Digital Nick.

This is insane, but its my life.
I am enjoying it a bit, but I do feel like it's going to overwhelm me.

Facebook - Nick Fisher
> I'm attempting to use this primarily as a social networking tool, which means basically stay in touch from 30,000 feet up with people I know well and hardly know at all. Its fun to be on there, b/c everyone else is...its a place where those who want to know about me can, but if they want to ignore me, thats fine too.

Twitter - twitter.com/nickfisher47
> I'm using this as a place to keep people updated on the "things" I do...vacations, travel, notices, info, etc...I'll post things on here that really are about me being able to look back in 10 years and say, "neat"...its also a great tool to do frequent updates, especially now that I have twitpic.

LinkedIn - Nick Fisher
> Started using this today, really. After starting using it, I realize that I do think it is going to be THE tool that gets me a job at some point. I am starting to build up the profile and get in as many networks as possible.

Blog - toast47.blogspot.com
> I don't know what the point of this will be other than to vent and tell stories. I don't think i'll open up my twitter or my blog to those in my job search, unless I feel completely compelled to do so at some point. This really is just for those who want to know me better, but I can't imagine that 1/8th of my facebook friends would read it.

What is my motivation for being on all this? Well, its simple, to me, I think. 3 reasons:
1. I am in the job search mode, and I do feel like these are good tools to get things moving a bit. My friends will keep me top of mind with things like twitter and the blog, and those who I worked with in the past will see my updates on LinkedIn, etc.

2. I actually find all of this fun to be honest. It feels like I am part of some kind of larger digital movement that my Grandparents will ask me about someday, and that's interesting, and it sorta ties into #3.

3. When I do have a family, and kids, and they are using whatever technology is current, I do not want to be the older adult that doesn't "get it" or scoffs at the idea of where technology is moving. The adults I am friends with don't realize that all of these tools are part of the normal teenager's life - they are part of what they are...My generation had beepers, Nintendo, then cell phones, then the internet and those 20-30 years older than us couldn't/didn't keep up.

I want to keep up. I want to be able to speak the language when I'm 50.

College Basketball

I am not a fan of College Basketball. I used to love it so much, especially when I was at UMass...and I just loved going to every game and following the team, the Conference, and NCAA overall.

I loved picking brackets, talking to people about who the All-Americans should be and what made this particular season better than that particular season. It was awesome.

Over the past 4 or 5 years, however, I have started to really find college basketball to be very dull. Here are the reasons why I just don't really care about college hoops:

1. My main reason is that it is, simply put, a lower form of basketball. Pro Basketball is readily available most days of the week, and given that its 12 man rosters, and 30 teams, you know you are seeing one of the top 360 players in the world play. For college, the rosters are 12 men, but there are literally hundreds of D1 teams - the players aren't as good. I don't understand why this logic doesn't translate to WNBA ball, where the players are not as tall and not as good, but they certainly dive on the floor and are as frantic as college players, there is no question about that.

2. I do not buy the "there is more passion in college than pro" argument. I don't buy it at all. As almost a rule, with a few exceptions, the only players that are worth watching treat their Freshman seasons with as much blase and indifference as Pros do in a contract year. I think what people mistake as "passion" is really just an athletic person compensating for mental and physical mistakes.

You may see harder dives to the court for a loose ball in college - you may even see a defender chase a man down court even faster - but my argument is that pro players lose control of the ball, their bodies, their defensive positioning and offensive mentality at a rate so distinctly different than college players, and it looks like they are lazier, when they are simply more in control.

3. This is by far my weakest argument, but I cannot stand how teams change their uniforms every single season. I look at the UConn of today and I think, "what are these idiots wearing?!" Even Michigan State who is on right now, why that long white stripe down the side? What is wrong with a green uniform? Georgetown too...

I know the reason, I mean, when you have a team like Memphis and your #1 selling jersey last year was Derrick Rose, and he is gone now, why not change to a new look on the uniform? This may be at first about my disdain for uniform changes, but aside from the head coach, there is no reason, aside from alma maters, to like or dislike a team. The personnel changes so significantly every year.

I have more thoughts, but they aren't articulate enough. not that these were.

Grum.

I knew Jeff Graham was in Disney World for a work meeting. That wasn't a secret to me. I knew he was golfing Lake Buena Vista Golf course at 12:30.

