Continuing with the Wrestlemania XXX theme I started yesterday, here’s a really cool video package about the rise of the underdog, Daniel Bryan, from wrestling in high school gyms and armouries to winning the WWE World Title at the 30th Anniversary Wrestlemania card in front of 80,000 screaming fans…
“Monster” – Imagine Dragons
Here are some random thoughts on the 30th anniversary of the biggest wrestling pay-per-view of all-time…
– *loved* the opening HHH vs. Daniel Bryan match and its placement on the card too after some people speculated that it would be right before the main event Triple Threat match which would’ve been really dumb in my opinion. (Like an LP or a fancy meal, so much of how a wrestling show is perceived depends on how the card is laid out so that things lead from one thing to another, raising and lowering emotions. More on that later…)
– After winning 21 straight matches at Wrestlemania (pretty amazing, even for a fixed sport, since its unlikely “The Streak” even became a thing until The Undertaker won a few matches in a row) the Streak is gone. There were two schools of thought on The Streak – never end it to cement Undertaker’s legacy or have him lose to a young up-and-comer to propel that kid to the moon. This year, they did neither, having Undertaker lose it to former amateur wrestling champion, former WWF champion and former UFC champion, Brock Lesnar. The crowd reactions after the match tells the story as pretty much *nobody* expected ‘Taker to lose this year given that Brock Lesnar is a part-time, special attraction at best, the build-up for this match was extremely lacklustre, and there were lots of others (Bray Wyatt, Cesaro, CM Punk, Daniel Bryan, etc.) that fans thought would be better choices to end The Streak in the future.
– speaking of Undertaker vs. Brock, there was a lot of criticism of the slow pace of the match on the official Reddit thread. But I didn’t mind it – having a slow brawl means not every match is a spotfest and it reminds me of the old-school, hard-hitting, realistic style of wrestling I grew up watching.
– John Cena beat Bray Wyatt and that match was good too. Lots of “smart” Internet fans (eg. those who take it way too seriously) hate John Cena but the story of the match – would Cena betray his “ultimate good guy” persona to defeat the cult leader who was trying to undermine what he stands for by forcing him to do evil deeds or give in to his darkest impulses (kinda like Star Wars come to think of it) – but Cena’s good side ultimately prevailed. When Cena hugged the young kid who was in the front row crying after the match, it makes you realise – yeah, the “smart” fans hate Cena and his goody-two shoes image. But the WWE needs someone like that for kids to look up to.
– I didn’t watch it on the WWE network but with my interest in the shift from traditional to digital broadcasting methods, I need to do a longer post about the WWE’s huge gamble to create a Netflix-like online-only network featuring on-demand matches and PPV’s from the last 25 years plus live original content including *all* 12 annual PPV’s for what used to cost $60 each and now costs $60 total!!! The WWE has released their initial subscriber numbers and they’re more than halfway to the 1 million subscriber goal they said they had when the network launched.
– That Randy Orton RKO on Daniel Bryan on the announcer table where Orton actually landed the hardest on a TV monitor that hadn’t been cleared away and left him with a big gash on his back looked UGLY. Amazing he could continue the match.
– The show started by putting over lots of young talent – The Shield won over New Age Outlaws & Kane, Cesaro won the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal (cleverly abbreviated as “ARMBAR” by Reddit’s wrestling fans) beating out the popular choice of The Big Show who is the natural successor to Andre the Giant (and was, in fact, once billed as Andre’s son). (Hogan may have dropped hints about who the true winner would be though when he announced the ARMBAR would be at Wrestlemania.)
– some felt that the Undertaker losing his streak was done partly to plant a seed that *nothing* was for sure since so many people thought Daniel Bryan winning the title was a foregone conclusion. But the flip side is that move shocked the audience so badly that it almost lowered their emotions *too* much and made it harder for the rest of the card to keep the emotional build going (and talking about match placement, the Divas Invitational match was going to be a “bathroom break” match anyhow. But following the Undertaker losing his streak???)
– The opening segment with Hulk Hogan, The Rock and Stone Cold Steve Austin in the ring together was amazing – arguably the three biggest money makers in wrestling in the past 30 years. My only wish is that, instead of Daniel Bryan celebrating alone in the ring after he won, those three would’ve come out to bookend the show, give Bryan a *massive* rub as being on their level (although that could backfire – after all, The Miz won the world title at Wrestlemania only a few years ago and was pretty much a faceless guy in the battle royal this year.)
I’m sure there’s lots more I could say but that’s a quick summary of some of my thoughts. Pretty amazing show overall.
…just as soon as she figures out how to walk.
(She’s definitely mastered “Stand for Indiscriminate Amount of Time Before Plopping Back onto Bum”)…
Okay, 43 plus a couple more…
Below is the top voted answer, by former NASA astronaut Garrett Reisman, to the Quora question “What Is The Most Important Thing You’ve Learned About Leadership” (it’s worth clicking through for some of the other answers as well.)
