Christies rant

does it bother anyone else that Chris Christie had the rant he had, and is getting the praise he is getting? He is a Republican, and while he is a rogue Republican, a true "Maverick" in all honesty, he is still someone who has spent years aligning himself with the mantra that Gov't should be smaller, People should take care of themselves, and if you don't have the wherewithal to grab your own bootstraps and pull yourself up, then you have a deficiency.

Oh, except when your home state gets demolished by a natural disaster, then someone else's boots need to be grabbed.

Listen, I firmly believe Gov't exists to pull people out of jams, and I firmly believe humans should evolve in political thinking, and people should be brave, and in reality the mentality Christie has is actually admirable, but I am just blown away by some of those folks in Republican leadership who can't see 45 feet in front of them and can't see what is so plainly obvious:  This tough guy talk sounds great, and has little to no realistic opportunity to work in practice.

What am I getting at? I don't know really, I just know that with the tragedy in Sandy Hook, and GOP members who came out in favor of Gun Control as if a lightbulb turned on, bother me in a very sensitive way.   Maybe our side isn't doing enough of a good job explaining ourselves, but I'd love to keep a list. A journal that tracks the hypocrisy, but it's impossible, there's too much of it.

So, to sum up, I want to tell Christie something:
> If you believe people can handle things themselves, and Gov't should shrink, and Obama is spending too much, you simply aren't allowed to ask Congress for more money when it gets challenging in your state. I suggest you DO ask for money in your state, and change your mind about the nature of Gov't.
> Republicans who are now in favor of Gun Control legislation, but weren't before Sandy Hook...We didn't actually think something as heinous as Sandy Hook would happen, but at the same time we Gun Haters do recognize that something insane CAN happen in a real way with guns all over this country. I guess I'm just baffled by the fact that you didn't know that's what could happen - did it really surprise you?

And lastly, to close this insanity out, I wanted to put something down about the Fiscal Cliff.
I sorta think that the Tax Increase + Spending Cuts, while horrific in the short term, are exactly what we need to do, aren't they?  Yes, its potentially crippling, but to overuse a phrase, let's rip the god damned band aid off already. Let's fall over the cliff. I'm ready!

Onramp, Day 3

Workout listed here.

Today was the easiest in terms of stress on the body, but today was also the day I felt like I learned the most. I didn't ever lift - i did some minor lifting in high school for the javelin, but I realize now nobody really knew about form or how to do anything, at least not on my track team, so it is great to put the premium on form.

My ailments and soreness are really fascinating, and this is my experience:
> 1-4 hours after workout, I feel general soreness, a lot like the 3-4 hours after you finish an ultimate tournament, but it is localized to the area you worked out, rather than entire body soreness.
> 4-12 hours after workout, the areas that hurt start to really hurt, like i pulled or tore something.
> 14 hours after workout I fall asleep very sore.

Wake up the next morning and it hurts to move selected areas, the entire day is spent focusing on a very local pain, and it's annoying.

Dinnertime the next night, I have full blown pain in a few areas, and I think a tear is 100% certain, and pain will linger in that area for a while.

Then I go to bed, and when it's time to wake up for the next WOD, most pain is gone, or it is nearly gone, and I'm ready to roll.

Looking forward to week 2!

Onramp, Day 2

Workout posted here

Felt easier than Monday - which was surprising b/c all day Monday and Tuesday my arms were dead, and this was primarily an arm workout. I feel good about ramping up, slowly easing into this...very much still unsure about how all of this works.

My eating the last 2 weeks has drastically improved, my weight hasn't, and I have the urge to just start running more mileage, but I don't want to disrupt the crossfit routine, either. I am doing to do low mileage on Thursday as a run, I'll feel up for it.

But man, the interior of my left arm is really hurting in a way that I hope I didn't pull a muscle. I hope it's just sore. Only time will tell.

Onramp, day 1

I started Crossfit as part of my new job at work. I am not sure how dedicated I'll be (my motivation is high) or well I'll do (my confidence, after day 1, is low)...but I owe it to myself to give this a shot. I have 3 main goals:
1. Be active more regularly, and in turn, lose weight
2. Lose weight to improve my flexibility and make my golf game better
3. Make my golf game better, make my overall health better, and subsequently get my confidence up.

I won't get into it, but probably all of this has to do with confidence and self-esteem, and a huge part of that for me has always been feeling like I could venture into an athletic arena with people near my age and be as good, if not better, than other people. I have never been the fastest, strongest, best jumper, smartest or anything, but I've always managed to get by. That's important to me, and I'm feeling, outside of golf, that I'm barely getting by anymore.

More detailed goals are to run a sub 2 hour 1/2 marathon this Fall/Winter, lose anywhere from 18-25 pounds, and keep that off for good, and continue to evolve my mental attitude, which physical fitness is only a portion of that solution.