The only fact I knew about LBV Golf Course of any real consequence is that the course winds through the hotel property of Disney's Old Key West. That's all I really knew.

At about noon, Alison and I decided to go to Downtown Disney, and once we got there, we saw the little water boats that you can take out and drive around. It dawned on me that Saratoga Springs Resort's new "Treehouse Villas" were along this waterway and we could possibly rent the little boat to see the Villas.

So at some point, 1:40 or so I think, we rented a boat. A few minutes into the boat ride we realized that the geography of the Lake Buena Vista course put it right along our Boat Trail, which was an interesting coincidence. On our boat ride around, we were on the water for 33 minutes. We saw 3 tees for golf holes, and 2 Greens. As we were on our way back, we went under a bridge.

A cart passed OVER the bridge as we were on the water, and who was it? Yup. Grum. Me and Alison shouted, he saw us and ran over. The coincidence was immense. It was like we were stalking, but we weren't, and I don't think we could have planned it better. I want to post photos of it tomorrow.

Don

When you are a twosome, and you show up at a busy golf course, you know you are going to be paired up with another group. That's just how it is. Usually the people you are paired with to make a foursome are great people - friendly, nice, not so good at golf but not so bad, and they are largely forgettable.

Alison and I had an experience at Disney's Magnolia Golf Course the other day that I don't think we'll forget - and that was Don's intention.

We had a 7:54 tee time on Tuesday, March 24 at the Magnolia Course. In the shadows of the Polynesian and Grand Floridian Resorts, the location for this PGA Tour course is great. The weather was perfect, and we could hear the sounds of the Magic Kingdom which was less than a mile away.

Our 2 partners we were paired with were two fellas by the name of "Don". These two gentlemen were going off as singles and were grouped, they didn't know each other. Young Don was about 50 years old, had a few kids, college aged, etc. He was a very quick golfer, very cordial and of average skill. He didn't take any practice swings, he actually may have been the fastest golfer I ever played with.

The tortoise to Young Don's Hare was Old Don. Old Don, aged about 70-75 or so, walked up to the first tee in his powder Blue "Member's Only" Jacket, pasty white thin legs, and a chronic mumbling problem as part of his character. Old Don had talked to the starter during my warmup and first tee shot, which was a disaster. I am pretty patient, but you gotta have etiquette, you just gotta.

Old Don got up and hit his first tee shot as badly as he'd hit about 120 of his 130 shots all day. As a matter of fact, on the 17th fairway, on the way up to the green, he hit a really good chip and mumbled, "that was my only good shot of the day!" Nobody disagreed.

Aside from Old Don's disasterous play, was his extremely quirky personality. He had his own set of golf rules. If he didn't like where the ball was, it was an "unplayable lie" and you could move it 2 club lengths with no penalty. If he wanted to tee off from the women's tees, he would. Old Don was from Philadelphia, playing with rented clubs, and seemed to be out place.

I couldn't help but think that wherever he golfed back at home, someone must have told him, "Don, you play painfully slow. You are a terrible golf cart driver, and you really need to curb the mumbling to yourself, its distracting."

But then, on the 18th green, after he talked through Alison's bogey putt, I realized why maybe nobody has said anything to him at all about those problems, and where his immunity from reality may stem from.

So the last ball drops in the hole, we shake and thank him for a fun round, which it was...he was as fun to be around in a "did he really just do that?" kind of way as he was annoying...He looks at the 3 of us and says, "So here is a story you can take back home to your friends," (I am taking him up on that offer as we speak) "You can tell everyone that you golfed with Tina Fey's Dad."

WHAT?! HIM!? I could write for hours how her growing up with this man could have formed her comedy - but what baffles me is that I have always said that no female comedian or writer has been able to tap into the male sense of humor like Tina Fey - and to know that Don Fey, from Philadelphia, Temple Graduate, was her template for this kind of thing.

Alison told him how much we loved her, how funny we thought she was...we knew she was in Disney World while we were there, as it was floating around that she was in the parks. He told us she paid for the round for him, I can imagine the conversation, "Dad, why don't you go play a 5 hour round of golf while the rest of us do something boring," then her looking at hte rest of her party, fist pumping and winking, that they are free of Crazy Don for the morning.

He wanted to give us a story, and he gave us one. I guess it just cements, as everyone already knows, celebrities are completely normal people with parents as wacky as everyone else's. Wacky Don Fey.