Uncategorized

Today I completed my first f2f draft for a league I just joined. The league has been running for years and the draft process is among the best I’ve seen. It was a fun gathering of guys who like talking trash and eating great food. However, the crown of the evening was the draft itself. We had first pick and selected Adrian Peterson.

The good guys over at fantasypros have a well-developed draft simulator offering a chance to draft against computer algorithms (the complexity of which is determined by whether or not you pay). The process is really good preparation for what madness may come during the draft itself. Ours featured multiple runs on WRs, which leads me to believe that, especially in PPR leagues, it is in your best interest to draft a WR very early. That being said, here is what I think is a good plan based on simulations and my own 2014 experience:

The top 3 talents to look for are Peterson, Charles, McCoy, and Forte in that order. Once those four are gone the RB pick can wait a bit. Spend your pick on Peyton Manning or Calvin Johnson. The next few rounds are going to be ‘best talent available’ rounds, with the real $$ player being Jimmy Graham. In the later rounds the key is to find the sleepers  nobody knows about or believes in. This link pretty much sums up who they are.

I think some of the best picks to take in the mid rounds are Randall Cobb at WR and Zac Stacy and RB. These aren’t top flight dudes, but they have a chance to be explosive. If he’s available after round 6, go for AZ’s Andre Ellington at RB. He did work last season and seems primed to build on that.

 

Some Thoughts:

1. With the Kevin Love being dealt to Cleveland, those Uncle Drew commercials are final the real deal. I’m excited about that combination. Oh, they have Lebron James too.

Sitting in the woods today I tried to find a few moments to just ‘be’. There was no TV, no music, no deep conversation to fuel my distraction from what I like to refer to as the passing of the universe. To understand the importance of this I have to take you back a few weeks to the moment I woke up in the middle of the night contemplating the totality of oblivion. It frightened me so deeply that I failed to sleep for several hours after that. I was as much terrified of the death part of it (inability to create and record new moments) as the great expanse of the universe that we are all a part of.

The other day I brought up the word entropy and talked about the fact that nothing every remains the same and how everything is moving, changing, and hurtling through time and space at incomprehensible speeds. I feel afraid to even consider the fullness of that. Not being still and not being silent allows us to ignore the largeness of life and disconnect from these great universal forces that are, in a real way, too much for us to soak up. I’m a huge culprit of that. The first thing I should do in the morning is breathe in the day. I should take a moment to listen to the world and think about my relationship to it and my purpose for being. Instead I snap on Sportscenter, or NFL Network or (Gods forgive…) CNN. I shut out that inner voice telling me I need to interface with the natural world.

As my body and mind ages I am becoming more aware of my unhealthy tendencies and especially aware of the impact they have on my personal -spiritual being (that force that drives you forward to want to achieve more). Just sitting in the quiet and learning to be is a way to connect to that part, and to heal that and through that healing to becoming the best possible me.

Most Fantasy drafts are taking place between this and next weekend and owners are scrambling to decide what to do after the first pick. A lot of drafting is about luck and runs. Luck means the players not having the same draft game plan as you. Runs are the periods in a draft when several players pick the same position, forcing you to take that position or miss out on any level of quality at the position. My longest running league is a 2 QB league. With 10 teams the run on QBs is swift and bloody. You need three in order to survive the bye week, and most players go for 4, just to create a situation where an opponent only has 1 QB to play at all.

Outside of runs, the value in a non-ppr league is the RBs. Though most teams are moving to a pass first offense, even the team that rushed the least rushed 31% of the time, with the majority of those runs split between two backs. It gets better. 20 teams rushed at least 40% of the time and of those teams 15 relied on a single back to carry the at least 70% of that load. Better still, 8 of the remaining 12 spent money on RBs this offseason, pointing to the possibility that they intend to increase the number of rushes attempted this upcoming season.

So, go QB and then follow up with a solid rusher. Afterwards, let the runs and your luck carry you through.

 

 

Some Thoughts:

1. I’ve been realizing how valuable something seems if you haven’t had it in a while. On shows like Naked and Afraid when folks haven’t eaten in some time any meal seems like the best ever. The same holds true of sleep if you haven’t had it in a long while. I wonder if the same holds true for speed. I’ve been too slow (and too fat) for some time and as I build the willpower and intention to do what needs to be done I feel like the goal must be the speed. My entire athletic life is predicated on speed and I’m too damn young to have lost so much of it.

It is far easier to write about what is unfolding in your life. The realism and depth of character is far more genuine than some contrived fantasy steeped in years of reading Dragon magazine and hacking at trees with swords. My life is change. My life is moving from the deep connections between myself and three hyper-energetic boys to a building sense of longing to maintain that connection as they wind away the hours at school and I prepare for a new semester.

