Itchy and scratchy

My facial hair comes from my evolutionary tree. I am a direct descendant of the porcupine.

fish out of water feeling

I spend lots of my life as a somewhat lost soul. Not ever "fitting in" or truly connecting with people. Too Christian for pathologists, too much into sports for Christians, too much into sports for pathologists as well I guess. Plus there is just a limited amount of time-I can't do all the work, all the sports, all the family, all the  church, all the yard work etc. Just can't do it.
Insert 4 letter work HERE!

Fishing Pics 2011

1st 3 Baffin Bay Trip Spring Break. My in my Pelican. Windy. Cloudy. Matt in distance of number 1.

 Me in a rental Commander at Light House lakes near Port A/AP

 Last few from Wilson's Cut/Shamrock area. In a rental Tarpon 120

Hot summer weather

2011

Thursday, June 16

Hot summer weather

I think that June may be my favorite month. I love the warm weather and the lower (than the morning anyway) humidity in the evenings. Love this time of the year from about 6:30 to 9:30 or 10 pm. Even if one could spontaneously combust at 2 pm!

No paper

2011

Wednesday, June 15

No paper

Spent a week away camping. OK, 5 days and 4 nights. No computer. No newspaper (except for one day). It was kinda nice to be away from the news. No news is no bad news. Kinda made camping fun.

Margin

Little to no margin in my life. Short of catastrophic illness both Barb and I have to slug through whatever kid crises or minor illness that comes my way. No taking a day off cause I am sick. Ibuprofen and carry on.

The load is heavy at times. I am thinking I will rest after death. I think.

JAP, Michigan, Time, Wow

I was reading the Michigan Dailey yesterday and they had an article about economics of students and showed the video linked above. (Warning, one totally un-necessary F bomb in the middle). Watching the video reminded me of my time at UM. Many of the images I knew exactly where they are-I totally remember being there. I spent a lot of time studying on campus. All over. Medical library (didn't see any of that in the video), North Campus, Law Library, Graduate library, law quad, down town, Angelos (I think I only ate there a few times) and more.

It all seemed so clear. While going to med school in A squared was not the same as the undergrad experience depicted in the video, it was an all encompassing experience. I don't recall much except studying, and taking the bus into school to study. Some running. Very little remembrance of young married life. Did I mention I studied a lot there? I couldn't imagine having to go through that again.

I actually remember being more a part of the university there than I did at Iowa. Of course I had kids in Iowa and did not at UM. But it was more school like. Especially the first two years. There was more to do in A2. More used book stores. Better running stores. Everything right together down town, so that a study break could be taken quickly by browsing one of the two large bookstores, or walking to the Brown Jug, or going to one of the small cafes down town. Heck, then there was Zingermans as well-hardly ever made it there. One of my best memories was getting an incredible cappicino at the Michigan Union when I interviewed in the fall of 1986-going with Dr. Valente's old chemistry lab buddies. (I bet being a grad student there in chemistry was awesome).

Also I am reminded that although many things look the same, but I graduated in 1991. It has been 20 years since I graduated-and 22 or 23 years from all that studying. And cold weather (which did not bother me at all till Fall 1990). Wow, 20 years. All I can say is wow. How did I ever make it???!!!

JAP-I don't think I ever heard that term till I lived there-and can't think I have heard it since. It stands for Jewish American Princess-but apparently also is used of Princes as well. Only in A2 where no minority can ever be criticized is an apparent anti-Semitic term allowed!

Looping underspin!

I have heard it said that it is wrong to push deep to good players. While i have been able to loop against some pushes I have had serious consistency issues. In the last month or two I have been taught a simple technique from the most analytical person in our club. The key is to drop my right shoulder below my left and rotate. This changes EVERYTHING!

Oceanography comp

Middle school competition oceanography challenge. HOST is the home school team w Sarah.

The good ole days

Just like being back in med school i am doing laundry (ok just drying 3 large loads) as our clothes dryer is messing up again. Just wish i still weighed 137 lbs and got 60 plus miles in each week.

Frozen sections and table tennis...?

