Nightly Note

I haven't done this in awhile, mostly because of my vacation, but also because I spent last night out with some friends. Good times were had, alcohol was consumed.

With that out of the way, there is some news to announce... I've been brought on by Baseball Digest to serve as a Senior Writer in charge of their AL Central Content. Cool right? Of course it is. I'm not 100% certain on what you're going to see there but it will be new original content. It's my understanding that I'll be responsible for two posts per week and they can be on whatever I'd like, though they do have some formatting guidelines they'd like me to work within.  I'll be doing some topic/opinion stuff and of course there will be some link lists. 

I'll also be doing assigned work for the first time ever, so that'll be interesting. I'm really not certain how I'm going to handle that. One of the great things about running your own website is the freedom to control your content and write as much, or as little as you'd like. Knowing that I'm going to have to produce content on a certain subject in a certain way... I'll be honest, I'm nervous about it.

Speaking of which, first up will be my coverage on the AL Central teams in their "30 Teams in 30 Days," series. I'm a bit confused on the formatting, but I'm sure I'll figure it out. Then completely screw it up, either intentionally, or by accident.

Beyond that, there hasn't been a ton going on. I really enjoyed my vacation, it was much needed. It was funny though, every night I found myself reaching for my computer, or just thinking about what I could be writing, what I should be writing. It was a strange feeling, almost like a compulsion. I imagine it's rather like a smoker or drug addict going through withdrawal (without the really nasty physical side effects). Of course, it's a feeling that I'm sure I'm not entirely alone in. I'm grateful of course because to some extent, it means that I really enjoy what I do.

Or I'm a crazy baseball writing addict.

Maybe a little of both. Who knows?

Back to the vacation though. I had a blast spending time with my lovely fiance who suffers far too much from my writing/baseball/sports addiction. It was also the first time I'd been away from my daughter, who is now two years old, for more than 24 hours. Like me with my writing, it was tough on my fiance being apart from her so much. Which isn't to say being apart from our daughter didn't bother me too, I thought about my kid of course, and it was certainly weird, but in a different way from my writing. It helped that I knew she was in good hands with Grandma and Grandpa.

We had a good time and there was a lot of drinking involved, mixed in with doses of some really great food, and tons of relaxation. But the highlight for me was probably when we went and watched my first live MMA fights. I'm a huge MMA fan but I don't get nearly enough time to follow along as much as I'd like to. Still, I try and get out to the bars with some friends once a month or so.

The participants at the event were either entirely amateur or low-ranking pros (I really don't know) and a lot of the early bouts were relatively unentertaining first-round knockouts or submissions. Thankfully the final four fights of the evening were fantastic with some really great actions and some surprisingly good fighters. All in all, I had a great time.

Ok, I think that's it for tonight. See ya tomorrow.