When learned writers say ‘write what you know’ they are talking about the emotions underlying the situations. Orson Scott Card didn’t know a thing about leading an army in an interstellar battle to save humanity. He did know about being gifted and being an outsider and trying to live up to a rigid standard that shaped you more than you shape it.

I’m writing about change and working towards a highly difficult transition from being a full time dad to being a full time instructor. There are mixed feelings here–I love the intellectual challenge of work, but I love the emotional load of being with the boys all the time. As I prepare, I’m working through a meaningful understanding of the word entropy, and thinking how it applies to my life and to my growth.

A big part of transition is having that willingness to accept that change is a constant.

I often wonder if a situation is as serious (or not serious) as it is portrayed, or is the media simply choosing the stories and emphatic direction that best serves their perspective audience. The Ferguson situation now sits on the edge of America’s long-brewing racial tension. Everyone is listening to see what the President says (cause he’s sort of a black guy–at least in skin color, because we ignore the rest of his heritage).

Now we are hearing about the other side of the story and the marches and the fund raising that is going on in Ferguson for the affected officer. For the people of Ferguson this is about more than one confused and angry kid who was killed.  The kids of Ferguson get it. Robert Klemko of MMQB quoted an 18 yr old Ferguson football player as saying, “The looting was uncalled for, … We’re supposed to protest and get justice for Mike Brown, but that was just pointless. We can get justice for him if we stay real smooth.”

Its the agitators that are making this thing more newsworthy and drawing up a national debate about the police and about the protestors. I hope more people react like that kid did… Stay real smooth.

Some Thoughts:

1. This isn’t a football day, but I find my thoughts turning towards the Patriots. Playing Madden the other night I realized the limitations of a salary-cap era football team. My money is tied up in a handful of players and to bring more in–even for a Looksee requires funds I don’t have. I feel like the Patriots ended up in that spot at some time and got really scared about financial investments in particular positions. In particular, I don’t feel like they spend all that much on receivers, which hasn’t much phased all-world QB Tom Brady. I’m doing the same, leaning into a home grown program of draft and train. It works for the Patriots. Nobody is saying they cannot throw the ball. Now can they keep people healthy enough to throw to?

The last few books I’ve listened to have been based on the idea of AI and the role that digital intelligence plays in our world. It is becoming almost blasé to say, “Big Brother is Watching You’. We realize this as a ubiquity and, for the most part, people aren’t afraid of that. These same books also point to Facebook as a veritable treasure trove of personal information. This is more true than most of us want to admit. We expose ourselves on Facebook. We tell the world where we are, where we’ve been, where we are going and when. We share photos and heartbreaks. We connect with others and share our feelings on a forum where everyone looks on and, at times, comments on what we are saying.

This message is quite hypocritical coming from a blogger, but in a way I am the type best qualified to make that declaration. We give too much of ourselves to the ‘net. Somewhere in the digisphere are a billion bot programs plucking and filing our digital ghosts like a warped rendition of the matrix. These bots power algorithms that show themselves on the side of every page we click as ads and suggestions of what to buy and where to go next. Often we think nothing of it—of how those suggestions came to be and why they are, at times, deeply accurate about our desires or the desires we are about to have. There is a reason why my Google searches populate in the specific fashion they do—a way that is always different from the person sitting nearby searching for the same thing. Big Brother knows me, knows my habits by the trail of cookie crumbs I leave from site to site.

A few times I went Incognito to see what would happen. The Boolean search streams no longer knew precisely what to tell me. They populated based on the things I had done and not what I was doing. They coughed and sputtered and fizzed, wondering for the first time what I might do next with my present so concealed from them. I felt like Harry Potter.

Once the cloak of invisibility slipped the web rushed in to fill the void. The bots didn’t speculate about my absence. They acted like the momentary vanish never happened, or worse that wherever I’d gone was worthy of pulling a vanishing act. I wondered aloud if they thought I was seeing porn instead of clicking random pages just to see if they still knew who I was…

Some Thoughts:

1. Sometime after 1 AM I realized I hadn’t posted yesterday’s blog. The thought was fleeting, slipping from my mind as I passed into sleepland. I later realized I wouldn’t even be able to do so until much later in the afternoon. This is what it is like when work starts up in full…

There was a significant portion of my college career where I thought I was going to be the next great sci fi writer. This was followed by a period where I just wanted to get the writing done and over with. This was later followed by an amazing period of writerly growth where I accepted the mantle of ‘game writer’ and did some solid things.

 

Then I got lazy and bored.

 

I’m past all that now. I recognize the role this blog has played in that. Great expectations start with intention. I learned through ‘the rule’ that I can be intentional if I so choose. This is true not only of my writing but of every aspect of my life.

