A day in the park.

I took my son to the park earlier this week, and when we got there, there happened to be a bunch of teenage boys jumping around on the playground sets.  Of course, none of the little kids who were playing came anywhere close to them.  The parents who were there, either sitting on the benches or playing with their kids, acted as though those teens didn't exist.

I myself try to avoid confrontations as much as possible, so I looked around for patrol cars who routinely drive by the area sometimes.  I didn't see any.  For some reason, I thought that there were emergency callboxes at the playsets; there are a couple of pieces there that look like they have speakers on them but after examining them, they didn't turn out to be callboxes.  Maybe they actually were speakers for emergency announcements but I couldn't actually get in touch with somebody that way.

At that point, I was only a few feet away from the teens, and I found myself asking them if they realized what they were doing, that it was potentially dangerous for the little kids there.  I didn't mean to do it, but somehow I ended up arguing with them.  One of them politely replied that they don't mean any harm.  I told them that that wasn't the point, and that the playground wasn't built for that purpose.  After a few minutes, I became frustrated and lost my cool.  I ended up yelling and cursing which finally got them to walk away.

I sat on a picnic table next to the playground with my family.  I realized I needed to calm down.  The teens congregated at another picnic table away from us.  After a few minutes, two of them went to each parent and apologized.

They came up to me last and apologized as well.  I said sorry for yelling and cursing.  I sat down for a few more minutes before finally taking my son to the playsets to play.

So it turned out fine in the end.  What still bothers me, however, is the fact that none of the other parents said something to these teens.  It was as if I was the wrong one for confronting them in the first place.  And as I was in the middle of my discussion with these teens, no one bothered to stand up, investigate, say something.  Everybody was just perfectly content to look away and pretend nothing was happening, when they were jumping around the place and after I've confronted them.

If you're a parent, what would you have done in that situation?  I didn't know what kind of people they were, but I knew they weren't supposed to be climbing, yelling and jumping around a playground for little children.  I should have gone ahead and looked for a park ranger or called the police or something.  I certainly don't think it's fine to just sit there and pretend they didn't exist.

Anyway, once those teens left, those parents' kids were sure quick to return to the playset they vacated.

FlyHyNY: Losing TJ and Signing LT.

It's too bad RB Thomas Jones is no longer a Jet. I don't like all this hoopla about RB LaDainian Tomlinson. Yes, he was a great running back, but he's not the same anymore. Regardless of the O-line, Jones has consistently rushed for over a thousand yards the past few years, while Tomlinson has been in decline. Jones has played under four different quarterbacks with the Jets (Mark Sanchez, Brett Favre, Kellen Clemens, Chad Pennington) and has been steady. If you add his years with the Chicago Bears, that's two more QBs in Kyle Orton and Rex Grossman. For these many years, Thomas Jones has been carrying the offense steadily.

So why wouldn't the Jets want to keep Jones? Yes, he caused a bit of a stir last year when he demanded a new contract, but he showed up to training camp and had a great season. He also ended up with the best season of his career. Apparently, however, the team wasn't impressed and actually demoted him late in the season in favor of Shonn Greene. They also rested Jones during post-season practices. In their AFC Championship Game loss, Greene went down to injury, and Jones couldn't get the yardage.

The team doesn't think TJ should be the starter, but Jones still thinks he's a premier back and should get paid for it. This is the main disagreement. The team want's him to be the third running back and wants to pay him accordingly. They offered TJ a pay cut, but he wouldn't take it. He ended up being released. He was due to make around $5 million this year if he stayed with the Jets, but he ended up signing with Kansas City for $5 million also - but over two years. Why would he take such a deal? Because the Jets wouldn't match it.

Now the team brings in LaDainian Tomlinson. Offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer knows him well. He is also reportedly resigned to the idea of being the third down back. There are reports that they think Tomlinson "still has burst." I haven't watched too much film on LaDainian recently so I can't agree or disagree. I just hope the Jets have done their homework, because they seem to be going all out to sign this guy. I wouldn't mind having Tomlinson on the team, but I don't think he should have gotten paid more than Thomas Jones wanted.

Would the team actually bring in a high profile guy like Tomlinson to sell jerseys and PSLs? I understand they would like to do so, but for exclusively this reason? I highly doubt it.

