Well soccer season is over. I've made it through another fall season. This season I didn't referee as many games as I have in the past, however most all of them were college level games and far more intense. Thankfully I'm in a place now where I have nothing to do and a good mental defrag can finally occur. It's time to get my life back in order now.
Once Thanksgiving is over, it's time to actually see friends. Hang out at Capitals games or at the bar. Catch up on what I've missed over the past couple months. Start reading the Bourne Trilogy and rewatch the movies one by one. Get out and complete my holiday shopping, although completing the thought of what I'd like to get for important people in my life is probably a good first step. It's also time to look into my house hunting ventures ... hopefully I'll have a new place to call my own in the near future.
So, the transition begins however not without a bit of time to sit and relax.
Monday, November 22, 2010
Friday, October 29, 2010
It's been a long October
So, I've noticed that my blog has gone to the wayside once soccer hit full stride. I know that's not an excuse in any way, shape, or form ... however I'll still used it. Plus I mentioned in the first post that this thing would probably be used sparingly throughout it's life cycle.
As soccer season winds down (I have 4 more games on my schedule, for now), I have some thoughts to throw out to the masses:
1) I should end up the season with close, if not more than 250 miles logged in 54 games from August 17th to November 4th. Not a bad haul for the fall season.
2) I'm looking forward to hanging out with friends, siting on my couch, starting to read the Bourne Identity (I have Supremacy and Ultimatum too), watching Caps games, and going to Caps games ... probably not all at the same time, but you get the point.
3) I tend to lose the concept on what children really get from sports. I'm truly starting to believe that sports teach children some of the best and some of the worst traits that come from society. I wonder if people, in their jobs, are able to blame missing reports or missed deadlines on others being "terrible" or "the worst _____ ever". Or if they're able to curse out a boss when they don't get a promotion or something else that they "deserved". I almost wonder if it was all this way when I was a kid, and I was just too young/naive to notice.
4) Although a lot of Caps fans are not happy with how the team has started the season, they're 2 points behind the record breaking pace they set last season. I'd trade a more "team oriented" game for a win here or there any day of the week. I don't expect a team to win every night, maybe give themselves a chance to win, but there's no need to win every game.
5) I'm digging the Caps Winter Classic jerseys. By the way, for all the people that dislike them, please feel free to realize that the Washington Capitals are not here to recreate your youth. Go find a jersey from the 80's, if you like them so much. I appreciate the fact that they look close to same, without being the same jerseys.
6) I'm really looking forward to getting my pair of Face Off Hockey Shoes in the mail. That will be this year's referee "gift" to myself. After a long season, it's nice to use some of the money now, while saving the rest for later.
7) I'd like to get back into marketing the Face Off Hockey Show much more. New Products, new sponsorships, money coming in, setting up a website to sell draft pictures, and whatever I can really do. If nothing else, at least this helps with our marketing in the future. Although some new gear and some money has never hurt anyone.
As soccer season winds down (I have 4 more games on my schedule, for now), I have some thoughts to throw out to the masses:
1) I should end up the season with close, if not more than 250 miles logged in 54 games from August 17th to November 4th. Not a bad haul for the fall season.
2) I'm looking forward to hanging out with friends, siting on my couch, starting to read the Bourne Identity (I have Supremacy and Ultimatum too), watching Caps games, and going to Caps games ... probably not all at the same time, but you get the point.
3) I tend to lose the concept on what children really get from sports. I'm truly starting to believe that sports teach children some of the best and some of the worst traits that come from society. I wonder if people, in their jobs, are able to blame missing reports or missed deadlines on others being "terrible" or "the worst _____ ever". Or if they're able to curse out a boss when they don't get a promotion or something else that they "deserved". I almost wonder if it was all this way when I was a kid, and I was just too young/naive to notice.
4) Although a lot of Caps fans are not happy with how the team has started the season, they're 2 points behind the record breaking pace they set last season. I'd trade a more "team oriented" game for a win here or there any day of the week. I don't expect a team to win every night, maybe give themselves a chance to win, but there's no need to win every game.
5) I'm digging the Caps Winter Classic jerseys. By the way, for all the people that dislike them, please feel free to realize that the Washington Capitals are not here to recreate your youth. Go find a jersey from the 80's, if you like them so much. I appreciate the fact that they look close to same, without being the same jerseys.
