NBA Avg. Real Minutes

My wife knows the pains of this all too well and I'm sure playoff minutes last even longer. By the way the playoffs are in full swing and it is glorious. Basketball on every night of the week and two months of fantastic match ups to look forward to.

Sauce: How Long Is Every Minute Of An NBA Game?

Kaden Turns Four

He technically turns four this week, but we had his party and did a bunch of other stuff in honor of the birthday boy. Outside the standard weekend review of media, we packed our Saturday and Sunday to the ceiling with activities.

Run
Saturday started with an 8 am run for me, the final advanced team tempo run before this coming weekends race. It was 8 miles in full, all on the race course, 6 miles of tempo in the middle and 1 mile on the front and back to warm up and cool down. I think I am ready to put in a personal record, how much of a PR I won't know until I hit the 3.1 mile turn around and have to pour it on.

Soccer
Post run I rushed home, showered, re-clothed and took Kaden to his second soccer game of the season. He played last Fall for the first time in a 3 yr old division. It was a building process. The first game was mix of kids whining and crying their way through a thirty minutes of parenting hell. Over the course of the season Kaden slowly got it. Don't take the ball from your teammates, be aggressive on defense and score dem goals. This year there has been no transition. He is still in the 3 yr old division and there are still plenty of kids clinging to their Dad's leg the whole game, but he is out for blood having tons of fun.

Pool Party
Following the game we jumped in the car and zipped out to the Goochland YMCA for Kaden's 4th birthday party. We passed three YMCA's and drove 30 minutes out to "the country" for his party because they have an awesome pool set up. It is an outdoor pool covered and heated in the Winter by a huge bubble. Inside there is a massive (30'x30' maybe?) area that gradual goes from 1' to 3' deep. It is the perfect setup to allow kids to play, while lightly attended (they provide a life guard) and the adults chat pool side (I got in with Ward). An hour in the pool and an hour in a large party room with pizza and presents. All for a cheap-ish price tag. All the kids and the adults had a great time.

Sunday
Saturday was busy and Sunday was no day to catch up on rest. We made a big family trip to Panera for lunch and then to Toys R Us for the birthday boy. We got him a new bike and helmet (he out grew the old ones), booster seats for both of our cars (die in a fire toddler car seats!) and a new Lego set. We spent the afternoon at home assembling seats, the bike and Lego. By the end of the weekend my back was shot, so I went out for Habanero (dat beef tongue!) and spent the rest of the night Advil-ed up and stretching.

Annual Report 2012: Exercise

(Click to Embiggen)

My year in exercise has been up and down. Always maintaining a through line of running and riding, but plagued by injury and life events that left me a little disappointed by the end of 2012. Overall miles were up over the prior year, but 2011 was a diet and return to exercise year. If you compare both years from May to December, 2011 is up 275 miles on it's younger brother.

Running
I had a banner year in running events in 2012. Participating in 4 times as many as I did in 2011 and improving my mile pace in each event. Shaving 10 seconds per mile from March to November. On the other hand two knee injuries (stupid Basketball) to the same knee (stupid Football) took me out of the game for multiple weeks at a time and even kicked off a month of physical therapy in June. I might have gotten back on the streets in the late fall in winter, but instead there was a steady drop in all activity and a rise in cookie and beer consumption (not pictured).

Riding
I have never been an event/charity guy for bikes (mostly racing), but April was the most miles I've ridden in three years running (Sept. 2009: 200+). I have Cycle NC to thank for that. It made for a great weekend of cycling and some intense long miles at fast paces (mostly flat). When the knee injuries took me out of the running shoes they took me off the saddle too, but I was pretty consistent with Sunday rides all year. Something I have to give big thanks to my regular group for, I hit a 9 Sunday streak from March to April. 2012 was also my return to mountain biking. A sport I miss all the time and want to do more of ever time I get out on the trail. Two crashes this year too, but lets breeze by those before my wife bans me from the bike.

Weekend Review: Nov 10th & 11th

Every weekend there are new sights, sounds, and taste to consume. There are other sensory inputs that tickle my brain too, but saying there is stuff to feel sounds creepy. This is a weekly journal of my weekend endeavors. Enjoy!

