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Monday, April 30, 2012

Mount Vernon Trail

My second favorite trail in Northern Virginia, the Mount Vernon trail runs just over 17 miles along the Potomac from Mount Vernon to Rosslyn.  Aside from when it bends around national airport, and for a short stretch through the streets of Alexandria, the entire trail is right on the water and gives some great views of the monuments and other sites across the river.  The trail is fully paved, and since it follows the river it is very level except for a short but steep 100' descent/climb at the Mount Vernon end.  I guess that 100' is what constitutes "Mount" Vernon.  Go East Coast.

There's a lot of history along this trail, not only from the views of DC, but also as it goes around Arlington Cemetary, past the Pentagon, through historical Old Town Alexandria, and ends at George Washington's home.  As such, particularly from Rosslyn to the airport (where it is directly across from DC) the trail can be crowded (often with tourists), but usually you can work your way around people to stay at a reasonable pace.  I do not however recommend biking this section of the trail during the Cherry Blossom Festival, as it ends up pretty much packed with pedestrians who aren't paying any attention to anything.

I've biked the entirety of the Mount Vernon trail several times, and gone through shorter sections several more either as a shorter ride or connecting to other trails.  From the Mount Vernon trail, there are paths up to and across all of the bridges across the Potomac from the Key Bridge in Rosslyn down to the Wilson bridge in Alexandria.  The bridges connect to numerous trails in both DC and Maryland.  In Virginia, the end of the Mount Vernon trail in Rosslyn connects to the end of the Custis trail.  The Four Mile Run Trail ends at the Mount Vernon trail in Crystal City, and connects up to the end of the W&OD in Shirlington.  All in all, it's a nice, easy ride with convenient access from many other trails. 

Google Maps

Saturday, April 28, 2012

Rides this week 4/28/12

So I didn't make it on any rides this week.  Sunday, Monday, and Thursday rain kept me off the trail.  Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday baseball kept me on the field.  Since Thursday I couldn't ride, I went to the gym, and today I'm just sore from my lift.  I might try to go out a little bit later, but there's a wine festival we're going to this afternoon (from the people who put on bbbbq), so that might not happen. 

So instead, rides this week will turn into crazy baseball things that happened this week.

  • In my game Tuesday, with runners on first and third (R1 and R3), the pitcher tried to fake-pick off the guy at third to then turn and throw to first (to catch the guy who was more likely stealing (you can't fake a throw to first from the mound, but once you've faked to third you can do whatever)).  He had R3 if he threw the ball, but instead he kept with his original plan and threw to first, catching R1 off the base.  There was a short  first rundown between 1st and 2nd with the fielders watching to make sure R3 didn't try to score, but before they could get R1 out, R3 took off.  They threw home, and got R3 in a second rundown between home and 3rd.  This one lasted a little while (probably 3 back and forths) but they did ultimately get R3 out.  By this time, R1 was past second, and for whatever inexplicable reason, was off the bag far enough that as soon as R3 was out, the fielders through the ball to second and caught R1 in a third rundown between 2nd and 3rd.  This time the guy did not last long, and tried to run around the fielder on his first time back to 2nd, and was tagged out.  So three rundowns between all three sets of bases that resulted in 2 outs. 
  • In my game Wednesday, a kid stealing second managed to get there just in time for a close play but was safe.  He proceded to stand up off the bag to dust himself off without calling time, and was tagged out.  A couple innings later the same kid managed to get picked off of third by the catcher after a pitch.  Some people are just not good at running the bases.
  • In my game last night, a batter fouled a ball off straight at one of the light poles.  It hit a light square on, shattered the glass, which proceded to rain down on the fans below.  Since it was all over the field too, we had to stop and try to shovel the pieces off the field.  I don't think anyone except the baseball was hurt, but the ball was totally shredded and had to be put down.

Friday, April 27, 2012

The Paper Guy

Holy crap.  While walking the dog this morning I experienced the paper guy.  I had no idea.  Despite what the 8-bit days of video gaming taught us, the paper guy is not a 10 year old kid on a bicycle dodging all manner of hazards.  In my neighborhood, the paper guy is a large 50 year old guy in a funky mini-minivan creating all manner of hazards.

I was up a little early this morning, so at 6:15 I took the dog for her morning walk.  On our way over to the park, I saw this car like thing careening around our small, tight, neighborhood roads.  It was a little weird, but we were on the sidewalk so I just tightened up on Kina's leash and watched as it came to careen past us. I was not expecting the plastic bag projectile that shot out the window and passed a few inches in front of and over my head.  It made me jump back, and I almost cursed at the guy, but the paper landed literally leaning against the center of the door of its intended house.  A few houses down three more papers flew out of the window in quick succession at three consecutive town houses, all hitting their exact marks.  He flew around the corner and several more shot off towards houses on that side. 

