Check it out, check it out, check it out!
So you may wonder what took so long...I'm sure you were all getting into my fantasy football discussions and constant banter about who to start and who to sit. Well I'll inform you here and now that I'm 4-4, sitting in 6th place in the league out of 12 total players. Not bad considering weeks 3 and 4 Drew Brees, my QB, had no TD's and then week 5 was his bye week. That forced me to pick up Mark Sanchez in the Monday night game vs. Miami. Sanchez performed o.k. He did have a TD, which would have been his second one of the game challenged by Miami and ruled that the receiver was out of bounds at the half yard line. Of course the jets decided to run it into the endzone and I was denied my 6 points for the extra TD.
I still do not have the internet at my house. This presents numerous challenges to living what I now consider a normal life. No porn, no job searching, no e-mailing, no fantasy footballing, no nothing. I have been relegated to an ancient time known only as the early nineties. While Carli and I hem and haw about what service to get time just slips bye. I am forced to use my local library's internet connection on a daily basis.
This is not all bad...libraries across America are under utilized and under funded resources that have been overlooked by many Americans in their quest for greater technology. The Excelsior branch is my local branch and it serves it's community very well from what I can see.
The place is always packed. I got here today at 10 am to do some interneting and already all 8 of the adult internet/word processing stations were full. Thankfully I brought my laptop with me this time and was able to log on that way to utilize the free wi-fi.
My biggest (and only) complaint about the library computer/internet system is the access. They have a certain number of children internet stations and a certain number of adult internet stations. I understand and appreciate the need to make sure there are always things available for children, but the hitch is that as an adult I can't sign on to a children's station to print or use word processing but children are allowed to log onto the adult computers and use the internet. What gets me about this system is that %98 percent of the time the kids on the adult computers are playing games over the internet.
About two days ago I was trying to use a computer to print a resume and there was a kid who had a game going on on his computer screen, was listening to headphones and reading a pokemon book. I mean come on! I was about to pull my hair out.
This leads me to my next point...I'm back on the podcasts. Now that my residence is safely back in SF for the time being I am a contributor once again to the KJ Boothcast. We have done three in a row now which is a level of consistency I can't remember matching in many, many moons.
Oh, check it out...
There are now 41 episodes posted, with number 42 coming in about an hour. It is currently being uploaded to the site...which also explains why I'm sitting in the library at 4 pm on a Thursday. I'm tired and looking forward to a nap once the upload is complete. Though I do need to start editing the show we just recorded.
For now I will leave with this, I need Drew Brees to score about 20 points every week to consistently win in my fantasy league, The Mike Singletary/49er boat is taking on water and in desperate need of a win this week vs. TEN at home. Think of it as one hole will be plugged with a win, I hate the Yankees, I hate them 27 more times than I used to hate them, and I used to hate them a lot, don't mistake this for like of the Phillies, I do not like the Phillies, at all, I just hate the Yankees, The city of San Francisco once again proved their inconsistent flip floppers that say they live by one idea and clearly vote on a different idea. See the future name of Candlestick park as proof of said flip flopping...when will the West Coast gets it's due in Sports? When?!
We finished up by losing a tough 5-4 walk-off in Staten Island in 10 innings and then getting killed 12-1 in game two against SI. Not a good ending to an o.k road trip. We finished 3-4 and allowed Staten Island to take the division from Brooklyn by rolling over for them. They came in having won 11 in a row and then promptly took both games from us to push that streak to 13.
The hotel we stayed at in Staten Island was tits. It was called the Navy Lodge and located on a Coast Guard base. Since it's main occupants are soldiers the rooms are set up like mini apartments. They have legit closets and kitchens with refrigerators and microwave's. The only negative, and it's a biggie was you had to pay 12 cents a minute for the internet. Jeez, how long has it been since you had to pay by the minute for access to the web? That reminds me of way back when my parents first got AOL and we had to plug and unplug the phone line from the wall every time we wanted to sign on. Remember that old familiar sound of the modem dialing in? Good times.
Anyways were home now for our final three games of the year. Of course we lost yesterday to Tri-City 5-4 in 10 innings...sound familiar? The 'Birds made four errors, and it should have been five when it was all said and done. In the sixth inning when the our defense crumbled we allowed three stolen bases and made two errors, amazingly Tri city was only able to plate two runs....why you ask? Because they suck worse. They have the worst record in the league, but boy did they make us look stupid yesterday.
I like being home. Thats one good thing about going on the road, it reminds you of how much you like going home. The funny thing, this place, Aberdeen isn't even my home. I'm from Northern California, I'm still a long way off. But it's home for now and fairly comfortable.