So, I'll always update my times, WOD's and activities here, and every Crossfit post I'll include the link.

Long story short, 24 hours after my first WOD, and i'm bordering on psychotic depression with how weak I feel. I can't do pushups, I thought I could, and I can do them wrong, but I can't do a real pushup. And my arms are toast. I don't know how I'll lift anything tomorrow.  So anyway, here's to a month of on-ramping.

Bank of America

This is the article that got me going:
http://blogs.wsj.com/deals/2012/03/01/bank-of-america-still-scheming-up-new-bank-fees-just-fyi/?mod=google_news_blog

I'm really sorry to post a short rant about something relatively trivial, but Bank of America customers have to get over it. Each week we all work and earn money, and then every other week a faceless giant institution takes our money and keeps it in a safe place for us. They count it, allow us to manage it via the internet, send checks to friends, transfer payments electronically to businesses, etc.  If you don't have a home loan, or don't have some other kind of wacky setup, they actually pay US via interest to house the money there.

Now, as a business, they are, at times, asking for a few bucks here or there.  As a customer, we have the ultimate power. We can choose to not pay that. We can choose to walk away from them, shove money in jars under our floorboards, and visit the local NStar office to pay our bills in quarters and nickels.

But that is backwards, and unless you have a barn full of servers and IP address configuration machines, pay your $5/month fee (or whatever it'll be) to Bank of America, and tell them "thanks for managing my money for me, it actually is pretty helpful).

Or don't, and enjoy your piles of quarters, Scrooge McDuck.

Kirkland, WA can fit in my iPad

A few weeks ago I posted the following status update on facebook timeline: "The ability for a song to be a time machine is my religion", and the notion has been sticking with me for a few weeks, pretty hard.

During a particularly magical weekend that we all have from time to time a few years ago during a relatively magical summer, I woke up from a great sleep and asked my friend a simple question - his answer was just as simple, but was pretty inspiring as well.  He and I chat, that's what we do, so I knew exactly what to ask:

Me: "Good morning...what do you want to talk about?"

Him: "Hydrogen"

That was all. I erupted in laughter. The man knew he wanted to talk to Hydrogen. Who knows what they want to talk about?  Well, I do, now.  I want to talk about Time, and my relationship with Time, and not a fear of it, not a sadness that we all feel when we realize we are old and awful and gross, but more about it's power and ability to morph and shapeshift.

I think of something like Facebook and what they are doing with Timeline, and they are not doing the idea of making your life a digital journal justice, and hopefully someday someone will get it right...but even the way they formulate time on the page - with a linear bar running vertically, implying that your life is just a dot here and a dot there - a sequential collection of nonsense that somehow has added up to make you, you...

That has just started to irk me.  I think of Time now more like a volcano. I was watching lava erupt on TV the other day and it was mind blowing how it looks like its moving in slow motion, but its not, its just heavy and thick, and it disappears into itself and piles itself into a shape only to be another shape a few minutes later.  That's how I feel about time, and how I feel we interact with time.

Sure, bits are linear, we have developed clocks and calendars and ways to count time, but what we never figured out was how to account for those moments in your life, in all of our everyday lives, where we absolutely are emotionally transported back to a different moment, in our lives. I was always astonished by those glimpses into our past, mostly because of how real they feel...then I realized that I was thinking of it incorrectly. If I was looking at it like Facebook looks at it, it is linear, and those moments when we feel the past are just a little mindgame, but that cannot be right.

I was doing some work at home and I put on Oasis' Be Here Now, the band's follow up to their mega hit and Fisher Life Changing album, Morning Glory. I can reach back and put together the details of purchasing this album, and I can picture the Tower Records in Boston, and even put some images in my brain of what that day was like and who I was with, but then when I heard the first few notes, my brain wasn't playing a trick, it was talking to me, engaging me in a conversation, allowing me to actually feel the past.

I immediately was brought to Kirkland, WA, where my parents lived for about a year, and where I went with Trav the day after I bought this album.  At the moment when I did the lava meld back to '97 I wasn't picturing a record store, or the weather, or how Seattle smelled... I can find all that in my brain, but the voyage was more emotional, and more about me feeling the feeling of '97.

Music is continually doing this to me, and I can't tell when its going to happen, and I can't predict it, but it's doing it, continuously, persistently, and without vengeance.  It isn't always awesome, I see a smile on TV and I'm shifted immediately back to painful memories of a broken heart - or I'm watching football highlights and the sight Steve Young's #8 jersey makes me feel like I felt at Keri's party the night the 49ers beat the Cowboys in the NFC Championship Game...and the night my Grandmother passed away.  That's not linear, that's the opposite.  It's a welcomed kick in the pants.

I'm in the process right now of taking some mix tapes Luke made for me in High School and College and putting them into MP3 format. I could just go online, try to buy the individual songs, and try to piece them back together, but the authenticity of the tapes is what I'm looking forward to.  

