Football and capping

Before you look at the photo and turn away having no interest in my ramblings on college football, know that I'm going to talk a bit about capping as well... but that's the end of the post!

As you are probably aware, I'm not a huge sports fan.  I don't follow baseball (are the Tigers any good this year?), Pro Football (did the Lions lose all their games last year?), Basketball (did the Pistons win it all last year?), Hockey (how did Detroit end up as Hockeytown?), or any other sport.

That is, besides College Football.  I just can't get enough of College Football.  I don't care if the game is pitting Michigan Vs Alabama, or Western Kentucky Vs Morgan State, I'll be at least aware of the game and probably watching highlights from the game.  I spend most Thursday's picking my College Football Pickem picks, most of Friday adjusting said picks, all of Saturday watching the games (real games are ALWAYS played on Saturday!), then Sunday through Wednesday is spent reading highlights and prepping for the next weeks worth of games.



While I am a fan of all college football, I do have a pecking order of fandom.  I am what those around me call a 'Walmart Wolverine'.  I am a (huge) fan of the University of Michigan Wolverines and yet have no connection to the school.  I am a fan of the Big Ten and hope every team in the league wins all of their games unless they are playing Michigan.  I love the Pac 12 teams and hope they always lose the Rose Bowl to a Big Ten team (as well as their OOC games against the B1G), and after that I love all conferences and teams equally.  Yes, I even like the SEC.

So to me, this time of year is the best time of year.  Starting today (damn Thursday night games!) and going all the way to January 6th 2014 I'll be watching and thinking of College Football.  Last year it was fairly easy to put my full attention to football as I had little else to do, but this year I'm going to be torn... you see the new job requires that I work every other weekend.  If I was working first shift (5:30am to 2:00pm) that wouldn't be so bad as I'd be able to watch some of the later afternoon games and catch the begining of the evening games.  Sadly working second shift (1:30pm to 10:00pm) means that I'll miss almost every game on those days.  We do have a radio at work, but it only picks up one station (that plays the oddest mix of talk radio, pop, rock and country!) and that station doesn't broadcast games.  We do have internet, but the vast majority of the net is blocked including almost ALL sports.

So... I started looking at my schedule to see what weekends I'd have off and find out which games I'd catch and which games I'd miss.  Here is how Michigan's schedule lines up:

Aug 31 - Vs Central Michigan
Sept 7 - Vs Notre Dame (under the lights at the Big House!)
Sept 14 - Vs Akron
Sept 21 - At Connecticut
Sept 28 - Bye Week
Oct 5 - Vs Minnesota
Oct 12 - At Penn State
Oct 19 - Vs Indiana
Oct 26 - Bye Week
Nov 2 - At Michigan State (Grr)
Nov 9 - Vs Nebraska
Nov 16 - At Northwestern
Nov 23 - At Iowa
Nov 30 - Vs Ohio (state)
Dec 7 - Big Ten Championship game

When I saw my schedule for the next few weeks (and projecting it out using alternate weekends as off) I'd be able to catch, Nortre Dame (WOO HOO!), Connecticut, Minnesota, Indiana, Michigan State (WOO HOO!), Northwestern, and Ohio State.  The games I'd miss would include Penn State, Nebraska, and the Big Ten Championship game which may very well pit Ohio (state) and Michigan in back to back weeks.

I was fairly happy with this arrangement.  Sure, I'd love to catch all the games and missing Penn State and Nebraska really hurt, but I'd get Notre Dame, Michigan State, Northwestern and Ohio State.  Not a bad compromise.

Then yesterday I got the call.  The guy who sets all the nurses schedules asked if I'd be willing to flip my weekends working.  My first internal reaction went something like this:

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!

Thankfully I gave it some thought before I answered.  You see, I'm not yet an employee of the prison.  I'm still working under contract and hope to one day (soon) get hired in fully.  I don't think it would look good if I turned down a scheduling request, and would hate for that to be the first thing on their mind when I inevitably interview for the position I now have (with benefits, insurance, retirement, and paid time off).  Beyond the greed of getting the job through, I'm also a firm believer in helping out my employer.  I always have a desire to be the 'Go To' guy and help out whenever I can.  So if this helps them work out of a problem, then I'm willing to step up and be that guy.

Sadly that means I've now flipped the coin and will only get a couple of Michigan's marquee games (Penn State and Nebraska) and miss out on all the Rivalry games (Notre Damn (not a misspelling!), little brother Michigan State and Ohio (they don't deserve 'state' behind their name when playing Michigan)).  I also will also now have both Bye Weeks off... so I'll have a slate of College Football to watch but miss out on two more Michigan games.

My best hope with this schedule is that Michigan gets to the Big Ten Championship game and I can watch them beat Ohio AGAIN and punch their ticket either to the National Championship game or at the very least the Rose Bowl.

So... over the next few months I may write occasionaly about college football.  I promised I'd write whats on my mind and I guarantee that College Football in general and Michigan Football in particular will be on my mind.  I promise though that I won't become a running commentary of their season.



So I teased a bit about capping at the top of this post.  I did so because something wonderful happened this week... I got the urge.

As Dee put it, my 'routine' is finally becoming 'routine' especially now that I'm on second shift.  A normal work day for me goes like this:

Wake up (I don't have to set an alarm yet as I get up anywhere between 6 and 9am)
Get coffee
Play on Computer (this includes visiting TG cap blogs)
Take a shower
Eat lunch
Go to work.

While I was on first shift I had plenty of time to play on the comptuer, but as it came AFTER work it felt strange and I generally didn't bother.  I got home from work, watched TV, ate dinner, watched more TV, then went to bed.   So more or less I've traded out my TV time for computer time.

Well earlier this week while browsing the cap blogs, I got the urge to make a cap.  I'm not sure that any particular cap inspired me to do so.  It was more of the natural urge to create that came back from hibernation.   I really REALLY wish it had worked out.

I did go looking for images... but while I enjoyed all the sexy women I was looking at, not a single one inspired a cap.  I just wasn't seeing them as transformed men or sissies... I was seeing them as women.  So while I have the urge to cap I don't have the urge to tell a TG story.  I actually tried to imagine making a non TG cap, but I ran into a wall that I never realized was there.  A cap just doesn't really have enough room.

I know, I know... caps can be long, and even short caps can tell a good story, but they are all working from a central premise.  That in one way or another a male protagonist is getting transformed into anything from a sissy to a full fledged genetic woman.   When you look at a cap you have that thought in mind and therefore fill in major parts of the story.  Just look at Dee's caps.... many don't even refer to the transformation itself and they still read just fine.

So if I am going to make a non TG cap I lose that part of the setup.  At times I have found it hard to make a cap for someone that had open preferences... well that was nothing in comparison to having NO boundaries whatsoever.  I had no story to tell and didn't even have a direction or subject matter to guide me at all.

So sadly the urge to make a cap only lasted a little while.  I'm not sure if I'll be able to utilize this creative urge in a capping way.  Instead the creative urge may push me to another medium... hey I may even get back into pure photography!

I just wanted to share that bit as I can look at it as the possibility of Caitlyn's return.  I mean if the urge to cap can come back... maybe the urge to be Caitlyn can come back too.