robbiedobbles.com

i noticed recently the womens golf tour declared that its members must know english. seems kind of weird to me… players come from all over the world to play in the lpga. though it is mostly based in the u.s. they hold several tournaments in other countries. additionally, there are lots of players that come from non english speaking countries. so it just seems to me they would want to be as inclusive as possible. from what i have read, none of the current players have any problems with it. so i guess i shouldn’t be too up in arms about it… one of the big reasons i have heard so far for wanting this is that it will help get golfers more sponsorships. that would in turn raise the profile of the womens tour and increase prize money etc… well thats all well and good, but should we expect the golfers to all learn korean so that they can advertise in korea? anika sorenstam was the best womens golfer for years, but we didn’t hear anyone asking other golfers to learn swedish so they could get more advertising in her home country.

just seems kind of ethnocentric to me. i hope the next big golfer that comes along is from another country and doesn’t natively speak english. then that would put them in a real tough spot.

this is a topic i have felt strongly about for a while now. its something that i am sure i will complain about again…

i think sports need to be separated from education. maybe not totally, but i think drastic changes are made. too often, educational decisions are made based on sports factors. too many times do we see athletes getting preferential treatment at all levels. of course its worse in high school and division 1 colleges, but it happens all over. call me elitist, but i feel that my college degree is devalued because of athletes that get degrees pushed through just so they can play sports.

one of the things that has me especially thinking about this issue this time of year is watching the little league world series. little league has nothing to do with schools. you can play little league as an F student or an A student. there are lots of leagues like this for younger kids. you can play football in leagues like the jfl that are not associated with schools. you can play baseball in little league and pony league without it being involved in schools. you can play legion baseball as an older kid that isn’t school affiliated. lots of 2nd tier sports like tennis have programs independent of schools. so its not like it can’t work.

but instead, high schools and colleges end up as pimps for athletics. football and basketball are the worst. essentially the nfl and nba use college athletics as their minor league systems. for some sports, going to college can help but isn’t required. baseball and hockey are 2 examples. you can go to college play a few years and improve yourself, but you can also get drafted without going to college. the problem with the nfl and nba is you have to go to college to make it. neither has taken the time to develop a true player development system. basketball used to have the cba (never forget the qc thunder!) but i don’t think they have any sort of real development league now. the nfl had a european league that died. and they in a way have the arena leagues. but i dont think those have realistic expectations of developing players for the nfl. so both rely on colleges to train these players.

maybe if more ’student-athletes’ were also students it wouldn’t be a problem. yet so many rarely attend classes, many get passed just so they can be eligible, many get degrees in areas specially designed for athletes, etc… just peeves me off.

this i really think is an important issue. because when we look at how schools are failing our youth, this is an important factor. schools need to be in the business of teaching children. not fielding sports teams. i am not saying sports don’t teach life lessons, i just think they should be separate entity. i will try and get some data for these things, but for now this is just a rant.

I have felt like writing some blogs again these past couple days. I think it is probably that same feeling a lot of us have. That we have so much to say, but then when we actually try to say it nothing comes out. That happens a lot to me at least.

Anywho, I totally stripped down the site. Simple is the key now. I just want this to be someplace that I can write down my thoughts and feelings and maybe even have them discussed.

Since I took down the site for the last few months, I am sure it will be tough to get anyone to participate, but I think I might try.

Anywho, this is just a heads up that you will probably start seeing blogs here again.

i have taken my first step in spending even less time on the internet. i have deleted my myspace account. i have never been big into the social networking stuff, and certainly was never addicted, but i felt like closing my account was the right thing to do. every minute spent on there is a minute that could be better spent. it isn’t all bad. i did connect with a few long lost friends and family members thanks to it. i made sure and messaged them before i deleted things giving them alternative ways to get in touch. i think the next step will be getting rid of facebook. i am not too addicted to that either.

i just have hit the point where i am sick of having all this info out there about me. if someone wants to get a hold of me, i am not that hard to find. and while sites like these can be good, people really do become obsessed with them.

overall i am toning down the time i spend on the internet and the number of sites i go to. i have become more active recently on hockey message boards and it has been fun discussing hockey with people that care. but i really don’t feel the urge to stalk people online by looking at all their pictures and reading a bunch of dumb surveys about 100 things i never knew about them.

like i mentioned in the last post (i think i did at least) i don’t know what the future holds for this site. i might take it down too. i created it under the premise that it is a place people can come to learn about me. they can hear what i have to say and see what i have been up to. but like i said above, if they really care they can ask me.

ok, i’m outta here for now.

once again it has been a while since i blogged. i am thinking about taking the site down. i just don’t think its really serving any purpose. maybe i will come back with something better. i envisioned this as a place to get my feelings out there and i just haven’t been utilizing it. even when people stop by they rarely comment. if i just wanted a place where i wrote down my thoughts and ignored everyone else, i would keep a journal.

the other funny thing is i put pictures on the site. i did it so i would be able to have 1 place that had them all. most people will put them on facebook, myspace, flickr, and everywhere else. i just wanted to have an easy place to put mine for people to see. but people can’t manage to make it 1 click further and see them. god i sound emo. i sure complain a lot eh?

i have started to withdraw the ways to get here. i took the site off the qc area blog rolls. i didn’t want to feel like i was advertising for the site. if people want to stop by, thats cool, but i don’t want to advertise like a whore.