Month: September 2012

Bad week for me picking games. My football IQ took a serious hit as a blew some calls I should have made and lost for the second straight week of Fantasy Football. Is this what it feels like to be a New Orleans Saint? Check out the record for week two: 8-8. I broke even. Here’s the breakdown:

• OAK over MIA
• CHI over GB (Turns out the game actually was at Lambeau. Oops.)
• HOU over JAC
• BUF over KC
• CIN over CLE
• IND over MIN
• BAL over PHI
• NO over Carolina
• NE over ARI
• NYG over TB
• STL over WAS
• SEA over DAL
• TEN over SD
• NYJ over PIT
• SF over DET
• DEN over ATL

The games in red indicate a catastrophic failure of reason on my part, and in one case it represents a lack of understanding of how good the Cardinals D is. I won’t make that mistake again. I was 10 and 6 in week 1. I was 8-8 this week, bringing the record to 18-14. That ties me with Pigskin Pick’em and ties or puts me ahead of most of the ESPN guys. Here we go for week 3:

NYG over CAR
Even without Nicks and Bradshaw this team can pull off big wins. I can just hear Randle growling, ‘wait till they get a load of me’

CHI over STL
Blew the CHI pick last time, but these guys are at home and hungry.

BUF over CLE
This is a trap game. CLE has a solid secondary and responds well to the Wildcat. Still, CJ Spiller is playing like a man.

TB over DAL
Dallas is not real. They trained all summer for that NY win, and now they gotta deal with a dangerous and physical team that has nothing to lose.

IND over JAC
MJD goes buckets for 200, but it isn’t enough to counter a 4TD (one rushing) day from Luck.

NYJ over MIA
Rex unleashes Tebow in Tebow town. Miami realizes how thin they are.

SF over MIN
Defensive game for the most part, but Moss puts on a show.

NO over KC
I don’t think NO is first to 3 losses. I can’t believe that.

CIN over WASH
Torn on this one. I see the potential of RGIII and I know he will do his part. The big question is Orakpo. How will the D respond without him there?

AZ over PHI
After that win in New England, I have newfound respect. Good Luck pulling this one out, Vick.

ATL over SD
It is really a question of pass protection and secondary. Whoever has the best combination of the two in this game wins.

HOU over DEN
Tough call again, given the Denver D. I still have a lot of faith in that Houston O and their (now occasional) zone running scheme.

PIT over OAK
Not enough firepower from OAK on either side of the rock.

BAL over NE
Both teams got suckered looking ahead to this week. Well, this week is finally here and BaL comes into the game with some new information on how to contain Brady.

SEA over GB
I’m telling you, there is something about playing in that stadium that turns seasoned NFL guys into nincompoops.

This is one of those nights where the brain is fuzzed over and coated in a thin non-cunductive slime. I spent forty minutes staring at the ruins of a short story and slipping in and out of consciousness. All of this after my evening cup of Starbucks Verona. A good friend mentioned that she and her husband went all in for an espresso machine. I ought to follow that path and totally eliminate the need for coffee shops. Of course, then I wouldn’t be able to enjoy that atmosphere.

I am watching a garbled version of NBC’s Revolution and wishing I was watching the Avengers. Sci-fi superfolk beats a weakly strained apocalypse any day. As I watch I am wishing that the fog would lift and I would be able to think long enough to make this post worthwhile.

Today I found myself scouring the internet to figure out who this Murphy guy was. I mean to have your human legacy be to be synonymous with stuff going horribly wrong? What do you have to do to be that guy? Apparently you have to see a lot of stuff end up as a catastrophe. It turns out Murphy may be Edward A. Murphy, Jr. an engineer who said, “If there are two or more ways to do something, and one of those ways can result in a catastrophe, then someone will do it.”

So if there are two ways to enter a garage and one way will result in hitting something in the garage or even the garage itself… you get the idea. This non-scientific approach to pessimism is true more than you might imagine. In fact, the garage example is something I did, hitting the garage, stuff in the garage, narrowly avoiding pets and children. I went in backwards and continue to do so to this day. I think I have the hang of it now.