Richmond Marathon 8k
I signed up for this event before Ward showed up. Back when I could get as much sleep as I wanted and plan a workout with relative ease. My training fell apart two months ago and I started regressing. Eating poorly, sleeping poorly and in general feeling poorly. Then I got sick Thursday night. I was all ready to pack it up and skip the whole thing. Except I had already paid and promised to drive Mike to the race. So I chugged NyQuil, went to bed early and reluctantly got up at 5:30a Saturday.

It was cold at 7a when we crossed the start line, but my legs felt surprisingly good. Mile one through three were easy, 3-4 torched me, but the home stretch was the best. One fourth of a mile before the finish was all downhill toward the James. I sucked cold air into burning lungs, as my jog transformed into a controlled sprint. Leaning all my weight into the descent as I started zipping past other runners. It took all of my concentration to not turn my sprint into a tumble of bloody limbs, but it worked. 41:17 at the line. 48th of 157 in my division. 8:15 a mile, my fastest pace in an event all year (prev. 8:25 and 8:20).

Wreck-It Ralph
Sunday afternoon was lazy recovery. Post Saturday run and Sunday morning ride (a poor choice), I took Kaden to see Wreck-It-Ralph. Pixar's newest film about the world of made up arcade game characters. I appreciated the video game references (they go to Tapper for happy hour) and he enjoyed the slap stick comedy. Overall it was not the strongest Pixar film I have seen, but that should not be a knock, they make good shows. He loved it though. I came home Saturday with a medal from the 8k that very much resembled the medal Ralph wants to win in the movie. We played all night. He has Ralph with the medal and I as Fix-It-Felix with a yellow Fisher Price otoscope standing in for my golden hammer.

Update
Thanks to Chuck for a major correction. The film was made by Disney, not Pixar. That explains why it felt more Cars 2 than Ratatouille. Subpar in the story department.


Good Job, Brain!
Not that I want for new Podcast, but somewhere in the 24 hours that were Octoberkast, Will, Norm and guest were discussing podcast they listen to. Good Job, Brain! was the only one that stuck with me. Part quiz show and part interesting fact/history lesson. The host are entertaining and funny. It may end up being something I download à la carte instead of subscribing to though. On a per topic basis. Podcast are getting me through these early baby months and it is nice to have a few extra around.

Weekend Review: Nov 3rd & 4th

Every weekend there are new sights, sounds, and taste to consume. There are other sensory inputs that tickle my brain too, but saying there is stuff to feel sounds creepy. This is a weekly journal of my weekend endeavors. Enjoy!

The Book of Basketball
Last seasons NBA playoffs and stunted regular season were fantastic. So many teams, players and rivalries that were worth watching. Setting up this season as must watch TV for me. Perfectly timed with the arrival of our second son too. I am great at half watching a basketball game while calming down a newborn. At the center of this new found interest is Bill Simmons. I read all his stuff at Grantland, listen to his podcast every week and his basketball fandom is rubbing off on me. So I dropped the second Theft of Swords book cold turkey (spoiler: it was not better than the first) and picked up Simmon's The Book of Basketball. I have barely cracked the surface, but so far it is great reading.


Punch Quest
The next revolution in iOS (read: mobile) gaming seems to happen every week. At a dollar or two a slice it is easy to see if the fuss is worth fussing about. As a part of that revolution my three year old son goes snooping into my game folder on the iPad periodically. If he sees something new he will snatch it and move it to his own folder. Punch Quest was a game I picked up mid week and spent very little time with. Saturday afternoon I found him playing it on the couch and sat down to see how he liked it. It is an endless runner in the vein of Jetpack Joyride (a favorite in our house), but with greater depth of game play. Different combinations of punches allow for more survivability and ultimately more interesting mechanics. We ended up trading it back and forth for an hour before it was nap time. Oh and it is free and good, so give it a try.

