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2012-366 Day 264 – Softball Schedule

I swear, softball will be down to once or twice a week soon. I just get a little excited, that’s all. We had our draft last night and I checked all my boxes from yesterday, minus optional number 3 (power hitter). In an amazing feat, we managed to draft incredibly balanced (in our estimation) the first time through according to our numbers, with four teams having the exact same score and the fifth team off by .038 points to the positive. Not bad at all.

We’re trying something new with our schedule this year after last year’s successful playoffs out at the S-Turns park in Simi. We’re going to have the playoffs there again, but also have two additional days out there so we can fit more games in. I was tasked with creating a schedule for the season, but had one major complication staring at me when I started.

That complication was the fact that we only had enough signups for five teams, which we’ve done before, but last season we had six (which was so much easier). I hate BYEs, because that means one less week playing softball (and they are finite already). I solved this problem once in the past (two years ago, actually) by having one team a week play double headers. With the addition of our desire to play at the S turns parks (where we can run two games at a time) twice, I had a surplus of games but had to figure out how to fit five teams into them.

This was when the idea struck me. If we were willing to play two games in a day, why not three on one day. Not everyone, nor everyday, that would be crazy. No, rather, why not have each team play one triple-header? It was genius, it had to work.

But it didn’t. Five teams and two days at the park that could accommodate all those games, there was still an odd man out. Ah, but there was one other factor in play. Since we pushed the season back a week due to an all church event, I was now dealing with nine weeks instead of ten. Subtract one weekend at the end for playoffs, and that left an eight week regular season. With two of those weeks played in the Simi Park and featuring the triple headers, now we had six weeks and five teams which each had to play one double header. Six minus five left one week unaccounted for, so what if I had the odd team out of the triple header sweepstakes play an extra double header?

And here is where I began the tried-and-true strategy of firing up Excel and plugging stuff in. I noted which team had the double header each week and which two teams were playing the triple headers on each of the Simi Weeks. I then randomly picked a team to play the second double header and plugged in the assignments.

Lo and behold, it worked perfectly. Each team played 12 games. A little bit of shuffling ensured that each team played each other the same number of times (12/4 is 3, of course). Then I set up a formula which counted the home and away numbers, which were actually remarkable close. A little bit of tweaking there got everyone 6 home and 6 away games. The only thing I wasn’t able to balance was the game times, but I came fairly close.

You can behold my handiwork here: http://www.mworland.com/rps/Sball2012, I’m pretty proud of it (hence the blog post).

Weight: 227 Loss: 13 lbs – Running Yearly Mileage: 297.7 miles
Fitocracy Level: 25 ID: disciplev1

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By Matt
September 20, 2012

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2012-366 Day 263 – Softball Draft Strategy

In a couple of hours I’ll be in the middle of my fifth softball draft. It’s always a fun mental exercise, if not the most efficient use of time, trying to put together a team and seeing what other people are doing. I’ll share some of my strategies and elaborate a bit on them, as the chances of the other coaches seeing this in the next few hours (heck, ever) are slim to none, and slim left town. Even if they do, most of them already know how I do what I do.

1) Get a high draft pick – This one is usually taken care of for me, since I have no power to speak of and they have pity on me. We do a snake style draft (first person picks at the start of the first round, end of the second round, start of the third round, end of the fourth round, etc.), however, so I have to be careful because my turn will not be coming up again for a while.

2) Get a quality package – Since my second pick is devalued, if there is a group of people on the board (they are allowed to sign up as a group of up to 4) that is going to give me the best bang for my buck, I’ll draft them and forgo my second pick. I can’t remember the last time I only picked one person in the first round.

3) Get some power – This one is optional, but since I am a line drive hitter and have only one early pick, if I want someone who hits home runs I have to get them with my first pick. I’ve put together teams without home run hitters before, but it’s nice to have one to bat cleanup.

4) Prioritize a couple of good women – Here is where the strategy diverges the most among coaches. We have a co-ed league, with mandatory minimums of women in the field (but no limitation of where they bat in the order). Some coaches will wait on picking women until the end and place them at the bottom of the lineup, hoping to work around them both hitting and in the field. I take the opposite tack, trying to draft a couple of good players early that can play key positions and that I can also sprinkle throughout my lineup so as not to have a black hole at the bottom of the order.

