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2012-366 Day 244 – Teaching IV

Well, here we are at the two-third’s mark of the year, hard to believe. Nice that it comes on the Friday of a three day weekend, but it’s going to be a crazy one with the Disneyland Half-Marathon in the middle. We’ll see what happens, although I am already trying to convince myself not to worry about my time (the heat messing with my training schedule and being sick this week have pretty much assured me that I’m only in this to finish, not beat my PR). Oh yeah, and I started teaching my class again today.

This class is stacking up to be my biggest yet, since enrollment limits have been lifted. It will only be by one or two people, but we’re also in a smaller classroom than last semester, so things seem a little tight (and warm today, I had to call PPM about the air). The class is slowly “getting” me, and I got a few bits of laughter out of them today. I am really tired now, though, definitely think that was an artifact of being sick all week and then having to put out all that energy teaching. That aside, however, I’m looking forward to teaching the class again and, since I have an updated version of the book now, I am also looking forward to expanding and experimenting with the class more. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Weight: 228 Loss: 12 lbs – Running Yearly Mileage: 262.1 miles
Fitocracy Level: 25 ID: disciplev1

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By Matt
August 31, 2012

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2012-366 Day 243 – The Survivor

Well, I’ve restored about 85% of my humanity, so that will have to do for now. Not looking forward to the half-marathon this weekend, it’s going to be a slow one. As long as I’m over 90% for teaching tomorrow (thank goodness they moved the class back to 11 am from 8 am, I’m not sure I could have managed), that should be okay.

On the bright side, the extra downtime let me finish up Gregg Hurwitz’s new book, “The Survivor.” If you read the blog last week, you know that Jess and I attended the book launch and had our usual bit of fun. We picked up a copy of the book that night (a Tuesday), but I didn’t really get the chance to dig into it until closer to the weekend. As it worked out, I basically read the book in three chunks, a hundred pages the first night, another hundred the second night, and the remainder (about a hundred and sixty) when I was home sick Tuesday.

A little bit about Gregg’s writing style, as I’ve covered some generalities before but feel there are some things I can expand upon. I’ve mentioned that the genre generally written by Mr. Hurwitz is Suspense/Thriller, and that remains the case with this book. The chapters are usually pretty short and can quickly bounce from setting to setting, which generates a fantastic sense of a speedy pace which really can allow you to tear through the book quickly. That pretty well explains how sixty chapters fits into three hundred sixty some-odd pages, and it’s actually some fewer pages than that since a few of them only have a paragraph or two no them at the end of chapters. One warning that I have not given in the past, which I am just now realizing (apparently I have been unfortunately desensitized), is that his books, this one in particular, are generally fairly violent. I suppose you really can’t avoid it when you have an ex-soldier suffering PTSD, bank robbers, and Ukrainian gangsters. There were a couple points in the book that I had a physical reaction to, which points to excellent writing but is perhaps not how everyone wants to spend their leisure time.

I’m not going to go into any plot details here, especially since Jess hasn’t read it yet, but will deal with some generalities. I feel one of the strengths of Gregg’s writing is how well he attaches you to the characters. They are rendered in such detail that you form a genuine attachment (or a loathing respect, in the case of the bad guys) to them and become invested in their story. By the end of the book their victories are your victories, and their losses sting as your own. Even the dog in this book is a fully formed character, with idiosyncrasies and tendencies you’ll immediately recognize and apply to the various dogs in your life. A sense of fear and urgency quickly settles in for the characters, and I found myself often feeling the same sensations while reading.

In addition to the strength of the characters, the story structure is fantastic. Clues are uncovered and scraps collected, and one off-hand remark by a minor character set all the pieces into place, which the main character also picks up on and satisfyingly completes the same puzzle. While I’m certain you can get just as much enjoyment having the puzzle solved for you, the fact that you can “play along” with the mystery and actually solve it alongside the protagonists is very gratifying.

