Cutter's Log - Stardate 1102.02.21
Current Song - Just The Two of Us (Bill Withers)
Every night is becoming a long one.
It's 4:45 a.m. as I type this line in my Blog.
Recently, I made a decision to increase my work load as far as Northern Illinois Sports Beat is concerned. I'm not employed right now, and when there's no high school sports stuff going on, I tend to get bored. With the personal funds fizzling and no money for gas in my car, I'm literally rotting at home. So I decided to do something about this emptiness, and that was to simply write more stories.
It all started last week, when trying to figure out an assignment scenario with Bill. Somehow we wound up talking about the possibility of getting something on the website every day. Now we came to this conclusion, I'm not certain. Would it happen together? Not likely. But on my own?
I go to my thinktank every time such a situation occurs. This thinktank is my car, and I travel around my "NISB kingdom" to try to generate a thought. Knowing this would require some thought, I stopped at the Super Pantry in Dixon and picked up a 64-ounce Mega Chill cupfull of Dr. Pepper to keep me awake and stimulated. I literally know all of the backroads of northern Illinois, and I wound up driving somewhere near Serena on a backroad (ironically, not too far from where Bill lives) before I turned off onto a gravel road all of a sudden.
This was at 1:30 in the morning. I stopped along the road and shut my car off. Nothing but pitch black, the moon, a large cloud, and some raindrops here and there. It was at that time when I thought about a couple of features that I once did for the website: Athlete Q&A and Team Spotlight.
I had always thought about bringing them back, but I haven't written any of them in almost five years. But if this was going to fill up content, then so be it. Somewhere in my files, I thought I had a list of specific TS and QA questions but wanted to draft up another just in case I didn't find it. Then of course, with the commitment to more writing I had to think about how to rearrange other things in my life to accomodate this.
Ever wonder why such a setting allows me to think better? It's dark, so there is not much for my eyes - and thus my brain - to comprehend. And since I'm at an unfamiliar place, there is not any memory recall of where I'm at or where I had been at one time. It feels like I'm disappearing into thin air. At home I see the same things every day. So that explains it. Call it Aspergian.
When I got back home I plopped my IHSA calendar on my desk and looked up a bunch of high school sports schedules. One day at a time I started to fill in assignments to do up until Jan. 10. A mix of game stories, columns, as well as the Team Spotlight and Athlete Q&A.
Then I drafted up the questions to ask on a piece of paper to carry around to the games I am going to cover. Every night I'm tweaking the piece of paper and it is a mess at the moment.
Friday is the big day: game article on the Forreston Boys Basketball Holiday Tournament championship game, a Q&A on a player from Rockford Christian Life, and the Team Spotlight on either Aquin or Byron. Since Forreston and RCL were playing in a fifth-place game, the Q&A came first. It was kind of a different scenario than in sessions past, as the kid lost his game. Only after doing the interview did I realize that my questions were flat and corny. But the session was done, and I planned it for a Wednesday release. Then came the 2-in-1 sessions with the Byron people. My TS questions were okay, but thought I could do better. But still, the session was done and I planned it for a Monday release.
Since the Forreston Tournament article was a 1 3/4 gamer, I figured it would take me a while to write it. Sure did, and I only had four hours of sleep before needing to wake up and make the drive to St. Bede for the Lady Bruins' game against unbeaten Annawan. The plan was to do a gamer and a TS on the winner. I didn't have time to change my TS question sheet, but figured the second time around would bring better results. Kind of. Got home, and another gamer written.
Then the next day I pieced together the Byron Boys Basketball Team Spotlight. I hadn't written one in five years. When I got done with it, I said to myself, 'Damn this is long.' The next night with Annawan's wasn't much of an improvement - four typed pages.
Before writing the Annawan piece, I went to the gas station to refill my 64-ounce cup. Only $0.84. I planned for a busy night tonight, writing both the Annawan TS and the Athlete Q&A.
And this is just the overnight session. During the afternoon and evening, it's likely that I get a phone call from one of my writers. This time I was going back and forth between Bill and Brian over a game at Hinckley-Big Rock. Then sometimes pressure will mount and I'll just say to myself 'forget it, I'll cover it.' That's been resolved.
After writing the TS and Q&A, more thoughts occured to me. Great, more things to think about late at night after getting done laying out the website.
I just did a Team Spotlight on Annawan Girls Basketball. Then I get to thinking someone is going to ask me when I'm going to write one on the Aquin girls, or the Hinckley girls, or the Marquette girls, or the Newark girls, or the Sterling girls. Or the Moline swimming team. Then how many athletes are going to call me and say that they too want a Q&A?
Luckilly, my Mega Chill is only 3/4 empty. But there's no gas in the car.
I'm not covering anything today (Tuesday) and already have the Q&A written, so the time spent with the website tools will be minimal until Wednesday night: posting the H-BR/Marquette gamer, and covering a wrestling meet at Sterling.
Why can't I just disappear into thin air right now?
So if you are out driving in the middle of nowhere at 1:30 in the morning and see a green car parked along the side of the road ...
No, you idiot! I'm brainstorming under absolute silence!
Either way, please do not disturb :)
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