Sleep Schedule Update

I missed my nap today. Not the end of the world, but it did throw things off. On the plus side it gives me an excuse to try a modification to my sleep schedule that I'm considering. I found it as I was browsing Ye Olde Internet, so you know it's solid. The guy suggested that you always wake up at the same time every morning, but you go to bed when you're tired. I know it's not rocket science, but it's something I haven't tried, so I'll let you know how it goes.

Normally it's easy to stay up later but difficult to go to bed early, so that may be a problem, but I think as long as I stay away from the Red Bulls and Rockstars I should manage. Anyway I think I may have reached a new low in terms of interesting content, but is was either that or not blog at all. Yeah, you're right, I shouldn't have blogged at all.

Death by Snu-Snu!!

Shawshank Redemption

Shawshank Redemption is the #1 movie on IMDB. Obviously any ranking like that is by nature very subjective, but it's one I can live with. There are movies that I like better, there are movies that I enjoy for a specific reason, or when I'm in a specific mood, but in terms of broad appeal, in terms of a movie that speaks to just about everyone I think that it's as good a candidate as any. Obviously in any case I'm glad that it's no longer "The Dark Knight" (though it's only dropped to #3, which is still significantly inflated in my opinion).

You may be wondering why I would be blogging about the movie now. Well I put Disk Two of Shawshank (the bonus disk with all the special features) into my NetFlix queue. I've never put a bonus disk into my queue, and I confess that I kind of thought it was going to end up being a waste, but that I'd give it a shot in case I was wrong. I haven't watched all of the features yet, but so far I'd have to say that I was in fact wrong (mark it on your calendars). Now obviously this is probably not true for all movies, or even most, but I'm a little bit more open to the idea. Of course this realization is quite inconvenient. I just got done adding a bunch of movies to my queue bringing it up to 200 total (I admit that I suffer from the same irrational fondness for round numbers common to most human beings). I did the math on how long it's going to take me to get through those movies based on my past viewing history, and it's too embarrassing to share, let's just say that it's going to be awhile, a long while.

Some other movies that might make the "top ten", for those that are curious (and yes I'm aware that there are more than ten, thus the quotes): Empire Strikes Back, Royal Tenenbaums, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Se7en (it's all about the last line), Last of the Mohicans, Groundhog Day, Casablanca, Sunset Blvd., Glory, The Mission, Tommy Boy, Die Hard, and Iron Giant. That's probably enough, I think I hit most of the different genres. I'm curious what sort of movies would make your "top ten", in other words comments are welcome.

One final point, my lovely and long suffering wife let me out of the reception on Saturday, so I only ended up being on the road for three hours which was still a lot, but vastly preferable to the alternative.

I wanted to include "SuperBabies: Baby Geniuses 2" in the list, but I was too embarrassed

Five Hours of Driving

So tomorrow we have a wedding. We're invited to the ceremony, the luncheon and the reception. Most everything is about an hour south of here, my sister is watching our kids and she's a half hour north of here. The kids are invited to the reception. So here's the break down:

30 minutes to get the kids to my sisters house
60 minutes to get to the wedding
30 minutes to get to the luncheon
60 minutes to get back to our house (where b-i-l has graciously agreed to meet us halfway)
60 minutes to reception
60 minutes to get back home

So there you go five hours of driving tomorrow. I can hardly wait...

Perhaps we should just send them the $300 dollars we're going to spend on gas and call it good

That's Where I'm a Viking!

I think I may have blogged about this at some point in the past, but I'm too tired to make any sort of effort to determining whether that is in fact the case. So there was this episode of The Simpsons ("Lisa the Vegetarian" Season 7 Episode 5 to be exact) where the teacher out of frustration with Ralph Wiggum tells him to "just try to sleep while the other children are learning." To which Ralph replies, "Oh boy...sleep! That's where I'm a viking!" Now the most obvious interpretation of this is that he dreams about being a viking. All men of good sense and honest character reject this interpretation as unworthy of the brilliance and subversiveness of The Simpsons. For those with the taste and breeding to recognize it a second, more satisfying interpretation suggests itself. That being a viking is a metaphor for something that he's exceptionally good at.