About as I came up on the corner he'd just gone around, the guy then flew back around the circle and stopped his car in the same corner.  The car was an old early-90s thing that looked like a mini-van in terms of height and boxiness, but only would have seated 4-5 people.  The driver's door flew open and a tall, fat guy with all white hair jumped out of the car carrying 3 papers.  He was probably only in his late 40s/early 50s, but the years had worn on him quite a bit.  In the car, newspapers were piled all over the dashboard blocking half the windshield.  They were all over the passenger seat as well.  Kina and I were turning away from the street to head into the park, and without a word of warning, the guy practically ran us over.  He had to deliver papers to a few houses that aren't really on the road, and the end unit's door faces away from the road entirely so he has to get around the block.  So he bulled by us to toss the papers at the houses, then jogged back to the car, and raced off. 

The whole thing was a little surreal.  Kina looked about as confused as I felt.  Fortunately she didn't go after any of the flying papers.  I don't know if this is a normal day for him, but in addition to being bizzare his efficiency was kind of impressive.

Thursday, April 26, 2012

Lost in the Woods

We've had Kina for almost a week now, and she's been settling in well.  I think she's getting used to the daily routine, she doesn't seem to mind too terribly being home alone much of the day.  Even Onyx is coming around, although he's still got a ways to go. 

In walking her every morning I've started to explore Nottaway park a little more.  In addition to the several paved/gravel trails that meander through the park, there are a number of narrow dirt pathways that wander off into the wooded areas.  A couple of them are well enough walked that they can be easily followed in and out of the woods.

This morning though I decided to try a path that was just behind our house.  It was definitely a path at first, but as we got further and further into the trees, the path narrowed, became overgrown, and ultimately just kind of disappeared.  By the time I decided that this wasn't going to continue out of the trees, when I turned around I could barely tell what way I had come.  Kina seemed confused too, and managed to wrap her leash around several different trees/vines

Since the forest is really not that big (I don't think you could actually get lost in it) I decided to head towards the closest houses that you could just barely make out through the trees and cut our walk a little short.  On my way though, I came across the foundation of an old, long since gone building.  It had probably been a house.  Everything that was left was concrete.  There was a step up to what would have been the front door, and along the side there were several steps down into the foundation.  A few feet away there was a metal box that looked like it might have been an electrical box once. 

Kina tried to go down the stairs into the foundation, but I pulled her back since I had no idea what might be down there.  She tried to jump straight back up to ground level, but didn't quite make it.  After a short but frantic scampering, she fell back in and half rolled down a stair or two.  Silly puppy.

It was really strange to come across a ruins in what was basically my back yard.  I think that's unusual in most of America, let alone in an urban area less than a half mile from a metro stop.  Usually land or buildings like that are either sold and built over, or declared historic and highly advertised.  I don't have a clue what would have been there, or when.  Nottaway has been a forested area since as long as I can remember.  I would be surprised if the park wasn't there when they built our townhouse complex in the early 80s.  I don't think any roads would have gone in that far, but perhaps there was a driveway of some kind that led up to it.  There was no sign of any wood or other building material aside from the foundation, so whatever it was made of was either hauled off or has had time to rot.

Anyways, I'll have to go back to explore without the dog at some point (and also with long pants so my legs don't get cut up again).  Perhaps with a little investigative work I can solve the mystery.

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Lockout Review

Quick Summary - In 2070 the president's daughter is visiting a brand new space station prison when the prisoners riot and take over the station, taking her and a number of the crew hostage. The president decides to send in a single man to infiltrate, break her out, and get her to the escape pod (yes, there's an escape pod).

Quick Review - Definitely enjoyable*

IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1592525/

This movie probably could have been terrible if they had even tried to take themselves seriously. Almost immediately though they do away with the premise that any of this would be not-ridiculous. What's left is an enjoyable action/comedy with some Shoot 'em up style sci-fi shenanigans.

Aside from that I'm not sure how to review this movie since the plot does not merit re-mentioning, there's nothing deep enough to analyze for more than about 5 seconds, and the only parts that are even worth complaining about all include spoilers. So instead I will just give a list of what made this movie awesome:

  • A speeder-bike/futuristic-hovercraft-helicopter type thing chase with lots of explosions.
  • Voice activated mines (when you catch one don't say "Oh Shit")
  • Thinking you escaped into an impregnable holding cell only to find it is slowly filling with nitrogen that will kill you
  • Finding out that the impregnable holding cell can be impregnated from both the front and the rear without too much effort
  • The two Irish brother villains, one conniving, one insane
  • A high orbit space battle between a heavily armed space station with automatic defense turrets and a bunch of military fighter ships
  • Maggie Grace (who's both hot and apparently good at getting kidnapped)
  • Airlock executions (which never get old)
  • The president gets removed from office by the head of the secret service
  • The prison literally crashes into the international space station out of nowhere
  • Guy Pearce being an asshole all movie
  • Zombie-like hordes of prisoners chasing people around the station and getting thwarted by blast doors which conveniently open/close at only the right times
  • Witty dialogue all movie long (its kind of what made the movie)
So I enjoyed it. And you might too.

