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September 29, 2004

End Of The Beginning

My Direct Marketing class ended yesterday.

Going in to it, several people had warned me that "block mode" classes (and particularly those taught by Stearns) were an intense experience. I don't know that I was fully prepared for just HOW intense it was going to be.

Most UW business school classes are two hours long. A "full load" is 16 credits, so that breaks down to 2 classes a day, 2 hours each, 4 days a week, 10 weeks a quarter.

In contrast, Direct Marketing was 8 hours of instruction per day, for 7 days - 4 plus 3, with a weeklong break in the middle. Homework assigned on one day is usually due the next morning, and it often includes a presentation to the class in addition to the written component. So you leave class around 6 PM, fatigued and in need of pizza, and you have to be in class at 8:30 the next morning with your original, well-written insights (and Keynote deck) ready to rock and roll.

Oh, and, you know - be sure to do the reading, too.

My team was amazing (if you can ever work with Casey, Todd, Jo, Marnie or Deets - do so). It takes very special, focused, even-tempered people to be able to work cohesively at 4 AM, without bickering, on a solution that not everyone is 100% sure about. In fact, our final project (the one we turned in yesterday) kept us on campus until 4:19 AM on the morning it was due. No one cracked, and some really good stuff got generated pretty late in the game.

The project was a HBS case called "Passion For Learning." Our mission was to develop business objectives, evaluate the current case options, develop options of our own, pick an option to run with, develop that option, and then explain how we would test our theories to see which was the best. Effectively, we were encouraged to be managers of this business, parachuted in to help the current owner figure out what to do. A lot of what we did involved the creation of personas, which was fun, creative, and gave me serious Microsoft flashbacks. =)

The good news is that Stearns loved (raved about) our work. And, like I say, it's done, and we're through it.

Regular classes start today at 1:30 with a Project Management class. Slower pace, ho!

Posted by Gavin Shearer. Last updated September 29, 2004 10:34 AM.
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September 28, 2004

The First Circle

Astutue readers will check the time of this post (12:46 AM, Tuesday, 28 September). I should point out that we are holed up in Balmer Hall 305, elbow-deep in the "Passion For Learning" case. It's due, you know, in 8 hours and 14 minutes. (Now 13.)

Dante defines the first circle of hell as "Afflicted by melancholy; desire without hope."

Sounds about right.

This class needs to be over.

UPDATE, September 10, 2005: One or more of the original hyperlinks on this page expired, and has been dereferenced. The hyperlinked text is now underlined.

Posted by Gavin Shearer. Last updated September 28, 2004 12:46 AM.
Posted to UW MBA. Permalink for this entry.

September 20, 2004

Cutting The Mustard

The first insight of my second year concerns priorities. Specifically: ya gotta have 'em, or the program will run right over you.

Year One of business school has an underlying anxiety. It's a real low-level thing, omnipresent, a sense of dread that The Worst Is Yet To Come. You get strange nightmares about forgetting to prep a case or do your part of a team paper. Time distorts - weeks feel like months, then feel like days or hours. Part of this psychological terror is due to the density and difficulty of the coursework, and part of it is impostor syndrome. The net effect is that most first-year students work like dogs to prove to themselves that they can cut it.

By the time Year Two rolls around, your perspective has shifted. Not only have you successfully come through a grueling year of academics (translation: you can cut it), but you've also gone out into the work world and done an internship (translation: you can get a job). Once you know you're capable, then needs shift. Suddenly, it's not enough to survive. The next logical step is to find ways of making the program, and the experience of going through it, something that's personal to you.

So as I sat in Stearns' classroom and absorbed Direct Marketing, intravenously, for the last four days, a few things clicked in my head.

• My time with the people in my program - people I have come to care about, very passionately - is limited. I've got about nine months to really share this experience with them, and then I'm out.
• Some classes are more important than others, and I'm going to drop stuff that's "nice to have" instead of "need to have." It would have been enormously handy to have taken a Market Research class prior to my Microsoft internship this summer, but that's water under the bridge. Am I going to take the class now? You betcha. Am I going to drop my Financial Statement Analysis class to make room in my schedule? (Um ... does the Pope wear white?)
• Summer gives you a taste of family life. Microsoft gave me my evenings back, and Mary and I spent a lot of wonderful weeknights in one another's company. It was something I missed, enormously, during the first academic year. It's not at all clear that I'm willing to put my relationship on hold until June 2005.
• Making money is a Good Thing. I've been very careful to manage my consulting practice while I'm in school, but I've had so many requests for work lately that the economic cost of business school is beginning to get unacceptably high.
• Diversity is a Good Thing. I'm entering my fifth year of writing my column for the PSBJ. It's fun, it takes me out of myself, stimulates the creative gene. So does this blog. So does urban hiking, catching a movie, listening to new music, and reading a trashy entertainment magazine. All work and no play makes Gavin a dull boy.