I’m sure by this point I sound like an utter fanboy, but there were a couple instances of concern for me. I could not for the life of me figure out why one character chose NOT to do something, and I’ll have to ask about it at some point in the future when I’m not worried about spoilers. The second really bothered me when another character chose TO do something that I didn’t understand, but that one I’m going to chalk up to my lack of knowledge of the motivations of teenage girls (yeah, I’d probably be a little worried if I did understand those). Both of these events happened fairly early in the the second batch of reading and I was a little worried that they would stick with me through the end of the book. I was pulled back in by the end of that second batch and everything smoothed itself out over the last section. I found the end of the story to be both satisfying and poignant.

So if you can handle your suspense and violence, I wholeheartedly recommend “The Survivor” to you. The characterization and story-telling are fantastic, and your emotions and brain will be fully engaged. It is easily the finest story I have ever read about a character with PTSD and ALS (did I not mention the Lou Gehrig’s disease? Yeah, they have to deal with that too) that I have ever read. Okay, also the only, but this remains an excellent and engaging book.

Weight: 228 Loss: 12 lbs – Running Yearly Mileage: 262.1 miles
Fitocracy Level: 25 ID: disciplev1

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By Matt
August 30, 2012

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2012-366 Day 242 – Sick Day III

Went back to work for part of the day, but still got a bit of congestion and a lot of a headache, which is making thinking about something to write difficult (well, I actually know one of my next topics since I finished “The Survivor”, but I’m not
quite all there enough to write a review of it right now). I’m looking forward to kicking this thing soon, and I’m almost all the way there, but I see some NyQuil in my future tonight.

Weight: 228 Loss: 12 lbs – Running Yearly Mileage: 262.1 miles
Fitocracy Level: 25 ID: disciplev1

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By Matt
August 29, 2012

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2012-366 Day 241 – Sick Day II

Well, I was wrong. Not allergies. Thankfully seems to be a somewhat low level cold. Going nearly 200 days between sick posts is pretty good though. Pretty sure I just wore myself down over the last three weeks and my body decided it had enough. Skipped karate last night, work today, and bible study tonight, so if you’re involved with any of those, I’m still alive but just a little under the weather. I did go to the class I’m taking since it’s a pain in the butt missing the first day, though I’m thankful that I switch from the academic class to the athletic one at the last minute (although not so much after running a lap today). I’m going back to resting and should hopefully be good for tomorrow.

Weight: 228 Loss: 12 lbs – Running Yearly Mileage: 262.1 miles
Fitocracy Level: 25 ID: disciplev1

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By Matt
August 28, 2012

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2012-366 Day 240 – Allergies

I looked back in the archives to see if I had mentioned anything about developing allergies in the last few years and found out that on Day 79 (well, technically Day 78’s night) I wasn’t able to sleep due to the onset of allergy symptoms. Sadly that’s exactly what happened again last night and while last time I got to stay home and keep tabs on the guy painting our condo, today I had to go into work for the first day of the semester. It’s been a pretty brutal day, and my head is full and icky.

I’ve only recently admitted to having allergies (it didn’t help that their onset occurred right around the time I had neck and shoulder issues), and I feel bad for people who have had them their whole lives. I don’t even know what I’m allergic to (although it seems to follow a Spring then Fall cycle so far, so something that is airborne then), I suppose I should find out sometime. I’m also against medication unless strictly necessary (just a personal thing, figure I can tough it out), and I’ve heard all the stories which sometimes make allergy medicine sound worse than the symptoms.

Anyhow, I’m going to stop complaining about allergies and just go back to suffering with them.

Weight: 228 Loss: 12 lbs – Running Yearly Mileage: 262.1 miles
Fitocracy Level: 25 ID: disciplev1

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By Matt
August 27, 2012

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2012-366 Day 239 – Birthday and Volleyball

Today is Jess birthday (Happy birthday my love!), but since the fall semester starts tomorrow and we needed to rest, pretty much all the festivities had been done by now. I got her the big birthday present a couple months ago (new phone) and we did her theme park birthday party last week (so we wouldn’t be burned out from doing to much the weekend before the semester). Add to that the fact that I had to oversee the volleyball championships today, and we didn’t get to do too much for her birthday. Since she’s so awesome, though, she understands, and we had a nice dinner at The Stand and then Menchies with our friends Michael and Crystal.