*Disclaimer: I tend to enjoy some terrible movies**.
**Re-disclaimer: I also tend to enjoy awesome movies. Like GI Joe.

Monday, April 23, 2012

W&OD

I figured I'd start my trail descriptions with the Washington & Old Dominion (W&OD) trail, since it is far and away the trail I have spent the most time on over the course of my life.

The W&OD regional park is both Virginia's longest and skinniest park.  It runs for 45 miles of paved trail and is never more than 100 ft wide.  It starts in Shirlington, just a few miles from downtown DC, and ends in Purceville, out in rural Loudon County.  There's ~ 500' of elevation change in the first 12 miles out of Shirlington as you cross the fall line, then it drops 100' over the next few miles before going in to a very slow, steady incline the remaining 30 miles.  The trail was converted from an old railroad line that used to bring coal from the mountains down to the city, so even when there are elevation changes it's low grades, and the trail is very straight with hardly any winding.

Most of the trail is in enough park that at worst you only see the backs of houses, but at a few points it runs along side a highway or through a more urban area.  The trail is well maintained and is heavily utilized year-round unless there's snow.  For at least most of the first 30 miles, there are somewhat regular water fountains along the trail.

I've only ever been to the far end of the trail once.  Last year I drove my bike out to Purceville and rode the full 45 miles into Shirlington.  Caitlin picked me up there and we went back to pick up my car.  It's nice out there, and there's a lot less people on the trail.  I started from that direction since it's down hill going west to east.  At some point this year I'm planning to tackle it going the other way.  Eventually, (and this may never happen) I would like to try to do the full trail round trip.

The W&OD has always been near and dear to me because aside from my time in California I have always lived within about 5 miles of it.  The house I grew up in was less than a mile from mile marker (MM) 3.5.  My first apartment after college was about 3 miles from MM 7.  My current house is 2 miles from MM 11.5.  It's the trail I used to always ride as a kid, both alone and with family.  Weekend mornings my dad, sister, and I regularly used to bike the W&OD out to Falls Church for brunch at Big Boy.  My mom would drive and we'd all ride back in the car.  Today I use it both to get to work and whenever I'm looking for a close, easy ride.

Friends of the W&OD
Google Maps


Saturday, April 21, 2012

Rides this week 4/21/2012

Had a great ride Sunday, where I once again got lost at the end of the Accotink (google maps mislead me again).  I got further this time before I had to turn back to see the ladies who were getting home from their trip.  The ride wiped me out though so I kinda turned into a potato (sorry Danielle).  Also, boo rain on Wednesday so I couldn't bike to work.

Sunday 4/15 - 30 miles - Accotink down to the Fairfax County Parkway
Thursday 4/19 - 21 miles - W&OD to Herndon
Saturday 4/21 - 28 miles - W&OD past Herndon to Sterling

Supposed to be a lot of rain tomorrow and Monday, but hopefully I can ride to work Wednesday and or Thursday.

In other news, the next unusual wildlife sighting was a rafter of turkeys.  They weren't chilling on the path, like the fox, deer, and beaver but just a little ways off of it.  They looked lean and mean though.  Wild turkeys are supposed to be pretty vicious.

Thursday, April 19, 2012

Paying to Bike

So what's the deal with paying people to either run somewhere or ride your bike?  I recently saw an add for an organized ride, and I was surprised to see that it cost $30 to sign up.  They had 10, 20, and 50 mile routes, but they were all on the W&OD only, so it was $30 to ride up a section of the public bike trail that I ride all the time.  There may have been a T-shirt involved, but that's it as far as I can tell.  What the heck's the $$ for?  I looked around a little and realized that these things happen all the time, and that in fact $30 was on the cheaper end.  The only organized ride I've done before was bike to work day which was free and more of a lets get as many people to sign up as we can type of event, since everyone was biking to and from different places.

A few events claimed themselves in the name of charity, others were on routes that required road closures and such, so perhaps I can understand those, but all in all they seem like steep prices for something I can just go out and do whenever I want.  My sister has signed up for a couple rides in New York, and invited me up for one, but it's the weekend of the BBBBQ festival so I can't go.  Instead she's going to come down here in May and we're going to do Bike DC - http://www.bikedc.net/ - for $40 each.  I'm not sure how I feel about this, but it'll be fun to do a ride with her, and it'll be on closed roads that I couldn't otherwise ride.