Gelati Celesti
Soccer season ended with trophies and farewells on Saturday morning. Our son was offered a treat in celebration of said season and what I expected the answer to be was "Sweet Frog". What that answer says to me is "I want to eat candy delivered on a bed of sub-par frozen yogurt". I was surprised and a little proud when instead he said "Gelati Celesti". In my opinion the best ice cream in Richmond hands down. Our family has been going there since they opened in 1984. I was the same age as my son then. The years that followed were filled with banana splits for honor rolls and the location of the first date with my now wife. Saturday night I had a scope of the pumpkin ginger snap and chocolate decadence in a waffle cone they make at the shop. It was still just as great as when I was a kid.

At Natinals Park

Yeah I know it's Nationals, but seriously if you don't remember this, you should at least know about it.  In any case I actually had a killer time with Mike at the Nationals v. Cubs game two weeks ago.  They stunk the place up with a 1-9 loss, but the new stadium was awesome to see.  Besides I've had to deal with the hurt of pulling for a bad team for a near lifetime now.  Big thanks to Mike for inviting me up and driving.  The rest is in the pictures.

Gou Miyagi - Skate Video

Being ten plus years removed from skateboarding there is very little that gets my blood going in that realm any more. Stuff like the video above and Tim and Eric accomplish said task though.

"Ball, Ball, Ball"

Last Thursday evening we attended the Faculty vs. Student basketball game at Crystal's school. Kaden was shy for all of five minutes before he started shouting "ball" and trying to run on to the court mid game. Before he could get trampled though, one of the gym teachers got him his own ball from the equipment closet. He spent the rest of the game running up and down the side of the court, basketball in hands.

Down Goes Yogg

The screenshot above is why I raid and play World of Warcraft. We (Afterlife) have been working long and hard on Yogg-Saron, the last* boss in Ulduar, for the better part of this month. The coordination, team work and support required to get 25 people all working toward a common goal can be daunting. The reward of a cleanly executed boss kill is worth it though. Now that the race to Yogg is over, there is still plenty to do, Algalon will take a while to get to I'm sure.

On the lore side of things I started reading Arthas: Rise of the Lich King, Christie Golden's newest WoW novel. She has written my favorite WoW books to date and so far she is delivering with Arthas as well. Ulduar mentioned above has some great lore as well. More info on the titans, old gods and Algalon's plan is to cleanse the planet of flawed mortals (that would be us). I really dig the integration and build up of story and game play elements Blizzard builds into there raid dungeons. Hopefully the next instance won't lose some of that flavor in favor of easy to build tournament style raiding.

In other news, the Penguins won the Stanley Cup Friday night! City of champions! I wish I could have been in Pittsburgh to celebrate it...

One for the Other Hand

After weathering the toughest schedule of any team in the league this season the Steelers came out to do it one last time on Sunday. The emotional roller coaster that was Super Bowl XLIII saw the Steelers up 13 points at one time during the game. The Cardinals rallied though and with 2:37 left in the game they took a three point lead. Big Ben wins games though and did what he has done all season by putting together a last minute drive to win the biggest game for the black and gold.

Before the game on Sunday two MMA stars went toe to toe Saturday night in Vegas. B.J. Penn stepped up a weight class to 170 lbs to challenge George "Rush" St. Pierre for his welterweight belt. The first time the two clashed in 2006 it was a close split decision in GSP's favor. So the rematch to finally answer who was the better fighter was a long time coming. Well Saturday night St. Pierre put all the debate to rest with a steller four round dismantling of Penn. People said Penn would win in the stand up and George worked him over. People said Penn's guard was killer and Rush passed it at will. In the end Penn's corner threw in the towel before the fifth round even started in what I would say is an embarassing way to end a fight for someone who holds a belt already.

Site Watch
I know the post above probably paints me as a violent sport loving mans man, but I have a soft spot for contemporary architecture, furniture and design. I just so happen to have discovered the contemporist which focuses on all of those.

MMAmazing

Two big events went down this weekend that would get any MMA fans blood pumping. Saturday was Affliction's second event showcasing the MMA legend Fedor Emelianenko and Sunday brought WEC 38 and a return to form for Urijah Faber.

