No, I do not have kids.
Yes, I do plan on having some.
I think taking kids on planes is awesome. It's an experience that all children should have. It means they're seeing more of the world than their home or daycare, and I feel in the long run that they'll be better people for it.
I also realize kids are difficult to control. That's acceptable. It's not the three hours of screaming or the weeklong pain in my neck that follows sitting in front of your child on an aircraft. Really, I am OK with that; I was a problem child myself... I get it.
What you can control, however, is how you handle yourself. You were well aware that your kid kicked my seat every five seconds (I heard you reprimanding him). Not apologizing during or following the flight is not the right way to go about things; it makes me hate you something special and write a blog post to let the world know how much you suck.
Parents, if your kid is a disruption on a plane, it is your duty to get them under control OR apologize to those around you. This is not negotiable. Do not fill up my comments with flavors of "Oh, you don't get it." I do get it. I paid just as much money as you to sit on this flight, and I was hoping it'd be quiet and enjoyable, because, quite possibly, I've just been through one of the most difficult experiences of my life and I haven't slept much in several days due to it. You've taken that hoped-for from me. I'm not going to shout at you, tell a stewardess, change seats (unless it's an empty flight), ask for a refund, or other such silliness... I just want you to recognize that my flight was made uncomfortable by you. When I make people uncomfortable, I tend to apologize. Not much to it. I think it makes them feel better about whatever situation we're faced with. I learned this concept in preschool. While it took me many years to truly grasp it, I've got a solid grip now that I'm of child-creating age.
Side Note: There is an age limit to this free pass. On the 2nd flight of my trip, I had a 14 year old butch girl who thought she was the next Jack Black sitting next to me. Loud, nonstop jabber, shouting to friends multiple rows away (was on a church trip), singing out loud (emphasis on loud). It was abysmal. I had left my headphones in my baggage, which was gate-checked so I ended up spending the entire flight with my finger in my ear. Her mother was sitting in the row in front of her... I think I'll define the upper limit of your kid being able to act however they want at six.
Yeah, flying last week sucked. Yeah, my neck still hurts.
As I write this, I hover somewhere around 40,000 feet over the Atlantic en route to Florida. The trip is unexpected, I will not be tanning on the beach, and it comes at a most inopportune time, but with adulthood comes such responsibility.
My grandmother had a fall and while in relatively good shape for someone in their eighties who spent a few days on a floor, is likely no longer able live on her own. In normal circumstances, my parents would have already been down there (this unfolded on Monday night) and be well on their way to taking care of things, but circumstances are not normal and they're not in the best situation to be providing the necessary support.
After a day of folks doing a lot of talking and not much happening (nobody should be alone in a hospital for days on end until a social worker gives us word that something needs to happen), I took the reins, bought a plane ticket, and will be taking care of things.
At age 29, I feel this is a truly large step in life. I normally tackle things head-on and sleep like a rock no matter what lies ahead, but the thought of being fully responsible for another adult's well-being and care is entirely new, admittedly very scary, and kept me up most of the night. Our entire lives we are taught the very basics of life so that when we're suddenly out on our own, we are able to function; we all watched mom cook and clean, and lo and behold, we were able to fumble our way through both the first time we tried. I suppose the same goes for care of another, but there is also something about it that feels very different.
In a bit over an hour I land and truly begin this adventure. I think I'm ready for it. I hope I'm ready for it. I know I'm ready for it; I'm an adult now.
Following the airing of the US Marathon Trials (spoiler warning!), I found myself without a team in the playoffs, a little bored, and in need of a run. On the downside, it was dark and 30 degrees. Whatever... that's running.
After about 20 minutes of prep, I was double-layered from head to toe, had my credit card, a metro card, my phone, a gel, and no plan other than to stick to the Orange Line and ride it home when I was done. I haven't run more than nine miles (and that was only once... other than that, maybe six) since I fully gave into my injury in late 2009; I didn't expect to make it much past Rosslyn.
So I set out. Less than a mile in, I had to ditch those stupid iPhone headphones (I gave them a shot since I was wearing a headband and my usual sports headphones don't work with them) and take a leak. Not an ideal start.
Once I got going again, I hit a groove. Five miles in, I was approaching Georgetown with my sights set on the running store. While my legs felt great, my nips were burning something serious... I NEEDED SOME GLIDE. Unfortunately, they were closed. Jogging around to a few other stores in the area, I finally sourced some, lubed up the ole chesticles, and was back in business.