I can't wait until one morning when I hit play on the iPod while I am driving in my car on Route 2 heading to my job, feeling like a 34 year old that stinks at sports now and can't remember where his car keys are...and instantly feel like the 17 year old kid who at at Pizza Hut & Uno's every other night with a collection of amazing friends all because of a song. I have a lot to be grateful for now, and I'm all for it, but the past is as much a part of me as the present, and I love how present it always is.

2012 NBA Predictions

Eastern Conference:

1. Miami (Southeast Champ) - With the addition of Battier, I don't see how they don't run the table in the East. By "Run The Table" I literally mean a 3 or 4 loss season against the Eastern conference.
2. Chicago (Central Champ) - Record-wise, they will be right up there with Miami, and I think the Eastern Conference Finals is such a lock that it's silly.
3. Orlando - I still think Dwight is a complete buffoon, and I still don't like the way they play basketball. I still think B. Bass is a better player than big baby, and I still think Turkoglu is completely horrendous defensively. But I look at the league and I don't see how they don't finish above the 5 teams below.
4. New York (Atlantic Champ) - This will be down to the wire, and I think the C's will give them a run for their money, but they just flat out have put the pieces together.  Enough pieces to beat Boston, regularly, at least.
5. Indiana - I'm starting to think that the Pacers can finish in the top 4 - and they might be better than the Knicks, but NBA Rules say the Knicks need to be seeded in the top 4 as Division Champs.  Granger, West, Hansborough...I love the roster and I love this team
6. Boston - The Jeff Green injury just killed this team from a roster standpoint, and while I think they are talented, athletic, and skilled, I believe their age is going to hurt them when looking at the athleticism of the NBA.
7. Philadelphia - They are the 8 seed if Jrue Holiday doesn't play like an All-Star, and even if he does they may not be.
8. Atlanta - Most likely I'm wrong, the Hawks are probably better than this, but they still continue to be such idiots, and they let Crawford go, who at least provided something. Josh Smith, as a team leader, is a recipe for disaster. This is more of an "I hope" pick, b/c I hope the Pacers are good, and I really hope the Celtics don't finish worse than 6th.

Western Conference:

1. Oklahoma City (Northwest Champs) - I think its finally the year they put together the run. Last season was somewhat ruined by the brain fart of Russell Westbrook - and his thinking he was the franchise. I think cooler heads have prevailed, everyone knows what is at stake, and guys like Ibaka are still getting better, Perk losing lbs help, and I just think its time.
2. Denver - Ty Lawson & Andre Miller make a great backcourt, and they got so much going on on the frontcourt with Nene, who is better than ever. They are not really all that fun to watch, but they are strong.
3. Los Angeles Lakers (Pacific Champs) - I don't have it in my heart to vote against Kobe. I don't like him personally, but my feeling about a true champion and fighter is to force them to show me they can't cut it anymore. I still think they can cut it. Kobe + Gasol is damned good.
4. San Antonio Spurs (Southwest Champs) - This team is so boring it's painful, but like Kobe I don't think Duncan is done, and Parker/Ginobili are still Parker/Ginobili.
5. Dallas - Dirk makes them a #5 seed, insert basically any other All-Star Power Forward and I don't even think they make the playoffs.
6. Los Angeles Clippers - Everyone calm down. Jordan can't hit a free throw and their bench stinks. Shut it.
7. Memphis - They were fun to watch last year, weren't they? Unfortunately, I don't think they have the mental toughness to win more than 35 games in a short season.
8. Minnesota - They are my Pacers of the East - the underdogs, the little morons that can...Kevin Love had a historic season, and I really like the youth they have on the team, and the athleticism. I think a taste of .500 ball in January will get them sufficiently motivated to make the NBA's Sweet Sixteen.

East Final 4:

Miami v. New York (Miami wins 4-1)....       Miami Beats Chicago 4-2

Chicago v. Boston (Chicago wins 4-0)....

West Final 4
OKC v. San Antonio (OKC wins 4-3)....       OKC Beats Denver 4-3

Denver v. LA Lakers (Denver wins 4-3)....

Trophy:

Miami rips through OKC in 5.

Howard to AGT

AGT is America's Got Talent, and I have essentially zero interest in that show.  Unfortunately, one of my broadcast idols, Howard Stern, has a tremendous amount of interest in that show, and has agreed to be the next judge, as many people already heard.

People know I like Stern a lot, so they've been asking me what I think about Howard going to AGT, and I have an answer, but it sorta doesn't make any sense, so I want to get it all down on paper where I can think more clearly, albeit not as concisely.

Howard is a remarkable talent - and a remarkably divisive individual. You know how people always say, "there are 2 types of people in the world, those who x and those who y..."?   Well there are literally 2 types of people in the world, those who like Howard, and those who don't.