So, put simply, the program means something much different to me today than it did a year ago. I no longer feel that it's about adjusting myself to something outside me; rather, I'm more interested in cherry-picking those things that will enhance the life I want to lead while attending school. It's a subtle difference, but it's really, really fundamental.

Posted by Gavin Shearer. Last updated September 20, 2004 11:37 PM.
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September 17, 2004

September's Column

Today's PSBJ has my latest Web Doctor: "Syndication services become more popular."

Posted by Gavin Shearer. Last updated September 17, 2004 11:52 PM.
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September 16, 2004

Back In The Saddle

God, it's good to be back.

My first day as a second-year MBA kicked off today with Elizabeth Stearns' Direct Marketing class. Officially, the UW starts on the 30th. Our group is taking this class in "block mode," which is an intensive six days of instruction (8+ hours per day) spread out over two weeks. There's about 40 of us; a lot of these folks are a real sight for sore eyes. I hadn't realized just how much I'd missed everyone over the summer.

Part of the assignment for the first day was to bring a piece of direct mail (don't call it "junk" in Stearns' presence or Bad Things Happen) that we thought was "interesting." My contribution is a tacky MBNA credit card offer sent to "Alumni and supporters of Western Washington University." What's remarkable about the piece is that it's about the fifteen-bajillionth piece of crap that I've received in the mail as a "valued Western alum." Basically, the school sold my name to anyone and everyone it could.

Anyone wanna guess how inclined I am to give to the alumni association when they come knocking? Exactly. The school made a few bucks by selling my name; that's all they'll ever get. Period.

Way to play the short game, guys.

A long day. Class ran until quarter to six, and, aside from a small dinner break, our small group was on campus until just before 10 PM taking care of the assignment for tomorrow. And I've still got four chapters to read before the fireworks start at 8:30 AM.

I'm off to catch the bus.

Posted by Gavin Shearer. Last updated September 16, 2004 9:50 PM.
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September 15, 2004

Day Nine: Austin, Texas

The final day of the Ad-Hoc Austin Film Festival came together with three pictures: Criminal, Kill Bill, Volume 1, and Session 9.

Of these three, Session 9 gets special mention. It's a creepy-as-hell psych thriller/horror flick about five guys hired to remove asbestos from an abandoned mental hospital (Danvers, in Massachussets -and the film is shot on location). Released in 2001, the film did virtually no business (just 30 screens and about $400,000 in domestic grosses), which is a shame - it's a gem. Like The Blair Witch Project, Sesssion 9 makes outstanding use of atmosphere and menacing situations. Rent it.

So, tomorrow (Wednesday) is a travel day (my flight leaves reeeeeeeally early in the morning, CST). And then the Storm play Phoenix at Key Arena at 7 PM Pacific. It's going to be a long (good) day.

MBA, year two starts on Thursday.
(Looks like the vacation is over.)

Posted by Gavin Shearer. Last updated September 15, 2004 5:32 AM.
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September 14, 2004

Day Eight: Austin, Texas

Film festival, day three - we saw Michael Mann's "Collateral" and were totally, utterly and completely blown away. It's the anti-"Spider Man 2". Made for adults, with textured characters, strong acting, and without a single frame of fat in the picture. A lot of ink has been spilled about Tom Cruise playing a bad guy, but the movie belongs to Jamie Foxx (who has come a long, long, long way from "In Living Color").

Mann has, once again, proven that he is one of the few directors with the chops to make a fresh, engrossing film about two characters in tension. If you need further proof, check out Exhibit A: 1995's Heat ... one of the best movies ever made.

Posted by Gavin Shearer. Last updated September 14, 2004 11:43 AM.
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September 13, 2004

Day Seven: Austin, Texas

After my post about Starbucks Hear Music (and the "Isn't the CD dying?" crack), Benny took me to one of Austin's coolest record stores: Waterloo.

The CD is certainly not dead.