-- Sorry for the pic quality and goofiness... very tough to take a blind photo of yourself. Yes, iPhone has a front-facing camera, but I needed flash and that's only on the back one. I was not being picky with my poses... Just giving Heather a live tour of my run, which at least she's lying about having enjoyed :)
From Georgetown, I followed the waterfront, passed the Kennedy Center, the Lincoln Memorial [pic], the Washington Monument [pic], The White House [pic] (where I was yelled at for not running on the sidewalk and where I also noticed for the first time the countless blacked out random vehicles in the parking lot), the Capitol [pic], The Supreme Court, Library of Congress, and finally down to RFK Stadium [pic].
My hamstrings feel good, my legs are pretty beat in general, but that's natural. I'm very hopeful that 2012 will be a great year of progress runningwise.
I've now been commuting via bicycle for a solid four years or so. I don't ride in severe weather or days in which I have errands to run [that aren't bikeable], but it's safe to say 75% of the time I head into work, it's on my trusty steed. On those days, I also run all my errands by bike. My training log returns 436 hits for the word "commute." It's safe to assume 99% of those were by bicycle. My typical commute is just under four miles round-trip, but again, I often run errands on the bike and also head into DC for "2nd job" on it as well so we'll say my average "commute" is right around five miles. 436*5 = ~2000 miles commuted.
Suffice to say, I love it. Why do I love it? Lucky you, that's the point of this post:
It's better for the Earth. Yes, manufacturing a bicycle isn't green, but the couple thousand miles equates to ~100 gallons of gasoline not consumed, which then equates to ~2000 pounds of carbon dioxide not put into our air.
It's better for me. 2000 miles * 50 calories per mile = 100k calories burned. 100k calories / 3500 calories per pound = ~30lbs of weight lost. Sure, I make up for that by eating a bit more, but I'm 100% certain I wouldn't be in the shape/size I'm in now without what commuting provides.
It's better for you. One less car on the road = one less car in traffic = an ever so slight improvement in your day.
It's cheaper. Using the government estimate for miles, 2000 * $.55 = $1100. My bike cost me $700 to build and $0 to maintain (huzzah single-speed) and shows no signs of needing a penny anytime soon. Meanwhile, that $1100 not spent keeps growing.
I get to see many things I would not see in a car. Traffic accident? Water main break? Giant tree down across a road? I can stop and check it out.
I get to explore whenever I want to (at 55 degrees last night, it was "a nice night," so I took a long/new way home through some neighborhoods).
There's no risk of a traffic jam. I think the most people I've even seen on the ride to or from is probably ten. I'd say it averages one.
I never get stuck with a crappy parking spot. Well, that's debatable, I suppose.
Fresh air is nice. I mean, it's gotta be, right? They have a flipping fund for it (Note: established in 1877... pretty serious business)!
It's often quicker from point A to point B (I have beaten Heather from Clarendon to our home, three miles away).
Perhaps the biggest benefit, and the one that triggered me to write this today... The light amount of heat and sweat produced in my short ride perfectly irons small wrinkles out of clothing. This morning I wanted to wear a nice(r) shirt (it's not hard to top my usual tee). Unfortunately, it had some small wrinkles. I really didn't want to iron it. I had also planned on driving in since it is 35 degrees with 25mph winds. Yes, I'm currently sitting at my desk with a nice, smoothly sweat-ironed shirt.
I could go on for days, but thought it was fitting to end this at 13 given the date today and given the fact I have a lot of work to do. If you have never tried it, I implore you to bike to work at least once... Get wild, just give it a shot. Sure, if you have a ride longer than two miles, you have clothing and showering logistics to work out, but plenty of folks do it and I'd have to think the growing numbers means it might actually be "a better way."
Weheariteveryyearatthistime (note: really quick Google search for "BCS is broken" -- I could link every word in this article with a new story if I had the time). The national champion isn't the best team, the best team didn't play in the championship, there are two national champions, it's all a farse, college football is stupid, the BCS is stupid, let's fix it, etc., etc., etc.
I do think college football is stupid since there's such a wide gap in the talent pool and because nobody, other than the 2011 Alabama team can play defense. I don't have data from this year, but last year's Boise State team outscored their opponents by 32.5 points per game. That isn't their total score. That's their OUTscore. They outscored their opponents by more points than the top NFL offense (New England, 32.3) scored per game last year (I use last year because this year's Packers were ridiculous and don't make as good an example), but I digress.
Without the BCS, its crazy rules, calculations, bullshit, etc., what would sportscasters talk about for the month surrounding bowl season? If you've had the misfortune of tuning into one of the sports channels between December and February, you will find the hottest topic to be how broken the BCS is. Every damned year.
To end these shenangians once and for all, I propose college football be banned altogether.