The volleyball finale went well, congratulations to Wierman’s team for winning the championship quite handily. (It also makes me fell better because we lost to them in the first round of playoffs.) I had forgotten one aspect of volleyball that always annoyed me since it didn’t happen last year due to my neck and shoulder problems: I always play better in the last couple pick up games and feel like I’m finally hitting my stride. Oh well, on to softball!

Weight: 228 Loss: 12 lbs – Running Yearly Mileage: 262.1 miles
Fitocracy Level: 25 ID: disciplev1

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By Matt
August 26, 2012

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2012-366 Day 238 – Weekend Wrap Up XVII

Wow, it’s been a while since the last Wrap Up. I suppose that’s good, since it means I’ve been busy on the weekends, but then again maybe not since it means I’ve been busy through the whole week. Today has been great, a good workout at Tang Soo Do, working on preparing for my class, and some celebratory dining for our friend who passed a CPA test (I’m not sure which one, but the big one). Since I have some time now, and a lot to catch up on, let’s get to the Wrap Up.

Sunday (7/29) – Volleyball Game 7: Only two more games until playoffs, and we’re sitting in second place. Tomorrow’s game is against the fourth place team, and should be a challenging one. It’s also a special match, because it’s against the team I have dubbed the “Karate” team, since it is lead by the head instructor where I take Tang Soo Do and features five people connected to the studio. It should be fun.

Sunday (8/5) – Volleyball Game 8: I’m not sure what happened starting with this game, but it wound up that we didn’t even win a game, let alone a match for the rest of the season. Our only win after I missed a week for vacation came via a forfeit, so, sorry Jess, I guess I can never go on vacation again. Or we could just chalk it up to bad timing and a seriously back-loaded schedule with respect to difficulty. Nah, it had to have been the vacation.

Monday (8/6) – The Heat: The heatwave for the past couple weeks was very uncomfortable, but it’s been nice the last couple of days. Isn’t it riveting when I talk about the weather in the blog? Yeah, you’re right, I suppose I should move on.

Tuesday (8/7) – Hacking: Stephen posted a link to a great xkcd comic in the comments that does contradict me a little bit (and is correct in doing so) pointing out that adding characters is the easiest way to defeat brute force computational hacking, so a string of four random words strung together is usually pretty easy to remember (if you construct a good mnemonic) and very secure. The symbolic replacement I discuss is still good, particularly if you have shorter passwords that you want to make stronger (and some systems have upper bounds on the number of characters a password can contain).

Wednesday (8/8) – Olympics: The Olympics were a blast, but I am glad that they only come around every two years (counting the Winter version). I’m pretty sure I would burn out on them pretty quick if they were happening all the time. Now if we could just figure out a way to get baseball back in there.

Thursday (8/9) – Indoor Running: The gym was closed last week for maintenance and training before the new semester starts, so I wasn’t able to use my track. I was surprised how much I missed it, but also surprised at my body’s reaction from the break. Apparently I needed it, because I actually feel stronger after this week and a reduced training intensity. I have to remember to rest sometimes.

Friday (8/10) – The Wall: Speaking of a break, I didn’t get one at work, but, again, tapering off my athletic activities last week did seem to help (I suppose actually getting something resembling 8 hours of sleep last night and not having to work this morning helped too).

Saturday (8/11) – Late Brain Dump: I really should have a standardized way to deal with several small topics in the same post, as that might make my life easier some days. I don’t think Brain Dump is the title I’m going to stick with, though. Then again, I’ve made it almost two thirds of the way without one, so maybe we’ll keep it on the shelf.

Sunday (8/12) – Volleyball Game 9: One more weekend of Volleyball, then a couple weeks off before my favorite season begins. That’s right, Softball is scheduled to start on September 16th, with perhaps a warm-up day before that. I will continue my quest for my first over-the-fence home run (I’ve hit a few inside-the-parkers), but will probably end up remaining the spray hitter we all know and love (except the opposing pitchers when I line it back up the middle).