I am always really surprised by those who don't like him, but I don't spend any time and/or attention trying to convince them, I just know that essentially on a daily basis for a VERY long period of time in my life, Howard has provided me and some of my best friends with a remarkable level of laughter, and it rarely has anything to do with what you all think it has do to with.

Yes, Howard does things that most normal people would register as gross, as offensive, as rude and as vulgar. It is a part of his personality - I frankly think it is so amazingly refreshing that he puts himself out there to an extent that literally only Charlie Sheen has - but the difference is a major portion of Howard's real personality is a loving, warm, vulnerable person.  People always talk about Howard like his perverse side is a character, but it isn't, and thats what I love about him. He's a full human, flawed, gross, lovely, charming, witty and rude. He's all of it.

AGT is a cookie cutter talent show - i've seen only moments of it, so I won't go into too much judgement, but you know from advertisements and clips if its something you want to see, and I know I don't want to see it. Howard loves it, he raves about it, he can't wait to be a judge.  As he's expressed, he doesn't want to be on AGT to bring on Eric The Midget or other recurring Wack Pack characters from his show - he wants to be on because he feels he can judge talent, and given his track record in the studio on the radio, he can.

The thing I worry about the most is that Howard does have a bit of a desire to please everyone - he really tries WAY too hard on his appearances with Letterman, Conan, MTV, etc. When he is himself, when he is his flawed self, talking with Robin & Fred about the news...when he is himself talking about his family or interviewing  Porn Star, whenever he is himself, I am drawn. Drawn to his personality, drawn to his tics and flaws, and drawn to his overall presentation.

I don't care that his radio show will be more about AGT than about anything else now, I trust him comically and trust his delivery & style so completely, I will likely even watch and be engaged with the goings on of AGT b/c of Howard - but I just hope that he lets the overall TV public judge him the way he lets his radio audience judge him.

Here's my appeal to Howard:  Do nothing but be yourself.  Judge the way you want to judge, say what you want to say, but don't try to please us.  You are funny, we know you're funny, and you're smart. You are a groundbreaking talent, and there are a lot of people who will never concede that point, and you gotta just let them go.

That's all I got - I'm real excited for Howard to expand his talent and his capacity to do really cool things - and possibly to even reinvent himself. I don't care how harsh the public is to him, I just hope he is not so harsh on himself, and allows his talent to ease out, rather than try to smash us over the head with it.

Baba Booey.

Icing the Kicker

There is a lot of controversy over whether or not Jason Garrett iced his own kicker this Sunday in the Cowboys game, and I can’t take it.

As a football fan, every single player & analyst I have ever heard has said that icing doesn’t work.  Icing, usually, only gives more time to a kicker to get comfortable and line himself up properly – I don’t have the #’s, but I am probably 100% sure that icing has shown no true effect on games – sometimes they make them, sometimes they miss.

That, however, is when the other team calls the timeout. 

I do believe icing the kicker happens when your own coach does it to you – mostly b/c you start to think, about anything…and in sports, overactive thinking is usually bad.

I have a recurring dream/nightmare that I can’t swing my golf club – that everything is in the way and even if I swung I know I couldn’t make contact. It usually results in my group/foursome holding back the entire course from progress, and results in me being so sad and frustrated that I can’t just hit the ball.  The worst part of the dream is just the thinking part – that I am over the ball convincing myself I can’t do it.

When a coach calls a timeout, sheepishly, right before a kick, you can only believe, as the kicker, that the coach is questioning something about the play, anything, who knows what, and I do believe it has the icing effect.

Fans and analysts are believing that Garrett iced the kicker in the old fashioned sense, that he was going to make it (and actually did), but then didn’t b/c he had to think about it.  That is partially true, but when your own coach second guesses a situation involving you, that’s icing on a whole new level.

I can predict this for you – at some point Bailey will have to kick another field goal at the end of regulation before this year is up, and I bet the opposing coach will try to ice him, and I can promise you that Bailey will make the FG – because icing by the opponent doesn’t work. At all.

Disney/Pixar

Here are my rankings of Pixar films. The only one I didn't like, as in I hope I don't need to watch again, is Cars 2. The rest have some kind of personal connection or made sense to me, as a story.

1. Toy Story 3
2. Ratatouille
3. Toy Story 1
4. Up
5. Finding Nemo
6. Wall-E
7. Toy Story 2
8. The Incredibles
9. Monster's Inc.
10. Cars
11. A Bug's Life
12. Cars 2

And below are the last 10 Disney Studios animated films, ranked.  By the looks of things, counting Brave, which comes out soon, I'm optimistic that the last 3 films (Tangled, Brave & The Princess & the Frog) are a glimpse into the future of Disney Animation.