6) I'm really looking forward to getting my pair of Face Off Hockey Shoes in the mail. That will be this year's referee "gift" to myself. After a long season, it's nice to use some of the money now, while saving the rest for later.
7) I'd like to get back into marketing the Face Off Hockey Show much more. New Products, new sponsorships, money coming in, setting up a website to sell draft pictures, and whatever I can really do. If nothing else, at least this helps with our marketing in the future. Although some new gear and some money has never hurt anyone.
Thursday, September 23, 2010
A GPS Watch and refereeing
Toward the end of last year I picked up a new Garmin Forerunner 405 w/ Heart Rate Monitor on eBay. I wanted to start road cycling again, however found out that my old cycling computer had died. It had been years since I was able to ride my bike, so I wasn't surprised to find it not working any longer. I decided to pick up this Garmin watch in order to keep track of where I went, distances, heart rates, calories burned, speed, and even get me home if I took a wrong turn somewhere. Once I got it though, I noticed it connects directly into Google Earth and that I could zoom down to show exactly where I was riding. It was so precise that I could actually see if I cut through a parking lot instead of going all the way around the corner. At that point I realized that this watch could be used for refereeing soccer games, and used really well to keep track of where I was on the field and how far I ran.
This fall, I've started using the Garmin 405 for almost every game that I've refereed (and for the ones I didn't wear it, I estimated what I would have run). Through 27 games I've refereed this fall, in both the Referee and an Assistant Referee position, I've run 114.46 miles. That ends up to be approximately 4.25 miles per game that I've refereed so far this fall season. If I continue that pace for the rest of the season, I'll have run 216.75 miles within the 10 weeks of fall ... or basically running from Baltimore, MD to White Plains, NY. I never knew that I ran that much throughout games, and this includes games that I'm running through the middle of the field (like in the picture) and games that I'm running on just one sideline the whole time. When I'm in the middle, I average just about 6 miles for the game. The highest total so far was 6.57 miles, in this Hopkins v. Messiah game. When I'm on the sideline I average just about 3 miles for the game.
Plus the Garmin 405 is great because you can set "Advanced Workouts" on the computer. Basically I set up the timings for entire games, high school games and college games separately since they're different timings, and I'm able to scroll through to the "workout", press "do workout" and I have everything there. I recently had a high school game that went all the way through 2 overtimes and the score was still tied. The watch did everything I set it up for and went through the entire game without a problem.
Oh, and in case you're wondering ... I've been able to ride my bike 6 times since I've bought the watch. I've ridden 138.83 miles in 9 hours 11 minutes 5 seconds, for an average speed of 15.1mph. So yes, I do actually use the GPS watch for what I bought it for in the first place.
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| Middle of a women's DIII match between #1 Messiah & #8 Johns Hopkins. |
Plus the Garmin 405 is great because you can set "Advanced Workouts" on the computer. Basically I set up the timings for entire games, high school games and college games separately since they're different timings, and I'm able to scroll through to the "workout", press "do workout" and I have everything there. I recently had a high school game that went all the way through 2 overtimes and the score was still tied. The watch did everything I set it up for and went through the entire game without a problem.
Oh, and in case you're wondering ... I've been able to ride my bike 6 times since I've bought the watch. I've ridden 138.83 miles in 9 hours 11 minutes 5 seconds, for an average speed of 15.1mph. So yes, I do actually use the GPS watch for what I bought it for in the first place.
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Honesty
Do people really want honesty? This is something that I struggle with often.
When someone asks me a question ... 1) If I know you well enough, should I tell you exactly what I think? 2) If I know you well enough, should I tell you what you ultimately want to hear? 3) If I don't know you that well, should I just lie to you because you won't know the difference anyway?
I feel like there are actually some people in this world that want to know the truth, for better or for worse, because they are actually trying to become better people or learn more about themselves. The problem, I find, is the tweeners ... the people that tell others they want to hear the truth, but then use that truth to prove that you were wrong, don't know what you're talking about, or just don't believe that's what you just said.
By trait I am pretty shy, actually I'd say reserved. I'm probably the most perfect combination of my mother and father that you could possibly get. A chameleon, if you must ... someone that's quite shy, however can hold a conversation with just about anyone, and in the right situation can feel quite comfortable holding that conversation. I'd like to change. I'd like to become more out going, as I've gotten older. I'd like to be able to tell everyone the truth, but that's the problem. That's where the "more out going" turns into "going back to what I've always known". Avoiding confrontation is something that I do really well ... I've taken tests to prove that.