How much do people pay for running places?  Marathons, half marathons, 10Ks, and the like?  Why don't you just run 26 miles on your own?  What happens if you go to the place and just run with people without signing up/paying?  The event I mentioned at the start of this was Saturday morning, so I may try to just go see what its like up there.

Anyways, maybe I'm just a cheapskate, but I don't know that I see the point of paying to do things I can do for free.

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Rocking it

No single long post today, but a bunch of little ones packed together. 

First off, I realized my hypothesized equation yesterday was wrong.  It didn't account for distance to average out my speed relative to elevation, and as it was written, if i climbed high enough i would eventually have had a negative speed.  I have adjusted accordingly so that it makes a little more sense and the limits work out.

S = (12*D - .06*E - .01*G)/D
S = speed (mph)
D = distance (miles)
E = elevation change (feet)
G = gain (feet)
Without cluttering that too much, the first constant is mph, the 2nd and 3rd are mph*miles/ft. 

Second, we've decided to adopt Kina and we should be bringing her home permanently on Friday.  Caitlin wrote a good post about how the overnight with her went, and there's a cute picture of her on our floor with lightning over her head.  http://my-geeker-joy.blogspot.com/2012/04/dog-adoption-part-2.html 

Third, I had another great game last night on a gorgeous night.  After Herndon allowed only 16 batters in the first 5 innings, Chantilly scored one in the 6th to tie it 1-1.  Chantilly managed to bring in 2 more in the top of the 7th and won 3-1.  Both pitchers threw complete games, and in fact there were no substitutions by either team, which I don't think I've ever seen before in a complete 7-inning High School game.  Game time was 1:25.  This made up for my game Monday where a home team 2-4 lead going into the 7th turned into an 18-4 loss.  The 16 run inning took about 50 minutes and turned a decent game into an ugly one. 

Lastly, this was too good to not repost -
http://news.menshealth.com/get-promotion-with-beard/2012/03/11/
As if I wasn't intimidating enough.  Also, it certainly does make you look older.

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Map My Ride

I recently started using the Map My Ride app on my phone. Basically you turn it on when you start a ride, and it tracks your GPS until you turn it off. At the end, it breaks your ride down and gives you lots of stats such as distance, time, speed, and calories, plus it shows you a map of your ride and elevation changes by distance. They've got a bunch of other fitness planning stuff (like diets and things) that I don't use. It's a pretty cool little app, and has helped me better track my rides and pace. I think my favorite piece is the elevation map, since thats something I wouldn't be able to easily see with google maps and a clock. What's also cool is that it then saves all your workouts and keeps a log, so you can go back and see how you did before. While I'm less concerned about my previous pace, I like that I can map out the trails I take regularly and see how all over Northern Virginia I really get.

For the joggers there's an equivalent Map My Jog app or you can get either and just change it back and forth from running to biking. You can then also have friends and see each other's stats and workouts (if you let it, of course there are privacy settings). If anyone else is on there and wants to friend me, I am username Kevinywev in Vienna, VA.

Also, I mentioned this in the comments on my rides this week post, but I'm going to start doing some posts about the trails I ride a lot.  If you friend me you can see some of the trails that way, or I may try to make a google map and link it.

The other project I might undertake soon is to plot how fast I go as a function of the variables the app gives me - Horizontal distance, Vertical gain (all the up, without subtracting any down), and Vertical change (starting elevation - ending elevation). I still need some more data points before I can get some effective numbers, but I'm interested to see what I get.  It'll also be fun to see how trail types impact things (paved vs not, lots of road crossings vs continuous).  This might not be as obvious from the app but once enough data is there its only a matter of analyzing it. . .

My current hypothesis is that S = (12mph-0.005mph/ft*E-0.001mph/ft*G)
S=speed
E=elevation difference (initial-final, in feet)
G=gain (total up not counting any down, in feet)

In other news, I have apparently not done enough math/science of late, because coming up with that equation took me wayyyy longer than it should have.

Monday, April 16, 2012

Post-College Biking

After college I didn't have a bike for almost a year. When my mom had moved out of the house I grew up in we had gotten rid of our older bikes since there was nowhere to store them in her new condo. I ended up buying a bike in February just before moving out in April. It was a solid Trek mountain bike that cost me close to 400. That bike helped me get back into more serious riding instead of the just biking to get places I had done in college. It lasted me a year and a half until I managed to more-or-less total it. 