1. Tangled
2. Meet the Robinsons
3. The Princess & The Frog
4. Bolt
5. Lilo & Stitch
6. Brother Bear
7. Winnie the Pooh
8. Home on the Range
9. Chicken Little
10. Treasure Planet

New England Pilgrims in the 20th Century v. Hurricane Irene.

Nature, more particularly Hurricane Irene, spent the weekend under the belief that she could best a couple of misfits known as my parents, and I personally found the results to be hilarious.

For those who don't know them, my parents are not completely out of place people who don't know how to operate in this world.  Between them they do own a cell phone (one) and at one point they had a satellite dish - they have traveled the world and made it back to Kingston USA in one piece, and they are not incapable or subjects of anyone's pity.  They just bought kayaks, and they'll explore that Jones River for the next few dozen years like they are a couple of Lewis & Clark's, except they won't bring the President back a few Grizzly Bears (L&C really did that! They lived caged on the White House lawn for Jefferson's enjoyment).

But as "in the now" as they are, there is an equal part of them that wishes for a world of no electricity, an existence that offers as much challenge and consequence as one that offers reclining chairs and the internet.  They don't long for the good old days like the 1960's, they long for the good old days of the 1690's, and it's one thing that gave my sister and I a great deal of comfort when they remained powerless and out of touch for a few days.

If any 2 people took Irene's punches and never hit the mat, it's them, and the below email from my mom today is living proof of that.

Keep punching, Irene, Katia, or whoever you may send next.  My parents won't hit back, but they won't go down easy, either.


From the words of Paula Fisher:


Electricity came on during the night.  This is what we learned while experiencing the inconveniences of Irene:

• We’re old enough to know how to light a gas stove with a match.
• E-Garage doors can be opened manually (but that may mean an electrician will be needed to make it an e-door again.)
• Rain Barrels with the lid not on could (and did) cause a squirrel death in the Ahdeenah section of Kingston L
• When there are no street lights there are more than just Orion’s Belt, and the Big & Little Dippers visible in the night sky
• We actually have ambulatory neighbors (We had thought perhaps they were disabled and could only get from one place to another in cars)
• Neighborhood generators make for an annoying mosquito-like hum/buzz if you don’t have one
• I can go without coffee for two days and not even realize I have
• Rules to games like rummy and gin rummy are not like riding a bicycle, you don’t remember, but as long as you agree to make them up as you go along it’s OK.
• Houses look really warm and inviting from the outside when lit with candlelight
• Since hurricanes usually happen in the summer and Masterpiece (Theatre, Mystery, Classic) are all repeats it’s OK if you miss one
• Having an unexpected day off cuz your company has no power is a really cool surprise and can be very productive
• And finally, it’s worth getting your yard raked, and decorative accouterments back in place even though Katia may be on her way next week

The First Time Sports Have Ever Been Played!

This is a headline from ESPN.com today, in regards to the US Women's Soccer team heroics.

Call it Team Destiny. After Sunday's theater, it's hard to see the U.S. not winning it all

Um. What?

I don't really feel like any thinking person needs a rationale why that's insane, but I submit to you the 2001 World Series, a series in which basically the entire country was rooting for the Yankees. The heroics of Jeter & Brosius were insanely storybook, and BH Kim did all he could to script an emotional story, resulting in WS rings for the Yankees, but that little thing called reality got in the way.

Why is the American press acting as if nobody has ever played sports before? As if no single game has ever been amazing, followed up by a disappointing loss?

Another example - the Celtics win game 3 of the Eastern Conference Finals in the greatest comeback in NBA Playoff history.  With game 4, at home, on the horizon, they're poised to take a 3-1 lead in the series at home v. New Jersey, and head to the Finals against the Lakers - a series we had to wait 6 years for, but a series we all wanted.

But guess what? It didn't happen. Kidd & Martin destroyed the C's in 3 consecutive games, and it ended in 6.

Listen, I'm thrilled the US Women's team had a victory that was neat, and I like Soccer and want it to succeed in this country purely b/c the other sports are becoming too much to bear from a financial perspective, but I think part of the reason we hate on soccer a bit in this country is because we almost refuse to get to know it, to take the time to massage the relationship and understand nuances of the game.

Last night Tony DiCicco, former US coach and current ESPN analyst, was calling the victory yesterday a "Triumph of the American Spirit".  That leads to so many questions, like:
1. If they lose, did the American spirit fail?  Or can this only be a positive thing?
2. Doesn't that inherently downplay the athleticism of a victory like that?
3. Could the win simply have been great execution down the stretch?

Simply put, what we saw yesterday was sports at its finest - nothing more nothing less. It wasn't World War II, no fascist regime was toppled, and it wasn't the next introduction of Women's Soccer as the National Sport of the future. It was a (miracle?) victory over a Brazilian team that executed poorly. There is no script, there is no destiny, there is just sports - and nobody knows what will happen.