It seems to me that people don't want others to be more out going by becoming more truthful ... they want others to become more out going by just doing whatever the group is doing. Hopefully my observations are skewed or even flat out wrong. I'm not sure I'd be happy living in a place where I'm trying to always be a chameleon, in the sense that I need to change in order for people to accept me.
When someone asks me a question ... 1) If I know you well enough, should I tell you exactly what I think? 2) If I know you well enough, should I tell you what you ultimately want to hear? 3) If I don't know you that well, should I just lie to you because you won't know the difference anyway?
I feel like there are actually some people in this world that want to know the truth, for better or for worse, because they are actually trying to become better people or learn more about themselves. The problem, I find, is the tweeners ... the people that tell others they want to hear the truth, but then use that truth to prove that you were wrong, don't know what you're talking about, or just don't believe that's what you just said.
By trait I am pretty shy, actually I'd say reserved. I'm probably the most perfect combination of my mother and father that you could possibly get. A chameleon, if you must ... someone that's quite shy, however can hold a conversation with just about anyone, and in the right situation can feel quite comfortable holding that conversation. I'd like to change. I'd like to become more out going, as I've gotten older. I'd like to be able to tell everyone the truth, but that's the problem. That's where the "more out going" turns into "going back to what I've always known". Avoiding confrontation is something that I do really well ... I've taken tests to prove that.
It seems to me that people don't want others to be more out going by becoming more truthful ... they want others to become more out going by just doing whatever the group is doing. Hopefully my observations are skewed or even flat out wrong. I'm not sure I'd be happy living in a place where I'm trying to always be a chameleon, in the sense that I need to change in order for people to accept me.
Friday, September 3, 2010
What's in a Title?
So, I've started sending this blog out to some friends, mostly for the enjoyment of approval and the fact that I can only read my own thoughts so many times over. I have gotten a question back though ... "what's the title mean?"
Apparently the title has a completely unintended meaning, and that needs some back story. For most of my life I've had issues with allergies and polyps within my nose. I've had surgery to clean it all out, and fix my nose ... however they just come back. For most of my life, I haven't been able to breathe through my nose or smell much of anything. Recently, my new doctor, has had me rinsing my nose with a Neti Pot and a water/steroids solution. It's worked tremendously ... sleeping well, breathing better, not really any issues with allergies right now, and being able to smell things. Thus, I was asked if "An Awakening of One's Senses" pertained to me being able to smell again (by the way, look below for a pros/cons list of being able to smell again). A fantastic question, but not what I was really going for.
The real meaning is tied to Australian tribal jewelry. The above picture is the symbol that I've been thinking of getting as a tattoo for nearly 10 years now. That's just a picture of the necklace charm and by using Microsoft Paint I've erased the piece that physically goes onto the chain. If I ever decided to actually have this tattoo put on my body, then I'd get one of my friends to draw it for me. I'm not sure why I became so enamored with this. If it's the actual design of the intertwined moon shapes, or if it's the thought that it's tied to an awakening of one's senses. Something has me continually come back to this one design whenever thinking about getting a tattoo. Maybe I'm just weird.
So for all those asking, now you know ... and knowing is half the battle. For a little extra time however here's my Pro/Con list for having my nose opened up again:
Pros:
Apparently the title has a completely unintended meaning, and that needs some back story. For most of my life I've had issues with allergies and polyps within my nose. I've had surgery to clean it all out, and fix my nose ... however they just come back. For most of my life, I haven't been able to breathe through my nose or smell much of anything. Recently, my new doctor, has had me rinsing my nose with a Neti Pot and a water/steroids solution. It's worked tremendously ... sleeping well, breathing better, not really any issues with allergies right now, and being able to smell things. Thus, I was asked if "An Awakening of One's Senses" pertained to me being able to smell again (by the way, look below for a pros/cons list of being able to smell again). A fantastic question, but not what I was really going for.
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So for all those asking, now you know ... and knowing is half the battle. For a little extra time however here's my Pro/Con list for having my nose opened up again:
Pros:
- Bacon smells amazing
- Sushi
- Easier to run/cycle, being able to breathe through my nose and mouth at the same time
- Easier to sleep
- Food tastes better
- Beer tastes different (some better)
Cons:
- Needed to buy an air freshener for my room because it smelled different
- Some perfume/air fresheners smell weird
- My roommate farting
- Exhaust smells
- Cut grass
- Eat more because it tastes good
- I've started to find some food or beer that tastes different than I remember, not in a good way
Thursday, August 26, 2010
Fantasy Hockey Team Names
So ... fantasy hockey on yahoo has opened up, and we're already signed up. My usual running of a league for the Face Off Hockey Show and another team in a public league. These are "just for fun" leagues ... no money or prizes can be put into them or gotten from them.