Outside of slamming into things with a motor vehicle, life has been an interesting collection of events. It has been terribly good. I say terribly, because Dr. Murphy is leaning over my shoulder reminding me that the only good day was today. It was good though. I feel like the writing is coming along nicely. The kids are doing well. The wife has hit her groove in learning. All good things.

Lets hope Murphy was wrong.

The thing I’ve always loved about Shadowrun is not the the dystopian grit. I am all about the team dynamic and the grift. In short, I liked the Leverage (TNT show) aspect of Shadowrun. Apparently I wasn’t alone. Margaret Weis studios stripped away the heavy cyberware and magic to create an elegant criminals and masterminds experience in a tidy tabletop setting. The thing is, she didn’t need to do that. Leverage is Shadowrun. It just needs the right massaging.

Leverage brings together a team of highly skilled specialists to work on the vigilante side of the law. There is the mastermind, the grifter, the cat burglar, the soldier, and the hacker. In shadowrun parlance this would be the mastermind, the face, the physical adept, the samurai, and the hacker. By adding magic and cyberpunk to the mix you create an opportunity to deepen the story. Given the longstanding roots of magic in our culture, the physical arrival of magic in that culture creates for some very interesting storylines–especially when tied to the Physical Adept (widely considered a hybrid bastardization of mage and fighter).

Magic giveth and magic taketh away. Shadowrun reintroduces orks, trolls, dwarves, and even elves to the world. This worldview is antithetical to a magical world. Cyberpunk is all about an oppressive dystopia under the control of sometimes malicious technology. Magic-based stories are generally about an oppressive world under the control of a power hungry magic user.

Wait… There’s a connection. So where does leverage fit in? You have this world where magic and technology are battling for supremacy and a select fe control both from the comfort of the corporate high rise. Down in the shadows of iron spires these Leverage style crews work to carve out a life for themselves and take a little slice of the pie from the corporators.

Leverage is Shadowrun. The difference is the level of the villain. The Leverage crew deals with top level baddies. A shadowrun crew might get there on occassion but they’re usually dealing with middle-men who never smell the 70th floor. Either way, the team dynamic still exists. The roles still exist. The desire to do something that matters in a world that means to convince you that you don’t matter still exists.

There are rules ascribed to all we do. Being a writer comes with a set of rules that, if followed, create the conditions for success. As a warning, I don’t often follow these rules. My career paints a colorful picture of the results. You should know these rules of engagement. From time to time I will share some.

Rule: Never write while lying down.
This is the swiftest trajectory to falling asleep. It should be avoided on that basis alone, but in particular because it puts the mind in relaxation mode, which is quite far from where you should be when hammering out deep thoughts.

Rule: Distractions are actually distractions
Many people work while listening to music. This is only okay when there are no words to the music. The words steal memory resources from your key function. You gotta strip away all that other stuff and retire to an uninteresting environment in order to retreat into the deep recesses of your own mind. That is where the good stuff lives. The problem is that it takes a lot to get to it. Consider the process of aging a fine wine. Your memories, experience, and writing style are the concoction that forms the wine. Time-aged, the wine will be bursting with flavor and originality. Only, the wine doesn’t want to come out of the bottle. You gotta coax it out and concentrate on every aspect of the retrieval. That don’t happen while boppin to Drake.

 

For years now I’ve shut my eyes to the reality of my first born. My wife will tell you that I blacked out the entire 2nd year of his life; it was my own PTSD, I suppose. He is a great kid. He is bright, energetic, and excited about everything he does. He is also prone to explosive crying fits and bouts of sheer mania. Even then I didn’t want to see what that could mean. Finally, tonight I watched the boy move from activity to activity so quickly that it made me nauseous. If he was unoccupied for more than 50 seconds (I actually timed the pauses) he started to whine uncontrollably until he found the next thing to do.

My son has the makings of a good ADHD case. He has not been formally diagnosed, because I dread taking him to a doctor whose only recommendation will likely be to put the boy on drugs for the rest of his life. I don’t want to drug him. I want to manage the disorder.

At some point you have to accept that the people you love are flawed. You have to deal with those flaws with all the nurturing and love that you can. But sometimes what doctors call flaws are merely other ways of expressing yourself, and in the case of my boy, a near endless supply of nervous energy. So, what do you do with that? I refuse to believe that ADHD is a crippling disorder. I believe it is a strength in the right setting. On the other hand, it is terribly difficult to manage as a parent.

