This weekend has been pretty crappy for me from a sports perspective. Let's take a look at the evidence:
1) The Yankees are not in the playoffs for the first time in 13 years. Meanwhile, Joe Torre is a couple of games away from managing Manny Ramirez and the Dodgers into the World Series. That right there is enough to make me want to puke my guts out.
2) Oklahoma's loss to Texas on Saturday ruined their bid for an undefeated season, knocked them off of their #1 ranking, and all but takes them out of contention for a Big XII championship (since Texas own a tie-breaker over them now). Sounds like it's time for several Prozac and a bottle of Jameson.
3) Dale Earnhardt Jr. cut a tire early in the race Saturday night, effectively ending his bid to climb back into contention for a NASCAR championship. While he was probably already mathematically out of it already, this hearkened back to his last couple of years with DEI where he floundered thanks to shoddy equipment.
So there you have it. For the sake of time I have omitted any fantasy football shortcoming from this week (thanks a lot, Phillip Rivers). All was not lost, however. Kansas City had a bye week, thereby preventing them from being embarrassed in a game this week. Next week will be a different story...
Sunday, October 12, 2008
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
GFC: Playoffs Round 1
After a week layoff due to Rosh Hashanah, playoffs finally began last night. Since we finished first in our conference (and in the division overall), we drew the lowest ranked team in the opposing conference, the Ball Breakers. It just so happened that not only did one of our current team members use to play for them, there were also some intra-office rivalries sparked as co-workers squared off in a battle to the death (not exactly, but you get the point). Not to take anything away from the Ball Breakers, but the game was over pretty quick. Our prototypical suffocating defense was in top form while our offense hit on all cylinders (two homeruns and 4 extra base kicks) en route to a 12-0 win. With our undefeated record now up to 9-0, we face Feets of Fury next week in what should be the first game of a double header. That's right folks; quarterfinals and semifinals are on the same night. Why, do you ask? Because that's just how kickball rolls (bad puns not withstanding).
Friday, October 3, 2008
You Can Never Go Home Again
Growing up, I was always perplexed whenever hearing some variant of the quote "you can never go home again". Obviously someone was greatly mistaken. If I visited somewhere, going back home was achieved with absolute simplicity; get back in a car or an airplane and Bam!, I was back in Wichita. Maybe the person who generated this quote had something happen which precluded their neo-enlightenment on the shortcomings of their hometown. Now that I have lived in California for almost five years, however, I realize that a person would be hard pressed to find truer words that have ever been spoken.
Only now do I realize the fundamental error in my previous logic. In order to realize the difficulty in leaving home I had to actually leave home, i.e., move away. It's one thing to travel somewhere else; it's a completely different ballgame to pick up and start a new life somewhere else. During my time in college, I saw the writing on the wall and realized that in order to start a career it would probably be in my best interest to move away from Wichita. Little did I know that an opportunity to do just that would present itself. Looking back, I now realize the magnitude of a single decision. In the span of two weeks, I went from being a degreed Mechanical Engineer working at Pizza Hut and living in his Dad's basement to living in California working as an engineer. Talk about doing a complete 180.
The first year was not too bad. I had some family members come out to visit me, and going back home felt just like any other time I had left. That second year, however, was the turning point. After a couple years of being on my own, I had started to become set in my ways of doing things. Little by little, I had started to forget streets and places that had once been as famaliar as a part of my own body. Now I have become so entrenched in my lifestyle that any more than a few days at a time and I begin to yearn for the comforts afforded by California. Driving is a chore when visiting home, because going anymore than 5 mph over the speed limit is asking for a ticket, rather than being the absolute slowest car in a twenty-mile radius. Instead of doing whatever I want to, I have to take into consideration other people who might want to see me during my annual pilgrimage back home. You could go so far as to say that Christmas vacation is actually more work for me than my actual job. I have to deal with however many hundreds of thousands of people are flying in and out of LAX to fly half way across the country only to spend my time driving between the various factions of my family who want to see me, but insist on me making the effort to travel to arrange a meeting (even though I just traveled half-way across the country).
Now, I could put my foot down and say "enough". The end result would that a lot of people would be hurt, and I would look like a bad guy. In fact, I am ready to stop going back home until someone comes out to visit me since my first year out here. While I realize everyone is still back home, I am tired of being the only one who is expected to make an effort to shoulder (both the time and financial) burden of traveling.; it's time that folks realize I am out here to stay. There may come a time in the not so distant future when I will not be able to come back. Someone will have to come out here and accept that I have built my own life, and my time in Wichita is only a distant memory to be recounted in stories when I'm old and gray.
Only now do I realize the fundamental error in my previous logic. In order to realize the difficulty in leaving home I had to actually leave home, i.e., move away. It's one thing to travel somewhere else; it's a completely different ballgame to pick up and start a new life somewhere else. During my time in college, I saw the writing on the wall and realized that in order to start a career it would probably be in my best interest to move away from Wichita. Little did I know that an opportunity to do just that would present itself. Looking back, I now realize the magnitude of a single decision. In the span of two weeks, I went from being a degreed Mechanical Engineer working at Pizza Hut and living in his Dad's basement to living in California working as an engineer. Talk about doing a complete 180.