Monday (8/13) – Karate IV: We’re a couple weeks away from my next test, and I’m feeling both very confident and simultaneously under-prepared. It’s probably due to my uneven training schedule these last two months, but I’m certain I’ll nail it down in the next two weeks. Also thankful that Labor Day pushed the test back a week.

Tuesday (8/14) – Work V: I’m going to retain my policy of not commenting on work on the weekend (or, if I didn’t have one, I do now).

Wednesday (8/15) – Blank:

Thursday (8/16) – 2012 Movies I: This was my longest tenured draft, as I started writing it a few months ago and then realized I hadn’t seen enough movies yet. So I left the list in there and then came back to it when I’d seen a few more. Was tempted to go see Spider-man today (it’s still going at the Winnetka 20), but decided to be productive instead.

Friday (8/17) – Classy: Like I said, music’s effect has always fascinated me and certainly agree with Cathy’s comment. Probably why I have such a large collection, I like to have the right song for the right situation. Speaking of which, very much looking forward to the new TobyMac album coming out Tuesday.

Saturday (8/18) – Knott’s Berry Farm: Has it been a week already? It’s funny that we went for Jess’ birthday, but her actually birthday is tomorrow (8/26). Ah, adult scheduling responsibilities and the new semester, I think she made a wise call.

Sunday (8/19) – Volleyball Playoffs: ::sniff:: I’ll be okay. (I’m being over-dramatic here, I’m fine.)

Monday (8/20) – Lazy: Interesting that I haven’t had much chance to be lazy after this post. Today was my first real test and I’m glad that I’m getting what I need to done. One day at a time, and it’s all about lining up the long term projects now. I owe Stephen a bunch of work on a project of ours (see, I didn’t forget), so I need to slot that in too. The beginning of the semester is hectic, so now it’s time to put new philosophies to the test.

Tuesday (8/21) – Catch-18: We wound up having to use the wired network for the computers to bypass the VPN. They didn’t call me this morning, so I’m assuming everything went well this morning. I got them working around 3:30 pm yesterday and left them up (“Nobody touch anything.”), just locked them. Hope to have a good report on Monday. (Okay, maybe my work/weekend band isn’t inviolate.)

Wednesday (8/22) – Book Launch: Got a hundred pages in and then stalled, because I’ve had to work on other things. Would have tried to put a big dent in it today, but am working on my class instead. Sad to put business before pleasure, I’ve really been enjoying the book so far (well, as much as you can enjoy a book about a PTSD war survivor with Lou Gehrig’s disease and the struggle to keep his family safe).

Thursday (8/23) – Android Games: I picked up the Humble Bundle Stephen mentioned in the comments the day before, but haven’t had the chance to install any of them. Maybe after the first couple weeks settle down. I’m actually pulling off the trifecta at work this semester (Staff, Faculty, and Student), which ought to be an experience.

Friday (8/24) – Pictures V: I wish I had a picture here to close out with, but I haven’t found anything interesting between yesterday and today. You’ve had to read a picture’s worth anyway so far, so I’ll let you go.

Weight: 228 Loss: 12 lbs – Running Yearly Mileage: 262.1 miles
Fitocracy Level: 25 ID: disciplev1

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By Matt
August 25, 2012

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2012-366 Day 237 – Pictures V

It’s seriously been two months since my last picture post? Having just completed my third straight slammed week at work (phones, server, mobile photo id), and with the semester starting next week (really, no break?), it’s time to share some recent pictures with you (actually, that’s another reason, I went through a dry spell of interesting pictures).

This was the tip jar at Coldstone Creamery, referencing the great Hyperbole and a Half blog “Why I’ll never be an Adult” (Go read it if you haven’t, it’s funny stuff) which is the source of the meme.

There’s a wall of student made tiles in the University Student Union and among the couple hundred is one comic book themed one. I think this one is pretty sweet, and love the use of the flag.

