FilteringCraig

Could you imagine if someone started perfecting this pitch? Talk about changing the batter’s eye level.

I have been less than prolific in this space lately due to my job switch. The insurance world isn’t really completely and totally overwhelming, but it does have its requirements. I had to sit through 40 hours worth of licensing classes in order to sit for an exam. Then I had to face taking a test for the first time since 2001. You forget about how used to testing you were at one time when it has been forever and a day since your last meaningful scholastic test.

So, I have been studying my butt off for the last two weeks in order to take my 150 question exam in order to prove myself worthy of having an insurance license to sell property and casualty insurance. Well, I am worthy. I needed a 70% to pass the test, and I smashed it by 8 percentage points. OK, well I didn’t smash it, but I was able to keep myself from over thinking questions to the point that I would have failed it.

I have to say that I am still quite disappointed with the state of multiple choice tests after my experience today. It seems like the writers of these questions aren’t so much testing you on the material as they are testing your ability to read questions so well that you can split hairs with the wording as they try and trick you into putting the wrong answer down. I understand that you want to make sure that people understand the material, but there is no reason to get too tricky with the questions.

By taking advantage of people’s test-taking inabilities, you aren’t testing people on their knowledge of the material, as much as you are trying to fill your failure quota. Plus, it isn’t like this is med school. Insurance is kind of important, but it isn’t exactly a court of law.

Anyway, I am happy it is over. And I am happy that I will have some more time back on my hands.

I don’t think I am alone in saying that I would TOTALLY watch badminton on TV. Hell, I would play it competitively if I knew of a place to get a game going. Anyway, check out this video of some serious badminton.

You might think that it is just nice to be successful enough to have teams in three championship games/series in one year. You would be wrong. Between the Ohio State Buckeyes football program losing to Florida in one of the most embarrassing routs in NCAA championship game memory, the Ohio State Buckeyes basketball team losing to a heavily favored Florida Gator team, and now the Cleveland Cavaliers dropping 4 straight in the finals, this has probably been one of the worst sports fan years in the history of local sports.

I know that the Spurs were heavily favored and everything, but the nature of being a fan is that there is always a chance. And don’t think for a second that the Cavaliers team that beat the Pistons were the same ones who got trampled by the Spurs. The Spurs are a great team, but if there is one regret from this series it is that the Cavaliers team that rattled off victories over the Pistons never showed itself after the final buzzer of the Eastern Conference Finals. Don’t get me wrong, it still would have been a total longshot that the Cavs would have beaten the Spurs, but don’t think for a second that the Cavaliers were able to give them their best shot. NBA basketball is a streaky sport sometimes and the Cavaliers went from being super hot against the Pistons to being an Antarctic chill in the NBA finals against the Spurs.

Regardless, it is now all over. The Cavs go home disappointed. And that is really the worst part about this whole thing. In almost every sport, every team goes home disappointed except for the one team that stands at the end as the victor. I understand the fact that there can only be one winner. At the same time, it is much much more painful to get so close so many times in a single year and not come out on top with one victory.

In Cleveland, we know what it means to wait for an opportunity. We know what it means to lose late. We know what it means to come close. We were tired of coming close before this season began, and now that it is over, we are still tired of it.

I am kind of out of shape, but I bought some technological motivation to get me back rolling. I started running with the Nike Plus iPod chip and I am two days into running. I started at a modest two mile run and hope to work up from there. As you can see I improved on my second run and I hope to get this pace even faster before I move up to three miles.

Maybe posting here will give me continued motivation.

Over the last couple of weeks, my posting has been spotty at best. I have been busy entering a world of risk, indemnity, loss, and in my case, nepotism.

What the hell does all that mean? I have joined my family’s insurance agency.

After five years of working for the man, I thought maybe it was time for me to try and be the man. So, I latch on to the 35 years of hard work that my father has put into this thing and try and contribute with all the skills that I gained while fulfilling my time as a pawn in the corporate world. It means a chance to work with my dad and brother. With all due respect to my former co-workers, they just can’t begin to compare with me being able to work with my brother and dad.