Apparently I didn't blog about it last year, but my "regular" league of college friends opted to do a keeper league last year. You can keep two players, their draft round is +1 from the previous year, and you can't keep 1st rounders.
I had a hell of a year last year, picking up Michael Vick from free agency (he counted as my 5th rounder) and I whimsically drafted Arian Foster in the 5th round (he'd be my 4th rounder).
As you can imagine, this was met with many complaints, and we discussed changing the keeper rules for this year, but in the end I don't think we did.
Anyway, it was expected that I'd win the year with ease.
I had what I'd consider a pretty good draft... I don't mean to steal the term from Vince Young, but it was surely a dream team... Even moreso than the Eagles.
QB1: Michael Vick (5th Round)
RB1: Arian Foster (4th Round)
RB2: Chris Johnson (1st Round)
WR1: Greg Jennings (2nd Round)
WR2: DeSean Jackson (3rd Round)
WR3: Kenny Britt (4th Round)
TE: Rob Gronkowski (11th Round)
K: Adam Vinatieri (15th Round)
DEF: San Francisco (16th Round)
QB2: Joe Flacco
QB3: Colt McCoy
RB3: Jonathan Stewart
WR4: Santana Moss
WR5: Lance Moore
WR6: Mike Williams
WR7: Devin Hester
The start was a slow one. Arian was injured, CJ wasn't producing, Kenny Britt did nothing until he was put on IR in Week3. But come on, look at that team. Through 8 weeks, I was a mere 4-4, but had the highest point total. I can't recall, but I think I had the highest scored against or close to it as well. Crap luck, some duds, and a bunch of injuries, and I ended the season as the 4th place seed with an 8-5 record and the 2nd most points scored (shy of 1st by 7). Getting to the playoffs is really all that matters.
Over the course of the season I messed around with free agency quite a bit. The top grabs turned out to be Tim Tebow (got me through Vick's injuries), Dan Bailey proved to be a heck of a kicker, Eric Decker filled in nicely when Santana was out (I actually released him and then got him back for the playoffs, which turned out pretty well) and DeSean wasn't producing (wait, DeSean was terrible all season...), and the Dallas defense ended up replacing the SF one (despite being an outstanding defense, SF doesn't score big fantasy-wise).
I continued to have no faith for Vick into the playoffs, and rightly so. While Tebow only grabbed me 8pts in the first week, Vick had 6. The rest of my team also decided to not show up with 2, 6, 5, and -1.5 points from Jennings, CJ, Foster, and Dallas, respectively. I only lost by five points, but this was a well-deserved failure. Dropping to the consolation bracket/game for 5th place, folks showed up a bit more, but still not enough to win either of the two games in the winner's bracket (even if I had, that doesn't count for anything... just saying) so I very deservedly came away with a 5th place overall.
Looking at next year, I'll likely be keeping Gronkowski as my 5th rounder and Foster will again be retained, but this time moving to my 3rd round slot (still a heck of a deal).
Most every week I did manage to play the ideal lineup, which means a lot of this was out of my hands. Looking at the roster above, assuming they all performed as they should have, things would be very different, but I digress. At the end of the day, I'm the one responsible for the guys on the roster so the fault lies on me. 5th place is nothing to scoff at, but I want more.
Being a stats nerd, I put together a history of our fantasy league (has been running 6 years). Pretty interesting to see the breakdown and how the tiers of managers are further defining themselves. There is one person clearly blowing us all away, a 2nd tier, an "average" tier, and then an "abysmal" tier. Points are based on your finish. As with golf, a lower "score" is better:
Matt (x+1+1+10+2+4) = (18/5)*6 = 21.6
Mike (1+9+4+6+3+5) = 28
David (5+6+5+2+11+1) = 30
Butter (4+2+7+8+7+2) = 30
Newman (1+3+12+4+6+8) = 34
Jakedog (6+3+2+11+10+3) = 36
Craig (x+5+10+7+4+7) = (33/5)*6 = 39.6
Sean (3+10+6+1+9+12) = 41
Greg (7+7+9+3+5+10) = 41
Louis (10+8+8+5+1+9) = 41
Dnorm (9+12+3+9+12+6) = 51
Steve (8+11+11+12+8+11) = 61
2nd? Not so bad.
It should be noted that "Greg" auto-drafts and doesn't watch or know anything about football. His free agent moves included picking up Mike Kafka in Week 3 or something and Matt Leinart at the end of the season... Head scratchers to say the least. The fact that he's not at the bottom and is very nearly "mid-pack" says something about those around or below him. In the words of the great Paul Rudd, "Do less."