Emelianenko vs Arlovski
I have been riding the Fedor band wagon ever since I saw my first Pride event years ago. I was also a big fan of Andrei Arlovski post his first and only win over Tim "The Boring" Sylvia. So needless to say I was hyped up to see the two clash. In the end it turned out just as I expected, with Fedor one shotting the Pitbull. Up until his lights when out though Arlovski looked better than I have ever seen him. His boxing was clean and he was beating Fedor to the punch. The second he switched his game plan up though he was face down on the mat. If you make mistakes against one the greatest pound for pound fighters in the sport you will pay for it.

Faber vs Pulver
Their first fight went to the cards which did not suprise me in the least. Pulver seemed younger and ready to retake his crown at 145 lbs. Faber clearly won though, but not finshing his opponent seemed to be a chink in his armor. November came and Faber got rocked by Mike Brown to lose his belt. So the second meeting between the two this past weekend end up having different stakes for each fighter. Faber needed to win to put him on track to get his belt back and Pulver needed to win to prove he was still a relevant contender at age 34. The end result was a vicious left to the body from Faber that sent Pulver reeling back in pain. The jig was up and Faber pounced on the ageing fighter to finish him in the first round.

UFC 94
Penn vs St. Pierre is this coming weekend on the heels of UFC 93 which aired earlier this month. With such big names clashing in one month across the whole sport it is pretty easy to dub this month one of the best in MMA history. The fight this weekend is one I have been looking forward to for a very long time and while I like both fighters I will be pulling for St. Pierre to retain his belt and keep balance in the MMA landscape.

Oh Yeah, Football is Back

Autumn brings cool weather, my birthday, the best holidays, apple picking and football. Football means a reason to watch Sports Center, baseball is boring and they don't cover hockey any more. Football means fantasy leagues and pick em' pools. Football means there is always something to do on Sunday. Football means traveling up to Pittsburgh to see the boys in black and gold take the field.

This year I was less than prepared to be in football mode. One second it was hot as hell, my mind was other things and then football was here. After a Sunday of watching games, checking my fantasy teams and two Monday night games forth coming I am in full on football mode now. Bring on the tailgating, beers and foam fingers. Well actually no don't bring on a lot of that stuff, I am still a social recluse when it comes to all things. I might crack a beer, but it will be in the privacy of my own home with the drapes drawn.

WoW it's WoW
Nothing too exciting to report. I started doing 2v2 with Luke and we are both learning a lot. I'm still attending and looting gear from 10 man raids. Finally, I've decided to get WoW rich before the expansion drops (Novemberish), so I got some pointers from a friend, installed a few mods and started picking flowers between BG ques. My goal is 10k by November 1st.

40k, the Pedo Hobby?
I ventured out in the rain Saturday morning to pick up my Assault On Black Reach kit from my local Games Workshop. Admittedly I knew the weekend was probably a bad time to go. Teenage boys play 40k and teenage boys don't have school on the weekends. So walking into the retail store to a standing room only mix of teenage boys and man children made me ashamed to be interested in the hobby. Not so ashamed that I couldn't pick up some more brushes, paints and preorder the new space marines codex. I'm still intent on building, painting and playing a full army, but my resolve to go into the story on weekends has been dissolved.

MMA's Minor Leagues

The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) is the premiere mixed martial arts organization in the world. It's presence has gone from pay-per-view only events to a mix of its reality show on Spike, the occasional free fight on the same cable network and primarily pay-per-view events. To deep pocketed MMA fans this formula may work just fine. Many are content to watch the fights after the actual event date on the internet though. I fall into both categories, I usually see every other fight or so on pay-per-view and I catch them the next day should I not feel like ponying up $60 a show.

Free fights on cable and prime time networks are becoming more and more prevalent. The class of fighters isn't always on par with the UFC, but a lot can be said for free bouts when gas is four dollars a gallon. Elite XC and WEC both had big fights over the weekend. Saturday night was Elite XC's event which was also the first show ever on network television. Kimbo Slice of YouTube street fight and pr0n body guard fame was the main attraction. Gina Carano of American Gladiator and non-butch/surprisingly hot female fighter fame was the primary under card. Slice's fight was a bit of a sloppy mess, when you combined his semi unorthodox striking and underdeveloped ground game with the tomato can he was fighting. Carano came in over weight, but put an absolute hurting on her opponent.