My kids, my direct family hate table tennis. They do not like to hear about it, they don't like to talk about and really do not like me to do it. In fact outside of maybe 10 or 15 people in the world, most of whom play at my table tennis club, no one could care less about about my FH counter loop or my persistent inability to execute a BH long pip hit.

Certainly table tennis technique is a trivial matter. Its not "revolution in Egypt" or have to do with ministry of eternal significance. So why or how does this trivial pusuit get my attention? It probably is due to my competitive nature, to the joy of "The shot well hit," [see Golf_which by the way bores me]. But maybe, just maybe it is to balance the fact of my day job. Just yesterday at work I found out about of a kid who died this weekend w cancer. A young man I "knew" professionally but also with peripheral community ties. And I did a frozen on another who will probably die in the same manner. Plus one more young girl who is now on the Very Serious Cancer Road.

This work life contrasts so sharply with home life. On that I could on.

So any one want to talk about FH looping of long serves wide to the FH?

Lamar park in January

kids and Lamar park in the good time of year

Oceanography comp

Middle school competition oceanography challenge. HOST is the home school team w Sarah.

Biking

Although I self identify as a runner, I am an "old" runner. Not as in years running, but as in miles run. I am somewhere just south of 70,000 (ok 69,060) miles on the legs. They do not have the bounce. My weight makes their bounce even less. Anyway I don't improve when I run now. It takes lots of hard work just to tread water. Anyway a sore achilles tendon has told me to back off and after only one run this month, I have taken to the bike trainer this winter.

I have had 10 rides this month so far. I have progressed very nicely from just under 15 miles in an hour to over 17 miles an hour. It is nice to see some progress. And to be able to push myself. I usually warm up at an easy gear and gear up. The trainer is a cyclops 2 fluid trainer that Barb and I have had for a number (5 or 6 maybe?) years and is a progressive resistance machine. As the speed increases, so does the pain and resistance. It is quiet so I can listen to music. Also I have a cateye wireless computer that works on the spinning back wheel and measures cadence and speed. No power meter for me, but its not hard to figure when I am working hard.

It is nice to see progress. Although the bathroom wall mirrors (where our bike trainer is) show the innertube around my waist. Hopefully that inner tube will go flat with time. And biking.

Course getting 1000 or 1500 miles running this year looks to be a little difficult.

Club table tennis

Attached is a link to a club match of myself (in all black) vs. 1500 rated hardbatter who is very tough (he wins this match).

Just an FYI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBmSHeyf_IU&feature=youtube_gdata_player

How i won points in Frisco

Lots of technical points. Varying pushes and sidespin pushes. Lots of chopping eventually followed by a net ball. Rare attacks.
Varied serve locations and serves. Flipping and variation on BH serve returns. Selected 3rd ball attack.

What I did NOT try-BH push blocking or BH slow topspin rolls. I did not win any w BH inverted topspin or attacks but it seemed to keep them off balance. Did not hit any LP BH balls. Did lose points w FH LP chopping.

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hot summer

it was 75 F yesterday according to my truck. i couldn't help but think that its gonna be a hot one this summer.

u2000 round robin results

i took a picture of the sheet from the tournament . it shows my memory is not all that good. My memory was all 3 matches were 3-0. For reference player A is me, B is 1800, C is 1650ish and D is 1410ish.

A vs D 12-10, 11-8, 11-8
A v C 11-6, 12-10, 12-10
A v B 11-6, 9-11, 11-9 and either 12-10 or 11-9

Bottom line-all very close and a net or edge ball or two could totally have changed things. Was I just cruising-NO. I did have a few points that I "tried some things" but very few. I did give away 1 to 2 points per match on serves but no more than the opponents.

Lessons Learned From Tournament 1

1. Green bananas do NOT ripen in a cold truck.
2. Heated seats are great on the back after a LONG day of table tennis.
3. I gotta work on conditioning on my toes. They were so tired and hurt that I could not sleep the night after the tournament

More table tennis technical stuff-positives
1. Flipping to receive serve was very effective
2. Short technical play (such as placement and even more so sidespin pushes) were great ways to win points.
3. Playing antispin similar to LP was effective in the one case I tried.
4. Maintaining potassium levels/caffeine/nutrition/hydration are vital and require constant attention

Negative learning aspects later.

