Welcome to Bullheaded! A Failed Blog Experiment
Hello there.
I’m Mislav, a dude from the capital of Croatia where everyone with a functioning brain is currently practicing this new thing called social-distancing. If you haven’t heard about it, don’t go asking a friend. We’ll be staying in today. Kinda funny, but “practicing” might be the perfect way to describe it, because after 4 weeks I still suck at it.
Which brings me to why you’re here. A way of keeping myself busy turned into a blog. Again. Actually, it might be best to call it something other than a blog, but I’m guessing only a select few of you would visit “Mislav’s Brain Fart Gallery” willingly. It’s difficult to get readers as is.
The concept of “Bullheaded” (name of the aforementioned brain fart gallery) is this — I’ll share my short thoughts on LIFE, SPORTS, WORK, MUSIC aaaaaaand GAMING. I’m thinking about making this a regular thing, but I forgot that blogging is too much work outside work.
These are things I get (or have gotten) paid to do at some point in my life or which I simply love enough to share with friends. Brace yourselves, it’s about to get intimate. Here’s whom you will be reading this from, I guess.
The author is a basketball lover, who freelanced as a sports journalist for 7 years, covered the Leafs for highly-read NHL blogs, got published in The Hockey News, critiqued in Sports Illustrated (that one time), but all in all put a lot of recording devices in front a lot of pie-holes. Now a marketer for a large tech company, he’s “leading” an international team of truly great people who make every business day seem easier. The guy even did videoconferencing before it was hip/necessary for survival. A semi-functional, athletic man-person, can cook, an adept eater who takes extremely long showers. WHOOOOSA.
I’ll do my best to make you laugh, stay insightful and hopefully get you thinking about stuff you haven’t been thinking about. This will also help keep me somewhat sane, as most of us are currently feeling like we’re part of a Mad Max movie prologue.
Ah yes, why call it “Bullheaded”? Well, I didn’t have to wait in line when God handed out stubbornness. I used to be a tremendously headstrong child (still am, but used to be, too — RIP Mitch Hedberg, you sick son of a gun), which led my mom to devise a special nickname for me, roughly translated as “any stubborn animal with horns”. I think it’s also why I never got baptized. On that note, kudos to my parents for actually letting me develop a personality before I chose how and what to believe in.
As a kid born in 1985 with “M.J.” for initials, most of my childhood was spent believing in Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls. Born under Taurus and while I always believed that arbitrarily defined constellations at the time of ones birth have zero effect on personality traits, with Trump/Pence having already sounded to start the apocalypse (Revelation 1:9), one should never rule anything out these days.
Opinions stated here are my own, unless they are yours, too. Here we go.
Home Alone, With Butt Paper To Spare
LIFE: Gotta Get That Paper, Yo
How is stockpiling toilet paper going to help you survive a global pandemic? Trust me, if you have running water, you’re probably good with your normal-size purchase. Oh no, our hero is down to his last roll. Cue ominous music. He forgot to buy ALL the toilet paper in his local store. Whatever will he do? But wait, all is not lost! The clever hero simply pops in the shower and voila! A much cleaner rectum. If we’re lucky, the soapy shower will also wash away the stench of selfish human garbage. Cue happy music. In light of equal opportunities that exist in douche-style toiletry shopping, our hero can just as likely be a woman.
MUSIC: Lil by Lil Is A Lot
What’s with all the Lils in hip-hop? Lil Uzi Vert (also known as Baby Pluto), Lil Pump, Lil Yachty… to name a few. Back in the day rappers didn’t want to be little. Lil Yachty — If Puff Daddy wanted a little yacht he’d still be Sean Combs. Or 2 Combz. Only 2 Chainz? No ma’am, no ambition there. Even Sir MixALot liked big butts, everything was big. Remember a time when rappers spat out actual words instead of barely mumbling like the novocaine hadn’t yet worn off? I miss Pac. Still, if you haven’t already, give Astroworld a shot. Travis Scott — pretty good for a mumbler.
WORK: Where’s The Remote?
Being forced to work remotely is a good test of how much trust managers have in their team members. If your manager has you sending daily reports when working from home and it’s not the usual company (or manager’s) policy then we have a problem. It’s quite simple — trust is based on consistency. If you consistently deliver results, hand in quality work and meet the deadlines, then I couldn’t care less about how or when you do the work. Some people need a day to plan or brainstorm and simply execute later. As a manager, you’re making their job harder if they have to invent stuff to send you because “Umm, today I did brainwork” sounds stupid in an email. Trust your people or figure out why you don’t.
SPORTS: Be He Like Mike?
Due to quarantine, I re-watched a ton of old Bulls games. Despite my deep love for Mike, I still believe Lebron does enough to rival him for the GOAT. He is certainly a better teammate. People often say that MJ was the greatest winner. Nope, that would be Bill Russell. And just look at the teams Lebron had to battle in the Finals. A Warriors super squad (3 all-world players and a supporting cast to match), San Antonio Spurs who were playing some of the best basketball in history… OKC with Durant, Harden, Westbrook (not only all stars, but all world players). Jordan didn’t meet nearly as much resistance in the Finals. Ok, getting there was arguably tougher but when you have the Bulls 72-win roster from 95–96, the Sonics should be no match for you. Lebron beat the 73-win record-setting Warriors with just Kyrie Irving and a little bit of Love.
GAMING: But, I Don’t Wanna Know…
NBA 2K20 is everything that’s wrong with gaming. Loot boxes, turning games into online casinos while limiting the core gameplay to fuel purchases of virtual currency as shortcuts to winning or enjoying the game — this whole sentence shouldn’t exist. Same with articles titled “5 Things You Need To Know Before Starting Game X”. Listen you peon-like-shitbird-of-a-gamespot-writer you, I don’t need to know anything before I start because I’m playing it to find out, it’s why I bought the game. I don’t want to hack the game and get to the final credits faster, I want to ENJOY it, experience it. But don’t fret, games like Planescape Torment, Witcher 3, Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Death Stranding… and hopefully Cyberpunk 2077 still exist. There are developers out there that still want to make a game you’ll not only remember 30 years from now, but that also teaches kids how to solve problems, make tough moral choices, fall in love with the characters or have them follow a deep story and narrative. Booyah.
Until next time — stay healthy.