Imagine the coolest, hippest music shop you can. Staff it with friendly people. Give it a deep inventory (including the now-in-my-possession New Order box set, "Retro"), and do some innovative things (like using iPods as listening stations). Then throw in some great books, DVDs, posters and bumper stickers for good measure.

(It was all I could do to leave the Duran Duran DVD on the shelf.)

In keeping with the film festival mood, we (finally) caught Spider Man 2. The picture was, to put it mildly, disappointing. Ebert gave it a rave ("Now this is what a superhero movie should be"), and I'd heard lots of great things from other folks. Sadly, I found it too long (by about 20 minutes), ham-handed, and not that thrilling. I know it's a "comic book movie", but X-Men proved that you can do one of those without making it boring.

On the other hand, we also rented Aqua Teen Hunger Force on DVD, and spent most of the night cracking up ("No! It is the FARgate! It is not the same as that device from the movie I have never seen!"). Awesome, awesome, awesome...

UPDATE, September 4, 2006: One or more of the original hyperlinks on this page expired, and has been dereferenced. The hyperlinked text is now underlined.

Posted by Gavin Shearer. Last updated September 13, 2004 10:20 AM.
Posted to Travel. Permalink for this entry.

Day Six: Austin, Texas

Gavin's California Adventure took an 1,100 mile detour East today. I'm spending the balance of my vacation visiting my good friend Benny in Austin, Texas.

Benny and I are both raging movie fanatics, so the plan is to catch a boatload of pictures that we've been too busy to see on our own. We kicked off the film festival with "Hero" at the DraftHouse, a very cool, very funky local chain that serves a full food menu to moviegoers.

Seattle tried something like this a few years back with the now-defunct Cinema Grill. There was something of an argument at the time between my friends as to whether these businesses are movies with food service, or restaurants that show movies. The distinction isn't academic, because if you're a restaurant then the food quality is critical. Conversely, if you're really a theater, then the moviegoing experience is what you've got to pay attention to. Sadly, Cinema Grill was pretty bad on both counts (bad pizza, lame ambience), so my first trip was also my last.

DraftHouse doesn't seem to have this problem. The food was great, the seats were comfortable, and the value was pretty good. If I lived in Austin, I'd come here all the time. The theater management also seems to do a great job of soliciting community input - they show Rocky Horror every week, and are planning to screen the Red vs. Blue movie. (The custom trailer is hysterical.)

(Oh, and a funny postscript: for my official Los Angeles famous-person-sighting, I saw Tom Green chatting with Dave Thomas (he of SCTV/Bob and Doug MacKenzie fame) while waiting for my flight. Pretty fitting way to leave Los Angeles, huh?)

Posted by Gavin Shearer. Last updated September 13, 2004 9:47 AM.
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Day Five: Santa Monica

After the nail-biting excitement (and bone-tired exhaustion) of Thursday's Magic Mountain escapades, Friday got off to a very, very relaxed start. I'd crashed with Chris and Todd, so after rolling out of bed I took Chris out for coffee to catch up, post-wedding.

(She's still glowing.)

After coffee, I headed out to Santa Monica to check out Starbucks Hear Music. This store is a prototype of Starbucks' fledgling music efforts. It's a traditional music store (it stocks CDs), but it adds a digital twist by allowing patrons to listen to anything the store carries. Hear Music listening stations are basically flat-screen, wall-mount PCs with headphones and a bar code scanner. Grab a CD you're interested in, slap on some headphones, and pass the CD UPC under the listening station's optical scanner. From there, you'll be able to rock out to any and every track on the disc.

Cooler still are the custom CD burners (you can see a guy sitting at one in my photo, above). These stations allow you to browse and choose from over 150,000 songs in the Hear Music library. You can build a custom playlist right at the station, and then have a CD burned while you wait. You pay a basic cost for the CD, plus a per-track fee. It's slick.

The burner is the thing that Starbucks is most interested in. As music goes increasingly digital, music stores are becoming less and less vital to the music-buying public. Starbucks is essentially trying to leverage its steady volume of affluent and loyal customers into a new line of business for the coffee chain. I think it's an interesting strategy, provided they can get the merchandising issues worked out, but I'm curious as to how long-lived the value of these burners can be. The way I see it, Hear Music is competing with iTunes (catalog: 1,000,000 and counting), Rhapsody, Napster, Launch (Todd would kill me if I left them off this list), and, of course, MSN music. This means that Starbucks' music effort is really targeting coffee customers that don't have access to (or don't know how to use) these other services. And, to me, that number seems small ... and dwindling. Plus, the burners don't support portable players (I can't, for instance, buy a song at Starbucks, plug in my iPod, and have it copied over).