So I have a a gigantic, awe-inspiring spreadsheet on which I keep all my to-do items, projects, habits, lists, goals, inspirational quotes, notes and anything else I can shove in there. An older version of this spreadsheet was called "Overlord" which may be more accurate, but on one of the revisions I decided to call it Viking, as in "Organization, that's where I'm a viking!" (humorous and inaccurate) Then came "Viking Part Deux" (an homage to Hot Shots! Part Deux)the next revision. I think I'm ready for another revision and I'm trying to come up with another name. I guess I could go for a completely different name, but I'm thinking I should stick with the movie reference. I'm thinking "Viking, Return of the Truth" (another simpsons reference "The truth? You can't handle the truth! No truth handler you! I deride your truth handling abilities!") but as you can see it doesn't quite sing... So I'm interested in suggestions, the person whose suggestion I use will receive the respect of their peers and a life-long glow of pride and accomplishment.

Viking, the Quickening

Last Cycling Post of the Season

So Contador won the Vuelta. For those of you not paying attention to my previous half-dozen posts on the topic, this means that he is the youngest person to win all three Grand Tours and the person to have done it the fastest. Now there's the whole business of the Vuelta now being in September when it used to be in the spring, so comparing him the other guys is a little bit like comparing apples and oranges, but still there's no denying that it was impressive.

The big take-away from this is that he knows how to train and peak at the right time. You get a lot of riders who have some really great performance at one of the grand tours and then after that they're always in the mix, but they never quite equal that first breakout performance. Having to win to big races in the same year is better proof of that, IMHO, than just about anything else he could have done. So he's a real contender and he knows it. And now that the Vuelta is done he's finally saying what he really thinks about the whole Armstrong return.

He says that he's considering switching to another team if Armstrong returns, and really who could blame him. I certainly get the feeling that Armstrong didn't give a second's thought to how this decision would impact the other people on Astana. However later in the article when he talks about Leipheimer that's less forgivable. I mean he won the Vuelta what else does he want? He claims that someone who was helping him shouldn't have been so close in time. What that says to me is that Leipheimer could of won but didn't precisely because he was subordinating his desires for the good of Contador and the team... Contador certainly lost a few points in my book for that one. I guess it will all be settled 10 months from now in the mountains of France.

As far as this being the last cycling post of the season. Armstrong is giving a few press conferences in the next couple of days, but if you want to know what he says, it's Armstrong for crying out loud, I'm sure you'll be able to find out...

It's not about the bike it's about the ego

Fantasy Football Update

Once upon a time I had what I thought was a great idea to get into wine collection. See I don't drink and thus I would never end up consuming the profits of wine that had appreciated in value. It seemed foolproof until my dad pointed out that since I didn't drink wine I would never have the visceral sense of what was good and what wasn't. I have the same problem with Fantasy Football. I enjoy football well enough, but other than a few big names I have no idea who's good, which teams are good, I have very little in the way of gut. So I'm mostly going on what ESPN projects for each player. Projections which have thus far been pretty bad (not that projecting things like that is ever easy.)

This week my opponent was completely done yesterday, and ended up 18.5 points ahead. I only had one slot left, I could play Thomas Jones of the Jets, or LaDainian Tomlinson. Normally that would be a no-brainer since LDT was the overwhelming recommendation for first pick by everyone, but he hadn't been doing that well and it appeared that he would not play very much, if at all. In fact right before the game the prognosis was particularly bad and one of my friends recommended playing Jones. I saw the message and immediately went to make the switch, but it was too late the game had started. Fortunately LDT finally lived up to his hype and he ended up scoring 19 fantasy points, meaning that I won by 0.5 points... I can only imagine how much that result sucked for my opponent, but I was pretty happy.

One of the things that's annoying about something like this is that even just three weeks in I've learned enough that I really wish I could go back and do things over starting with the draft. Oh, well maybe next year. Yes I fully intend to get into a fantasy league next year. It's actually just the kind of game I like. I can spend 5-10 minutes a day on it, more if I want to, less if necessary. It's got a good mix of skill and chance, and it's something that makes me less of a nerd...

My wife says she doesn't know me anymore

Block Walk

Every year the PTA at the kids elementary has a fund-raiser. It's called block walk, and the idea is that you get friends and family to pledge a certain amount for each time the kid manages to walk around the block the school is on (#1 Daughter- 7, #1 Son 16, #2 Son- 13 and #2 Daughter 5). They also sell tickets which you can use to buy food, get your hair colored, go on inflatable rides, etc. And they have a big silent auction with things that people and local businesses had donated.