Meanwhile, in another part of the USU lies a single use restroom. Seems to me one would want to design their restrooms to be usable more than once, particularly in a building, but I guess we really do live in a disposable society nowadays.

And now a story in three pictures, two taken by our friend Brian and one from the internet.

We were at Knott’s Berry Farm and Jess was on a ride. Some of us were playing the midway games and I walked up to the clown knockdown game (I have no idea what it’s actually called) that looks like this on a larger scale:

I had to knock down two clowns with two throws. So then I did this twice:

And wound up with this:

By the way, great job on that picture Brian.

Weight: 228 Loss: 12 lbs – Running Yearly Mileage: 262.1 miles (+4 miles)
Fitocracy Level: 25 ID: disciplev1

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By Matt
August 24, 2012

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2012-366 Day 236 – Android Games

I like to play games. Yeah, you probably knew that about me already, but just in case, there you go. It’s also particularly handy to have games on my phone for when I need to kill a few minutes here or there. I had a TON of games downloaded on my old phone, though I didn’t play very many of them too regularly or I beat all the available levels. Only a few games have made it to my new phone (or I’ve downloaded them since then), so we’ll take a look at what I have now (maybe some other time I’ll go back for the other ones).

Title: Carcassonne
Type: Board Game
Price: $4.99
Notes: One of the games that made it over from my old phone, and one of the few I actually paid for. I’m always looking for good board game ports and this one was recommended on a website so I took the plunge. An interesting tile based game that seems like would need a very large table in real life, it works well in the handheld environment. The CPU comments are a bit annoying (and feature some corrupt religious themes, which is annoying) though, so I shut those off. I don’t recommend you give it a try unless you are willing to put a little bit of work into learning the rules, it’s a bit complex (think Settlers of Catan complex).

Title: Phase 10
Type: Card Game
Cost: $0.99
Notes: If you’ve played Phase 10 and like it, this is worth every penny (all 99 of them). A simple game that takes you through all 10 phases against fairly good A.I. on the hard level, I still win the majority of games but it’s never a certainty. No frills (not even stats, which is mildly disappointing to me), but just a great translation of the card game to the Android platform.

Title: Pocket Soccer
Type: Sports(?)
Cost: Free
Notes: My most recent download and semi-addiction, Pocket Soccer apparently adapts a real life game that seems to cross pogs and foosball. Each team has three discs and you alternate flicking your discs at a ball and try to ricochet the ball into your goal. There’s all sorts of settings to customize on this one and several different play modes. The controls can be a touch (heh) tricky, I’ve missed plenty of open shots by a hair, but you still get the great feeling of scoring the winning goal right before time expires (or pulling out a one goal victory if your playing first to 5 or 10). Simple, fun, and takes a while to master. Also, you select countries to play as (well, the flag that goes on your buttons), and that adds extra fun (at least for me).

Title: Shadow Era
Type: Card Game
Price: Free
Notes: I was looking for a good collectible card game for the Android and found this one, which does the best job I’ve seen so far. I haven’t really played it in a while, but it boasts cross-platform play, so I can play games on my phone or on my computer. If you like CCGs, then I recommend you give this one a shot. My only complaint is that leveling up takes a long time, and you are stuck playing the same opponents while you level, so the challenge factor hasn’t really increased for me yet. The early opponents are quite easy once you learn how to play.

Title: Split Decision
Type: Board Game
Price: Free (90 question pack, first expansion with 660 questions is $1.10 – I haven’t bought that yet)
Notes: Whoops, just realized I lied earlier (who bothers with editing nowadays?), this has been on my phone for a grand total of an hour and a half, and my five to ten minutes with it shows some real promise. An adaption of the physical game made by the good folks at Mental Floss, you have to decide whether the listed item is one thing or another (like is Lasting Pride a Military Operation or Cat Litter). I’ve enjoyed it so far and am probably going to buy the expansion, there’s several game modes and the game play is really fast.