 

If you believe in what you are doing then you gotta keep doing it. You cannot let the world tell you what is and isn’t possible. Intention creates the energy for action and success. So long as your intent is strong, you have the opportunity to be successful.

 

Okay, enough preaching for one night.

The Fox News headline reads, “There are no police: Ferguson Store Owners forced to fend off looters” The station goes on to post a report using what appears to be one of the three black reporters employed by the entire network to offer a counterargument that paints the police in a highly positive light while placing the blame of the incident squarely on the victim and those who are protesting in support of the victim. Of course, if these people were just protesting there wouldn’t be a narrative for Fox to hold on to. It isn’t just Fox. CNN is now spinning a similar narrative, talking about officers too politically afraid to intervene. This paints the protesters in an entirely negative light.

What scares me more is the possibility of some business owners doing as Fox suggests and defending their businesses with weapons of their own. Worst still, militias could get involved and raise the conflict to a whole new level, all under the auspices of protecting small business.

Martin Luther King Jr. understood that everybody in a situation has their own agenda. Nobody in this situation on the side of the protesters has the gravitas to realize that and take control of the situation in a way that allows the black community there to look truly positive. Instead the media focus turns towards looters and this spreading tale of black aggression.

I don’t know which facts being offered about the shooting are legitimate. One thread that runs through all the reports is that there was a physical altercation between the officer and the victim that transpired through the car window. Afterwards the victim tried to flee and was gunned down. What caused the officer to behave in this manner is up for debate, but it sounds like he felt threatened and responded to that threat in a way that far exceeded the responsibilities of his position. In other words, he got pissed off and scared and stopped acting like a well trained cop and started acting like a man who has been threatened and needs to handle that threat.

 

Some Thoughts:

1. My youngest claims to be a Cowboys Fan. He’s out of the family.
2. Started playing Madden 25 again and I’ve worked myself into a financial quandary. I must start releasing top players in order to stay below the salary cap. That makes the game really fun in a different way. I like it.

There are lessons that can be learned from all that we do. Even something as simple as walking the dog can teach us about responsibility, balance, and respect. When is the leash too long? When is it too short? What should you allow the dog to do to the property of another person? What does it mean for the dog? If all of these lessons can be intuited from a dog walk, what then can be learned from a complex game?

I’m a Minecraft player. I do it in order to explore my creativity and to build really cool stuff. It’s an open-world game. While there is a way to ‘win’ there is really no goal outside of living a life that pleases us. However, through playing I have gleaned valuable life lessons that I hope to pass on to my kids. Here are just a few:

1. By choosing how we live, we choose our goals in life.
2. Coal is an abundant but finite resource and needs to be treated as such.
3. There is a cycle of life and death and that compels us forward.
4. The seed exists in spite of us.
5. It is easier to destroy than create.
6. Violence is an element of nature and cannot be eradicated without also eliminating any understanding of peace.
7. There is great good that can come out of death and out of evil things.

 

Some Thoughts:

1. I have not been loyal to my craft and it disappoints me. I tried to convince myself that I was merely allowing myself time to recharge, but it is much more than that. There is an element of fear there—of not having enough to say, of not having the skill to say it, and so on. Every writer faces fear and a self-realization of the level of their skills. The trick is to keep going beyond that, to recognize you can only get better, and stronger through practice, and to capitalize on that.

I’m starting to reconsider the order of the Backs i’ll pick. I am not one to normally be impressed by training camp, but when Jamaal Charles literally juked a player so hard that the player broke his ankle, I took notice. I also took full notice of the goaline prowess of Giants rookie RB, Andre Williams. Though ranked #57 by ESPN, Williams has a good chance to leech carries from Rashad Jennings in the redzone. This is contingent on Eli’s ability to develop chemistry with a tight end an limit the need to have a top end pass catcher in the backfield in those critical moments. Everything in the fantasy realm is contingent on a fine balance of what-ifs. What if a player gets hurt? What if the schedule forces a different style of play? What if you’re the Jaguars?

My one piece of advice for Fantasy players is to consider the schedule. Every team is going to find a way to score. The key is to figure out who each team is playing and what that opposing D is especially bad at. For example, The Cowboys are likely to have the worst run defense in the league, so think about the damage someone like LeSean McCoy will do twice a season (and then think about trading him after). The same sort of advice applies to teams playing the Browns. Throwing against them (or the Cardinals) is futile, so look after the teams who have solid run games against them. Stash away some Rbs and play to the whole season, not just the first few weeks.

 

Some Thoughts:

1. Mistresses is getting stupider, TV is getting stupider, and people still give a damn about what Kim Kardashian is doing. How is it we are still viable as a species? I’m more worried about our social decay than I am about any potential Ebola outbreak. At least the virus kills us quick.