We have gotten a bunch of new subscribers to the blog recently (now over 500 total!), so I thought I should throw up a quick blog post to welcome everyone and say hi. It also seems like a good time to let everyone know that we are bringing CMEpalooza to a close, and we will be transitioning this site into a full-time Philadelphia 76ers fan blog. We had a good run with the palooza, but now it’s time for us to focus on our true passion, starting with a detailed overview of who the Sixers should be targeting in free agency. Below, I have highlighted some of the top available backup centers that the Sixe.. um, hang on a moment…

…

OK, I am being told by Scott that we are not bringing CMEpalooza to a close and transitioning the website to a Sixers fan blog. Something about already having sponsors lined up and that people like CMEpalooza and don’t like my constant basketball references, etc, etc. I dunno, I usually tune out after about 30 seconds of Scott’s ranting, so I wasn’t really paying attention, but apparently we are still doing CMEpalooza Fall and even have a planning meeting scheduled for later this week. If, like me, you are disappointed not to read more about the Sixers potential free agency moves, feel free to shoot me an email and I will be happy to discuss.

As I was saying, the only things in life as constant as taxes and baseball is CMEpalooza. We will be back at it again on Wednesday, October 16 and will have an agenda for everyone…sometime before that. If anyone has an interesting session idea, or a speaker suggestion, or just something creative we can do, let me know. We need all the help we can get (note from Scott: Speak for yourself. I have enough ideas for both of us, as usual).

One idea I’m currently workshopping and plan to suggest to Scott for the fall is intro music for all our panelists. Who doesn’t love intro music? Frankly, I think every conference should do this when introducing speakers. I can’t think of any presentation I’ve ever listened to that wouldn’t have been immediately improved by the presenter walking to the podium while “Welcome to the Jungle” blared overhead. There is the small detail that we don’t use podiums during CMEpalooza — and it’s virtual, so no one needs to walk anywhere — but I’m sure we can figure something out.

(Side note: My intro music would definitely be AC/DC’s Thunderstruck, which I would also use if I ever decide to pursue a career in professional wrestling. I would have “The Thunder Down Under” written across the back of my wresting shorts and my finishing move would be the Thunderous Elbow Drop. After subduing my opponent with a Thunderous Elbow Drop, I would turn to the audience and yell out “YOU’VE BEEN” and they would respond by screaming in unison “THUNDERSTRUCK!!!” I’ve thought about this a lot.)

So, to recap:

• Welcome to all our new blog subscribers
• CMEpalooza Fall is October 16
• This is not a Sixers blog
• Send me all your good session ideas (not your bad ones)
• Intro music for presenters is awesome
• I may have shared too much about my future pro wresting plans

I think that covers all the important topics of the day. Have a great week everyone!

 

I am writing this while watching basketball and don’t trust myself to string together enough coherent sentences to make an actual paragraph, so I’m just going to make a list.

1. If you haven’t already taken our CMEpalooza survey, please do so now. We really do read them and use your feedback for planning purposes, so please take 30 seconds to fill it out. Here is the link. (PLEASE NOTE: if you’re just going to complete the survey in order to complain about sound quality or audio issues, then you can skip it. We know about the audio issues. Trust me…we know. I die a little inside every time someone’s audio glitches or the mic doesn’t pick them up. It’s annoying to listen to, I know. We do the best we can with it.)
2. A big THANK YOU to everyone who participated and watched CMEpalooza. We had 291 live views for our first session of the day (always the most viewed session), which is truly mind-blowing. That’s about 70 more views than our previous high for a live session. (I know no one cares about these numbers, but indulge me for a moment.)
3. We have a question on the survey about your favorite ’80s sitcom and someone responded with “Best ’80s sitcom was Night Court…prove me wrong.” I loved Night Court and would give it the award for most underrated ’80s sitcom with no hesitation, but calling it the best is clearly incorrect. Cheers is the correct answer and always will be. As great as Night Court was, Cheers was an almost perfect sitcom with some of the great main and supporting characters of all-time and individual episodes that people still talk about today (the Jeopardy! episode, etc.) (Note from Scott: I never like to agree with Derek about anything, but he’s right about this one. Cheers is the clear No. 1 choice here)
4. As a follow-up to #3, a surprising number of people listed ALF as their favorite ’80s sitcom, and by surprising I mean more than zero. We have always promised to never require pre-registration for CMEpalooza, but I’m now considering requiring a one-question pre-reg that is simply, “Was ALF your favorite ’80s sitcom?” and everyone who answers yes gets redirected to the CBI registration page or something. C’mon, folks, we are better than this! (Another note from Scott: Scratch my previous comment. ALF is the clear No. 1 choice here. Free CMEpalooza registration for life for anyone who made this wise deduction)

To watch, go here: https://cmepalooza.com/live/

For the agenda, go here: https://cmepalooza.com/spring-2019/