Cars 2

I was watching Cars 2 tonight, which I pretty much didn't like at all, and I couldn't help but think the scene when they first get to Japan and your eyeballs are popping out of your skull b/c there is so much going on, and there is complete overload and you're trying to figure out how it all fits and and it's just so much stuff...

I've never had that feeling before with a Pixar movie, and it's disappointing to me, as a person who has enjoyed the Pixar run more than anyone I know, that no matter what this rakes in in the box office, an extended "Larry the Cable Guy" act isn't something I will forget anytime soon, and I'm disappointed.

Big hopes for Brave to get Pixar back on track.

SLRHS

I think it is incredible that I still feel very strong feelings of friendship for a lot of people I went to High School with, even if we don't see each other much.  Basically, if you're one of those guys (or girls) I hung out with a lot from 92-95, then a bit less from 95-99, then a bit less than that from 99-Present, I still think you're awesome, and I still really appreciate how you helped make me, me.

...Wild Canyon Games...

It is real important to me to capture this right now - the way I feel about the recently concluded Wild Canyon Games is phenomenally hard to explain, but I'm going to do my best here, and hopefully people will stay with me.

Trust me, when I write blog posts I think about all the possible negative things people can say and think about the things I write, and it sorta consumes me, but i want to be really accurate with these feelings because the fact that this post can potentially live forever really excites the dormant genealogist in me.

The Wild Canyon Games are a Nike sponsored event that take place in the Oregon high desert - a place until this weekend I had no idea existed, but a place that owns a huge, huge memory in my life now, and I feel like I owe it a lot, as weird as that sounds.

The Wild Canyon Games (WGC) took place over the course of 3 separate days, with various events which I'll do my best to explain, and of course you can always visit the Wild Canyon Games website to see more details.

We arrived in Portland on Thursday night, June 2nd...that feels like an absolute eternity ago, mostly because the "we" in this paragraph were me and some coworkers, only about 3 of them I knew well, and the remaining were essentially complete strangers.  The comparisons to me living my own Survivor in a way are really plentiful - it just felt a lot like a giant game for a few days.

I started on Tuesday of last week at TomTom, a new career venture and a whole new industry, "new" was the theme of my last week, and the newness of the faces at the airport of my teammates really was something pretty intimidating, but I was as much excited as I was nervous.  But I feel like I'm not explaining the games well.

The weeks leading up to the event I looked at the WGC website and felt it was all sorta lacking in logistical information, it didn't really explain to me what the events were, and now I can see why. It was 36 hours of physical mayhem - events in these games ranged from insanely hard (.25 mile completely WAY uphill run) to a one mile swim at 7AM in a freezing cold lake or even tame ones like a 300 yard sprint through grass as part of an overall relay race unlike anything you've ever seen.

The games are a masterpiece, the event management is phenomenal, and the site for these games, a Young Life camp buried deep in Oregon is a setting unlike any other piece of earth I've ever been to.  TomTom asked me to be a part of this, and while it was intimidating, I can't imagine a better way to meet the crew and meet the culture, and I have to say I am incredibly impressed - not against my preconceived notions, but mostly as compared to what my fears were.

We landed in Portland and slept in a hotel nearby, then left the next afternoon 3.5 hours or so out to the Ranch where the games were taking place.  Upon pulling into the facility, we first passed the giant lake for the mile swim - buoys as far as the eye could see, and just a massive expanse of rock and cliff around it, a desert that was more inviting than Arizona, with a challenging swim venue nestled into it its nooks and crannies.

As we drove into the camp, we were greeted with what we were told would be "dorms" for camping, but happened upon some brand new better-than-camp style sleeping arrangements, which we shared with a really friendly team from Nike, who sponsored the event and sponsored some of our gear as well.

We had our introductory dinner (lasagna and sandwiches in grab-n-go boxes, and made ourselves comfortable at the expansive camp area. I don't want to go into detail on this camp itself, but it was basically an amusement park - waterslides, wall climbing courses, disc golf courses, wiffleball fields, giant basketball complex, and ice cream diners, it was just immense, and everything a kid could ever want they could have.

The most amazing thing was this place was dry - no alcohol of any kind - and also no wireless connectivity - we were all just there, we all just had to take each other in, all of our flaws and personality quirks and differences, but overall there was SO little in the world of conflict at this thing, it was entirely harmonious, and the setting is responsible for nearly all of that, I believe that completely.

We all went to bed terrified of our next day's adventure, but excited. The day would begin with a 2 events that were to occur simultaneously.  The 2 events were as follows:

Triathlon-

1. 1 Mile Swim in a lake (I did this one in 36ish minutes, not sure of exact time, but I was thrilled. I think it may have been a .92 course, but my zigzagerific style def. made up that .08, no questions asked.
2. 15 Mile Mountain Bike Ride from Hell 
3. 10K through the campsite, on pavement, gravel and dirt.