Isn't the CD dying?

Starbucks is rolling out the burners across 10 stores here in Seattle over the next few months. I'll be watching with great interest.

(And finally, a big shout out to Paul Skikne, a great guy and former client of mine. Paul: you made the blog!)

UPDATE, June 5, 2006: One or more of the original hyperlinks on this page expired, and has been dereferenced. The hyperlinked text is now underlined.

Posted by Gavin Shearer. Last updated September 13, 2004 9:38 AM.
Posted to Travel. Permalink for this entry.

September 10, 2004

Day Four: Six Flags Magic Mountain

It's playtime.

(For best results as you read this, you may want to download and play "We Like To Party" by the Venga Boys (iTunes has it for $0.99). Alternately, you can visit this link and play the thing in the background.)

Magic Mountain is, without question, the best theme park I've ever been to. It's like Mecca for coaster enthusiasts.

I arrived right as the park opened, and met a couple of very nice women from the Bay area while waiting to pay. Turns out that Sophia is a fellow coaster maniac, and Meetha is a good friend of hers who is "undecided" about the coaster thing. Since they had the same idea I did - get on everything they possibly could, all day long - we joined forces.

Our first stop was X, the world's first "four dimensional" coaster (and, truth be told, the best thing I've ridden. Ever.). X is hard to explain without visual aids, so just imagine a traditional roller coaster - the rails are below, with the car on top and the people in the car. On X, the car straddles the rails (two people each side), and the seats are mounted on a pole that runs through the car. The pole rotates with 180 degrees of motion. So, as the coaster runs, you're being rotated forward and backward so you're viewing things from the most optimal position. It's the damndest thing.

From there, we went on (in order) Viper, Revolution, Goliath, Colossus, Scream (twice!), Batman: The Ride, Riddler's Revenge, Gold Rusher, Superman: The Escape, Deja Vu, Psyclone, Ninja, and back to X. With stops for the Tidal Wave and Freefall.

There were no lines. Ever. X had a small wait (10 - 20 minutes), but that was mostly due to the fact that they were only running one train, and the load/unload cycle takes some time. In one day, we literally managed to ride every coaster that was open and operational. During the summer, with crowds and 2-hour lines, you might do a third or a fourth of what we pulled off.

As I write this, Friday morning, I'm kicking myself for not having made the trip here before now. Magic Mountain is amazing (and given how coasters-a-go-go Cedar Point is, I'll be off to Ohio sooner instead of later). If you like thrill rides, come here.

If you come to Magic Mountain with a limited amount of time, ride X, Scream, Goliath (I almost blacked out on it - the G-forces are incredible), and Riddler's Revenge. If you have time, hit Deja Vu and Superman: The Escape. And the rest are gravy.

Small observation about parks. Los Angeles is an interesting microcosm of theme park audiences. On the one hand, there's Disneyland. Disneyland is all about little kids (and adults like me that are in touch with their inner 5-year-old). On the other, there's Knott's Berry Farm, which caters to 45-year-olds and the pre-teen audience, very Midwest and wholesome. And then there's Magic Mountain, which is an all-coaster, all-the-time thrill park. It's for adrenaline-seekers of all ages ... but caters mostly to that "18 - 34 year old boy" demographic.

So the day ended, Sophia and Meetha said our goodbyes, and I retreated for the safety of my air-conditioned rental car. I was hot, sticky and sweaty, my camera was almost full, and I was pooped. But right now, the whole trip is officially Worth It.

UPDATE, September 10, 2005: One or more of the original hyperlinks on this page expired, and has been dereferenced. The hyperlinked text is now underlined.

Posted by Gavin Shearer. Last updated September 10, 2004 9:39 AM.
Posted to Travel. Permalink for this entry.

September 8, 2004

Day Three: Knott's Berry Farm

The coasterin' started in earnest today with a visit to Knott's Berry Farm.

I haven't been to Knott's for nearly twenty years. My parents brought my sister and me here in '85 as part of a Disneyland vacation. At the time, I was absolutely terrified of the coasters - Montezooma's Revenge (which is still here), and the Corkscrew (which moved out to Silverwood a few years ago. Funny sidebar: I finally conquered my fear of the Corkscrew in 2002 when Dad and I took a motorcycle trip out to Idaho. Took me 17 years to work up my nerve, I guess...).