I was mostly flying solo, because my wife left for her annual trip to Park City with my mom and sisters as soon as I arrived. It wasn't too bad though keeping track of all four kids proved to be a challenge, mostly because I was trying to let them do their own thing. They introduced this new thing this year where the teachers offered up something for auction (lunch with the teacher, an evening of pizza and reading, be principal for a day, etc.) All of our kids wanted to do it, but because of the way it was set up combined with our limited budget only the youngest managed to get into one, and that's when things got annoying...

So you have to pay for the silent auction stuff while you're there. Because of the way this particular teacher thing was set up, I knew I had won long before the end of the auction, but no one would take my money. So I figured as soon as the announced the end of the auction I would rush to wherever they were taking money so I could pay and then leave. As soon as they pointed to the people that would take my money I went over there and ended up being third in line. Well when I made it to the front of the line I discovered that they were only taking checks they couldn't take cash, that was the other line, which in the interim had swelled to like 50 people. So I moved to that line. It finally got down to where I was the next person to be helped. That's when the other line ran out of people and said they could help me. I mentioned that they said they couldn't take cash. "Oh, sure we can take cash!" They told me, so after waiting in line for 15 minutes I ended up being back in the line I'd started in...

grrrrrr....

Napping Update

So school has been in session for a few weeks and I've been napping or attempting to nap ever since. In general I would have to say that the success of the experiment has been mixed. I'm enjoying getting a good start on the day and I'm also really enjoying having lots of time in the evening/night. But I'm not sleeping as well as I should. I'm having a hard time falling asleep, and my naps are not as deep as I would expect. Generally when I napped before starting this experiment, I would fall asleep and then wake up about two hours later. Now when I nap I seem to be a little bit slower to fall asleep, when I do I'm not sleeping as deeply as during a "normal" nap, and I generally wake up after about 30-45 minutes, nest for another 5-10 and then fall asleep for another 30-45.

Currently I go to bed between about midnight and 1:00 (more often the former than the latter); wake up at 7:00; and nap between 1:00 and 3:00. I don't get a nap at least twice a week (Sunday's and Thursday's, i.e. today, for sure) and sometimes three times. If you do the math you'll probably notice that on those days that I do get a nap I'm in bed generally 9 hours a day, but I'm certainly not feeling over-rested.

So I think I need to make some changes (and I'm open to suggestions as well) I think to be ready for a nap at 1:00 I need to wake up earlier. I've been meaning for a while to start waking up at 6:30, but I've been putting it off with the rationalization that I needed the extra half hour in order to adjust to the schedule. Now I'm thinking that I need to force myself to wake up a little earlier in order to really take advantage of the nap... I think I'll be ok as long as I continue to go to bed mostly at midnight.

"The gaming post got a warning, but this literal snooze fest was presented without any caveat!?!??!"

Swordmage

***Gaming Post***
You have been warned

I've been playing in a 4E campaign for the last couple of months. It meets every week which actually means we've been able to cover quite a bit of territory, but that's really probably too much time, I think I'd be happier if it met every other week, but so it goes. I started out playing a Paladin, which in 4E assumes the role of defender. That was pretty cool, but even before the books were out I had my eye on a class that had been previewed called the swordmage. Also a defender but with a significantly different feel than the fighter or the paladin. The book which contained the swordmage class (Forgotten Realms Players Guide) was released yesterday so tonight was my first chance to play it. (Normally we game on Friday's but we moved it to Wednesday's because of conflicts.)

Last week the paladin was killed in an epic battle that really all but turned into a TPK (total party kill). There were several points when half the party was down to a single hit point, and actions were so precious that people who had been knocked prone spent the entire combat crawling around after that. My paladin went down at least a half a dozen times before being brought back by the cleric, and every time he'd go toe-toe with the big bad guy. Finally the BBG was sick of it and the next time he was down he coup de grace'd me and that was the end of that. Of course that was fine because as I mentioned I wanted to switch to playing a swordmage.