WEC is the real deal no gimmicky fighters or glass chinned opponents. After being picked up and legitimized by the UFC they have had some killer events that rival their parent companies. On Sunday the biggest WEC fight of the year aired free of charge and delivered. It featured two title bouts and defenses in the featherweight and bantamweight classes respectively. Urijah Faber squared off in a knock down, drag out brawl for the ages with former UFC lightweight champ Jens Pulver. The bantamweight title fight was between two fighters I have only read about previously. Miguel Torres and Masakatsu Ueda went three full rounds before Torres closed Ueda's left eye completely stopping the fight before a fourth round could begin. Both fights set up what should be amazing sequels assuming the contenders can make it through their return bouts.

One last note, Anderson Silva now sits a top UFC middle weight throne that can not be cracked. Sherdog's monthly ranking has Paulo Filho, the WEC's champ, ranked number two and Robbie Lawler, Elite XC's champ ranked number five. I wonder how many Silva vs Franklin 3's, 4's and 5's it will take before the UFC goes fishing in the minors for an actual challenger.

Fenders, Transform!

When I arrived home yesterday there was large box waiting for me. It would have been like Christmas if I didn't know what it was and it wasn't so damn functional. I have needed fenders in the worst way since completing the check almost two months ago. The majority of the rides I have been on with my new toy have been in the rain or post precipitation. This leaves me covered in rain water at best and a slurry of mud, grease, pesticides and human milkshake at worst. In step the fenders to make my bike slightly less cool, slightly more geeky and supremely functional.

Last night was game four of the Penguins v. Flyers series. So in between the second and third period I set my cell phone alarm and went out to the sun room to install the front fender...

Parts unpacked and spread out

Front fender assembled

Front fender installed (still needs a little tweaking)

Back to hockey with rear fender left wanting

Today is the start of the Lebanese food festival in the far west end. Among other things this weekend I will be grubbing all three days on kibbi, zalabia and shawirma. After dinner at the festival tonight I will hopefully come home and install the rear fender in preparation for a ride tomorrow morning.

Site Watch
Sam Adam's apart from making a killer beer takes pretty pictures too, especially of bikes.

Grand Theft Automatic

Like every red blooded video game playing male in this country I stopped by my local monopolistic game store last night to pick up Grand Theft Auto IV. Well that is not exactly accurate, some stores opened up at midnight Tuesday so the less desirable half of our demographic (mayonnaise eating, basement dwellers) could pick up the game while I was asleep. For some reason I felt none of the giddy expectation that the rest of the gaming community was in a tizzy over for the last two weeks. Well not until 3 minutes to five, quitin' time yesterday.

I avoided most of the trailers and only drooled over half of the screen shots with the goal of making the game a surprise to me when it finally released. Well my self assigned embargo on the marketing campaign was fool proof to a fault. The last hour at work yesterday was like waking up a 5am Christmas morning knowing that present presentation ceremony was at 7am. The drive to my desired prize was a mental gymnasium. My mind kept telling me that every slow driver was keeping me from hooker stabbing, old lady stomping bliss.

Game in hand I rushed home to sling the dog some food and plug in to the TV for eight hours. Six of my friends were already playing and I got two game invites before the opening credits had finished. I turned them both down in favor of staring up the story. The graphics are a marked jump from the past three games and it runs like a champ with minimal pop in. The driving controls were a bit of a throw after many months of high speed Burnout gameplay, but they make sense considering all of the task you can micro manage while behind the wheel.

I felt like I had barely scratched the surface of the story four hours in when I got the second round of multiplayer invites. This time I obliged feeling more comfortable in my pedestrian drive by skills. The interface was a bit clunky, but the game modes were vast and varied. We played cop n' crooks mostly which feels like the culmination of a few games I played growing up with unloaded BB guns. The crooks start at point A and must escort a player (the Boss, no not Springsteen) to point B. The cops start in cars with heavy weaponry across town and must eliminate the boss before he can reach his goal. The twist is the cops can see all of the crooks and the boss on their radar, but not the goal. The crooks can see their teammates via radar and their goal. It makes for some hair raising chases across town provide the crooks can find a car before the bacon arrives.