I guess it shouldn't be much of a surprise as there are clubs for everything, but there are MUSHROOM CLUBS out there. I discovered this when doing some research on some mini terrariums I gifted for the holidays.
I love mushrooms, I love new hobbies... Is the MAW for me?
Coffee is a lot like wine. It has snobs, it can be expensive, the same exact coffee may taste differently one year over the next... There's a lot of information to collect, and it's really useful to be able to go back to see if you've had a variety before and whether or not you liked it. Winelog does that for you with wine. There isn't any site that does that for coffee.
Since the past year was not exactly ideal, I'm going to be repeating a few of the failed goals... I also have a wedding and honeymoon coming up, which pretty much takes me away from regular life for a month so I need to keep that in mind (mainly with cycling mileage).
Run 1000 miles. That's less than 20 a week. This past week I did over 20 and felt pretty darn good. I think this is the year to get it.
Bike 2500 miles. Yes, despite losing a month, I'm going to step it up here.
Swim 50 miles. Time to get serious.
Compete in a road bike race. Need to keep my fitness up over these winter months.
Bench press 225. Given the amount I've been working out, I think this should be pretty easy.
Go sub-19 in a 5k. I'm going to focus on shorter distances (shorter training) and higher speed as I get back into the groove. This shouldn't be too hard with some track work and base miles over the winter. Sub-18 might be possible, but let's not get carried away.
Read 15 books.
Review 36 spots on Yelp.
Brew my own something. I'm leaning toward cider.
Reach 170lbs.
Write 52 blog posts (from 40). I missed a lot of details on here in the past year, but time has been hard to come by.
Get total Netflix queue down to 200 (currently at 263).
Already that time again? This year seems to have flown. The year was a huge mix of ups and downs and 2012 looks like it'll hold much of the same. The downs, as all of you know, are absolutely shit, but on the other hand, the highs have been some of the best of my life. It was really tough for me during the dropping of the ball last night to look fondly forward to this year, but you can't live with dread or fear... Live each day as if it's a normal one and the next one will be too. I digress...
A look back at my goals, which kind of get a free pass given the curve life was thrown from the start:
Run 1000 miles. I was ahead of myself on this. I probably could have done it, but I've instead been running what's comfortable and only now do I feel I'm at a point where I can run almost every day without reaggravating my injuries.
Bike 2000 miles. Ungh! Apparently, last month I broke the formula I use in my calculation spreadsheet and thought I had far too many miles left to achieve this (I knew it'd be a tough December to ride). Today, I corrected the error after adding my mileage for the month and came up 23 short. 1977 miles is nothing to scoff at, but... damnit.
Visit another country. Did it! Canada was visited as part of our cruise to Alaska. I know, Canada is a weak way to get this, but it was the west coast!
Bike 100 miles in a day. I didn't do this. I have no good reason why... I just never did it. I did a number of rides over 60 miles and one over 80 on a whim, but never did the 100.
Run a marathon. Like running 1000 miles, this was getting ahead of myself.
Run a sub-19 5k. I lost focus on running training this year. I think it would have been possible, but I was too busy riding bikes and swimming and stuff.
Compete in a bike race. I did a number of them... Placed 3rd in a team endurance race, and had several other podiums in local mountain bike races. I didn't do the road racing thing, but that was more of not registering for stuff in time / needing to keep a flexible schedule.
Get married (it was a joke). I think I did as well as I could. 3.5 months until the big day!
Acquire a 3rd regular client for my side business. Did it!
Read 12 books. Finished on December 28th.
Review 12 spots on Yelp. Did 31 and was part of the "Elite 11" squad. That'll do.
Get a certification. Became a Microsoft Partner via 2nd job, but that doesn't really count.
Maintain 170lbs. Failure, despite burning the most calories I ever have over the year. I blame this on lifting a lot more weights.
Lots of gray areas up there so I'd say I accomplished around 50%. That's far and away my worst showing ever, but I still think I did alright. Next year? Fewer goals... I think... Maybe.
Notable posts and events (I was bad about blogging regular stuff) over the past year:
Rated 159 Netflix items (only way I can easily calculate how much stuff I've seen over the year)... I track my Netflix stats by month and have some sweet graphs to show you if you're interested.
Heather and I now share a 550sqft apartment. It's awesome.
I'm looking forward to 2012 with lots of hope. I hope Mom can maintain her positive outlook and stay strong, I hope Emily's follow-up test this week comes back negative, I hope Jade can stay out of the hospital and continue down the path of leading a normal life, and I hope it doesn't rain on our wedding day.
If I learned anything from this past year, it's to live without regret. Say what you need to say, do what you want to do, and don't let anything or anyone get in your way.