So tonight was the night. The best thing about rolling a new character was that I had learned a lot of lessons from my previous attempt at playing a defender. First off this whole business of building a defender that focuses on damage? You can if you want, but it's going to suck. You'll never do as much damage as the strikers and if you're even attempting to do your job correctly you'll end up getting the snot kicked out of you because you won't have the AC and defenses of someone who's focused strictly on defense. So that was mistake number one I rectified. Other mistakes were less obvious, but now that I had seen more of 4E combat and had a better idea of how to play a defender my power selection was a lot better as well. And finally the swordmage has some really fun powers.

In any case it was quite enjoyable. None of the combats from tonight were as tough as the gigantic fight from last week, but I think this defender is definitely more durable than my previous attempt. And that's really what I wanted. I want a defender who, not so surprisingly has the best defense. I think I got there.

A possible AC of 31 at level 6 might not sound like much (or may not make any sense at all) but trust me it's impressive

Tech Support

Through a path too circuitous to document I've ended up being in a position where I have to do tech support. As is usually the case no matter how many (or how few) people you're supporting there's always someone who needs 10X if not 100X the support of everyone else. The problem is not that they're needy, I mean I may not like it when stuff is broken but if it's legitimately broken then telling me about it is the whole point. It's the way they tell me about it.

For example they e-mailed me on Sunday about something that really wasn't that urgent. Maybe I'm weird, maybe I'm a prima donna, but Sunday is basically my only day off, the one day when there is some chance of disengaging from all the crap that's going on in my business and at work, etc. Plus (again for reasons to circuitous to document) I'm doing tech support of the kind where I mostly run interference for the developers. In other words while I can fix some of the issues, many if not most have to be referred to the guy who actually wrote the stuff. Which means not only are they bothering me on my day off, they're bothering me at the only point in the week when it's likely that I won't be able to do anything about it.

So right off the bat getting an e-mail on Sunday puts me in a bad mood. But if it had been a "look at this when you get a chance", then even coming on Sunday it would have not been that big of a deal. But the e-mail was really... aggressive. They asked over and over again why this was broken, why this hadn't happened, why hadn't I responded (cause this was the first I'd heard of it), why? why? why? But the icing on the cake was that each time they wrote the word "why" it was in all caps. Now this is probably just them not being as familiar with e-mail etiquette as they could be, but obviously, "why haven't you responded?" is a LOT different than "WHY haven't you responded? In any case in retrospect it wasn't that big of a deal, mostly I just needed to vent (and a subject other than cycling to blog about).

WHY won't you comment?!?

Tag

I just got done playing freeze tag in the backyard with the kids. I'll tell you if you want to feel old... Holy cow! Fortunately I didn't throw up, which is something that, sadly, happens all too frequently when I overdo it like I did tonight. We were playing freeze tag and I had to show the boys that the old man could still catch them and out run them, at least for stretches lasting no longer than 3 seconds... I kept hoping that they would freeze me and I could stay frozen, but no such luck. Eventually I did get to sit down and watch the sunset reflected off the mountains, which was quite nice.

Now I'm just sitting here nursing a coke and trying to get my head calm down and watching Sense and Sensibility (the Ang Lee version). As an English major it's hard for me to resist Austen, despite what people may say about my manliness. Hopefully by the time it's over and the older two kids have gone to bed I'll be feeling well enough to get some stuff done, but who knows it's possible that my 15 minutes of running around could have made the rest of the evening a wash...

Die Hard was the first movie Alan Rickman ever appeared in

Interesting Obituary

Well since I've been on a kick with cycling for the last few days I figured why break the trend?

I just saw this awesome obituary about this long distance cyclist who basically biked every where. I'm running a little bit behind today so I thought I'd toss this out there and let it stand on it's own.

These days I'd have a hard time biking from the bedroom to the bathroom...

More on Contador

Velonews posted a more in depth article today on Contador's reaction to Armstrong's return. For those of you who aren't going to click through and read the article (I'm actually assuming that no one even made it this far). Here's the interesting bit:

If Armstrong does rejoin his longtime director Bruyneel at Astana, his larger-than-life presence will certainly reshuffle the existing power structure within the team.

Along with Contador, there are Leipheimer and Klöden, two riders who’ve also finished on the Tour podium and who still harbor their own personal ambitions.

Contador seemed peeved Wednesday when journalists kept asking him if Armstrong’s arrival to Astana would undermine his role as team leader.