Comics
Erik hooked me up last week with an amazon recommendation list and Monday he came through in an even bigger way with duplicate trades from his collection hand delivered by my lovely wife. Watchman and Amazing Spiderman: Kraven's Last Hunt are now a part of my collection thanks to Erik. I am five chapters in to Watchman and very impressed with the writing and story. I briefly read and collected Spiderman comics in 7th grade, but eventually fell off. I'm interested to see if Last Hunt will rekindle my love of the web slinging wonder.

Hockey
The Penguins are up three games to zero over the Rangers now after a 5-3 victory last night. I didn't watch because I was held hostage by GTA. Game four is Thursday, Go Pens!

Still Bullish on Hockey

This weekend was a sedentary blast. While that might not sound pleasant, it was nice to spend two days lazing about amid weekends packed with physical exertion and errand filled schedules. Friday night we went out to the movies (Baby Mama FTW) even though the Penguins were on (DVR FTW). When I got home I watched fast forwarded highlights of the best game I have seen in the 2008 playoffs yet. The Pens were down three goals to none and made a comeback to win 5-4 in the last two minutes of play.

Saturday was window installation day. The time frame to arrive was 9a to 12p and it was slated to take 2-3 hours to install. Of course they did not show till 11:30a so I waited for and hung around with the installers for five hours. This meant no bike ride and a bunch of TV and video games. Not the most eventful morning and afternoon, but I played about a million rounds of the NHL 08 demo for the 360. So much so that I went out later that night and picked up the actual game. I also caught the Avs vs Red Wings game at 3pm while I was reading new comics (see below). After going out for an interesting dinner with Crystal and her friend I came back home to watch more DVR fast forwarded hockey (Flyers v Canadiens).

Sunday was more of the same as I got to sleep in and play fake hockey (NHL 08) till real hockey came on 3pm (Pens v Rangers gm2). Is it me or does the once loved and now hated Jágr have a Hitler stache? After a 3rd period filled with heartburn (two late penalty kills) the Penguins won and it was off to dinner at the parents. Hockey is really starting to grow on me to the point that I may buy a season package from my cable company next season.

Comics
Frustrated by my desire to buy comics local for as long as possible and the lack of trade selection at my current store, I went to a new one Saturday afternoon. They didn't have any Queen and Country, let alone volume two, but they did have all of Y: The Last Man. I picked up volumes one and two and was on my way. Y is a great read and my hang ups with the art in Queen are nonexistent with Y.

Hockey is Still Here

Based on my sports watching habits since middle school you would think that the sport of hockey did not exist. My Canadian "video game" friends might stab me in the eye with a spoon full of maple syrup should they hear that. Maple optical assault or not, it is the truth. The last time I seriously paid attention to hockey was 1990 and 1991 when the Pittsburgh Penguins won back to back Stanley Cups.

My Dad was a member of a Richmond based Pittsburgh fan club when I was growing up. Mainly the Steelers and Penguins as the Pirates have been piss poor since the day I was born. We would go up to the local sports bar for games on big screens or go to peoples houses for every playoff game. In 1990 and 1991 I saw every single Penguins playoff game leading up to the championships and then hockey fell off the face of the earth for me. Well for me and what looks to be most of the American TV watching public based on hockey's slumping ratings.

Wednesday night this week I sat down to sort out my gear for this weekends camping and biking trip. While flipping through the channels I landed at Versus and the first game in the Pens playoff series against the Senators. I ended up watching the whole game and jumping out of my seat when the Penguins scored their third goal in the third period. The game finished at 4-0 for the Pens and I went looking at schedules for the next game to be televised. Pittsburgh won't be on TV again till the possible fifth game in the series on the 19th of this month.

I was so hyped about hockey that after I checked the up coming games I went back to the TV and watched the 2nd and 3rd periods of the Sharks and Flames game.

Site Watch
Besides hockey and the tour on Versus they show a lot of MMA. Specifically the WEC which is the rising star of the Zuffa who also run the UFC. WEC live matches are free though and usually don't disappoint. The Jens Pulver vs Urijah Faber fight on June 1st should be epic.