Results!?

Results of the tournament as I remember:
1. Won initial RR (u2000) over other three opponents all 3-0 however almost all games were very close with a few deuce games. Opponents reported rated 1400, 1600 and 1800.
2. Three groups or u2000 RR winners were supposed to play a SE but instead we played a RR where I surprisingly won 3-1 over the two who reportedly were both rated 1800.

Open-was 3-1 in open with wins over <1000, 1200 and 1500 all 3-0 but lost to the top seed 1963 0-3 and got pretty much destroyed. That put me in the Open B single elimination. Won the first round 3-0 over a reportedly 2000 rated player, then lost to a short pips pen holder hitter who also did some flipping and did some BRP (Backhand Reverse Penhold) 2-3 after being up 2-0 and even 9-5 in the fifth.

Hopefully will digest mentally and work for improvement.

pre tourney breakfast

rudys breakfast tacos x2 (hold that flour tortilla) and coffee

Subtle Differences

Tourament up coming this weekend-first rated tournament in almost 3 years. I know I am better than 2 years ago, but my rating from then is probably inflated. From club play I may be 100-200 points lower than my current 1880. But I know club play is different and I have a weird style so that helps.

One thing that is different about TT is that subtle differences can be the difference between victory and defeat. And the only way to get rating points is to win. The way to lose points is to lose. A close loss still loses points and at best does not gain points. While in running a difference between a 14:30 5K runner and a 15:00 is so large an upset is unlikely, the difference in a 1500 and 1800 is not such that dailey random variation can affect it.

One Night in Bangkok

2011
Thursday, January 13
One Night in Bangkok


Chorus to the tune of "One Night in Bangkok"


Regarding table tennis tournaments...




One tournament at Weslyean makes a Ponger humble
Not much between despair and ecstasy
One Tourney in Houston and the best choppers stumble
Can't be too careful, don't make your serves too spinny
Or you will feel the loop kill blowing right past ye

Cyclocross mornin'

2011

Saturday, January 8

Cyclocross mornin'

One hour on the bike trainer this morning. Then Bob's Red Mill gluten free Hot cereal. If you know anything about cyclocross then you know...

http://www.bobsredmill.com/#

Thanks

Last week, the day before our oldest was to leave to go back to college we were getting ready to have a special family meal. We often do special meals for birthdays or occasions (graduations, etc) and either go out to eat or have something really good (i.e. expensive) at home. This time we were having boiled snow crab legs and shrimp-something Matt and others (except Sarah) really like.

Anyway things were the usual around here, so after we all sat down I said, "We are going to do something different today. Instead of praying and thanking God for the food, we are going to complain to Him. Then when we are done doing that we will eat and be thankful the rest of the day." I received a few "say what?" looks.

But wouldn't God prefer that we are ungrateful to Him for 5 minutes each day then grateful to those around us the other 23 hours and 55 minutes?

When I said this the kids all looked at me weird. Maybe Barb did to. I did not end up offering a prayer of grumbling to God. But maybe I should have. How can we complain every waking moment, then thank God for our food three times a day. Often both before and after the prayer I hear "You KNOW I don't like beans (or this or that)."

What is this source of ungratefulness? Generally I believe I am grateful. Maybe I am blind to my ungratefulness. My wife also is usually grateful-well except with certain cyclical exceptions.

This may be my last post on this blog. Mainly due to a change in emails and an inability to shift this over to my mail gmail account. The "new" blog is called "and counting" and a link will be posted on my facebook info page.

Adoption and Trauma

2011 Thursday, January 6 We worked really hard to adopt. However parenting skills appear to be totally lacking. Almost all the kids are unhappy, frustrated, rude, and totally self focused. Maybe the accident was what we had to have before we went any further?

Teeth and running

2010 Tuesday, October 12 Between brushing my teeth and getting in a run each day I am torn. Both seem necessary in some fundamental way.

just one a day?

Just one run or bike or something. Too much to ask? That is less often than I brush my teeth.