The first year was not too bad. I had some family members come out to visit me, and going back home felt just like any other time I had left. That second year, however, was the turning point. After a couple years of being on my own, I had started to become set in my ways of doing things. Little by little, I had started to forget streets and places that had once been as famaliar as a part of my own body. Now I have become so entrenched in my lifestyle that any more than a few days at a time and I begin to yearn for the comforts afforded by California. Driving is a chore when visiting home, because going anymore than 5 mph over the speed limit is asking for a ticket, rather than being the absolute slowest car in a twenty-mile radius. Instead of doing whatever I want to, I have to take into consideration other people who might want to see me during my annual pilgrimage back home. You could go so far as to say that Christmas vacation is actually more work for me than my actual job. I have to deal with however many hundreds of thousands of people are flying in and out of LAX to fly half way across the country only to spend my time driving between the various factions of my family who want to see me, but insist on me making the effort to travel to arrange a meeting (even though I just traveled half-way across the country).
Now, I could put my foot down and say "enough". The end result would that a lot of people would be hurt, and I would look like a bad guy. In fact, I am ready to stop going back home until someone comes out to visit me since my first year out here. While I realize everyone is still back home, I am tired of being the only one who is expected to make an effort to shoulder (both the time and financial) burden of traveling.; it's time that folks realize I am out here to stay. There may come a time in the not so distant future when I will not be able to come back. Someone will have to come out here and accept that I have built my own life, and my time in Wichita is only a distant memory to be recounted in stories when I'm old and gray.
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Regular Season Champs!
After eight hard fought games, the Guy Fawkes Conservatory emerged unscathed with a perfect 8-0 record for Studio Division's summer season, clinching the regular season championship. Not only have we secured the number one seed for the playoffs (of which everyone qualifies), we also secured a berth in next years National Tournament which rumor has it will be in Vegas again (hopefully when it's not so damn hot). Our perfect season was sealed this past Monday night after an intense 3-0 victory over Trey Stafford Explosion. In typical GFC fashion, a strong defense, some timely kicking, and dominating pitching paved the way. Congrats GFC and hopefully the wins keep coming in the playoffs!
Monday, September 22, 2008
GFC: Week 6 & 7
I know, still running behind...
Week 6 brought the third installment of our grudge match with Uno Mas. Even though they are having a bit of a down year, they always seem to give us fits. Early on they jumped out to a 1-0 lead. Their lead did not stand for long, however, as we rallied for two runs. Our strong defense (fueled by my first strike out as a pitcher) stiffened down the stretch to seal a 2-1 victory and keep us undefeated on the season.
Week 7 we faced That's What She Said who are the only team in the league to not have a win. Thanks to a couple strikeouts from our dominating pitchers and some well placed kicking, we pulled out a 4-1 (guess who gave up that lone run?) win to run our regular season to 7-0 and set up a winner take all for our final regular season game.
Week 6 brought the third installment of our grudge match with Uno Mas. Even though they are having a bit of a down year, they always seem to give us fits. Early on they jumped out to a 1-0 lead. Their lead did not stand for long, however, as we rallied for two runs. Our strong defense (fueled by my first strike out as a pitcher) stiffened down the stretch to seal a 2-1 victory and keep us undefeated on the season.
Week 7 we faced That's What She Said who are the only team in the league to not have a win. Thanks to a couple strikeouts from our dominating pitchers and some well placed kicking, we pulled out a 4-1 (guess who gave up that lone run?) win to run our regular season to 7-0 and set up a winner take all for our final regular season game.
Friday, September 12, 2008
Thursday, September 11, 2008
GFC: Week 5
Yes, I know I'm two weeks behind.
Week 5 saw the fruition of our cross-conference mystery matchups; the mystery being that game matchups would be determined by that weeks standings. Since we were first in our conference, we were paired against the Mean Boys (who are not really mean). Despite the fact that we allowed more runs in the game than we had allowed all season to that point, we erupted for an offensive explosion (at least by our standards) to help seal a win and keep our perfect record intact. As a side note, this game featured the first player ejection in our league's three-year history. Honestly, it could have been avoided, but unfortunately folks emotions get the better of them sometimes.
Week 5 saw the fruition of our cross-conference mystery matchups; the mystery being that game matchups would be determined by that weeks standings. Since we were first in our conference, we were paired against the Mean Boys (who are not really mean). Despite the fact that we allowed more runs in the game than we had allowed all season to that point, we erupted for an offensive explosion (at least by our standards) to help seal a win and keep our perfect record intact. As a side note, this game featured the first player ejection in our league's three-year history. Honestly, it could have been avoided, but unfortunately folks emotions get the better of them sometimes.
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Just Can't Win
The last week or so has been pretty rough on me. Last Tuesday a trojan horse managed to get past my firewall and infect my PC. Of course, that means I spent the next couple of days reloading Windows (and all it's updates), along with the various programs I use. Fortunately, I keep all my data on a separate drive, so none of that was infected. Those were the latest in a string of several nights where I got at most four hours of sleep a night. By the time Friday rolled around, I was absolutely exhausted and needed to take a day off from work (I'll leave work out of this). The weekend was relatively uneventful, but Monday brought it's own little surprise. The folks who ordered my contact lenses made a mistake and ordered the wrong kind (ones that adjust for astigmatism), so I had to schedule a visit to the eye doctor. The quickest I could get in was Wednesday at lunch; rather than deal with driving back and forth to work, I decided to take the day off for what turned out to be a ten minute exam to confirm my contacts were in fact wrong (the right ones were then ordered). Today brought the ruining of another tire (the second in about six months), so rather than screw around with trying to find a single tire, I broke down and went to Costco for a whole new set of tires. I'm really hoping things start going my way because this is starting to get frustrating. Then again, I'm going to Vegas next weekend, so maybe my luck will change at just the right time.
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