Friday, September 19, 2014

Catching Up, Staying In Touch, Going Forward


Walking into the Sullivan Arena today was a somewhat surreal experience for me.  I didn't think two years was a long time but it felt like a long time since I'd been there.  It was nice to have another concrete experience since arriving Monday night to help give me a sense of home.  The first was the crisp clean fall air I noticed when I arrived.  The second was not having to look down at Google Maps on my iPhone to figure out where the heck I am every 15 minutes.  Man, I was straight up LOST so many times over the last two years.  Taking a wrong turn and going a mile out of your way is a big deal when you're travelling by bike.

It was great to see some familiar faces and talk with a few folks.  I had hoped to run into some others but learned a lesson about casually hoping to bump into people versus arranging to do so.  All part of shaking off my own "rink rust" of sorts.

Moving forward my plan is to make this blog better than it ever was.  In the past some of the content here sometimes might have been a wee bit divisive or off-putting to a segment of the readership.  That will no longer be the case.  My plan is to migrate to a named domain in time and become the UAA Seawolves Fan Website.  I need to find my feet before making all that happen.  In short, I'll be striving toward professionalism and to make the content something ANY Seawolf fan can enjoy.

Looks like the UAA Athletic Department is doing a great job.  I met Travis Fuller, the new "Fan Experience & Community Engagement Manager". Having someone in the department with that title shows a commitment to winning back the local fanbase. Travis seemed professional and an all around good guy.  I hope that he gets all the support he needs to be successful. Obviously, the fruits of his labor will be visible to all.  Good luck Travis and I hope I can be some measure of assistance in the future here.

I've got a lot to do folks.  For now if you can spread the word and point people here as the season approaches I'll sure appreciate it.  Posting frequency will definitely increase soon.  So far it's just been the Season Preview (I wasn't happy with it) and the Rookie Pictures post; the next couple of posts will be an analysis of the returning players (i.e... What I Love About Our Vets") and after that I'll give my thoughts on the league as a whole.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Great to have you back DD! Really missed coming to the Fan Blog the last couple of years, you were missed!

Donald Dunlop said...

Thank you very much. It's been a great experience so far since coming back home. Words like yours make it even better.

Anonymous said...

Something was missing when you left D, I'm glad to bee able to come back here. Going to bee more professional eh? Don't sell out doooodee......jk it will interesting to see a more "tamed" DD.

Donald Dunlop said...

I hope it wasn't just F-bombing that brought people here. As to selling out ... I will be "commercializing" and "monetizing" when I convert to website based content. If my content is "professional" then it only makes sense for me to make a few bucks from it.

In the past I always had people encourage me to make money doing what I did. I didn't try for lots of reasons but in the end ... capitalism is an inexorable force.

Anonymous said...

It wasn't only F-bombing that brought people here haha, I'd say it's a solid third placer. Second place during the really tough years. Let's see if your ads gets past my ad-blocker! I will use chrome's incognito mode just for you though (;

Anonymous said...

Btw, what is happening in the picture, they installing stuff for the scoreboard? I would say replacing seats but I know not to get that hopeful.

Donald Dunlop said...

I took the pic when I first got there because I thought hey were putting the boards up. But I guess they had just taken them down because a half hour after I took the pic they were covering the ice for whatever event is upcoming.

Ad blocker rules ... I'm primarily riding a Chromebook these days (I'm not impressed with it unless it's just for surfing ... which it's fine for) and just found a new ad blocker app for it. So much nicer not seeing ads.

Moni said...

Great read thank you

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