Tastes change, of course, Today was all about the coasters.

Flat out, the best thing on the property is Xcelerator. It's the younger brother of Cedar Point's Top Thrill Dragster (Cedar Fair, LLP owns both Knott's and Cedar Point). You are catapult-launched from a flat surface out to a huge, vertical horseshoe. The apex of the horseshoe is better than 200 feet up. From there, it's free fall (smile for the cameras!) and a few banking turns, and that's it.

An UNBELIEVABLE rush.

The park was deserted. Asking around, it turns out that LA schools started on Tuesday, so all the kids are gone for the summer. I literally walked from the ticket booth to the Xcelerator and sat down in the car - no waiting, no lines. No kidding.

(I also rode it three times today - very front, very back, and in the middle).

Knott's coaster selection isn't as strong as I'd hoped. The big wooden coaster, Ghost Rider, was offline; the others were either very tame (Jaguar!) or very lame (Boomerang, which is a clone of a ride at Six Flags Fiesta Texas).

Making it worse is that Knott's is clearly building a new, inverted monster called Silver Bullet. It opens next year. There were guys working on it - moving earth, welding, painting, etc. You can see the tracks from almost everywhere in the park. It's going to be a long, fast, kick-butt signature coaster. I may have to make a quick detour back here when Mary and I come down for Disneyland's 50th next year.

Tomorrow: Magic Mountain! At last!

Posted by Gavin Shearer. Last updated September 8, 2004 3:12 PM.
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September 7, 2004

Day Two: Hollywood

Heidi lives in Hollywood, and works for Paramount. I drove up here from Huntington Beach first thing this morning to have breakfast and check in with her. MapQuest says it's 30 miles; my commute was 1 hour and 15 minutes.

Welcome to Los Angeles. =)

There's a super-cute little diner a few blocks from her place (good omelette), next to the "Hollywoodland" arch and across from the "Hollywoodland Realty." As you might expect, the Hollywood sign (see above) is pretty visible.

She's at work for the day, so I'm holed up in her apartment, finishing my column for the PSBJ on the 17th. After that I'm going to do a walking tour of the neighborhood and see if I can find a WiFi cafe.

This place is really quaint and beautiful. Very Italian, very '30s and '40s. Heidi told me that there's an 80% chance of a Minnie Driver sighting. Fingers crossed...

Posted by Gavin Shearer. Last updated September 7, 2004 11:55 AM.
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Day One: Huntington Beach

The first thing that struck me about Los Angeles was how grungy the airport is. The walkways, concourses, public art, baggage claim - all of it - just feels like some 1960's, future-is-now thing gone to seed.

It's an odd juxtaposition. LAX has been romanticized in all these movies as the gateway to the world - it's where couples go to see one another off, where the cops chase down the bad guy, where the immigrants get their first taste of free air. And here it is, with badly-stained conveyor belts and some seriously out-of-date (and out of fashion) signs.

I was staying with Tony and Sandy in Huntington Beach, so after I took delivery of the rental car (and got lawyered up with some extra insurance) I was off, down the 405 to find their place. The three of us decided to get some dinner and check out the pier.

And suddenly, I "got" what the Living In Los Angeles thing is all about.

If you visit the ocean in Washington, you likely go to Westport or Ocean Shores. The weather on the coast is cold and blustery, with a constant wind and a wetness that will chill you if you're not wearing some kind of Helly Hansen layer. The Ocean becomes a destination, something that you Go To For A Purpose, such as to See It While Eating Overpriced Fish And Chips (this encapsulates Mary's and my last trip to Westport).

Here, the weather is warm and sunny and inviting. It's a constant party at the beach. The ocean is an active character in the narrative of your day, rather than being the MacGuffin that keeps the movie moving forward. People were fishing, laughing, doing political activism, drinking Frappuccino Light, surfing, kissing, you name it. It felt very much like the boardwalk in Santa Cruz, but without the coasters.

(Pity about the coasters. But I suspect I can fix that. ).

Posted by Gavin Shearer. Last updated September 7, 2004 11:49 AM.
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September 5, 2004

Meet The Beaupres

Last night, my very good friends Chris Norris and Todd Beaupre were joined in marriage.

Congratulations, guys.

Posted by Gavin Shearer. Last updated September 5, 2004 2:29 PM.
Posted to Cool. Permalink for this entry.