1) Have a grand vision – Elon Musk, SpaceX CEO, CTO
As a leader, you can inspire and motivate your team to tremendous effect by communicating a vision in a clear, straight-forward way. But don’t think small – raise the bar really really high. Elon wants us to make the human species multi-planetary. That’s different than a CEO whose vision is to increase the company’s market share by 10% within 5 years.2) Be Competent – Ken Ham, Commander Space Shuttle Atlantis, STS-132
Being very good at what you do will inspire others to follow you and trust your judgement. Ken is the best pilot I have ever flown with, and I’ve flown with a lot of good ones. We did stuff in airplanes that I have only seen before or since in video games. When he was at the controls of Atlantis, you had the feeling that everything was going to be ok. Kind of like when Captain Kirk walks onto the bridge of the Enterprise.3) Take Care of Your People – Nancy Currie, NASA Astronaut
This is an important principle that is ingrained into most military officers but is sadly often lacking in civilian managers. Mentorship is important but moreover, doing whatever you can to advance the careers of your subordinates should be one of your prime duties. Nancy was my branch chief in the Astronaut Office Robotics Branch when I was a rookie astronaut. When a prime flight assignment became available for a skilled robotics expert, she went to the chief of the Astronaut Office and relentlessly championed me for the spot – despite the fact that she herself was a much better candidate. Neither one of us got the job, but I never forgot her loyalty to me.4) Give Your People as Much Autonomy as Possible – Chris Brennen, Caltech Professor
Resist the temptation to micro-manage. If you telegraph the answer you expect to your team, then you are not going to get an innovative solution to a problem – or even a correct one. When I would be struggling in the lab and talking to my Ph.D. advisor, Dr. Chris Brennen, he would work with me at his white-board just long enough to make sure I was heading in a pretty good direction. Then he would take the maker out of my hand and say, “you’ll figure it out, now let me show you where we should go canyoneering this weekend” and he would start drawing topo maps of the San Gabriel mountains on the board.5) Say What You Mean – Carl Fisher, former Senior VP of Northrup Grumman
Be a “straight-shooter”. Don’t be passive-aggressive and resist the temptation to tell people what they want to hear, only to proceed in a different direction. This is harder to do than it seems. As Carl advised me, “To be a good program manager, don’t worry too much about making friends. If you need a friend, buy a dog.”6) Set the Bar High – Gerry Vandervoort, Parsippany High School Physics Teacher
You should have very high expectations of your team members. Don’t berate them for their failures, but challenge them with goals that seem above their abilities. Elon Musk is exceedingly good at this too, but I choose to use Mr. Vandervoort as an example. His physics class was tough, and he didn’t suffer fools. You had to want to be there – but as a result I was instilled with a love of science that never waned.7) Lead by Example – Roman Romanenko, Russian Cosmonaut
What you do is so much more important than what you say. As a leader, you should be the hardest worker, the most well-prepared and the one willing to do all the things no one else wants to do. When we did our winter survival training in Moscow, our commander Roman was always the first to go out to chop more firewood, the last to eat, and the one who carried the heaviest load through the forest.8) Allow Your Subordinates to Tell you That you are Wrong – Garrett Reisman
Often leaders who do their job too well end up surrounded by a bunch of “yes-men/women”. This can have disastrous consequences. When I was the leader on a desert survival course our task was to navigate to a water source by map and compass. I studied the map and proclaimed that a certain mountain peak in the distance was the one indicated on the map. Then I told my team – it is the job of each and every one of you to prove to me that this mountain is not the one on the map. We found the water and lived to tell the tale…
I missed a pretty clever April Fool’s joke yesterday – Coteau Books announces the “Coteauster” which will burn daily excerpts from one of their award winning books onto your morning slice of toast!
Lots of comedy gold here…
Enter the Coteauster.
Wirelessly linking directly to your preferred eBook vendor’s online store, the Coteauster enables you to buy, download and print Coteau titles to enjoy with your breakfast. We like to kick it old-school at Coteau, so we’ve incorporated the Dickensian idea of serializing our titles to give you a daily taste of literary goodness.
Just insert your slice of bread*, and the Coteauster will toast a page of your chosen novel, poetry collection or short story onto it. Toast, read, eat. It’s that simple.**
***
Gluten-free and children’s book options available.
The Coteauster will be available from our website, and from all good bookstores and kitchen appliance stores, soon.
*Coteau cannot accept liability for outcomes resulting from the use of bagels, croissants, toaster pockets or other hazardous materials.
**Coteau cannot accept liability for weight gain due to printing an entire chapter for one breakfast because “I just couldn’t put it down”.
Warning: lots of viral ads ahead!
Last year, Shea got Pace with the old “bowl of cereal left in the freezer overnight” trick.
This year, I got him a couple ways – first, I put peanut butter on both sides of his toast (though I’m not sure he even noticed or cared) and his milk in a coffee cup (to which he said “I’m not drinking that coffee!” even after I assured him it was really just milk.)
He often watches Minecraft videos on YouTube while eating his breakfast so I enabled the lock code on our iPad, put a screen grab of a Minecraft video up full screen in the Photo Gallery for when he got past the Lock Code and, for good measure, used the Accessibility setting to invert the iPad’s colours which, I have to admit, added up to a more “confused” than “ha-ha funny” reaction from him as he though the iPad was on the fritz.
Oh well – next year…
“October Swimmer” – JJ72
I would’ve guessed the longest lasting torrent would’ve been The Anarchist Cookbook (uhm, probably a bad idea to link to that, eh?) 😉 but it’s not. Instead, it’s RECIPES!!!
Exactly ten years ago a Pirate Bay user uploaded a torrent linking to “Top Secret Recipes” ebooks. Today, this torrent is the oldest surviving torrent file on the notorious torrent index. The book torrent beats an Italian teen’s home video and the Linux documentary “Revolution OS” which were uploaded one and two days later respectively. – more
(via Reddit)
As I mentioned on Facebook, Sasha and I have a lot in common – we don’t wear shirts at the dinner table, we’re pretty messy eaters, and we occasionally gnaw on the bottom of containers to try to get at the food! 😉
