My week in review: Jan. 22-28 with a twist!

And we are back for another week. So, I’ve decided it’s time I include a section of articles I write. It is partly for you all who read this every (by the way, thank you). It’s also a way for me to mentally keep track. To be honest, sometimes I find myself questioning if I’m even doing enough work-related stuff, and I believe I am, so I need a little validation to show that I am writing/working enough. As my grandma Gloria would say to quickly change the subject: anyways. Here’s what I did this past week:

Jan. 22: Working with the Wolves

If you follow the Wolves at all, this season has been rough on all fronts. But, the TV production lives on whether the team is 42-0 or 0-42. While the team lives closer to the 0-42 mark, we continue to produce their games for FSN. I was in there on this day as I was the AD for the team as it hit the road to take on the Chicago Bulls. This is a fairly easy task but a task indeed. Basically, my job for this game is to find social media clips to send off to our digital team which takes care of it. The most important one I believe is Andrew Wiggins hit his 500th career 3-pointer. I also had to run stat sheets to the talent back at our studio during halftime and postgame. It was an easy night but always fun to be a part of the Wolves’ crew. They are a fun group I like being part of.

Jan. 23: More time with Minny

This Thursday was mostly me at home working on stories and catching up with Minny. I knocked out a story for the Colorado Hockey Hub, which is run by the same people who run the Star Tribune High School Hubs here. It’s a little more challenging because I’m working off less of a knowledge base. But it is still something fun and it’s work so I can’t complain too much. I also can’t complain about more time with Minny. She loves to sleep in with me but we are still braving the cold and getting out for walks. It’s something she is constantly wanting. For being only 13 pounds, she’s quite the runner/active dog.

Jan. 24: My first rodeo

This Friday evening was a chance for me to put my iHeart hat back on and work for K102 at the World’s Toughest Rodeo at the Xcel Energy Center. I haven’t been to a rodeo in my adult lifetime and don’t believe so when I was too young to remember. I will let you know it does smell like No. 2. And the people are definitely not the typical Xcel customer, but it was still a fun time. Basically, we set up inside some of the gates at the arena and got people to take pictures and enter to win prizes. Here was where I was.

Jan. 25: This ain’t my first rodeo

It was another trip to the rodeo for yours truly. It was basically the same shift as yesterday despite the fact we had a car break down shortly after leaving the arena. It wasn’t ideal but we made it work. What a day.

Jan. 26: From the dirt to the basement

I said it on Sunday and I’ll say it again: Only at iHeart media can you go from a rodeo to a video game tournament. And that’s exactly what I did. Working for KFAN, I was at a Call of Duty professional video game tournament. I’m not a huge video game person, especially COD. I have nothing against it, it’s just not really my thing. But I was interested in seeing what it was like. It wasn’t the most exciting thing ever, but I’m glad I got the experience. Here’s near where we were in the basement of the Armory. This sign is for Minnesota’s new team, which is owned by the Vikings.

During this shift, I found out the news about the helicopter crash involving Kobe Bryant and his daughter. It was crazy seeing everyone finding out in real time all in one space like that. I heard people saying the news out loud. It was a strange moment. I just left sad. It’s such a tragic situation and certainly not a simple one to digest.

Later that night, my entire family sat down for a nice steak dinner. Then, it was time to watch the Grammys. This is definitely my favorite awards show because of all the performances and seeing who wins the awards. I was happy to see Lizzo win after her incredible year. Overall, it was a good show and Billie Eilish killed it the most, probably. I will say I wasn’t really into the Billie Eilish thing much before I saw the Grammys preview special with Gayle King last week. They talked to Billie and it was a fascinating interview. I always like how Gayle does her interviews and this one particularly struck a chord.

Jan. 27: Let’s Bach!

This Monday was focused on getting my MN Basketball Hub Top Performers articles done. Basically I scan through the scores from the previous week and find the top players from that particular week. Then, I pick five and the people vote. It’s a different exercise. You can find those articles later in this post.

That night, it was off to watch the Bachelor with some friends. If you don’t know, I’ve kind of glommed on to this show in the past few years and am all in on it. This year’s version has been a lot to process. This is especially true this season. There’s a whole lot of drama. My goodness. If you want me to blog about the show on this site, let me know! I’m not sure if anyone gives a damn about my thoughts or not.

Jan. 28: Fearing the Deer

On this day, I was back to my FSN duties. I was helping make sure we got the footage of the Bucks’ home game against the Washington Wizards. This is a fairly easy shift and I couldn’t do as much because our video editing software was being upgraded and I could not use it. However, the Bucks are a great change of pace after watching the Wolves and Wild. They play super hard and Giannis is a fantastic player.

Articles I wrote this week

Alright, so I’ve decided to just list the articles I’ve written this past week in this section just to make it easier to organize. So, here we go.

Colorado Hockey Hub: High School Boys’ Hockey Rankings

MN Boys’ Basketball Hub: Top Performers

MN Girls’ Basketball Hub: Top Performers

Thanks for reading! More to come next week!