And while that was going on, the other 4 members of your team competed in a Geocache unlike anything I have ever seen.  Geocache teams divided up into groups of  2, and set out on foot into this massive wilderness in order to rack up as many caches as possible, which wasn't an easy feat. They were in the sun from 7-12, up and down immense hills and mountains looking for a cache of various point values.

We did these 2 events simultaneously and the scores were combined, in a really odd, but effective fashion.  That was the morning.

The afternoon was a team race of sorts, unlike anything I have ever done.  There were 7 different events that needed to be completed by your 7 team members, and having only done one of these events, I'll explain what the other 6 seemed like to me:

1. Cliff Jump - this was really a 12 foot jump off of a fake rock ledge in the water park area, into the pool. The temps were cold, but not too much of a challenge
2. Waterslide - not much to say about this
3. Adventure Course - this was a massive 3 story ropes-ish type course, where a competitor would strap him or herself in and climb up stairs and over bars, through, over and under ropes and other devices that forced balance and poise, very cool activity.
4. Cliff Swing - People were pulled back by a winch about 50 feet up into the air over 30 or so foot deep cliff, and they had to swing, and attempt to throw a water balloon into a parachute laying on the ground below, which proved to be exceedingly difficult and also extremely chaotic.
5. Zipline - There were a few ziplines that started from about 1/8th of a mile up a very steep cliff, down to a lake below.  Teammates flew down this line and attempted to throw a tennis ball into about a 5 by 5 foot floating target, when they were about 15 feet in the air...they came crashing into the water and had to swim to shore, while still harnessed.
6. Ropes Course - At least 50 feet in the air, at a very high point in the campground, a teammate had to navigate through a challenging rope course and attempt to jump 10 feet off a platform, while harnessed in and 50 feet up, to catch a trapeze - this was a 50/50 proposition
7. Blob/Iceberg -  This is what I competed in, and it started with walking up a tower, about5 15 to 20 feet up in the air. You'd walk to the end, pirate style, of this tower, and jump onto a blob - which would shoot the competitor in front of you in line off of this inflatable blob into the lake. It was a catapult of sorts, using an giant inner tube of sorts.  Once you yourself were propelled by the competitor behind you into the water, you would then swim a little less than 1/8 of a mile to an "iceberg" which was a floating wall of death, of which you had to use foot and hand stirrups to climb yourself up the wall.  This was immensely challenging given my 3 factors:
1. I have no upper body strength
2. I had already done a mile swim in the AM and I don't know how to use my legs to swim.
3. This blob had a backwards pitch to it a bit at the start, you really needed to use all your body muscle to get up it.

So the goal was to move through all 7 of those as quickly as possible - there were 4 events in group A, and 3 events in group B, which were separated by 1.1 miles or so - it was a challenge to run back and forth to these, but we had to do it.

We completed the triathlon near the bottom of the pack, maybe 80th out of 105 teams or so, but in the Challenge events in the afternoon we fared MUCH better, I think 49th out of the 105 teams, which was a big point of pride for us.

We went to bed completely exhausted, but still had the full team relay race to go.  Commencing at 7:30 Sunday morning, the relay race consisted of:

1. 300 yard sprint on grass
2. Mt. Bike course, shorter than saturday but still challenging
3. Obstacle course - which I took part in, and started strong, but ended badly with failing to climb over the 9 foot wall, and fighting real hard up the 100 yard uphill run after the bridge
4. 1/2 mile sprint on pavement
5. 1/8 mile sprint swim
6. Halfway Up a 1/4 mile steep, steep hill
7. The 2nd half of the steep, steep hill.

The event was incredible, the relay was so fun, and the games concluded after these events.

The amount of time and energy the volunteers and staff put in was nothing short of remarkable, they worked day and night, tirelessly, to ensure we had an amazing time, and we did.

But mostly I am so happy to be part of the TomTom organization.  At this point, this type of event isn't yet in TomTom's wheelhouse, a lot of first timers and rookies were taking part in a series of events like this, and it really was amazing to see how 14 people (out of an office of around 80!) can group together and perform in very challenging situations, with zero drama, zero moments of non-support, and zero doubt.

It was an inspiring weekend, from the 1 arm and 1 legged individuals pushing through immense physical barriers, to the personal accomplishment of swimming a mile, kickstarting my interest to finish an Olympic triathlon...I am taking so much away from this weekend, and I can't find what thing or what source should be the recipient of my overwhelmingly positive emotion I am currently bottling up...

Thanks for reading and just sign up next year.

...Cavs fans, settle down...

The Cavs won the 1st and 4th picks last night, here are the 1st and 4th picks from 2000 on - will these fellas a championship make? I wouldn't be so sure.  Success rate can't be higher than %50.  We know they are picking Kyrie Irving & probably Kanter - would you be thrilled beyond belief at your chances?  If you were Orlando, would you sign and trade Dwight for these picks? I would!