I was biking to work at the time down an access road along a major road in front of a shopping center.  Everyone was stopped at an intersection waiting for traffic to slow on the main road so that they could turn on to it.  I had slowed down but didn't stop at the stop sign and didn't see a car that was hiding behind an SUV that was waiting.   The car pulled into the intersection and right in front of me, and I T-boned the car.  I had almost managed to stop myself in time but not quite, so I didn't hit him all that hard.  Because I was going slow I had managed to turn myself and brace somewhat for the impact.  I bounced backwards off my bike, and landed on my padded backpack full of clothes, and my helmet kept my head from taking a hit. 

The guys car had some seriouis dents/scrapes along both side doors.  I walked away pretty much unscathed, but my front wheel was slightly bent and the handle bars were twisted.  While I still have the bike and can still ride it, it looks off and doesn't ride all that well, so I don't fully trust it.  All things considered I was pretty lucky.  The driver was freaked out, and even though in court it likely would have come down to my fault for running the stop sign, he was happy to not exchange info and get out of there.  Since I was fine I figured that worked.

The following spring I bought another bike, this time a road bike.  Unlike my current bike, this was definitely not a mountain bike - it had a thin road tire, no shocks, and all in all was a little less rugged, but not so much so that I couldn't take it on grass or other hard-but-not-paved surfaces.  I was really liking that bike and going on some substantially longer rides in the 3 months or so I had it before it got stolen.  I took it with me when I went to Alabama the first time for a month, and it ended up getting stolen out of my car in a 2-hour window outside my hotel in front of the busy pool on a Sunday afternoon.  I was pretty bitter about that, and really all of alabama.  That was a bad month that led to several more bad months that led me to leave that job.  But since I was travelling and working so much I didn't really miss not having a bike until I bought the new one this year.

Saturday, April 14, 2012

Rides this week - 4/14/12

I had hoped to go for a long ride Sunday morning, but a minor hangover and a major but brief food poisoning from breakfast left me incapacitated for most of the day.  Other than that due to a busy week I didn't get out as much as I would have liked, but I did get a few good rides in.

Wednesday 4/11 - 16 miles - W&OD to work
Wednesday 4/11 - 16 miles - W&OD from work
Friday 4/13 - 3 miles - safeway/the bank and back
Saturday 4/14 - 34 miles - Mount Vernon trail round trip

My baseball schedule is picking up next week too, so I'll have to maximize my weekend time.

Friday, April 13, 2012

The Next Three Days Review

Quick Summary - Russel Crowe is a middle class man who's wife has been (he believes) wrongfully imprisoned for murder.  When their last appeal fails, he decides to break her out of prison and run for it with her and their 6ish year old son.

Quick Review - Worth Watching

IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1458175/

I don't remember this movie ever being in theaters, which is surprising given that it has Russel Crowe and Elizabeth Banks as leads along with smaller roles by Liam Neeson and several others I recognized.  The first 15 minutes or so are of the family and how happy they are and then boom she gets arrested for murdering her boss.  It then cuts to a few years later and they're losing their last appeal.  It's made clear that the evidence is very condemning.

Most of the movie is then about how the hell someone who is not a criminal goes about breaking his wife out of jail.  He doesn't have any friends that he's willing to turn to, nor any criminal contacts who he can think of to talk to.  He's not particularly rich so he can't easily just buy his way through everything.  He's incredibly nervous the couple times he tries to do even the most basic set ups for his plan that he might get in trouble for doing.  It ends up being really suspenseful at times as he works to get her out.  I can't say I could quite relate to it, but it made you think could I do this?  How would I react in this situation?

There's also a little of did she or didn't she going on, and questions of would it be worth throwing your life away to be with the woman you love, even if she was a murderer.  Several times he gets asked if its all worth the risk (or probability) that both he and his wife will end up in jail and his son will be SOL without parents.  There are lots of questions about what's best for a family and all that.

Of course at the end of the movie he goes through with it and starts to break her out, and without adding spoilers suffice it to say they make it past the front door.  Just before the very end though the DVD I was watching flaked and so I didn't get to see the very very end, which kinda sucked, but I could pretty much see what was going to happen.  Stupid blockbuster. 

Anyways, all in all I thought it was a good suspenseful thriller and it's definitely worth a watch.

Thursday, April 12, 2012

Kina!

Caitlin and I have been looking at getting a dog for a while.  See her blog for a good summary of what we've done so far -

http://my-geeker-joy.blogspot.com/2012/03/dog-adoption-part-1.html

We're hoping to find a dog with a little lower energy that can handle the fact that we both work full time jobs and aren't in the house for a good chunk of the day.  Since neither of us have had a dog before we also decided to look for a dog that's house broken with at least some basic training.  This ruled out the brand new puppies, but we'd still like a younger dog.  Since Onyx isn't going anywhere the dog also needs to be good with cats.

Last Saturday we went to another adoption thing and met a number of dogs, including several that we had seen/liked from their descriptions online.  From online we had liked Tetra the most, followed by Misty and then Kina.  Caitlin had also liked Mystique, although I hadn't been sold.  All 4 of these dogs were there. 

