QUICK, somebody call a locksmith!

As most of you are aware, the NBA is currently in a lockout. Well, those of you that follow professional basketball.  Ive noticed it hasnt gotten as much attention as the NFL lockout during the summer. I feel because football is more of “America’s sport” where the NBA is more of the red headed step child. I think the MLB would have more coverage too being America’s great past time.There is no comparison in my facebook stream to the summer months when people would comment on the NFL lockout and frustrated with it. What got me is a friend of mine wrote a status about the NBA players being “greedy when there are millions of educators, social workers, etc who get paid nothing to do very valuable work.” Now I agree with her comment. We glorify and idolize all athletes and famous people are grossly overpay for their services of entertainment. My concern was where was she and others when the NFL lockout was going on? Most people werent taking sides in that matter, they just wanted them to agree on a deal and play football. Seems like she has taken the side of the owners on this one.The owners pay the players. There are 30 owners in the NBA sharing revenue. There are 400+ NBA players sharing revenue AFTER the owners get their cut. Dont you see a discrepancy here? This was the main concern of the NFLPA as well. The NFL is a billion dollar company with the players bringing in the money with their talents and skill. They fought for equal share of the revenue. They also fought for retirement and healthcare benefits as well.

The latest round of the NBA lockout has the players rejecting the latest proposal and deciding to disband the union. The owners’ latest offer called for a 50-50 split of revenues between the owners and players. The NBA’s latest proposal was supposedly not put to a vote. The NBA commissioner David Stern is concerned because most of the 30 teams didnt make a profit in the last year. Not a lot of companies made a profit last year. The whole economy is going through a tough time now. Doesnt mean they wont be profitable in the future. I think Stern is holding out here.

Where does all this leave me? In the middle. I understand both sides. The owners want protection for when profits do not exceed expectations. The players want equal share of the revenue they bring in year after year. The people that are most hurt by this I think are local business’ who partner with teams and employees of the arenas and teams that will be out of the job during the lockout. You cant blame the players fully on this. As fans, we are the ones that pay ridiculous prices to sporting events, buy crazy amounts of merchandise and anything any of these players endorse. We pad their pockets and they know it  and know they can squeeze more out of us. They have the power and resources to get it done. As we sit and wait they are planning to file an antitrust suit against the NBA. They have hired former NFL lockout and Microsoft lawyer David Boies to represent them. As for now, we play the waiting game.

Respect,

Randall Jefferson

When did you first here about Facebook?

The first time I heard of Facebook was right before winter break sophomore of college. I remember some friends talking about how they just got back from partying at Duke, or UNC or NC State and how they all had this site that let you connect with all your friends and share pictures and information about yourself. the buzz around the UNCG campus is “when are we going to get facebook?” At that time it was slowly rolling out to different colleges throughout America. the build up for it was something fierce. In those days AIM Instant Messenger was the place communicate online. Crazy names like NCgurl86 or BeachBum21 were the only names I could remember to talk with people and it was only limited to who I knew around campus and from High School.

A week before winter break it came to UNCG. You had to have a campus email account to sign up and when I got on, EVERYONE was on. I worked in the college computer lab during at the time and if I had a penny for every time I saw a profile up Id have enough to buy a few shares once it goes public. In those days I pretty much friended anyone with a pulse. Id go to see what other colleges were on and start adding people at random, haha. Nowadays my profile is cleaned up to only people I actually know but the anticipation was remarkable for a product like this.

Now, Facebook has over 800 million active users exchanges messages, photos, videos and business. It has become a weapon of mass destruction for businesses and has taken over the world in how we communicate. I dont know if Mark Zuckerburg ever pictured this when he created it. I was happy when it was just for college kids only, but Mark had a bigger plan. Kudos to him for his colossal vision and seeing a world changing product in what he created.

Where were you when Facebook started?