5) Defense, defense, defense – I try to construct a primary defensive alignment that I can use with minimal holes, and then rotate people through a couple of positions. I can’t tell you how many games I’ve seen lost on defensive errors and I try to prevent that in the draft before we even play the first game. I’m not always successful, but I want to place myself in the best position to succeed.

6) Loyalty – It also helps to have several quality players who want to play with you every year. I’ve had one of my best friends as my pitcher for the last few years, and have slowly added to the entourage. It helps to have a solid core to start with and build on.

I’m looking forward to another great year, and letting you all know about it. I’m sure you are too.

Weight: 227 Loss: 13 lbs – Running Yearly Mileage: 297.7 miles (+3 miles)
Fitocracy Level: 25 ID: disciplev1

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By Matt
September 19, 2012

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2012-366 Day 262 – Decompression

Not many people know this about me, because not many people are around when I go to bed, but I am most definitely not one of those people who can come home and just go straight to bed (Ragnar, Half and Full Marathons excluded). I require at least half an hour, if not more, of not doing much in order to decompress after the day. Usually this is fine, but it can lead to problems if I get home particularly late (like 1 in the morning, since then I’m pretty much guaranteed not to go to bed until after two). Alright, it’s probably more of an annoyance than a problem, but that’s just how I’m wired.

Today was nice and busy, and I’m decompressing now, so I’ll see you tomorrow.

Weight: 227 Loss: 13 lbs – Running Yearly Mileage: 294.7 miles
Fitocracy Level: 25 ID: disciplev1

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By Matt
September 18, 2012

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2012-366 Day 261 – Fairness

Through a series of random connected thoughts, I briefly considered the cousins of Justice and Fairness. I won’t bore you with the details, but suffice it to say that I realized that I am more concerned with Fairness than Justice, whereas had I just been asked the question randomly I am certain that I would have sided with Justice.

What’s that you say? Blogs are made for providing boring details? Fine, but you asked for it (and if you didn’t, you probably stopped reading right about . . . now). People know me know that my favorite superhero is, of course, Batman. Now this is for a variety of reasons, but the main ones being that a) he doesn’t have any inherent superpowers, just training, intellect, and money (although I would entertain arguments that money is a superpower, just look at what rich people can get away with nowadays), b) he’s the closest of any major superhero to a ninja, and I have a strong fondness for ninjas due to that being my team in high school church competition (ooh, I really should blog about that some day, but I’ll have to check on the statute of limitations on endangering minors), and c) his singular focus is in bringing justice to perpetrators. I, myself, have always felt a strong calling to justice, as in the past I have both qualified for the LAPD (but did not attend the academy due to a difference of opinion with my background officer, you know what, I’ll tell that story in a minute) and applied to the FBI (where I passed the initial test and was qualified for the interviews but was not called in the year window. This was toward the end of college with no experience, I think I would get further now).

The more I thought about it, however, I realized that my desire for justice was largely based in my ideals for fairness. The root cause, it seems to me, of injustice is that someone is behaving unfairly or has an unfair advantage. When a store is robbed, the criminals are taking the fairly won gains of one entity and unfairly transferring them to another. In my own life, where injustices are few and far between, I instead can get riled up when I perceive of situations that are unfair. I want to be on even footing when I take you on, as that gives me the best chance to prevail.

Now, one has to be careful about their definition of unfairness. When I spar against a black belt in karate, I do not perceive it as an unfair situation (I would, perhaps, concede that it is unbalanced), because my opponent has put much time and effort into achieving their rank. Should I put in similar time and effort, I should hope to have achieved a balanced playing field (and perhaps even have tilted the match up in my favor due to other conditions such as size and mental acuity). Unfairness, instead, results from when no amount of work or ingenuity will allow one to achieve an even playing field because the other party has seized improper advantages. By reserving the best advantages ahead of time and not making them available to everyone, those are the situations, from the nation level to the street level, which anger me the most.

I’m actually running out of time here, so the LAPD story will have to wait for another time (ooh, bonus blog material). I remain on the side of Justice, but realize now that I must remain vigilant for Unfairness as well, since it is the sneakier of the two qualities and one I am just as likely to be guilty of rather than a victim. As I said before, however, if you can gain an advantage through hard work and dedication, or just simple ability, then more power to you (and/or me).