Title: Triple Town
Type: Matching Game
Price: Free (Limited Turns, Unlimited Turns costs a little bit)
Notes: I was addicted to this one for a while, you can also play a version on Facebook (I never got that far). You have to match items to create increasingly more valuable structures while avoiding the bears and ninja bears. I haven’t quite mastered the high scoring maneuvers, because it requires looking further ahead than I’m generally willing to in a casual game, but it can be a lot of fun to play a couple games since they go fairly quickly.

Title: Lock and Roll Pro
Type: Dice Game
Price: Amazon Deal
Notes: The lone holdover from the one free app a day the Amazon app store does, this is a very simple game where you plug dice into a 4×4 grid and try to get rid of matching colors or straights while scoring points. It also goes very quickly and is a good game to kill a couple minutes with.

I’m sure my roster will expand and some old favorites will come back (I had all of the old Angry Birds on my last phone, but haven’t wanted to start over again). I love playing games and having them all at my fingertips is one of the greatest things about having a cell phone with over a thousand times more power than my first computer. Heaven knows I don’t call anyone with the dang thing.

Weight: 229 Loss: 11 lbs – Running Yearly Mileage: 258.1 miles
Fitocracy Level: 25 ID: disciplev1

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By Matt
August 23, 2012

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2012-366 Day 235 – Book Launch

So last night was the latest chapter (heh) in heading down to Diesel Bookstore in Brentwood to attend the launch of Gregg Hurwitz’s latest book, The Survivor. It has pretty much become a yearly tradition for us (Dang, Gregg, how do you write so fast?), and is always a lot of fun. Our only problem is that, as Gregg has gotten more popular, Diesel has remained the same size (which wasn’t very big to begin with, about the size of our condo and with some of the bookshelves obviously not being moveable). I was slightly chilly in the parking lot right before we went in, but that sensation went away very quickly with everyone in an enclosed space.

Jess and I hid behind one of the shelves to ensure we had some room.

After bringing Gregg a Kindle to sign last time, I’ve decided to make it a point to bring him something unusual to sign at his book launches. This time I selected his first DC comics issue, Penguin: Pain and Prejudice number one.

Penguin Pain and Prejudice Cover

With the TV and movie projects I hear he has in the works, I wouldn’t be surprised if next year I’m bringing him a DVD to sign.

I will say that watching Gregg’s rise has been awesome and while I can’t say I’ve been there from the beginning (hey, his first book came out when I was 19 and reading books for, you know, school), I’ve greatly enjoyed reading everything since The Crime Writer (I have almost all of the previous books, just haven’t got to reading them yet), and have particularly appreciated how he gets better with every book. I’m five chapters into The Survivor and can already tell that it’s going to be at least as good as the last one (You’re Next), if not better (don’t want to get too fanboy-ish yet).

For a random connection (our wives work together, to which I will add that Delinah is as awesome as he is, just in a different field. Congrats Doctor!), I must say that getting introduced to such a great author right as he is ascending to his peak has been a fantastic treat. Speaking of treats, and I have so far buried the lead here, did I mention that he currently is writing for one of the Batman comic books? Well, okay, I mentioned the Penguin earlier, but that was a mini-series. He’s writing in the Bat-Universe proper now. Brings a tear to me eye. ::sniff:: (No, I don’t know where the brogue came from.)

So, short story made way long, Jess and I had a great time last night, aided and abetted by the usual suspect “James” (who I, like Jess initially when she gave him the “James” nickname, continually forget that his real name is Brian . . . you know what, I’ll let Jess tell that story sometime), and I highly recommend that you come out next time. In the meantime, you can go read his books (particularly if you like Suspense and Action – capitalized to show that they are genres and not just descriptors, of course), and I recommend following my path and start with The Crime Writer and work your way to the present, then go back for the Rackley (character) books that came before. I’ll meet you there after I finish the current one.

Weight: 229 Loss: 11 lbs – Running Yearly Mileage: 258.1 miles
Fitocracy Level: 25 ID: disciplev1

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By Matt
August 22, 2012

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