops was ready to do something more fulfilling. After having little success finding jobs in my field (community arts), I learned of the Corridor Recovery team and of the possibility of working in the arts within it.”
–Gabrielle Read-Hess

“I chose AmeriCorps VISTA for many reasons. One of them was the economic situation when I graduated from college. The job market was very rough and it was hard to find something I wanted to do. I also wanted to stay in Iowa. My biggest motivation to become a VISTA was to help people and to work with children and VISTA has given me both.”
–Erin Kiefer

“I chose AmeriCorps VISTA because service has always been a very important part of my life. I expected to have great experiences not only with the people I helped but also with the people I served with and I have gotten that.”
–Tabitha Smith

“After graduating from college, I took a summer job with a local food vendor at a large event, setting up their stands while looking for a more perminent position.  Not finding anything, I stumbled upon this opportunity to become an AmeriCorps*VISTA in Cedar Rapids, helping to re-establish the downtown neighborhoods following the flooding in 2008.”
–Blake Christenson

“Knowing that I was about to graduate with a two-year degree, and that I would be needing to take the next step in developing a career, I assessed my options and I evaluated myself in terms of my capabilities and wishes.”
–Daniel Young

These are further excerpts of what was said. I had considered including all of it, but it would look like a giant glob of text in some cases, so I chose to excerpt. Later on, we will look ahead at what these people hope to do with the future. Again, there are some good answers.

Last week, I collaborated with Blake Christenson on a piece about what inspired our organization’s members to come to Cedar Rapids to do flood relief work, and what they plan to do when they are done with their year of service, which is coming up very soon.

We got a lot of good answers, so many I ended up using only a few of them. It would be a shame to see such well thought-out on the part of these people go to waste, so I think tomorrow what I will do is post more of their responses on here.

I’m also scheduled to do another homeowner profile later this week. We were supposed to do it last Friday, but was pushed back due to other priorities they have. So hopefully, we can get this in once and for all this week.

Again, I think everyone has a story or two to share with the world. Unfortunately, to get to all 6.8 billion people living in it is an unrealistic goal. It’s also too easy for their stories to get lost in the vast amount of information that comes to us faster than a speeding bullet these days.

I’ve read it before where journalists are asked what their dream interview would be, and they always answer somewhere along the lines of a very important world figure, like the President. I really don’t have a dream interview. I’m happy to listen to anyone who wants to tell me about themselves.

There is one story though that I find particularly intriguing, and given the right opportunity, I wouldn’t mind learning more about it. After messing around on the Internet over the weekend, I stumbled upon some information on a guy by the name of John Swofford. While you may never have heard of him, he’s held a pretty integral role in sports over the last several years.

He is the commissioner of the Atlantic Coast Conference, the collegiate athletic league that includes schools like Georgia Tech, Maryland, Miami, North Carolina and one of tonight’s two finalists for the NCAA men’s basketball championship–Duke University. He is also involved with the controversial Bowl Championship Series in college football.

Prior to becoming ACC commish, Swofford had a long history with North Carolina, serving as its athletic director from 1980 to 1997. Before that, he was the quarterback on the Tar Heels football team during the late 1960s and early 70s.

While John was still in college, his brother William became famous for something unrelated to sports. William was a singer who Baby Boomers might recognize better by his middle name, Oliver.

Teaming up with Bob Crewe, the producer for Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, Oliver released a cover of the song “Good Morning Starshine.” Originally from the musical “Hair,” it has also been used on “Sesame Street“, “The Simpsons”, and in a commercial for Burger King. Oliver’s version (which is heard on the BK ad) reached No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1969.

Bill Swofford would follow that up by singing “Jean” for the film “The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie,” which made it to No. 2 on the charts. His newfound success landed him on the premier variety shows of the time, including “The Ed Sullivan Show,” “The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson” and “American Bandstand.”

I can’t find it now, but a search on Google turned up a subscription article that says Bill’s quarterback brother toured with him over the summer of 1969 and made a brief appearance on Ed Sullivan. William Swofford died in 2000, having left the music business some time before.

As nuts as it may sound, I’m intrigued by the story of a 20-year-old kid who’s a football star at a Division I college going around the country with his musically talented and famous brother. With the right treatment, it would make one hell of a documentary–or even a motion picture. To me, that’s the stuff dreams are made of.

Back in December, I decided to purchase my car. Of course, I don’t have the money it takes to buy it outright, so I am paying in monthly installments to the bank that is holding the lien on the car. The next payment is due soon, and instead of taking care of it online like I normally do, I do it the “old-fashioned” way: writing a check, putting it in a stamped envelope and mailing it off.

