Saturday, January 29, 2011

Who To Root For?

If you're lucky enough to be a fan of one of the two teams playing in the Super Bowl, you know exactly who to root for: your own team. If, like me, you're a fan of one of the other 30 teams, you might need some help choosing which team to root for. Because any moron can root for the best team.

1. Your home team. In my case, the 49ers. Which means I started assembling this list in Week 4.

2. A team you have a personal connection to. Does a high school classmate play quarterback for the New England Patriots? (In my case, yes) Is your step-cousin the long-snapper for the Bears? Is your aunt a massage therapist for the Jets? If so, make sure she puts you in her will, because that woman's about to be RICH!

3. The team your dad roots for (if different than #1). Despite spending his entire life in the San Francisco Bay Area, my dad is a huge Miami Dolphins fan. Why? He graduated high school in 1972; the Dolphins went undefeated in '72. You do the frontrunning-math. That said, if the Dolphins ever made the Super Bowl again (ha! sorry, Dad), I'd root for them.

4. The team with the most prominent alumni from your college. I went to USC. I like to see former Trojans do well in the NFL. Therefore, I must root for the Pittsburgh Steelers (Troy Polamalu) first and the Green Bay Packers (Clay Matthews) second. UNLESS one of the following qualifiers applies:

QUALIFIER #1: Don't root for a team that threatens YOUR team's legacy. Sorry, Pittsburgh (and my beloved Troy), but your "Stairway to Seven" season puts my 49ers in danger of falling TWO Super Bowl victories behind you guys for the all-time franchise lead. Plus, you have Ben Rothlisberger. No deal, Howie!

QUALIFIER #2: Jay Cutler is your quarterback. That guy sucks.

So, applying the above formula, I'll be rooting for the Green Bay Packers. Somebody break the news to Troy.

(I'm sure he's devastated).

Monday, January 17, 2011

Feedback

Did you know "feedback" is the only word in the English language to use each of the first six letters of the alphabet (A-F)? Now that you know this, send me some!

Email: Bryan@BryanBishop.com

My old email also works: Bryan@HiBryan.com



Wednesday, January 5, 2011

How did BryanBishop.com come to be?

It's kind of a funny story.

BryanBishop.com was once owned by another guy named - wait for it - BRYAN BISHOP! Bryan was (is?) a southern minister who used his site to help promote Bryan Bishop Ministries. The first time I looked up BryanBishop.com, I saw that he owned (and was using) the URL. Fair enough. I'd check back from time to time just to see if it was still active.

One day, I checked the site and found that it was no longer active. After a quick Google search, I found Bryan on MySpace. I emailed him, basically asking "Hey, if you're not using the domain, how 'bout I buy it off you?" His response: "I'm not really selling it, but everything's for sale nowadays, I guess. What's it worth to you?" I'll tell you what it WASN'T worth: a follow-up email. I let the whole thing go.

Then, last year, out of nowhere, a listener named Jason emailed me. He works in web marketing and specializes in watching and acquiring expired domain names. Apparently, BryanBishop.com had not been renewed by its owner and was coming up for auction. He didn't forsee the bidding getting too high (not sure how I feel about that), so he offered to get it for me - no strings attached.

Fast forward a couple of days: the auction happened, he got the domain, and handed it over to me. Just like that, BryanBishop.com was finally mine! It's hard to articulate, but there's a sense of... security?... in having "your" domain name.

The lesson here? Don't give your child a common name.