Tonight we play game two of the final three game set in Aberdeen and of 2009. I am tempted to make a prediction here but I'm going to hold off because I feel that if I make a prediction the opposite will happen. I don't feel right about affecting the game that much...and of course my predicitions do in fact affect the game that much.
Alright it's almost food time here at Ripken Stadium...we always get really good food here at home, by far the best. Of course I'm biased but Deb does a good job. I'm going to down to the field to make fun of Tom Edwards during IronBird Inside. It's our in stadium pre-game show and Edwards is going to act as analyst tonight. He's an infielder on the 'Birds and a really funny, nice guy. When Matt and I usually host Insider he sits in the dugout and gives us hell. It's my turn today. I think I'm going to go easy on him because he let me use his bat today during BP. I actually took some cuts today with Caeser throwing on the mound. I was pleased with the result, I actually hit a what looked to be a single right up the middle. I went through the routine the players have to do every time. Situational hitting and stuff, it was fun. O.k food time. Enjoy.
Well I got to my fantasy football draft at about 11:15 pm, a good 45 minutes after it started thanks to two errors in the ninth by the IronBirds. Fortunately we prevailed despite the shotty defense we displayed in the final frame. Really, the only thing the two errors accomplished was giving the crowd some life and making me late for my draft. Thankfully I spent time yesterday pre-ranking my players and I went through some mock draft rounds so I had an idea of how things would shake down.
My draft ened up going like this:
1. QB Drew Brees
2. WR Larry Fitzgerald
3. TE Tony Gonzalez
4. WR Desean Jackson
5. RB Jospeh Addai
6. RB Reggie Bush
7. WR Lavernous Coles
8. WR Michael Crabtree
9. WR Michael Jenkins
10. RB Ahmad Bradshaw
11. WR Mushin Muhammad
12. D New York Jets
13. TE Anthony Fasano
14. QB Jake Delhomme
15. K Josh Brown
16. RB T.J Duckett
Because of the two errors in the ninth I didn't actually make a pick until the 9th round. Everything before that was auto picked. Of course I autoranked my players but I didn't auto rank enough to go that deep into the draft. I would have never taken Crabtree simply because he hasn't signed and has missed about 40 practices. Taking a TE in the third round is really early and although I did auto pick Tony Gonzelaz early on in the rankings, he wasn't third. I was completely hosed in my RB's...I had Maurice Jones-Drew and Michael Turner as my two top choices and didn't get either of those. Jospeh Addai is o.k and you know Indy is going to score a ton of points but he doesn't get that many TD's because of Manning willingness to pass. Reggie Bush wasn't on my radar at all. I have no interest in him being on my team and may put him up on the block. I'm glad I picked up Ahmad Bradshaw late, his numbers weren't that good last year but he was a third string on the Giants and this year he'll be number two.
I think my wide recievers are pretty good. larry Fitzgerald is a beast and Desean Jackson has a ridiculous upside for his sophmore year. Plus, I have Mushin Muhammad and Jake Delhomme which could combine for a lot of combo TD's...the only problem there is Drew Brees is going to throw 10-15 more TD's than Delhomme so when to start him and when to sit him becomes a managerial issue.
Drafting is always fun and so is baseball. I don't know about the T.J Duckett pick in the last round. I think he's on the Seahawks but he had 8 TD's and under 200 yards rushing last year...so the Seahawks apparently used him as a battering ram last year....again when to play him and when not to play him is the issue there.
Getaway days suck. We have to check out of our rooms around 11 am, but we have no where to go. Today I got up and ate some of the continental breakfast and then immediately went back to sleep. Woke back up around 11 and showered and headed to the lobby for the inevitable sit around, bull-shit and do nothing fest that happens on all getaway days. It does give me time to get to know some of the players a little bit better but it's always just a really long morning. I found a starbucks and a starbucks card my mom gave me for x-mas last year in my wallet so I scored there with a mocha.
I'm now back in the booth writing this and awaiting the line-ups for each team to be posted so I can take care of the one and only responsibility before game time...my scorebook. Today is the rubber game between Aberdeen and Tri-City and then we jump on the bus and head to Staten Island for two before going home for our final three games vs this same Tri-City team.
Our record stands at 28-40 so play-offs are an impossible dream at this point. We were eliminated from contention around ten days ago...and even before we were officially eliminated it was obvious this team didn't have it. It's hard though, the Orioles continully move players who deserve it up to higher levels, which is good, but it leaves the short season team with open roster spots and players that aren't ready to be moved up yet, so winning is hard. Winning is also not the point here, the point is to get the players up to Baltimore and then start winning....but Baltimore feels a long way off for players playing in Aberdeen even though the city only sits 45 minutes away by car.