Because I do most of that stuff on the computer, I hardly use checks anymore, which means I will sometimes put them somewhere random, then after a few months, forget where that somewhere was. They’re usually in a box. I found the box, but noticed some checks were missing. Originally, I thought there were two sets gone.

Not sure where they could be, I called the bank to put a stop on the blank checks, even though I was certain they were in the house. Shortly after, I found one of the sets, but the second one wasn’t with it. I tore my bedroom apart, getting rid of stuff I no longer needed. When I couldn’t find it, I decided to take a nap and wait for Mom to come home from work so she could help me.

As thrilled as I’m sure she was with having to deal with this when she walked in the door, I’m glad she helped, because she pointed out to me that the second set of checks that were supposedly missing were in the box the whole time. What I thought was a different set of numbers turned out to be that yellow slip on the top telling you it’s time to reorder. I felt so stupid, I wanted to cry.

But after everything was located, I called the bank back and told them to lift the stop payment on the checks (they would have done so after six months anyway). Then I put everything in the box so I can have it ready for next month. And my check, which I put in the mailbox this morning, should be on its way to Chicago by now. I hope it enjoys springtime in the Windy City.

Other than that, I spent quite a bit of time in front of the TV watching the impossible happen. Northern Iowa, the mid-major state school about one hour up Interstate 380 from here, sent the NCAA Tournament into mass chaos with its 69-67 win over top overall seed Kansas Saturday night.

Blake Christenson, who I share my office with, warned me that UNI was capable of taking down the Jayhawks. Other sports pundits also saw danger in the Midwest region, where the two teams were place, where the deck was stacked with not just KU and the Panthers, but Ohio State, Michigan State and Maryland.

I myself knew it was a possibility, but I didn’t think it was actually going to happen. So I stayed the course and picked Kansas as the champion. This morning, I tore up my brackets, believing I have no shot whatsoever at winning a pool. Good thing I don’t put money on these games.

I know a lot of people who went to school in Cedar Falls, and I’m thrilled for them that the Panthers are in the Sweet 16. On the other hand, I feel badly for the Rock Chalkers that I know. It was a hard fought game and somebody had to lose. A lot of people just didn’t expect it was going to be the Jayhawks.

That’s the beauty of March Madness, though. Stuff like this is why people fill out brackets and watch CBS for hours on end for four straight days to usher in spring. Even our president is in on the action. Barack Obama correctly picked North Carolina to win it last year. This year, he wasn’t so lucky. He also chose Kansas.

The commander-in-chief may have had his bracket busted, but he was able to score a pretty big victory late last night, as the House passed a bill that expands health care coverage to 32 million Americans who are otherwise uninsured. Lawmakers also expect the bill to reduce our deficit by $143 billion in the next decade.

I saw representatives in the House cast their vote live on CNN, and know that it’s a polarizing issue. Some people are happy about the bill’s passage, and others aren’t. I’m going to refrain from any further public comment on the matter, a practice I’ve abided by since my days in television.

It’s fun to watch history unfold sometimes, especially now that we have all these social media tools to track people’s reactions. Right after the buzzer sounded in the basketball game, Facebook immediately exploded with people celebrating UNI’s victory for the most part. And I’ve seen a few thoughts, both positive and negative, about the health care reform bill as well.

What’s the next big event that will get everyone talking? We’ll find out eventually.

65 teams will vie to be crowned the national champion over the next few weeks. I like Kansas to take their second title in three years. But the beauty of March Madness is that you don’t really know. It could be the Jayhawks, it could be a low-seeded team. There’s no telling what will happen.

I can say with absolute certainty that it won’t be the Iowa Hawkeyes. They were bad this year. How bad, you ask? Let’s put it this way: the football team won more games than the basketball team in 2009-10. And a sign that the program is running around in circles, head coach Todd Lickliter, who had some success at mid-major Butler, is on his way out.

I’m not entirely sure where I stand on this issue. On the one hand, the Hawkeyes were downright unwatchable this year. But at the same time, I feel that this is the result of an impatient program and its fans, a contingent that for many years has longed to get back into the Final Four.

Iowa has three such trips under its belt–1955, 1956 and 1980, and appeared on its way to a fourth in 1987, leading UNLV in the Elite Eight by 18 points before falling, 84-81. That was the first season with Dr. Tom Davis at the helm.

