This morning, I Googled what turns out to be a misunderstanding of presidential proportions: as it turns out, the familiar American metaphor insisting the Chinese word for “crisis” also means “opportunity” is, sadly, incorrect.
Instead, the Chinese character for “crisis” more readily translates to “danger = point of change” (thank you Wikipedia), and that the point at which we find The Malik Report today.
Put bluntly:
- I’m incredibly grateful for your support over the last week-and-a-half. As TMR emerged from a year-long hibernation, you, the TMR readers, came through in a gigantic way, affording me the opportunity to pay off my server and web interface’s costs for the upcoming year. We blew the fundraising goal out of the water, and that’s awesome. I thank you from, as my mother would say, “The heart of my bottom,” because you really saved my ass.
- As those of you who contributed, both monetarily (via Paypal, Giftly and Patreon) and via “getting the word out” are essentially my bosses and the owners of this blog, I promise to work for you as hard as I possibly can. I don’t take your investment in this blog or this blogger lightly, and that’s where we come to the next points:
- In terms of the audience of TMR, I’ve got some good news, and I’ve got some bad news. The good news is that we are at a fundamental “change point” in terms of blog audience and blog commenters. The bad news is pretty simple: as this blog has gone in and out of hibernation over the past two years, my old audience has (understandably) moved on to other blogs and podcasters. Those of you who have remained are truly die-hards, and those of you who are new to the blog are more welcome than ever before.
- In other words: the A2Y crowd that followed me over from KK, acerbic comments included, simply aren’t here any more. They (again, understandably) headed back to Paul’s excellent blog, and that means that we are essentially rebuilding the comments section from scratch. So you are more welcome than ever to comment as you wish, sans as much group think as there was previously. I encourage commenting on anything that you find interesting: this time around, I’m going to pay more attention to the comments section, because it will help drive the shape of this blog to come.
- Along those lines, I will always be seeking your input as to what you’re looking for in terms of content from me, both linked-to and in terms of commentary and focus.
- I must regrettably note, however, that attempting to be the NPR of blogs = for better or worse, fundraising is going to be an integral part of this blog. I don’t want to be the Bernie Sanders meme, but, “I am once again asking for your financial support” is how I’m going to live without subjecting you to commercial advertisements. The constant asking for donations gets tiresome for me, never mind for you, but it’s just the way things are going to go.
That’s more than enough blab from me. I felt that you deserved a status update as to where we are, and where we are going. I really want to establish a community here, and that’s going to yield regular status reports and requests for suggestions and comments.
In the end, the point of this entry is a long-worded summary of the following sentiment:
just wanted to say imo the more you post about red wing prospects the better . and obviously right now in addition to current prospects the more you post about our potential #4 pick the better
Great to have you back George!
So glad I checked in on your site George. So very happy to see you back. It’s been a while and seems like you’ve really hit the ground running with a ton of content. I agree with the above comment. The more prospect content the better, especially with the way this team has been. Some content on possible draft picks picks would be great too and last but not least would love to see some more opinion pieces from ya as well. I always loved and appreciated when you cover the prospect tournaments and gave your opinion on each prospect. You’re personal assessment is something I always looked forward too. Again so awesome to see you back!!!! I look forward to following your blogs again
Welcome back George, I’ve followed you since your MLive days, don’t discount yourself, a lot of people were quietly awaiting your return.
This is why rss feeds are the best. Anyway, glad to have you back!
You weren’t forgotten as much as you may have thought, George. And your foci and Paul’s have always been good complements.
Good for you for keeping your chin up and putting one foot in front of the other. It’s all we can do. I can say from fairly recent experience that there’s nothing like losing your mom. But all of the good memories will never go away. Nor will the deep gratitude I’m sure she knew you felt. Being close and doing your all to help, through the toughest times, and showing that gratitude, is the greatest gift you can give. It also means no regrets.
Welcome back.
Holy cow George I read this post and then came back today to see if you posted anything. I have a ton of reading to do thanks to you! Glad you’re in the mood to share articles with your opinion. It means allot.