Here I sit in the broadcasting booth(s) at Jospeh L. Bruno Stadium, home of the Tri-City Valley Cats a full 2 1/2 hours before our game against them. Aberdeen dropped game one last night by a score of 6-3. It was a close game until the sixth when Nicholas Stanley crushed a three run bomb that landed 60 feet past the right field wall.
The big thing on my mind right now is my fantasy football draft. It will start at 10:30 pm. I lucked out on the time because my league is set to a pacific standard time and I of course am living in eastern standard time right now. The luck part comes in because our game here will most likely be over by then and I will either be on my way back to our hotel or already there.
The draft is the most exciting reason I have to want to go back to our hotel room. The Days Inn in Albany, NY is not the prettiest hotel I have ever been to. I'm not responsible for booking or paying so no complaints here but if you want a review of the place read on.
Dingy carpet, small rooms, even smaller bathrooms, no Iron or board in the room, Really just your atypical crummy hotel for cheap. The shower head kicks ass and they provide a continental breakfast (of ourse it stops at 9 am so I have not been awake early enough to take part in it.) Also they provide two pots worth of regular coffee and decaf, something our last hotel in Vermont did not do. I drank both of the regular today but I'm hoping since we are checking out tomorrow I'll get up in time for breakfast and get coffee there.
I just joined a Yahoo Mock Draft. I've never done an on-line fantasy football draft before so I'm going to test my pre-ranks on this mock draft to kill time before our game starts. Right now I've got my pre-ranks set at QB Brees, RB Turner, RB Jones-Drew, WR S. Smith and then I think QB Rivers...well see. I don't know what pick I'm going to have once we go live so the first five pre-ranks or so may go by the wayside.
Luckily, since the Aberdeen game will be over I'll probably have the help of the enitre team. Most of those guys are in a few different fantasy leagues and I'm sure they would be more than willing to kill time at the hotel with another draft. Of course then you run into a million different opinions...we'll see, maybe I'll just ask a few guys to help...beer would be a good addition to a fantasy draft...huh? I'll have to explore that idea later.
The broadcast booth is nice here inTri-City...I guess technically it's located in Troy, NY, thats where the team plays. Tri-City is just their nifty name. The third best booth I've been to since joining the ABerdeen IronBirds...the first best is obviously our home booth at Ripken Stadium. Second was State College located in State College Pennslyvania. No surprise there, their Minor League team, the State College Spikes play at Penn State University so everything was top notch.
Alright just 2 minutes until the mock draft begins, let's hope Aberdeen wins a qucik one here and we arrive at the hotel in time for me to draft. Thats the goal for Monday August 31st, 2009.
Of all the excuses I think I've used as to why there hasn't been any posts in quite awhile I don't think I have ever used the "my address changed and typepad declined the credit card on file because the billing address no longer matched the billing address on file" excuse...well I have now.
My life, as many lives do at my age (26) has taken some turns....For the thousands....probably millions in reality, that read this blog on a constant (daily) basis I will attempt to update regularly once again. Ha...I don't know how many times I've said that...but this time I mean it, you'll take me back right?
and now for my third installment...I've been worried while this fasting about the lack of pooping during the procedure. Don't get me wrong I've pooped. Total I pooped Friday afternoon about three hours after we started. Which I assumed was a left over poop from eating days before. I then pooped again late that night and this time it was red (from the tomato juice, I hope) and liquidy. On Saturday I pooped twice, the first time was similar to the second one on Friday and the second one was squirty and actually burned a little bit.
I'll admit that I ate some sugar free popsicles and that may or may not have had something to do with the burning. I don't know.
Overall, I have been disappointed with the amount of pooing through the weekends thus far. But just a few minutes ago it got better. I felt the urge come on while I was searching the internet and upon the original gurgling I decided to let it fester a bit and see what I could do. the gurgling came and came and came and eventually I started to feel the push. Still, I allowed my stomach to process what was going through it. Finally after 20 minutes or so from the first gurgling I decided to was time.
I entered the bathroom and sat down with my book and began reading and obviously as I mentioned before it's over before it begins...usually.
After the initial blow I wanted to look at the poo and see if it was crazy colors or anything so I got up and turned around and leaned over. Now my pants are still down and I have not wiped or finished pooing. I looked for a few seconds, decided I didn't really see anything...it was slightly more solid and still red.
Afterwards I finished pooing and when i began to wipe I noticed a brown spot on the bathroom floor. Huh, I thought, whats that. it dawned on me it was a poo dripping from when I turned around and gazed into the tooilet.