What else does this mean?

Insurance agent licensing school. Last week I spent 40 long hours crashing the world of insurance. I know things about dwelling policies, homeowners policies, auto policies, workman’s comp, volcano coverage, earthquake coverage and flood coverage. Of course there is still a major test to pass in order to prove to the state of Ohio that I am worthy of peddling this contractual transfer of risk.

While I feel like there is a pretty good chance that I will pass without too much problem, I am trying not to leave anything to chance. I have some CompuCram software and it just keeps asking multiple choice questions about all kinds of insurance topics. I need 70% to pass, or 105 out of 150. And while I am hoping not to make it that close, you never know with tests. So, I am studying my face off right now in hopes of taking the test sooner rather than later.

And that is why I haven’t been posting much lately. Sure, I have been traumatized by the first two NBA finals games, but the drama has been short-lived as I have been thrust straight back into the important things in my life right now. Passing the test is just the short-term goal. The long-term one is to continue to build upon the momentum that my dad started, and hopefully build this thing into a family legacy big enough for three of us.

So, anyone live in Ohio and need insurance?

John Daly was allegedly assaulted by his wife. Could you imagine sponsoring this train wreck?

My buddies from college will tell you that I have been an optimist of the Cleveland Cavaliers since they met me in 1997. They used to roll their eyes at me right before every season when I would plaintively attempt to explain why a couple of new players were going to turn the fortunes of my home team. In those days, it was still conversations like, “Well, if Zydrunas can stay healthy with his feet . . .” or “The Cavs have Shawn Kemp and if he can get back to the form that he had in Seattle . . .” Clearly I was delusional, but I grew as a basketball fan. The only way to gain perspective is through experience.

After being forced to watch players like Wesley Person, Lamond Murray, Andrew Declercq, and Trajan Langdon, not to mention Robert Traylor (his third run through the league) and the one who talks about himself in the third person, Ricky Davis, I had gained an all new perspective. No matter how much I wanted the team to be good, it just was never going to happen. Journeyman after journeyman and bad draft pick after bad draft pick until there was a 17 win season. The roll of the dice came the Cavs’ way and they finally had a draft pick that they seemingly couldn’t screw up. Needless to say, after all that misfortune, I wasn’t prepared for LeBron James. And really, who could blame me? The only way to gain perspective is through experience.

Now, since that 17 win season before LeBron James arrived in Cleveland, the Cavs have gone 35-47, 42-40, 50-32, 50-32. The last two seasons, the Cavs have made the playoffs. Last year they got knocked out in the second round by the Pistons. After making it to the Eastern Conference Finals this season, the Cavs promptly went down 0-2 to the Pistons and I thought that maybe this was just another learning experience on the way to being championship caliber.

And then something happened and the Cavs kept rolling all the way to beating the Detroit Pistons.

There is just no way that I could have been prepared for this. When I look back through all the times and players I watched, it blows me away. Mike Fratello coached players ridiculously far above their own heads by slowing games down into 70 point to 65 point bore-fests. Promising players like Terrell Brandon, and eventually Andre Miller were surrounded by guys snatched from the NBA graveyard of cut lists. The Cavs were so unpopular at points during that time period that my company would send out an email offering up the loge to whoever was willing to go down to watch the Cavs. I would go to those games and there would only be four people in the loge.

But those times are all gone now. The LeBron James experience is happening right now and I can’t look at my past experiences for any kind of perspective on what is going on right now. I have determined that it is just unbelievable special and I am going to have to go with that. This Cavs team has blown away expectations already and it will take a long time to sink in. The bottom line is that, thanks to LeBron James and these Cleveland Cavaliers I am going to have to get used to gaining a lot of perspective at once, because they are giving us all one hell of an experience.

Phillip Wellman is a AA manager, but make no mistake. Dude has some major league managing abilities. Watch this video. He makes Lou Piniella look like a punk with his meltdown. I was literally rolling around when I saw him crawl toward the mound and toss a “grenade” at the home plate umpire. Then he decided to throw out another umpire.