2010 - John Wall, Wesley Johnson
Way, way, way too early to judge either of these guys. But Cavs fans, you aren't winning in '11-'12 either way.

2009 - Blake Griffin, Tyreke Evans (WOW!)
Immediate impact players, although Evans has had big time maturity issues. Just speaks to the insanity of the draft, and drafting young players.

2008 - Derek Rose, Russell Westbrook (WOW!)
Two years into these picks, you have a mega-squad...

2007 - Greg Oden, Mike Conley
Injuries and disappointments...Conley isn't bad, but he's not a championship PG/SG

2006 - Andrea Bargnani, Tyrus Thomas
No thanks.

2005 - Andrew Bogut, Chris Paul
Took Bogut a LONG time to get good, Paul was immediate. If the Cavs use this blueprint, they are a strong '14-'15 team.

2004 - Dwight Howard, Shaun Livingston
Poor Shaun. Dwight + anyone is a good bet, although I can't stand him.

2003 - Lebron James, Chris Bosh
Eight seasons later, 0 championships

2002 - Yao Ming, Drew Gooden
See Oden & Conley

2001 - Kwame Brown, Eddy Curry
Plop.

2000 - Kenyon Martin, Marcus Fizer
Not horrible, but not what you want...

...My Mellon Collie...

For anyone who is a Smashing Pumpkins fan, I spent about 3 hours today listening to Mellon Collie & The Infinite Sadness, and while I have nothing but incredible things to say about the album, I do recognize that making a double album following up the flawless Siamese Dream was a little presumptuous, and I can look back with reasonable judgement and think, "I wish Mellon Collie was a single album."

So, I am making it a single album.  The way I put this in my own brain was, if I was going to tell someone about the Pumpkins for the first time, and after they got comfortable with the insanity of Siamese Dream, I'd then introduce them to Mellon Collie, and this would be the album I wish they had the chance to hear:


1. Mellon Collie & The Infinite Sadness



2. Thru The Eyes Of Ruby



3. Bullet With Butterfly Wings  



4. Tonight, Tonight 



5. Zero 


6. Galapogos            


7. Muzzle  



8. Here Is No Why



9. 1979 


10. Thirty-Three 


11.  In The Arms of Sleep  

...NCAA @ 9:20pm...

Here is the answer to the question, "Why is the NCAA game at 9:20 tonight?":

Because you always have, and will continue to, watch big games at 9:20pm.

Advertisers drive the whole thing, obviously. This isn't about anything besides maximizing the advertising dollar - anyone who says different is not telling the truth, and anyone who can't understand that doesn't want to know the truth.

You may say, "but I think more people would watch if it started at 8:30," but you don't run Neilson, and you don't sell advertising space for CBS.  CBS and its agencies for advertising feel differently.  They don't sell a mythical larger audience an hour earlier, they sell a proven audience number that captures full attention of the LIVE West Coast viewership at 9:20pm.

Much like anything else in our capitalistic society - if you don't like how late it starts, don't watch, but more importantly, don't buy the products that advertise during the game, and don't visit the websites of the products that advertise during the game.

We can defeat this thing and by 2085 the game may start at 9:05, if we fight hard enough!

...Imagineer...

This is why being an imagineer is the greatest possible job on earth.



From the 8:00 minute mark til the end is really the part that astounds me.

This show is completely done by projection, no exterior lighting other than the projection, and each brick of the castle was mapped to design the video and project onto the castle.  The photos in the show are selected daily, from the photos that Disney takes throughout the day of guests (yes, voluntarily)

...Let the Libyan Lies Begin...

This will be short and sweet, but John Kerry going on record saying that Gadaffi isn't the target, and that the Humanitarian aspect is the reason we are charging into Libya, is really an insult to anyone who has a brain and can think their way out of a wet paper bag.

The reason that Humanitarian action is needed is because of Gadaffi, so there are 2 choices here.

We are either trying to stop a deluge with a roll of paper towels, instead of clamping up the leak.  Or we are flat out lying, and going after Gadaffi is our motive, and we won't stop until we see him hang on the internet like we did with Hussein.  Thank God Hussein is dead, given our leaders still can't go into Iraq without complete military coverage, 5 years later.

Hopefully if we get Gadaffi soon we'll all be able to take that Libyan vacation we've been dying to take in 2017.

Watch the news for 5 seconds and the list of propaganda statements being made to get the public on the side of this listless mission is so apparent and so putrid.  They are throwing out the T word - yup, we're now afraid of Libyan terrorism.  What a friggen coincidence?  The same exact week we decide to go in, and try to save every last civilian in Libya, we realize that we may be in trouble with Libyan terrorists.

The only logical thing I can think of is that we have a flux capacitor we shouldn't have:
(won't let me embed):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDS81Ibazdk