Every week I find myself researching something new and interesting. This week’s research will be dedicated to understanding how to care for a child with ADHD.

Sometimes when you fall asleep you have to nurse yourself back to consciousness. I took a break by my cat this evening and she proceeded to purr in my ear. Twenty minutes later I was waking up and wondering what week it was. On the one hand it is a clear sign that I’m overtired–a result of falling behind on my responsibilities a few weeks into the semester. On the other hand, I started the semester close to two months behind schedule and I managed to close that gap to a handful of days. I learned a lot from the catch-up experience, like how to say no once the plate is already full. I also picked up a few other lessons along the way.

• Generation Y is amazingly proficient and evading responsibility. While I might see it as being easier and more effective to just ‘do the work,’ Y finds it more interesting and apparently more fulfilling to task their mental capacities with getting out of the work. Just a few weeks into the semester I have heard more excuses than I have seen results.
• All writers are procrastinators. We shouldn’t be, but there is something about the idea of slogging through a project, even one you enjoy tremendously, that is difficult to commit to. Maybe we recognize the amount of mental gymnastics required to get through a writing project, and, like that fat needle from the doctor, we just don’t want to commit to it unless we really really must.
• Students find the idea of writing dirty. They find the idea of writing everyday to be an assault on their ability to function as young adults. On the other hand, they will text 17 times an hour and update facebook pages six times a day. This too is writing.
• It is easy to be fat. It is not so easy to be healthy, especially as you get older. The body wants what it wants and it doesn’t want to move very much. Once you start moving, aches, pains, and most of all lack of will get in the way. Schedules hurt too, but you can always fix those if you like.

One week into the NFL record books and there are still no real officials and still no fantasy football wins for me. It looks like the refs are locked out at least through week three, but my victory lockout should end this week. The same can’t be said for several NFL teams who may answer a terrible week one with a shaky week 2 performance. Once you lose the first two, the pressure is really on.

 

CHI over GB
I don’t call it this way in Lambeau. The fact is Green Bay is without their top receiver and the running game is anemic. Some will point out that this is business as usual for Green Bay, but Chicago D isn’t playing biz as ‘uszh’. These guys are hitting and disrupting the passing lanes a la SF and Ba–especially in the short game. Good luck Aaron Rogers. I expect to collect many points from my (GB) kicker this week.

OAK over MIA
Oakland is bad. Miami is truly dismal. On the upside, Tannehill changes up the snap count after realizing Hard Knocks gave away his rhythm and only throws 2 picks this week.

HOU over JAC
All this team has is a pocket-sized Hercules, but that won’t be enough to overcome everything that is Houston. They do everything big down in Texas, including winning.

BUF over KC
There are some real issues that need to be addressed with the Buffalo D following the thumping freely offered by my J-E-T-S. The offense will have to adjust to CJ Spiller carrying the load, and the passing game really needs to get on track. I don’t think it will be an easy win, but it will be a win.

CIN over CLE
Bad beats worst every time.

IND over MIN
I have a lot riding on this one. I play in a two QB league and one of those QBs is named Luck. I think the Viking’s secondary is legit, but I also think Luck is a serious QB who has a future in the NFL. Maybe that future isn’t right now, but I didn’t get RGIII in the draft, so I gotta believe in someone.

BAL over PHI
Warm up the panic engines. Philly is going to be 0-2 by Monday. Vick is running scared behind a tissue paper o-line that has no chance of stopping the Ravens. D on D crime, and the newest ‘Elite’ QB, Joe Flacco looks to make a mockery of a still shaky Eagles D.

NO over Carolina
Superman saw a lot of Kryptonite last week. The trend continues against a near full strength Saints D fresh off an anger-inspiring loss.

NE over ARI
Playoffs? People were talking about AZ in the playoffs? Are you kidding me? Playoffs? I will be surprised to see them start the same QB for a whole month. The good news is Matt Barkley sounds like the real deal.

NYG over TB
Tampa is about to face their worst nightmare. A bunch of angry New Yorkers bearing down on them. Expect pain, swagger, and a whole lot of points from the offense. The Tampa running game will get on track, but it wont be nearly enough to stop the Giants.