-Randall Jefferson

Image: Master isolated images / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Im Running a Marathon October 25 2009

Did I really just type that? Me? Randall Jefferson? Running 26. 2 miles? Let’s get a little background information about this:

So I have been overweight my whole life. It got way out of control once I got to college and I couldnt turn down basically a buffet style meal every time I ate at the Caf. Most people hated it but I thought it was good. Then my brother got murdered at the end of my sophomore year. Looking back at the pictures from the funereal I wonder how I got so big. Its funny when you look at pictures and your like “I looked like that? Why didnt anyone lure me to a basement with unlimited amounts of S’mores Poptarts and milk, tie me up, cut me up and sell me to a starved nation?” Im sure I could of fed at least a 1000 people. So when he died, I was on my last leg. I knew he wouldnt want to see me like this so I began to change. Couple of my roommates were healthy guys and they got me started on eating right, I bought a bicycle and thought I was on my way. That lasted a few short months. Then I went to visit my brother’s grave summer of 2007. I had a long talk with him and figured if I am going to die, have someone else kill me. It was retarded for me to kill myself like this. When I got back home I really toughened up and stuck to it.

A year and a half later I’m down from 384-230. It was a long journey but I did it. What I hated the most though is came off fast but I hit a plateau hard. Ive been stagnate for over a year now. Seems I couldn’t get past 230. I even got up to 250 for awhile. I tried EVERYTHING in changing my diet and exercise. I tried the diet that got me to 230 to being with and nothing worked.

Around my birthday a friend of mine has just finished running a marathon. His G/F threw a surprise Congrats/BDay party for him and me. I started talking to him about the training he did and he was telling me about how he couldnt eat enough food to maintain weight while training for it. I was sold then, I will train and run a marathon. A former boss of minc then told me about Team N Training. They are a non-profit organization that supports the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. They help you train for marathons and you raise money for them. I thought “hey, I could lose weight and help support research and support for blood cancers, sign me up”.

Team In Training (TNT) exists to find a cure for leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin’s disease and myeloma.  It also looks to improve the quality of life of patients and their families.  Every year blood cancers strike over 100,000 Americans, and claim more than 60,500 lives in the United States alone.  Leukemia is one of the leading causes of death in children between the ages of 1-15.  The good news is that the survival rate has risen from 4% in 1960 to 81% in the last decade.  This is in part due to the money that The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society has raised to aid researchers in their fight to find cures for this disease.

TNT is The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s largest fund-raising program, bringing in over $82 million dollars this past year alone. Each participant in the program pledges to raise a certain amount of money during the 4-5 months they train for their event.  I have set a personal goal to raise at least $2,500!  Of that amount, over 75% of every dollar spent will be used by the Society for research, patient services and education.

 

The money that I will raise for research is fulfilling, but the most important and inspirational part of my training is knowing that my hard work could make a difference in the lives of my Honored Teammates.  I am running in honor of Shannon Royce who has won the fight against lymphoma. Shannon was diagnosed with lymphoma in March of 2006. After 6 weeks of CT scans, PET scans, blood work, and chemotherapy from stage 1 lymphoma, the doctors found and removed the cancer from a tiny lump in her neck.

This precious individual is the reason I am committing myself to this goal.   With this inspiration how can I not fight my way to the finish line?  It is a chance to embody a glimmer of hope for those who are battling blood cancers and to remember those who have lost their battle.

All this training and work I’ve been doing with TNT has shed a new light for me. Its bigger then me, there is something else bigger then me. These people depend on me. Im not running for myself anymore, Im running for a cure. Im running to save and expand lives. Since training has begun I’ve only lost about 20 pounds. Im at 221 now and I was at 240 when it all started 5 months ago. I had an original goal of 215 from when I first started losing weight 2 years ago. I know I wont reach it in 18 days but it doesnt matter. Im not running for me anymore. Im running for others that cant run. This has been one the most fulfilling journey’s in my life. I have met very inspirational and influential people along the way and I couldn’t be more grateful of the experience I’ve encountered over the past months.

My donation page is up and running and the support I have got from friends and family has been truly phenomenal. Feel free to donate as no contribution is too small.