Unfortunately Tetra had a pending adoption, so she was out from the get go.  She turned out to have more energy than we probably wanted anyways. 

Her description had said this, but Misty turned out to be extremely timid.  While most of the dogs at the event were running around and sniffing each other, or at least happily standing around, Misty was cowering under a chair behind the table.  I was hoping for a dog with a little more energy/confidence than this.  Misty's foster mom also pretty much told us she wanted to give her to someone who already had dogs, so we weren't sure she'd approve us..

Mystique was nice, and I would still probably consider her.  My main hold up for Mystique was that she apparently came from a not-great place, and I have been warned to stay away from rescue dogs with unknown backgrounds.  Mystique's fosterers also thought she'd be better in a multi-dog family, but they did not seem nearly as hung up on this as Misty's fosterer. 

We also met Kina, who was the best fit of who we saw.  She was pretty mild mannered and apparently very curious.  She's got a laid back temperment.  She's a Shepherd mix, with a wider body that makes her look bigger than some of the other dogs we looked at.  She's older than we might have liked, but I think she'll do well with us. 

Tonight we get to bring Kina home to do a trial day.  It'll give us a little time to make sure we're a good fit with her, and that she's a good fit with us.  Hopefully she does not try to kill Onyx.  If she is a good fit, we move forward with the formal adoption (which apparently involves some paperwork and a "donation" to the rescue).  I'm excited to see how it goes.

If you'd like to see some pictures and a quick description, you can find her bio on the website here -
http://shepherdrescue.net/cgi-bin/Dog_View.asp?Dog=2605&Return=dogs.asp&Type=1&page=2&DogID=2605

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Oakton at Herndon

I worked a pretty good game last night - it was quick (1:34 game time), fast paced, well played by both sides, and it was a gorgeous evening.  Herndon and Oakton are both Division 6 AAA teams (the highest in Virginia) and traditionally do pretty well.  I don't think either team is quite up to their normal level this year, but Oakton was the favorite going in.  Oakton scored a run an inning for the first 3, and then Herndon got one back in the bottom of the 4th.  Herndon managed to put together a 3 run rally against Oakton's closer in the bottom of the 6th to take the lead 4-3.  In the top of the 7th, Oakton hit a double with 1-out, but didn't manage to get him in so the game was over.  Herndon's pitcher threw the complete 7, which is pretty unusual in high school, especially after he struggled some early. 

This was the game that I worked with the partner from last year.  We didn't address the back and forth from last year, but I did notice that he was not as critical as I'm used to him being.  In part it was because this was a pretty easy game to work where nothing went wrong, but I'm pretty sure he had just backed off some as well.  All in all, I enjoyed the night.

Monday, April 9, 2012

Counting

Does anyone else ever count things as they go through life?  I not infrequently find myself counting random things as they happen.  Generally things that happen in a relatively short time that are relatively periodic.

Stairs are a great example.  Almost any time I am going up or down stairs I end up counting them.  With stairs I do it so regularly that I can still tell you how many stairs there were at any place I have lived.  The house I grew up in had 3 stairs up the hill in the yard, then 5 more to the door, 12 stairs down to the basement and 8 from the porch to the yard.  My first apartment had I think 19 to the main level from the parking lot, and my last apartment had 4 and then 3 up to the ground level.  My current house has 13 stairs each between the top, middle, and bottom levels although the top stairs are in a 5-4-4 configuration where the bottom are in a 6-4-3.  At AVS a flight was 13 on the first half and 12 for the second to get between floors, with a double flight that was an additional 13-7 for the first floor. 

It's not just stairs.  I have extreme difficulty not counting train cars when I see one going by.  I always used to count the number of flashes a do-not-walk sign gave before going solid, but since most of them have timers on them these days it's taken the fun out of it. 

On the less periodic side, I always used to love counting coins back when I collected them and also when counting all my coins meant counting all my money.  I still count poker chips at the table a whole lot more often than I need to.

Am I totally weird for doing this? I don't take it to the Will Ferrell in Stranger Than Fiction extreme (where he knows exactly how many of everything there is, and counts and does that many of the same thing every day), but I don't know that its normal.  I think it might be a left over from back when I was musical and counted the rhythm of things all the time, but who knows. 

In any case, if I'm not alone, what if anything else do other people count?