I don't see why they couldn't have kept Jones and give some sort of incentive laden contract. If he ends up getting more touches than Shonn Greene, or if he goes over a thousand again, then he gets a certain amount of dollars. You know. Something. Anything. Maybe it was offered and rejected. Maybe it was never offered in the first place. It's a shame it didn't work out.

It's for you.

So I guess I don't need to know who the fuck I'm talking to before I pick up the phone, right?  My boss just never bothers to ask anymore.  Somebody will call for me and he'll just buzz me, "It's for you."  Gee thanks, boss.

Meanwhile, we're screening all these calls for him because he owes so many people so much money.

I just wanted to get that out of my system.  Sorry for cursing.

Something important.

So I get an instant message this morning from my dad's sister.  "This is your aunt.  I need to talk about something important."  I freakin' clicked the ignore button.

You don't know me.  I don't know what you think is important, and I don't care.  Keep your problems to yourself please.

And if you have something good to offer me - like furniture or something - well, thanks but no thanks.  I don't hear from you, my closest relative geographically (apart from my mother), for so many years growing up.  And now you want to act like an aunt towards me?

Please.

I don't even care whose life is at stake, to be honest with you.  I have enough problems of my own.  And I don't wanna owe you a goddamn thing either.

Can't think of a title.

One of the reasons why I don't post here so much is because I always want to have a clever and appropriate title.  And I end up thinking so much about it that I actually forget the main points of what I wanted to write about.  Anyway, in an effort to post more often, I won't worry so much about it anymore and try to just jot down my thoughts as they come.

I'm gonna try to be more like Doogie Howser and write something down at the end of the show.  Oh man, now that show's theme song is stuck in my head.  I wish I had a band so we could write a punk cover of it.

I just wanted to write that things have been great lately.  Fatherhood is amazing.  To paraphrase what one of my clients said, I highly suggest finding a woman and trying it.

I've actually been pretty much genuinely happy.  The only thing that gets in the way is my fear of losing this joy.  The uncertainly at work is the biggest weight.  What would I do if I didn't have a job?

However, lately I've learned to just ignore the worries and take life as it comes.  I've just been having fun with my family, my co-workers and even my clients.

My son can stand by himself now.  It's only for about a second, but once in a while you'll catch him just standing in place.  The other night he did it and stared at me with this intense Bruce Lee expression.

He's been crawling pretty fast now.  Sometimes I'll turn around and suddenly he's not there anymore.  He's in the other room making trouble with his aunt.

He's had two lower teeth for a few months now, and he's currently growing two upper teeth.  It's really cute.  I love the little guy.

It's amazing how much he's changed from the little thing we brought home ten months ago.  And it's amazing how our lives have changed since then.

FlyHyNY: Special team TDs under Mike Westhoff.

Mike Westhoff joined the New York Jets in 2001 as the Special Teams Coordinator.  Since then, 6 players have returned kickoffs for 12 touchdowns.  They are Chad Morton, Jonathan Carter, Jerricho Cotchery, Justin Miller, Leon Washington and Brad Smith.  Santana Mosshas returned punts for TDs, while four other Jets have blocked punts for TDs.


Check out the breakdown of Special Teams TDs after the jump.

FlyHyNY: You Foxed it all up.

I just feel like ranting about this.  My field is in media, and I work with aspiring reporters and broadcasters all the time.  I also pay a lot of attention to how games are televised and directed.

First of all, Fox still hasn't adapted the timeout bars.  If you don't know what that is, they're three little bars added to the scoring graphics to let you know how many timeouts are left for each team.  All the other networks have it.  But Fox does have a big dancing robot.  Yay.

Apart from the fact that the Jets lost, the entire broadcast was terrible.  The announcers kept getting cut off as they would go to commercial.  The plays they were talking about weren't getting shown.  The earliest example I can think of was a play in which the color commentator was praising Woodhead's block.  He kept talking about the block, and they kept showing the receiver's catch.

Other examples were the dumb penalties.  Thomas Jones got flagged, and we only saw like two seconds of it.  Alan Faneca's late flag seemed ticky tacky to me, but there was no discussion about it.  We only saw it once, and that was it.

Even the preseason game coverage with Greg Buttle and Ian Eagle is better than this.