STL over WAS
My toughest pick all week. I think RGIII has all the tools, and his OC, seems to be letting him use some of those tools. The problem is trust and belief. I don’t believe this team is as good as it thinks. I don’t trust the coaching staff. Therefore, I pick STL.

SEA over DAL
If this game was anywhere but Seattle, it would be Cowboys all the way. However, it is in Seattle and that 12th man is all the way behind this team and this coach. It will be loud and dangerous for a Cowboy team swelling with swagger following a win in NYC. Watch out for a let down.

TEN over SD
I refuse to believe CJ2K is that bad. Who knows how terrible the passing game is. Who cares? We know SD will chuck it all over the field, so TEN has to win by grinding down that clock through the run game. CJ2K bounce back game.

NYJ over PIT
I still believe in the creativity and power of the Jets. The D will carry them to the line and the O will indeed hump it in. This is the beginning of a beautiful season.

SF over DET
Anyone who saw that week 1 game ought to be in agreement with this pick. SF’s D looked dominant and downright scary at times.

DEN over ATL
Easily the game of the week. A young gunslinger tries to make his mark against the OG. He won’t, of course. Manning is rolling.

The key to being a successful person might just start with what you put into your body. For starters, the amount that you eat is a crucial part of how and why some people are mentally productive and others fall apart by 2. I fall apart by 2. In fact, I only lasted that long today because a good friend slipped me a bag of mixed nuts in the morning. Those nuts, a banana, and two cups of coffee (cut with milk) were the fuel expected to power me through a day full of classes, tutoring, and intense conversation. That paltry meal was not enough.

Years of reading medical journals and seeing that information dumbed down and regurgitated through Men’s Health have taught me that breakfast is extremely important after the down cycle of a good night’s sleep. Follow that with up to five additional small meals throughout the day in order to keep your body at peak level. Wash all of this down with 8-10 glasses of water minimum. Avoid soda and other sugary drinks, and engage in physical activity in order to keep the body active and alert. The mind will respond well to this. It may need some glucose and caffeine for the prefrontal cortex to be in top form, but if you’re doing everything else above, this may not be as necessary.

Everything above is exactly what I ain’t doing.

I may or may not have breakfast. Instead I settle for 2 cups of coffee diluted in creamer. The coffee is an appetite suppressant, so I can ignore the morning hunger. My work schedule generally means that I don’t see a break until 11:05 and that is usually swallowed by students who stay late or me just running over. 11:15 hits and I am at it again till 12:30. There is a brief walk to the writing center and another hour of work. Then it is off to get the kids from school. I stop at Wendy’s for a small value meal and let the calories carry me until the 5:30 (or sometimes as late as 7:30) dinner. The day is done and I have eaten 1 meal. At that point the body’s metabolism is on strike, recognizing my failure to consume nutrients. Instead of losing weight, it stores the fat I consume and allows me to have something to work with for the next time I act a fool and don’t eat. That next time is the next day, and the day after, etc.

I close the day with three more cups of java and enter the down cycle sometime after midnight. Morning comes too soon and my body never gets to recharge. This is how young people become old fast, and this is how I am going to die before 40.

Unless, of course, I do more than realize how sick this is and actually change it.

My wife asked me if I was happy with my things. Following the purchase of a new TV at a nutso low price, I can say I am happy. My house is moving towards the ready state, and with it being clearance time for yard things, I may be able to make all the progress I need to make with the yard and even put together a brief bbq if the weather turns nice.

The office is slowly coming together in a way that allows for space to develop story outlines. I have a chunk of wall space picked out to host my outlines, which will help me clear out some of the clutter in my mind and allow it to live on the wall, where it can challenge me daily and demand to be finished.

Home life, work life, writing life, physical life. That last one is where the turmoil is most evident. I weigh 217.4 lbs, which is on the borderline of obesity, and far fatter than a 6’3″ man should safely weigh. I am working on the problem but without the speed and motivation that I should be. In fact, I am more worried about the pained condition of my knees than the extra weight causing said condition. Getting started is extremely hard for me right now. I feel like there are too many other priorities taking precedence over this. The month of september is  a tough one indeed.