Weight: 227 Loss: 13 lbs – Running Yearly Mileage: 294.7 miles (+3 miles)
Fitocracy Level: 25 ID: disciplev1

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By Matt
September 17, 2012

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2012-366 Day 260 – Softball Prologue

Due to a church event, we had a knock off the rust day for softball, with the actual games starting next week. Which is probably good, because my fielding was pretty off at the beginning of today, but was shaping up towards the end. My hitting hasn’t changed much, however, which is mildly disappointing, as I always feel like I could make a jump power-wise, but it just never seems to happen. Oh well, maybe I’ll figure out something during the season.

We have our draft this Wednesday, so I’ll have a better idea of how to approach this season then. Hopefully the weather will cool off by then too, it was pretty warm today. Got me pretty tired too, so I’m going to make this a short post today.

Weight: 227 Loss: 13 lbs – Running Yearly Mileage: 291.7 miles
Fitocracy Level: 25 ID: disciplev1

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By Matt
September 16, 2012

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2012-366 Day 259 – Weekend Wrap Up XIX

I can’t believe we’re already on the nineteenth edition of these weekend updates. I didn’t think I had started these Wrap Ups early enough in the year to get this far, but apparently I have no concept of time. There were quite a few longer posts this week, so the updates may be quick.

Sunday (9/9) – Disneyland III: Was this only a week ago? Wow, this was a long week. We have at least two more trips tentatively planned before the end of the year, so there will be a couple more Disneyland updates.

Monday (9/10) – Random Topics: Let’s see. Got my Green belt, check. Got my Disneyland Half Marathon time entered in the system so that I’m no longer apparently lost in Anaheim, check. Wrote the post I thought of (the football one, a couple days later), check. That was a pretty productive random post.

Tuesday (9/11) – September 11th: I was pretty happy with this post, and feel really strongly about everything in it.

Wednesday (9/12) – Football: I can’t even find UCLA on the TV today, so I guess that decision can sometimes be taken care of for me.

Thursday (9/13) – Fellow 2012-366ers III: I did enjoy catching up with the other projects, and am very curious how things will go at the end of the year.

Friday (9/14) – Disneyland Half Marathon Pictures: Now that I’ve officially finished (in 2:59:08), I suppose I should start thinking about the next one. It should be very interesting, considering it is Halloween themed. Any costume suggestions?

Weight: 227 Loss: 13 lbs – Running Yearly Mileage: 291.7 miles
Fitocracy Level: 25 ID: disciplev1

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By Matt
September 15, 2012

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2012-366 Day 258 – Disneyland Half Marathon Pictures

Oops, going back through my phone I realized I took some pictures at the race and haven’t shared them yet. Seeing as it’s late anyway, now seems like a perfect time to share them. They’re all from before the race since I was a little busy during.

Our first glance of the teeming mass of humanity that was the starting line (well, technically we had already been in a smaller line of a thousand people, but this was the really big one).

The starting line was on the other side of the Downtown Disney sign, which was the opposite direction of the last picture. I really can’t stress how many people there were there. It was a lot.

You know, all of these people.

All right, this sunrise thing is pretty nice, but I’m still not getting up for them on a regular basis. This was the view from the end of the line, on top of the Disneyland Drive bridge that is South of Ball Road.

Not that the moon had given up quite yet. Right after I took this picture, we started moving up to the start (which was about a quarter of a mile away), so I put my phone away and got to the running thing.

Slow internet connection/computer made this take far longer than it should have. Grr.

Weight: 227 Loss: 13 lbs – Running Yearly Mileage: 291.7 miles
Fitocracy Level: 25 ID: disciplev1

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By Matt
September 14, 2012

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2012-366 Day 257 – Fellow 2012-366er’s III

Well, we’re over two-thirds of the way into the year and largely on track, let’s check back in with our fellow year long experiments. You can look back at the first installment here, and the first check-in here. Again, we won’t be revisiting anyone who went R.I.P. last time unless they have restarted or updated in some way.

Angela H’s Leap Year 2012 – 366 Review Challenge on Yelp
Link: http://www.yelp.com/list/leap-year-2012-366-review-challenge-doraville-2
Status: Current through today
Comments: Who knew there were so many different things around Atlanta? The majority of reviews are restaurants, but there are parks, libraries, outlet centers, and even events thrown in as well. Very impressive, and I probably would have followed this more closely had she been based out of L.A.

