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If I can be a little self indulgent for just a moment.....I'd like to thank you, ExtremeSkins.

SMOSS89

By SMOSS89
in The Stadium

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SMOSS89

SMOSS89

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(I know this is a little long, my apologies)

Hey everyone,

I know everyone is really down right now about the lockout, the uncertainty of this offseason, or even things like LaVar's apparent dislike of this board, but I wanted to take this moment to thank ES for a lot of things this board has done for me.

I was a fan of his team growing up in the area, and followed the team through most of my adolescence without much fan analysis. All I had was just the weekly television broadcasts and maybe a George Michael highlight reel here and there.

That's the way it is growing up here, and that was what I was exposed to week in and week out growing up. Watched the games with classmates, go home, forget about the game and move on.

But then I started coming to this board in the 2005 season (as a reader, then joined in January '06) because I wanted a place to go for all things Skins related. I am a very analytical person, and I love the details, all the news stories, all the opinions, the stats, the 'insiders', the spirited discussion, everything that a board like this has to offer.

I went to college during the years of 2005-2009, which coincide with the rise of social media (twitter/facebook/blogs) , online readership among newspapers, and even streaming radio. All of those things, in addition to this message board, fed my obsession.

I went to school at The University of Maryland and I remember friends and/or roommates of mine would even tease me about how they always see me on ES or some other Skins related site, or watching local tv (like CSN) to follow what the local personalities were saying. People would often tell me "dude, you could easily go onto one of those shows and fit right in and provide discussion". I usually scoffed at comments like those because just because I was obsessed with everything Skins, didn't mean I was qualified to be a local media member. Besides, I was going for a degree that had nothing to do with journalism whatsoever (Computer Science).

But during those years, I found myself losing my passion for my major, and although I got a job right out of school, things just didn't seem right. I ran into some professional trouble (don't worry, I didn't do anything wrong lol) just a year out of school, and became unemployed. At that point I was lost as to what I would do with my life. I was/still am in school part time for a Masters degree, but I didn't know what I wanted to do long term. I figured I'd keep my IT career as my 'day' job, while maybe figuring out if there was anything else I was good at in life.

At that point those same friends who would 'tease' me began strongly encouraging me to just try writing articles about the Redskins. I was very skeptical, so I sent an email to a very prominent member of local media (Mr Sports Bog himself). I wrote about how I may want to get into sports media and briefly explained my situation. He was actually very kind enough to respond a day or so later with a nice long email about what to do, how to do it, and what to expect, it was really awesome that he wrote the response he did.

And with that, I started the blog 'The Swinging Gate D.C.', which some of you may have seen around here when I post some articles. I'm not the greatest writer in the world (was always average-below average growing up), but I'd like to think I'm getting better by doing it more and paying attention to some of the writing styles of all the local bloggers/writers.

Well, as it turns out, the blog apparently did well enough to catch the attention of one of the guys at SBNationDC, and he asked me if I wanted to write for them. I ,of course, agreed to do it. Although the other guys on the site have far more writing experience than I did, I still felt like I could do a decent enough job on there.

Through writing for the site, I got to start going to live sporting events. My first game I went to via press box was the last Redskins game of the season against the Giants. I wrote that email to Steinberg about starting a blog around week 2 against the Texans and by the end of the season I was in the press box. I'll never take something like that for granted. As someone who was only used to nose bleed sections of any stadium, being in a box was pretty cool. I got to meet some media folks who's work I really appreciated. Some of the radio guys, and blogger guys like Murf (very briefly), I even got to meet TK for a split second. He doesn't look like Mike Shanahan, as it turns out.

Things began progressing relatively well for me over the last few months, as I got to write features for the site and my own blog, and I have gotten to interact with some local media folk (although not all the time, but more than I ever thought I would). I also kept posting on my SwingingGate blog, and then a friend of mine at SBNDC who has his own blog (SkinsTalk) suggested merging his site with mine. So later on this week we'll be launching a new Swinging Gate D.C. blog it looks like (I'll provide a link to it later on).

I'm pretty excited about everything and pretty surprised with myself that the idea that I'd be a 'blogger' became a reality. Now, obviously all this doesn't pay much hah, but I would like to think I could use that as a potential vehicle for other ventures down the road (while I still have a 'day job' to pay the bills). I'm still a very young man (just turned 24 today), so I have plenty of room to grow as time goes on.

My main point is that none of this, and I mean NONE of this would have been possible without ES. All the great threads, the bad threads (some of which I started, and got NNT'd lol), the free agency moments, coaching changes, all the articles we got to analyze, the breaking news section, everything. It all helped/ is helping me feed that obsession I apparently have for this team. This board has lived up to it's name, as the fans here (for the most part) are certainly among the most knowledgeable of the entire Redskins fanbase. Whatever may happen to me in the blogging/media world, my stance is that I will never, EVER, view myself as better than any of you guys and gals here, because at the end of the day we are all fans and everyone is entitled to their own opinion.

The bottom line is,

THANK YOU EXTREMESKINS!

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Oversized Toddler

Oversized Toddler

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checks payable to ES and its members.

If you'd like, I could make this easier for everybody. I volunteer myself to consolidate all of the money into one account that I will handle and dole out accordingly.

Now, if everybody will PM me with their SSN, bank account and routing numbers, I will be sure to get those funds to you in a prompt and efficient manner :pfft:

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SMOSS89

SMOSS89

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Dan Steinburg is a great person, I've never met him but yours is not the first time I've heard about how he has taken the time to interact with someone and give them advice on the profession. Steer clear of Murf,:ols: he might lead you down the wrong path. :pfft:

Me: Hey, TK, I'm SMOSS89.

TK: Hey man, hows it going.

(brief convo)

TK: Go over there and smack Murf for me

/end convo.

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Skins Talk

Skins Talk

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Hey everyone, I'm going to be partnering up with Moss for this blog so I just wanted to thank you for whatever support you've given Swinging Gate DC, Skins Talk, and SBNDC in the past.

I have been on ES for a little bit, but have neglected to post for a while. Over this past season I've met Pez, Huly, and others and I want to thank you for your kindness to me whenever I stopped by the tailgate or chatted with you on Twitter. You guys are some of the nicest people I've met and I really hope to get to know some of you better while being more active on the boards here.

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TK

TK

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Me: Hey, TK, I'm SMOSS89.

TK: Hey man, hows it going.

(brief convo)

TK: Go over there and smack Murf for me

/end convo.

Actually, it was Go over there & smack JJ for me as Murf was on the field. Other then that, good memory. :)

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TK

TK

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Hah my bad, I couldn't remember if it was Murf or JJ, so I just went w/ Murf.

Just be glad that they now have wifi in the press box. My first trip there I kept wondering why I couldn't pick up the signal to log into. Took about 20 min to realize they didn't have wifi there & i had to actually plug in. :doh:

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