So I've decided to use this forum to keep track of some new names. All names have to be less than 20 characters though, Yahoo's rule not mine.
My thoughts on new names:
* Mark it 8 Dude
* Eat your Fruit Loops
* Busted Cups
* I Thirst for Victory
* Out Saving the Queen
* Minding P's and Q's
* Then is Now
* Back to Russia
* You Ever Wonder?
* Easy Being Green
* 9x NHL Draft Champ
* Belly Full of Anger
* Just a Bit Outside
* Sweep the Leg Jonny
* Golden Tee Heroes
* Finding Becky
* Over my Helmet
* Not Dead, Just Sick
* Cute Sells Tickets
* Never Knock on Wood
So I've decided to use this forum to keep track of some new names. All names have to be less than 20 characters though, Yahoo's rule not mine.
My thoughts on new names:
* Mark it 8 Dude
* Eat your Fruit Loops
* Busted Cups
* I Thirst for Victory
* Out Saving the Queen
* Minding P's and Q's
* Then is Now
* Back to Russia
* You Ever Wonder?
* Easy Being Green
* 9x NHL Draft Champ
* Belly Full of Anger
* Just a Bit Outside
* Sweep the Leg Jonny
* Golden Tee Heroes
* Finding Becky
* Over my Helmet
* Not Dead, Just Sick
* Cute Sells Tickets
* Never Knock on Wood
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Are clothes sizes getting bigger?
Ok ... I might be losing it, but I'm not certain. I referee soccer games, I mentioned that before, so I went out before the season to get some new referee shorts and a couple new jerseys. A new color that everyone seems geeked to wear because it's the new cool thing to do. I don't understand why the other 4 colors of jerseys weren't good enough, but I digress. So I head to the website to get my new refereeing gear for the season. I order all the normal sizes for shirts and shorts. I get everything and both shirts and shorts are huge. I mean they almost feel like they're not even the same size that I've been wearing since college. Is it possible that I'm getting smaller? Maybe. I guess I could be losing the muscle I acquired wrestling through college, and I'm replacing that with fat. However I always thought that muscle weighed more than fat, and I'm not losing any weight. I guess I'm replacing it with a lot of fat? Or could sizes of clothes be changing?
I have a full set of NCAA refereeing jerseys that are larges, and they fit me pretty normally. They might be a little bit big but I'd rather have that than get something that's too small. I have a full set of high school jerseys that are larges and fit me pretty closely to my NCAA jerseys. But this new one, I feel like I'm swimming in it, and don't get me started with the medium shorts that are almost down to my knees. It's a damn good thing they have a fantastic elastic, kindof grippy, waitband. Everything just looks big on me, but I guess I can't do much about it. It's not like I can return any of it ... like I said, people are geeked to wear the new color. So 2 days after I got the jersey in the mail, I was already wearing it to referee high school scrimmages. So much for returning it.
However this brings me to the thought I had above. Are sizes of clothes changing? Could it just be that people in the United States are getting fatter but want to think they are wearing the same size still? I guess I'll let you know once I go back out and buy a new wardrobe of smaller polo shirts to wear to work.
I have a full set of NCAA refereeing jerseys that are larges, and they fit me pretty normally. They might be a little bit big but I'd rather have that than get something that's too small. I have a full set of high school jerseys that are larges and fit me pretty closely to my NCAA jerseys. But this new one, I feel like I'm swimming in it, and don't get me started with the medium shorts that are almost down to my knees. It's a damn good thing they have a fantastic elastic, kindof grippy, waitband. Everything just looks big on me, but I guess I can't do much about it. It's not like I can return any of it ... like I said, people are geeked to wear the new color. So 2 days after I got the jersey in the mail, I was already wearing it to referee high school scrimmages. So much for returning it.
However this brings me to the thought I had above. Are sizes of clothes changing? Could it just be that people in the United States are getting fatter but want to think they are wearing the same size still? I guess I'll let you know once I go back out and buy a new wardrobe of smaller polo shirts to wear to work.
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