Greater Milwaukee Men

It is well known, especially here at Well-Met, that dogs can be better and more loyal friends and family than human counterparts. This image is a haunting reminder of the bind that a man and his canine companion can have in life - and death. At the funeral of Navy SEAL Jon Tomlinson, one of 38 killed in Afghanistan in the Chinook helicopter taken out by a rocket-propelled grenade, his Labrador retriever was present and came up and lay at the casket and would not move. More of the story and a video of the scene can be found here .

A man from Milwaukee has created a new online service that he calls a new type of Fantasy Football but I consider more of a Pool host service, either way he has added in a Well-Met twist: a portion of the fee for a paid premium membership goes to charity. You may still need to channel some FFFu to win at Craction Craction - www.craction.com - is the brain child of Milwaukeean Scott Schmidt. At Craction you can join a random public or create a private 'league' for free where on a weekly basis you pick teams from the schedule to win versus drafting a team for the season. This is why I consider it more of a Pool, Pick-em, type league than how most Fantasy leagues operate. His reasoning behind this format is that people should not have to spend so much time to still enjoy watching the games with the added interest from wanting your picks to win. Fantasy sports can take up hours a week of a man's - and yes some women's - time checking put your players, setting roster

Here is some encouraging news : according to a study conducted by the Corporation for National and Community Service , 32% of Milwaukee residents do volunteer work, placing the city as the eighth best city in the nation. The entire state of Wisconsin ranks in the same spot - number 8 . A very encouraging part of the study is that Milwaukee ranked highly in the volunteer rates among those under 30 years of age. During a time when it seems our governments are doing less and less to help those in need, it is important for fellow citizens to help each other out and seeing the youth stepping up and learning about opportunities they can get involved in for the rest of their life is good news indeed.

Wired Mag did a feature on how to quit cable Subscription TV services such as cable and satellite have become one of those comfort items that we realize should be better and cheaper at the same time yet we stay with it just because it is easier to not change. But the truth is that you can get nearly the same access to media for much less, on demand, and often without commercials. Who wouldn't want that? Many of you already are using services like Netlfix and Hulu to stream some content, say if you miss a show and forgot to DVR it, but why not go all the way? There are other online guides on how to do this - many listed  here  - but I have done it and have helped a half dozen others move on and I can tell you how I did it and how it is going. OK I get the whole everything in one place aspect of subscription TV - but is it really? If you have DVDs you have to switch to another device and if you have a game console you have to switch as well. You may already be watching movie

While the NBA is on lockout, Brandon Jennings of the Milwaukee Bucks has been using his time wisely. Since he cannot use team facilities to workout, he asked UnderArmour if he could use their facilities, and in turn they have made him an intern . Not only is he staying physically fit, but as someone who never went to college he is also getting useful experience for his post-pro days. Jennings was the first basketball player to be endorsed by the previously football-centric company.  And he used his partnership with them to make sure he was not wasting his time during the lockout. Sure he is getting some interesting perks as an intern and his title sounds somewhat superficial - 'Curator of Cool', but Under Armour says they are actually using his input. Hey if Willie G. Davidson can be the Chief Styling Officer of Harley-Davidson why can't Curator of Cool be a valid position?

Brandon Marshall, who seemed to be just another example of pro athletes with off the field issues, recently revealed he was diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder , or BPD. Besides explaining some of his actions, the revelation means a lot more - to him and to others, especially those with BPD or other disorders. Per the  National Institute of Health , BPD  is a serious mental illness characterized by pervasive instability in moods, interpersonal relationships, self-image, and behavior.  This does go to explain some of Marshall's issues which I won't get into here but a symptom is that their 'interests and values may change rapidly' and one of his instances definitly falls into the symptom of 'frequent displays of inappropriate anger'. When you are in the spotlight of pro sports and have the resources of a pro athlete with all the people coming at you for various things, I can see how this could quickly escalate into the problems many pros have.