Saturday, April 7, 2012

Rides this week - 4/7/12

I'm going to start trying to put up my rides for the week.  If that's horribly boring, well, then too bad.  Since this is the first time I'm doing this I'm going to go back to last Friday, but then I'll try and do it every Saturday for Sun-Sat.  Here goes -

Friday 3/30 - 28 miles - Accotink trail down from home down to Franconia, and back
Tuesday 4/3 - 21 miles - W&OD from home, miles 11.5-20 and back
Wednesday 4/4 - 15 miles - W&OD from Herndon, miles 20-27.5 and back
Saturday 4/7 - 14 miles - W&OD side trail from home, miles 11.5-16 and back

Hopefully I'll start having contiguous blocks of time where I can get some longer rides in next week.

Friday, April 6, 2012

Umpiring part 2

As I mentioned last time, after every NV game the senior umpire does an evaluation of the junior umpire.  A part of this process is to do a post-game discussion between umpires after the game to give feedback on how an umpire is doing and any advice on how we can do our jobs better.  When a veteran umpire is working with a rookie, this is pretty one directional.  When two umpires that are at the same level/have the same experience work together, its much more bi-directiona, even if one is designated senior we both help each other out.

This process has two results.  The first is that we are always being evaluated and critiqued.  This is a good (or even great) thing since it means that we're always getting advice and hopefully also means that we're getting better.  Over time, every umpire that works in our association does get better, and that's a good thing for everyone - that umpire, the partner(s) he's working with, and the players/coaches/fans he's working for.  Umpires who aren't open to feedback don't tend to last very long in our association.

The second result is that we are always being driven to get better, even when we don't necessarily want to.  It's always assumed that the only reason you're working this level of baseball is because you haven't quite gotten good enough to where you can work the next level of baseball.  I got as good as I ever wanted to be during my second full high school season (2 years after college), and I call a pretty good game.  I just don't have the drive to move any higher, for a number of reasons.

Most importantly, it's just not a priority for me.  To work college baseball, you generally have to drive several hours to the games which are all over the middle atlantic for early afternoon games, which means taking time off work.  There's also just a different atmosphere of competition at higher levels that add another level of stress to working that I don't think I need.  While I enjoy the competitive varsity high school games I get in the Spring, I have the most fun working decent rec games where everyone is out there to have fun and be competive, but in a way that doesn't really matter.  I'm happy doing what I'm doing.

Last year after a 3-man playoff game where I made a couple mistakes I had it out a little bit with the crew chief.  Saying I had it out with him is a gross exaggeration of a short debate in a couple respectful emails, but it got me to actually tell someone why I'm not trying to do college ball.  The crew chief was a senior ump who has helped me a lot over the years, and he was very disappointed i wasn't putting in the extra effort to go to the next level.  He was mad I hadn't spent hours reviewing and practicing 3 man mechanics before the game.  He couldn't understand why I hadn't spent hundreds of dollars (1000+) and a week of vacation going to the 3-man college camp our assocation puts on in Florida that works with several of the colleges down there. It got down to the gritty details of that I hadn't shined my shoes prior to the game.  In the end though I think he understood where I was coming from and he backed off.

I say all this because I have another game with this umpire next week.  The previously mentioned game was one of the last games I did last year prior to getting stationed in Alabama for the rest of the summer and fall, so I haven't seen him since.  I'm sure it will go fine, but I'm interested to see what he thinks and how he rates me.  In any case, I'm sure I'll call a good game, and in the end I'll probably just keep working at the level I'm at.

Thursday, April 5, 2012

Wildlife

I guess animals love this time of year too.

Friday afternoon I went for a bike ride down the Accotink trail.  On my way back, I was coming around a slow bend and saw a dog running down the trail.  I figured once I got around the bend I'd see who it was running with.  Once I came around though I realized that it was on its own.  It was running at a quick trot, in a straight line, on the right side of the path as it should be, all in all seeming very well behaved.  I started to wonder if I should stop and try to grab it.  Since I was on my bike even if I grabbed it I couldn't do much with it, but if someone was running after it I might slow it down enough to let them catch up.  It was a medium-large dog, but I thought if I saw a collar it might be worth seeing how it reacted to me as I got closer. 

Pretty soon I got close enough that it noticed me though, and it kind of jumped to turn and look at me.  That's when I realized that this was not a lost dog, but a fox.  At this point it quickly bounded off into the woods.  It was the biggest fox I had ever seen.  Generally I think of foxes being a little bigger than a large cat, but distinctly smaller than a medium sized dog.  I think of them hunting bunnies and squirrels.  While this guy might have had trouble with a full grown buck, it probably could have taken down most smaller deer.

On Tuesday I was riding up the W&OD when a deer walked onto the path a good long ways in front of me.  It stopped, pretty much stradling/blocking the entire path.  As I got close I was slowing down and shouting at it hoping it would move, but it didn't budge.  As I got real close it slowly turned and started to go back the way it came such that I was able to get by, but it really didn't seem bothered by me in the slightest.