“We could be good teammates, but if I go to the Tour next year, it’s to win,” Contador said. “What problem would we have?”

Bruyneel said if Armstrong did come back to Astana, he would have to prove his worth within the team.

“I think Alberto is the best rider in the world right now,” he said. “Lance was the best rider in the world, but after being away from the sport for three years, he has to demonstrate again whether or not he can return to the highest level. The road will decide everything.”

A Tour showdown between Contador and Armstrong would be one hell of a race. Whether or not they’ll be on the same team remains to be seen.

The can be "Good teammates", but both of them claim they'll be there to win it? "What problem would they have?" Isn't it obvious?

At least Bruyneel is saying that Armstrong will have to prove himself... And yes it would be "one hell of a race".

My role as team-leader is constantly being undermined...

Confirmed!

In a Vanity Fair exclusive (warning, somewhat disturbing Annie Lebowitz photo at the top) it's confirmed that Armstrong is going to race the Tour next year and he intends to win it. See this is what I figured. An arch-competitor like him is not going to go back to the Tour unless he intends so win it. It basically goes without question that he's going to be back with Bruyneel at Astana, so where does that leave Contador the current tour winner on the Astana Roster?

Does he stay and publicly say he'll help Armstrong in 2009 while secretly hoping that Armstrong flags and he can jump into team leader position. The problem there is that there's a decent chance that this is not the Armstrong of yesteryear but that he keeps it close enough that it's never obvious (until it's too late) that they need to switch from Armstrong to Contador. Contador is young, so on the one hand he could skip a year and still have a great career, on the other hand he's just getting in the really sweet zone for a cyclist and it maybe Lemond and Hinault all over again.

Does he go to another team? I'm sure there's no shortage of teams who'd love to have him, but Astana is the best stage race team out there, do you abandon it just because you're not going to be the leader for one year? Of course this raises the question of whether Armstrong can just walk into the leader position. I mean I assume he can, but if Johan really thinks that Contador has the better chance is he going to ignore that? In any case a 2009 Tour with Armstrong promises, regardless of what else goes down with Contador and the rest, incredibly exciting.

In this theatre that I call my soul/I always play the starring role, so lonely...

Edit: Contador is reported as saying: "It would be an honor to be able to ride with Lance Armstrong. Nothing in this news seems strange to me. Lance Armstrong is such an important rider that you can allow for everything. He's a rider that you could propose as winning the Tour, but for the moment we can only classify these as rumors."

Is it just me or does the "It would be an honor", sound like just the sort of polite thing people say through clenched teeth...

Lance Armstrong Pulling a Michael Jordan

So I guess "sources" are saying that Lance Armstrong will race in the Tour de France next year (credit to hallamigo for the scoop). Initially I'm not sure what to make of this. He turns 37 this month, the oldest person to ever win was 36 and that was back in 1922 when it was essentially not even the same race.

The rumor is that he'd race on the Astana team. Which makes sense, since that's the team of his old pal/mentor Johan Brunyeel, but Astana is also the team of Alberto Contador, the guy I blogged about just the other day who won the Tour last year, won the Giro this year and is still favored to take the Vuelta this year. I can't imagine that Armstrong thinks he can win it again, but that's almost an easier idea to swallow then the idea that he's going to be content being a helper...

Anyhow, it could make for a very interesting Tour next year. My fear is that having Armstrong on the team could lead to a situation where neither Armstrong or Contador would win. The Tour of California and the Tour of Georgia are also on the list of races (five in total) he's expected to race, so it's possible that it's as much about helping American cycling as it is about making some kind of comeback. Apparently he'll also be "post[ing] all of his internally tested blood work online, in an attempt to establish complete transparency and prove that he is a clean athlete." So that's another wrinkle. The whole thing is all a little strange.

Is it too late for me to make my comeback?

Fantasy Football

When I was back at my old job there was always a big group of guys who would do a fantasy football league every year. It always sounded like fun, but I never figured that I had enough knowledge to participate. Well I mentioned this a couple of months ago to a friend of mine and he said that it doesn't actually require all that much knowledge that you could auto draft and it would almost play itself. In other words I could put as much or as little time into it as I wanted. So I said sure, so he created a league posted an invite to some message boards we're both on and next thing you know I was doing a live draft on Saturday with 9 other people.

