Are you ready for the Super Bowl? Yes, I said, “Super Bowl” and not the “big game.” I’m sure you’ve noticed, but if used in a commercial context, or associating the game to an event or promotion, the phrase “super bowl” isn’t allowed near it.

I understand that the NFL considers the Super Bowl to be intellectual property, but what’s interesting is just how far they’ll go — or try to go — to protect it. The NFL has “restrictions that limit TV screens to 55 inches at public viewings, except at venues like bars and restaurants that regularly broadcast sporting events.” You’re also not allowed to show the game at events that promote a message, including religious venues.

What astounded me was when I learned that in 2006, the NFL attempted to register the phrase “big game” with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. They eventually withdrew their application, as opposition rose from the University of California, Berkeley and Stanford. Their annual college football matchup has been taking place since 1892 and has been referred to as the “Big Game” since 1900. I just hope the NFL doesn’t try to trademark eating nachos on the couch; then I’d really be upset.

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I was recently inducted into the North American Strat-O-Matic Baseball League (NASBL) hall of fame! I participated in NASBL for ten years, managing it as league commissioner for eight years. Here’s a snippet of my “keynote” speech:

“Success continued to follow CCC, as we made a wild card appearance in 2001, an eight-games-over-five-hundred last place finish in 2002, and our second division title in 2003. The 2003 NASBL World Series featured the powerhouse New Jersey Trash Heap and their league-best 111 wins. Alex Rodriguez’s 53 home runs and 150 RBI and Randy Johnson’s 27 wins created a lopsided matchup on paper. New Jersey quickly ran out in front three games to none and the Cannons were demoralized. At that point, the team took a ‘one game at a time’ approach, and were loose after realizing how fortunate enough they were to just be in the series. The relaxed mentality proved to be the difference as the Cannons came back to win the series 4-3, bringing the NASBL title to Canyon Country for the first time.”

My Strat-O-Matic Baseball playing days were lots of fun, and I’m honored these guys remembered me. Read my Strat-O-Matic play history write-up over at nasbl.com.

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I’m learning a hard lesson about kids getting sick in their first year of school. I had no idea it would be this bad! My son started preschool in September, and he’s had a number of colds. At one point, he was hospitalized with severe dehydration because he had a difficult time eating and drinking. When he did eat or drink, the virus didn’t let him keep the food and liquids down. He’s consistently caught a bad cough and runny nose; a typical cold. He hasn’t had a bad fever or the flu (thanks to his mom getting him to the doctor for a flu shot last year)… yet. As a result, he’s missed a little over a month’s worth of school days based on his two-day-a-week schedule.

Now, I’m catching the viruses, bacterias, and who knows what else. Doctors and other parents tell me that he needs to stay in school and tough it out so he can build up his immune system. I understand all of that and am not interested in pulling him out of school. I’m tempted to sneak in and put hand sanitizer in every corner of every classroom. What can we do? So frustrating!

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Fans of Word Balloon — the “comic book conversation show” — were asked to write a review of the show on iTunes. I’ve been a fan for quite awhile now and thought that it was time for me to contribute my thoughts:

“Word balloon is one of my favorite podcasts! As a life-long wannabe artist, I enjoy the insight John’s guests share with the audience. Mr. Siuntres has an outstanding rapport with his guests, and the shows are educational and extremely entertaining. The episodes range from discussing modern topics, speculation on upcoming projects, and reflections of successes and failures. The show covers both mainstream and independent creators, giving comic book fans from all walks of life a chance to listen in on what it’s like to work in the comic book industry.”

I find that user reviews are one of the most powerful tools the Internet has to offer. When sincere, they are extremely helpful. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve relied on product reviews on amazon.com before making a purchase, even if I was in a physical store. Recently, I’ve used user product reviews and ratings to help me pick out new music, a mechanical pencil, and a humidifier.

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People are asking me how I’m doing and I’m tempted to tell them that I’m sick. That sounds too harsh, so I’ll just say that I’m a little “under the weather.” What does that even mean? I it means that you’re not well, but where did that phrase come from? I try not to use too many sayings when I don’t understand the origin. To me, it’s similar to coming across a word that you haven’t seen before in literature. You’re unaware of the defintion, but you just keep on reading. I’ll be cheating myself if I tell people I’m “under the weather” when maybe I’m not really under anything at all.

The most common origin has to do with ill sailors who are moved below the deck of their ships. Then they would not be bothered by the weather. The full version of the phrase is actually “under the weather bow.” This refers to the part of the ship that will take the brunt of the rough seas during a storm and should be avoided if you are prone to getting seasick. Although not on a ship, I do feel like going below the deck. So, when in Rome.

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The Internet swished around my creative juices and lead me to my next purchase a Moleskine sketchbook. Here’s how it happened:

At times during my day at work, I navigate to certain Web sites to get the news. I frequently visit the obvious sites like cnn.com and espn.com. I also hit up a few hobby sites such as wowinsider.com. On WoW Insider, a World of Warcraft news and discussion site, there was a post about Jimmy Fallon interviewing Felicia Day. I read the post, watched the video, and learned that Fallon has been video blogging to drum up interest for his new Late Night with Jimmy Fallon show. I then went to latenightwithjimmyfallon.com to see what other videos were available, and noticed he had interviewed the guys from Digg Nation. I figured I would see what was new on digg.com and checked out up-and-coming technology articles. “How Star Trek Culturally Prototyped the 21st Century” from fanboy.com was fourteenth on the list. After that, I hit the fanboy.com home page that led off with a commentary titled, “Netbooks are Already Here: In Fact You Already Own One.” A reference to a Moleskine sketchbook piqued my interest, which led me to amazon.com.

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I’m starting a new creative writing experiment called two-hundred words. Those that know me understand that I’m not a man of many words, so I figured I’d create the goal of 200. I hope to meet that requirement on a daily basis. I often have to write dialog-like emails and I don’t realize just how much I’ve written during the course of a day until I go back and review my sent items. As a programmer in the Information Technology field, I’m surprised at just how much I actually have to write, not counting all of the C# and SQL code I have to churn out. It’s not just emails though, it’s status updates on work item tickets, instant messages with my co-workers, and various other notations for Sharepoint and other collaborative applications.

It’s interesting how in today’s society, people take proper grammar and spelling for granted. When I was in school, I remember teachers not allowing students to use calculators to do their math homework. Today, I wonder how much emphasis is put on proofreading the written word versus relying on automatic grammar and spell-checking. In business, it’s an embarrassment to read a professional document with obvious grammar mistakes.

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