Then Wednesday I biked a different section of the W&OD, and what I'm pretty sure was a beaver scurried onto the path a few hundred feet ahead of me.  It hung out on the path for about 10 seconds and then scurried off on the other side. 

I'm starting to wonder what I'm going to come across next.  Deer are common but never that brazen, there are fox (foxes?) around but not that many and never that large, and I don't think I've ever seen a beaver around here. 

Tuesday, April 3, 2012

New PS3! And games to go with it!

About 2 weeks ago I bought a PS3.  For a long time we've been using Caitlin's old laptop as a DVD player.  Unfortunately, Caitlin's old laptop is a PoS that is mostly broken.  The monitor on it doesn't work so we had to use it through the TV to see what we were doing.  It took a long time to boot and maybe 25% of the time seemed to forget it had a DVD drive and it made us reboot.  If you bumped the table it was on at all, it would frequently just totally lose the DVD and we'd have to start all over. 

So we decided it was time to get an actual DVD player.  I've been thinking about getting either an Xbox 360 or a PS3 for a while, and since the PS3 has the built-in bluray it won out.  I ended up paying a little more for a 320GB version (as opposed to a 160) that also came with a game.  Although I probably wouldn't ever fill up the 160 harddrive, the fact that I've filled up 2 PS2 memory cards, both my gamecube memory cards, and am pretty much out of space on my non-data-transferrable Wii, I erred on the side of caution because I hate deleting game files.  I went back to play a couple of my PS2 games at one point, and when I realized I had deleted my game files for them it made me really sad, since it meant I couldn't just start at later points in the game, etc. 

The game the console came with was Infamous 2.  I hadn't heard much about it (or the first one) but I figured what the heck, I'll give it a try.  And I've been pleasently surprised to find it's been a lot of fun.  It's a  grand theft auto type open world game but with superpowers, and fighting super-villains instead of murdering/robbing innocent people/the world. 

I went looking for what PS3 games I had missed that I should go back and play.  Pretty soon I had ordered a half dozen games on Amazon (the list is below) and now I can't wait for them to get here. 

Little big planet
Mirror's edge
Disgaea 3
Demon Souls
Valkyria Chronicles
Final Fantasy XIII

I'm probably most excited for Valkyria Chronicles, which was the only one I hadn't really heard of.  After seeing a few reviews though I'm pretty psyched.  I've got my work cut out for me though to get through all these games.  They were all $20 or less, and made me remember this XKCD.

http://xkcd.com/606/

Any other PS3 recommendations?  I've heard Journey is worth it.

College Biking

As mentioned before, I've had bad luck with bikes the last 10 years.  In college, I went through three different bikes over the course of my 4 years.  One was pretty much totalled, one was stolen, and one was pretty much totalled and then stolen.

Back then I didn't ride my bikes all that hard.  For the most part I used them to go back and forth from football practice down the hill, or to the other 5C campuses for classes or food, or even just for the 1/4 mile to get to class.  I'd venture down to the village to go to the bank or the post office and up to the safeway for snacks and such.  The furthest I would go would be about 4 miles down to the movie theater, or once or twice I went down to Montclaire to go to Gamestop or Bestbuy.  And while I certainly enjoyed riding, I always had a destination.  I think only once I went for a ride purely for the sake of riding and found a bike trail a little further up into the foothills.  In retrospect it was a shame, because there was probably some great trails around, and the weather was always right for it.

In any case, I got my first bike in California right when I first got to college.  I found a bike store and asked if they had any used bikes. I needed one quickly because from day one I was travelling to and from football practice which was on CMC's campus twice a day, and a bike just made things way easier. The guy had a used one he said he'd give me for $50. I said sure and away I went. That bike lasted through freshman year, but it was basically falling apart by the end of it. I probably would have suffered through with it for a little while longer, but I left it locked to a bike rack over the summer, and when I came back it was gone. 

So sophomore year I buckled down and went to a real bike store to buy a new bike. For about $250 I bought a new, pretty reasonable mountain bike. It worked great, ran smooth, and I rode it all over. It took about 3 months before it was stolen while locked to a rack.  I forget if it was from my dorm or if I had left it in academics over night, but in any case, it was gone. Distraught and out what in college was a sizable chunk of currency, I went looking to find something cheap and used again.

I found another used bike somewhere that would get me through the remaining 2.5 years of college. Although functional, by some point in my junior year the gears had broken down to the point where it would only work in the highest of the 3 main gears, and the chain would only catch on half the smaller gears. While it was great going down hill, it was a tough ride to get back up.  I ended up giving it to an underclassman when I graduated, and found it unusable when I went back for homecoming the following fall and tried to take it for a spin.

It's been 4 years since college, and I'm once again on my 3rd bike.  The stories behind the first two are a little more interesting (and a little fresher in my memory) so I will save those for another post.