The live draft was surprisingly fun. There was quite a bit of adrenaline involved since you only have 90 seconds to make a decision, and I had the last choice followed by the first choice from one round to the next so I had to make two decisions back to back. Of course part of my enjoyment inevitably stemmed from the fact that I had first pick. So I ended up with LaDainian Tomlinson a name I hadn't even heard (that I can remember) before Saturday and Peyton Manning (a name I obviously had heard of). In my first match-up, this weekend, I'm favored by 14 points. I think it might end up closer than that, but in any case I think I'm going to have fun. I'll let you know how I do.

At the mere mention of Football my wife rolls her eyes

Vuelta a España

It's easy to think, particularly if you don't live in Europe. That there is really only one bike race all year. But as you might imagine there's more to Cycling than just the Tour de France. There are in fact three so-called Grand Tours. The Giro d'Italia, the Tour and the Vuelta a España. Only four people have won all three (Anquetil, Felice Gimondi, Merckx, Hinault, nope not Armstrong). Alberto Contador won the Tour last year and won the Giro this year, so if he can win the Vuelta he will become the fifth person to win all three and the youngest ever. Why do I mention all this? Well because, of course, the Vuelta is happening as we speak.

They started with a short team time trial, enough to establish rankings, but not long enough to shake things up very much. Today was the first long time trial. Levi Leipheimer who first came to the attention of the cycling world by coming third in the 2001 Vuelta, won the stage and took the leader's jersey (which they say is gold, but is really more of an Amber or maybe a Gamboge). So not a bad day for America, but of course the question is how did Contador do? Well as you know of course Leipheimer and Contador are on the same team, and as always when something like this happens questions arise as to who the real leader is...

Well Contador came in fourth today which for someone who's often described as "the best climber in the world" is really good. And this Vuelta is definitely about climbing, it includes the l'Angrilu a beast of a climb that includes ramps that are steeper than 20%. The last time the did it, it was raining and the team cars couldn't make it up. In any case it should be exciting to see if Contador can pull off the triple win, so I'll definitely be following the race. If he does I'll let you know, but you can follow it yourself if you want on Velonews.com. Here's the write-up of today's stage.

Winded just thinking about the climbing

Das Leben der Anderen

We have a three disc Netflix subscription. One of them is for me, one of them is for my wife and the third is for the kids (as you can imagine we were very happy when NetFlix reversed their decision to get rid of profiles). Sometimes I'm pretty good about getting through the movies and sending them back, other times I'm really bad. Recently I was really bad, I had "Das Leben der Anderen" (The Lives of Others) out as my movie. I had heard really good things about it, so good that I wanted to make sure my wife got to see it as well. Also it's rated R (aren't all foreign films?) so it's not something we can really watch while the kids are awake.

So the task then becomes to find two and a half hours where the kids are asleep and my wife and I are both in the mood for a depressing sub-titled foreign film. As you might imagine this is a pretty tall order. So I think I had the movie out for over a month before I finally got around to it. And I'm not sure I'd have gotten around to it even then if my wife hadn't decided that she had seen enough depressing movies recently, and she didn't want to watch it.

Anyway having said all of that it was really good, every bit as good as people said. I'm not ashamed to say that I cried at the end. I'd venture to say that it should be required viewing (once they hit a certain age, say college) for everyone who doesn't remember East Germany or the Soviet Bloc.

In California, you can always find a party. In Soviet Russia, The Party can always find you!

Labor Day

Well it's another holiday. Which is good for a number of reasons. For one our power was out from around 5 pm last night until a little after 7:00 this morning, so if it hadn't been a holiday school might have been tricky, I'm sure we still would have been fine, but it was nice to just not have to worry about it. We had a pretty big storm last night which is what caused the power outage. Though as usual it was very localized, which means that if there's 28,000 households without power and your specific outage is only affecting maybe 60 houses you're going to be pretty low on their overall priority list.

Anyway unlike most people who are just goofing off today. ;) I'm actually in the office laboring. One of my partners is here as well, other than that the building is empty. Which is actually kind of nice, it means I can listen to my music as loud I want. Anyway, just taking a break from the laboring, you know. More tomorrow, perhaps I'll dive back into politics...

What are you looking at? You're laborers; you're supposed to be laboring. That's what you get for not having an education.