September 2, 2004

Spent

And then - suddenly - it was over.

After all the craziness of the last week with the survey, the vendor, the results, the analysis, building the presentation, vetting and editing, talking to folks - I'm done.

Tuesday's presentation went smoothly. Great audience questions, good discussion. People seemed engaged and receptive. Further, the presentation was recorded in LiveMeeting, so it can be replayed, TiVo-like, by subsequent generations of interns and employees who are so interested.

My SharePoint site is done, too - a comprehensive repository of data, securely nestled on the internal network. Some day, a sufficiently-interested software archaeologist will be able to crack open the URL and start delving into my project and findings, progressively revealing each generation of new ideas and the earlier, less-refined ones that preceded it.

I did my internal presentation to the Planning core at today's weekly staff meeting. I talked about how I did my project, the good and the bad, and pointed out some nasty traps with the tools I used so others don't get snared. Again, good questions and lots of interested looks.

(I acknowledge that Microsoft may be composed largely of skilled actors, but I'll cling to my illusion that they liked it.)

Formally, tomorrow is my last day, but my workload peaked about 24 hours ago and has decayed precipitously since then. My e-mail volume has dropped through the floor. I have a little, light traffic -- mostly messages about official Microsoft Stuff that I'm just being copied on. I have one last presentation, tomorrow afternoon, to the other Office interns (I've titled it - "12 weeks, 15 slides, 20 minutes" to give you a sense of how compressed that's gonna be). Aside from that (and my final review), it's all come full circle.

So here are a few final thoughts on the whole Microsoft internship experience.

• First, you get to work on a real project. This is remarkable. Conversations I've had with other MBA interns have convinced me that, for many, an internship is a summer job where you don't mow lawns (this has, hysterically, prompted a rebuttal from one of my fellow UW MBAs: "At least if I'd mowed lawns I wouldn't have been bored."). When you come to Microsoft as an intern, there's Something They Want You To Do.
• Second, Microsoft people treat you like an equal. Seriously. My experience has been that, if you're sitting in the meeting, people will listen to what you have to say. This "flat" culture extends farther for interns than most probably know. I have been successful at meeting folks all over the company, across roles and titles, based solely on the fact that I'm an intern and was curious about what they did.
• Third, you get a good simulation of what it's like to really work here. Some people will like that; others won't. It's kind of like Junior Mints, white chocolate chips and cherry-pie filling in your vanilla ice cream - not for everyone, but an excellent experience for the right people.
• Fourth, and finally, the internship is just the internship. A lot of people think of the internship as something that's a stepping stone to full-time employment. I've written a bit about that before. If you're thinking of coming here as an intern, it's best to consider yourself a contractor who is here for 12 weeks to deliver a project. If they like your work, they might ask you back. You can't worry about full-time work while you're doing the project -- that way lies madness. Focus and deliver on what they need.

Next on deck? I have some good, good friends getting married this weekend. School starts again on the 16th. Between those two events, I plan to visit friends in Los Angeles and scream my lungs out on some great roller coasters. I'm definitely ready for the break.

Posted by Gavin Shearer. Last updated September 2, 2004 1:27 PM.
Posted to MSFT. Permalink for this entry.

When She's Gone

A good-sized group of us went out for the Storm's "Welcome Back" game last night (shout out to Allie: Kaufmann was there!). It wasn't their finest two hours, but the second-quarter rally put a lot of excitement and energy in to Key Arena.

The surprise news was that Lauren Jackson wasn't playing (you could hear the air leak out of the fan enthusiasm when they mentioned it). Although we lost, the lack of our erstwhile MVP just made some of the other players - Betty and Tully, especially - look better (and come on, Sue always kicks ass). At one point, ArenaVision pointed out that the Storm are 3 and 5 for the 8 (now 9) games Jackson has missed (title: "No Silver Lining"). That kind of stuff isn't useful; it just makes the rest of the players feel a little un-loved. If you're on the court, you're there for a reason. Last night seemed to be more about rusty skills and fatigue than the absence of the 6' 5" point machine.

Can't wait for the game on the 15th.

UPDATE, May 13, 2006: One or more of the original hyperlinks on this page expired, and has been dereferenced. The hyperlinked text is now underlined.

Posted by Gavin Shearer. Last updated September 2, 2004 9:47 AM.
Posted to Seattle Storm. Permalink for this entry.