Detractors of the Good Doctor will tell you that he was able to have a successful 1986-87 campaign in Iowa City using recruits of the previous coach, George Raveling. Among the names during that run–Ed Horton, Roy Marble, Kevin Gamble, Brad Lohaus and B.J. Armstrong.

All went on to have careers in the NBA. You might remember Armstrong best, as he was part of the Chicago Bulls the first time they won three consecutive championships in the early 90s.

Nonetheless, Davis was consistent as Iowa’s head coach. In 13 seasons, he led the Hawks to nine NCAA tournaments. Three of those times, they reached the Sweet Sixteen. The other six, they weren’t able to get past the round of 32, which for some reason, wasn’t enough for some Iowa fans.

The athletic department decided not to renew Davis’ contract in 1999, but not before he could take the Hawkeyes back to the Sweet Sixteen. Former Indiana player Steve Alford became the new head coach.

The Alford era looked promising at first, with Iowa stunning defending national champion Connecticut at Madison Square Garden in his first game as coach. The following year, Iowa won the Big Ten tournament, setting up high expectations in late 2001.

But despite a Top 10 preseason ranking and a pool of talent, the Hawkeyes fizzed out, losing at Northern Iowa and later in the first round of the NIT, leaving the impression that they weren’t all that interested in being there.

Things only went downhill from there. Two separate accusations of sexual assault involving player Pierre Pierce (one got him sent to jail) caused division among fans and the UI community, with some people choosing not to return to Carver-Hawkeye Arena altogether.

Yet the men played on, and reached two more NCAA tournaments in the mid-2000s. Their charge toward a second Big Ten tournament title earned them a number 3 seed in 2006. But on St. Patrick’s Day, in what may have ultimately been the straw that broke the camel’s back, Iowa lost to 14th-seeded Northwestern State.

Alford left for New Mexico in 2007, and now has the Lobos playing as the third seed in this year’s dance. Meanwhile, three years and several player transfers later, Todd Lickliter is finished.

The question I have amid all of this is: how would things be different had Iowa held on to win that regional final against UNLV 23 years ago? Would they be any different at all? There’s no telling what would have happened. But we’ll never get the answer.

Luckily, we haven’t had that much rain since the temperatures started to warm up. There was a thunderstorm that passed through the other night, but besides that, it’s been cloudy with drizzles here and there.

The debate has raged on for years now about whether global warming exists or not. I do not wish to get involved in the argument, but my mother believes it is happening. And she may be on to something.

In a span of not even two weeks, the country of Chile has been rocked by two major earthquakes. The first had an even higher magnitude than the Haiti earthquake, though with far less deaths (between 500 and 1,000 in Chile as opposed to hundreds of thousands in Haiti). Then yesterday, another earthquake with a 6.9 magnitude. That’s scary stuff right there.

An old colleague of mine from my days in television, Chris Jones, is transitioning out of the business in Chile right now. I’m happy to report that he is doing fine, although I made it a point to tell him via Facebook that he should get out of there. I don’t think he will though, because he is one fearless dude (you have to be in order to make it in TV).

Apparently the first quake resulted in a shift in the earth’s axis, resulting in a shorter day. But we’ll gain more daylight as we approach summer. Daylight Savings Time takes effect at 2 a.m. on Sunday. Don’t forget to set your clocks ahead one hour.

And it appears to be a nice day out there: sunny and 34, according to the weather widget on my Mac. That means I’ll have to stop by the car wash on the way home. I had it done last on Feb. 1, and within a day, it was dirty again. Gotta love winter!

It’s an exciting time for sports fans as well. Yesterday was a thrilling gold medal match between the United States and Canada, with our neighbors winning in overtime. Canada finished the Vancouver Olympics with the most gold medals of any nation, making their “Own the Podium” initiative ultimately a success.

Now that the Olympics are over, we have college basketball to look forward to. Better college basketball than the stuff I saw in Carver-Hawkeye Arena last night. Iowa beat Indiana, but I wouldn’t call it a great game.

I prefer sloppy instead. Sloppy play from both teams, and sloppy officiating to match. If the U.S. and Canada were playing for a gold medal, the Hawkeyes and Hoosiers played for a plastic medal. You know, that “special prize” they put in cereal boxes.

Here in the office, we’re gearing up for Spring Break, and not in the traditional sense either. We’ll be hosting groups who are skipping the beach and helping rebuild homes that still need our TLC. We look forward to having these groups here.

Even with early spring on the horizon, we’re not out of the woods yet as far as winter weather is concerned. We’ve had snow and ice in April in the past. But I like that the sun is out and it’s halfway decent after what seems like weeks of cold and snow.