366 Days of Photos by Clare
Link: http://365daysofphotosbyclare.wordpress.com/
Status: Last update September 9th (4 days ago)
Comments: Uh oh, danger Will Robinson! Maybe the owner is on vacation or sick. Looking back at previous posts, the one on August 28th indicates she had tonsillitis and was back dating some posts, so it may be a flare up of that. I’ve been blessed with good health, you certainly can’t blame someone for slowing down on a project like this when things like tonsillitis hit. Hope all is well for them, and we’ll check back on them next time.

2012 – 366 Games in 366 Days
Link: http://boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/97831/2012-366-games-in-366-days
Status: Behind schedule
Comments: When we last checked in, the author was at 94 games in 123 days (76.4%). Today he is at 202 games in 256 days (78.9%) and has been playing so often that he’s foregone descriptions on the last ten or so games for the moment. It will still be tough for him to achieve his goal, but perhaps he’ll be able to host some sort of holiday game blitzkrieg to push himself over the top at the end. I’ll be rooting for him.

Venomator’s 366 Project – 2012
Link: http://www.mobitog.com/threads/venomators-366-project-2012.3676/
Status: Current through today
Comments: Looks like all is well for this poster, and combing back through the message board yields some pretty cool images. Looks like he shook some of the boredom by changing up cameras and editing programs (listed with each picture).

2012: 366 Day Challenge on Yelp
Link: http://www.yelp.ca/list/2012-366-day-challenge-ottawa-2
Status: Last Updated September 10th (3 days ago)
Comments: Uh oh, hope I’m not some kind of curse. I didn’t look ahead before picking today to check up on these blogs, so I’m finding this out as I type it, but that’s two that have not have updates in the past half a week. Interesting timing to say the least. Another one to check back on at the end of the year.

366 Page Comic Challenge
Link: http://www.todorrobot.com/category/366-page-comic-challenge-2/
Status: R.I.P. 6/26/12
Comments: Finally petered out after several format changes, I’m impressed this one made it as long as it did due to the large amount of work that had to go into each day (well, maybe not the last set which just involved adding scripts to a pre-made cartoon). Congrats on making it over half a year!

Last time I found a couple new blogs and noted that one of my pages could be found on page 6 of Google if you searched “2012-366”. I checked again, and now the category page shows up as the eighth result on the first page! And I found a new page that I’ll add to the end which may be of particular interest to a certain subset of my audience (::cough:: “women . . . er, people on Pinterest” ::cough::)

2012 366 Project
Link: http://www.parmmasuta.com/category/2012-366-project/
Status: Current through yesterday
Comments: Still going. I much prefer the first photoblog’s setup, though this one and the message board are equally annoying. I’d look at more of the pictures if I didn’t have to click each one individually.

Hungry Girl por Vida
Link: http://www.hungrygirlporvida.com/blog/tag/366/
Status: R.I.P. 7/22/12
Comments: Even by veering away from the original food theme, they apparently couldn’t find enough to keep going. Too bad, because they had a unique setup that seemed pretty fun.

And now the newbie:
2012/366 Pinterest Board
Link: http://pinterest.com/topazpearlegirl/2012-366/
Status: Current through yesterday
Comments: I don’t know that I would have thought to look on Pinterest originally, and I only found this one because it was on the second page of Google results when I checked for my little factoid above. Pinterest does not make following the pins in order easy, but the author helped by dating everything. Seems like a great idea for those who love Pinterest, I know several people (::cough::) who could easily do this. (My primitive Pinterest searching skills did unearth several others that R.I.P.ed fairly early and one other one that was current through a week ago.)

That was fun as usual. Still surprised that I’m the only one I can find doing something written like this (I keep stumbling over photo blogs I didn’t find before, like this one). Of course this probably means I’ll find a dozen when I check in at the end of the year. I only intend to do one more pass at the end of December, we’ll see who makes it all the way with me.

Weight: 227 Loss: 13 lbs – Running Yearly Mileage: 291.7 miles
Fitocracy Level: 25 ID: disciplev1

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By Matt
September 13, 2012

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2012-366 Day 256 – Football

“Why do I have the feeling that one day people will look back at football like we look back at gladiator combat? #concussions” – Me, Twitter, 2-10-12

Of course, being American, I’m referring to American Football here. There may be some danger in Soccer, but it’s certainly not the same animal (I was going to make a crack about flopping here, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it). With all of the information coming out about the dangers of football finally jibbing with all that we’ve seen over the years, I’ve been finding it increasingly difficult to justify following it. While this may not be a problem for the brand in general at the moment (I’m certain they would not miss just me), there has become a real weight to these objections and a growing body of medical research as well.

