Hello to everyone reading this update post! As you might be able to see, my posting was not as frequent as I thought it would be in my Open for Business post. There are a number of reasons for this, perhaps the main reason being my own bandwidth these past several months.

From March to August my work schedule did not allow for any extracurricular work. Turns out that piloting a virtual data science boot camp while also writing and preparing to defend a PhD thesis is a lot to handle, not to mention mentally draining. By the time I successfully defended my thesis at the end of August (yay!), I was mentally drained and couldn't even think about working for two weeks.

Concurrently, the entire world has been struggling with dual pandemics of both COVID-19 and the surrounding misinformation. As someone with a research interest in both of these things (see my personal website for more information) I have tried to grapple with how we are handling this as a people and typically find myself frustrated, disappointed, and tired.

Complicating any thought of a new blog post is how I feel about sports operating, even in a limited capacity, during a global pandemic. I am upset as I watch our public health authorities encourage everyone to stay at home and social distance, while simultaneously seeing tens of thousands of people gather in NFL stadiums and reading an endless stream of advertisements telling people to spend hours in bars without masks to watch people throw a ball.

At the same time I understand the hope and happiness that sports can bring. One bright spot for me in the tire fire that is 2020 has been watching the Cleveland Browns go 8-3 and guarantee that, for the first time since 2007, they won't have a losing record. The Mondays in which I get to sip coffee from my Victory Monday mug are a little bit better than a typical Monday.

I am still incredibly busy with work, but I am hoping to start posting again soon. While I still plan on making sports related posts from time to time (in fact the next post I'm thinking about is about basketball salaries), I would like to expand the scope of this blog beyond sports. In the meantime stay safe and healthy, wear a mask, and stay home whenver possible.

Thanks for Reading!