Gross...
I wiped it up with toilet paper and finished the poo with a smile on my face...
Danny
I have finally taken my first fasting dump. It was glorious..there was no laboring or waiting. I walked into the bathroom with a book of short stories written by Bukawsky and I sat down and began reading. I got through about one page and I was done. It felt damn good though...it didn't have the same affect that most dumps do when your stomach is gurgling. Usually (for me) when my stomach is gurgling and I dump the gurgling goes away. I'm guessing since I've been drinking the potion now for about a day and a half that the gurgling doesn't go away because that's all that's in my stomach.
I'll report that the drinking of the tomato and formula X broth has not gotten easier but it has gotten more regular. I guess I'm used to the drinking this awful tasting drink in hopes it leads to cleaner intestines and I suppose some more dumping.
I focused a lot on dumping in this post. But I don't want to take away from the overall longer term health benefits I'm looking to gain here by fasting. It just seems that in order for those longer term affects to happen I must dump numerous times in a two day period. Wish me luck..I'm off to the bathroom...
For the first time in my life I'm attempting to fast...Only a three day fast...nothing monkish by any standards but in my view a step in the right direction. My mom has Chrone's disease...for those of you that don't know what that is, in short it's an intestinal disorder that prohibits your body from digesting certain things because your intestines lack the proper enzymes for the breakdown. Luckily this disease is not hereditary.
My reasons for attempting a fast are somewhere between an attempt to correct my lack of concern for health and a love of pooing. On the health front I'm also adding jogging and stretching (on a side note I also wish I brushed my teeth twice a day...but thats a separate issue.)
When trying to figure out what I would do for a fast I looked towards my mom because she fasts all the time due to the intestinal problem. It's a simple three day fast alternating what you drink every hour.
The potion, if you will, that you drink is a mixture of tomato juice and sauerkraut juice, that's the first drink of the morning.
Here I'll break it down like this it might be easier to understand...
1st: 4 oz. tomato juice 4 oz. sauerkraut juice mix and drink
2nd: 8 oz of aforementioned broth and 1 tsp. of formula X broth and a herb laxative
Formula X broth consists of: dandelion root, parsley root, yellowdock root, thyme, celery seed, horseradish, cayenne pepper, slippery elm, and cranberry powder.
The mild herb laxative consists of: kelp, rhubarb root, slippery elm, sena leaf, cascara segrada, cranberry powder, dulce powder, ground flax seed
3rd:8 oz. of grapefruit
4th:8 oz. formula X broth (no laxative)
5th:8 oz. grapefruit juice
6th:8 oz. formula X broth
7th:8 oz. grapefruit juice
8th:8 oz. formula X broth
9th:8 oz. grapefruit juice
10th:8 oz. formula X broth
11th: 8 oz. grapefruit juice
12th:8 oz. formula X broth, add 1 tsp. laxative again
13th:8 oz. grapefruit juice
It breaks down one drink per hour and after the third day you do the liver flush. For the liver flush you take 4 oz. grapefruit juice and beat it into 4 oz. of olive oil and then drink the emulsion...apparently thre is a high chance of nasuea so best to lay still for about 20 minutes to avoid yacking it all back up....afterwards another 8 oz. of grapefruit.
After all of these steps it is finally time to let the good times roll. Grab a book or a good magazine article and prepare for the shits of your life. I, of course am not at this step yet but I'm looking forward to it.
Interestingly enough I found some things about myself yesterday while not eating. During the day while I was drinking these concoctions I never really felt hungry. It wasn't like I was sitting on my couch all day wishing I was eating because I was starving. The drinks keep you pretty well feeling full. I did notice however that I would go into the kitchen open the fridge and look and dig around seeing what was in there. Afer a few seconds it would hit "wait a minute I'm not eating." I would shut the fridge and walk away and try and find something else to do. I spent time in my backyard tending to the vegetable garden my mom and I planted, did laundry and what not.
But it hit me I eat out of boredom a lot of times during the day..especially when I don't have a ton of things to do during the day.
Think about it...how many times do you wander around your kitchen and decide to eat even though you don't feel particulary hungry at the time. It's purely out of boredom...so if nothing else this fast has helped me realize some bad eating patterns I've probably employed my whole life.
Occasionally throughout my life I run into situations where I can get an accurate gauge on humanity. Picking up hitch hikers, stopping for stranded motorists, seeing someone drop something they don't realize and picking it up for them...they are all really basic situations that happen all the time. What I question is how often does some one stop or help in these situations.