Football was my third favorite sport to watch a couple years ago, and then fell to fourth once hockey (and specifically the Kings) found its way back onto my radar. Not having a professional team in Los Angeles (unless you count USC . . . oooooh, burn) and only maintaining a loose fandom with Denver due to my living in Colorado during the summers (which worked quite well for me at the end of the 90’s, but, until Tebow last year and Peyton this year, was paying diminishing returns). Being a fan of UCLA didn’t help much for finding good football either.

All of these factors would likely have made it easy to walk away from football for good, and I may still do so, but then the Bruins of UCLA started playing under their new coach, Jim Mora. For the first time in a long time, I didn’t know what to expect when the game started (versus expecting a loss in the past). Watching the Nebraska game, with it’s back and forth first half and triumphant second half, was very exciting. Even the Broncos, with their game against Pittsburgh, came around and played a great game. I found myself cheering the Bruins on and temporarily forgetting my misgivings.

Thus I find myself with one of Jess’ favorite terms, cognitive dissonance. That is, the holding of two opposing ideas at the same time. Thus my misgivings for football as a sport versus the desire to root for my traditional teams as they have become exciting again changes the fan experience. I think that this is a change that a lot more people are going to have to deal with in the near future, and one that both the college and professional ranks are going to have to address.

So as one casual fan teeters on the brink, I can certainly envision a future void of football if changes aren’t made to the fundamental structure of the game. Hearing all of the heartbreaking stories about those who have gone before and the damage their bodies and minds have suffered in the name of entertainment, it certainly does hark back to the gladiatorial games of ancient Rome, with a slow death rather than a quick one for the participants. For now I will continue to watch, but I am prepared to walk away if the game doesn’t move towards becoming safer for its players.

Weight: 227 Loss: 13 lbs – Running Yearly Mileage: 291.7 miles (+6 miles)
Fitocracy Level: 25 ID: disciplev1

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By Matt
September 12, 2012

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2012-366 Day 255 – September 11th

When I thought of a topic for today, I had forgotten what the next day was actually going to be. So that topic gets pushed back one more day so I can pay proper tribute to the day that changed everything.

I have mentioned my terrible memory in the past, but I will never forget that morning eleven years ago. Across the width of an entire continent, I could feel the terror and courage radiating through the images on the TV screen. I was still living with my parents at the time, and was woken shortly after the news of the first tower being hit was delivered. When I say that I don’t like to sleep because I’m afraid I’m missing something, this comes to mind, as I was asleep when our world fundamentally changed forever. I realize that with time zones and the timing of the flights that this was virtually inevitable, but I still feel slightly guilty for some reason. I suppose I really should consider that a blessing, however, because I did see the second plane hit, and both towers fall.

What I cannot begin to express, and what truly remains in my memory of that day, is how awe-inspiring and plentiful the heroism was that day. The fire fighters who went in to burning skyscrapers to save just one more, the police who had to manage the unmanageable, the military dealing with their own tragedy at the Pentagon but still getting the fighters in the air to settle an unsettled sky, and finally, most amazingly, the heroes on United Flight 93 which sacrificed themselves so that no one on the ground could be hurt by the evil that had taken their plane. These stories all echo through the past eleven years, so much so though that I hear them still at the mere mention of the date. And I mean the actual date “September 11th,” as, sadly, the numeric configuration 9/11 has been repeated so much in the intervening time frame for such disparate (and increasingly selfish) causes that it has lost its resonance with me. The date, however, still sends a spike into my heart, and hearing commercials for TV shows premiering on September 11th left a bad taste in my mouth.

This leaves me in the same place I was on Memorial Day, though slightly more focused, which is okay, because this kind of gratitude to our troops and first responders who put everything on the line for us should be repeated and can never be said enough. So thank you to everyone serving, at home or on foreign soil. Thank you to everyone who has served and made it back with the honored title of Veteran. And most especially, thank you to all of you who did serve at home or abroad and did not come back, who made the ultimate sacrifice in protecting others and their freedoms. Though many may try to politicize, commercialize, or use it to demonize, I am especially grateful that honoring these heroes and their spirit has become the enduring legacy of September 11th. We will never forget.

Weight: 227 Loss: 13 lbs – Running Yearly Mileage: 285.7 miles
Fitocracy Level: 25 ID: disciplev1

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By Matt
September 11, 2012

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