Author: Nick

Video from Sunday’s game:

Recommend you enable HD. Antonio has a tackle at the very end!

I had always feared clicking on unsubscribe links in junk mail because I feared such action would be confirmation of my existence and would ironically add me to even more junk mail. I still think this is true for real junk mail: viagra spam, make money quick schemes, etc. However, the other class of junk mail that I get fall into a different category: industry newsletters from companies such as HPCWire, Greenpages, Platform computing, Thoughtworks, Vidyo, etc. This class of e-mail are likely caused by my registration at sites where I downloaded trial software, where I subscribed to an industry magazine, or perhaps gave my e-mail at a conference.

Over time my job function and priorities shift and what was interesting to me then is not interesting now. Thus, I launched a campaign to reduce the junk mail I have to deal with on a regular basis. To this end, I have been religiously clicking on the unsubscribe link that is in every one of these e-mails over the past few months. I believe all mass-mails are obligated by law to provide these links. What has been the result? It works! How do I know? Every time I unsubscribe from an e-mail, I shuttle the e-mail into a special folder. After doing this for 2-3 months, I just checked how many duplicates I have in there; duplicates being defined as e-mails in which I unsubscribed, then continue to get more e-mails from the sender. I am happy to report that I only have two duplicates in this folder! The net result so far is that I get about 75 less e-mails a week, more or less.

So, if you are like me and you are more or less afraid to click unsubscribe then you can probably feel a little better about it if my experience is any indication of the truth.

Yesterday marked the first game in the second half of the LI Broncos regular season. Both my boys were in some interesting games. I’ll be as brief as I can. Pictures/video will follow in another post.

The story for yesterday’s Bronco Orange (Marco’s team) starts at practice last Thursday when our star running back broke his arm in a freak tackle accident. It was a pretty bad break and practice ended early. On Saturday morning, I saw Marco in the fullback position and running offensive drills with the QB and the other fullbacks. Marco was pretty excited about the new assignment though I made sure to stress the honor he was given. On Sunday morning, we drove to Malverne to see if we could make it without our starting running back. We found the other team only had 10 players and you need 13 suited up. While the other team officially forfeited, we still played since all of the kids were pumped up. In the end, we would up losing! We definitely miss our star running back! Marco was playing offense and defense as usual and had one carry which didn’t go anywhere as the offensive line leaked like a sieve. Hopefully, Marco will get a full week of practice in the new position and they will give him more carries. Record is 4-1 now.

Antonio’s game was in Rosedale, which is directly next to John F. Kennedy International Airport. During the entire game, gigantic jets were close enough to touch as they continuously landed on the strip just a few hundred yards from where we were playing. Yesterday was the homecoming game for Rosedale, so they had a continuous stream of home games. They had music, a PA system, cameras, and a pretty impressive BBQ going on. Cheerleaders were on the sidelines and there were tons of families enjoying the day. Needless to say, we got creamed. I think the final score was 26-0. Antonio had two great tackles as safety. On two other occasions he was outrun by the running back which surprised the hell out of me. Antonio is very fast, but this kid was faster still and was able to pull ahead despite Antonio’s good position to intercept him. Rosedale did a really good job at breaking tackles. Where normallywe get a hold of the runner and we bring them down, the Rosedale ball carriers were able to pull free. Bronco Blue now has a 2-3 record.

The rest of the day was spent watching football on TV and the kids had some of their teammates come over and we ran a two-hand touch game outside in our front lawn. Jets play tonight and I’ll hopefully get out for a little while with some friends. This coming week Antonio plays on Friday and Marco on Sunday.