Thoughts on hiking (2) Jul 6, 2006
I went hiking on the Appalachian Trail this past weekend.  The weather was great and I had a good time, but there are a few things I'd like to remember: 

1.  Sandals are good to wear at the camp site, especially if there's water around.  It makes it easy to walk around and get your feet wet without having to take off your shoes and put them back on repeatedly. 

2.  Clif Shot Bloks, fruit leather, and other fruity/sweet yet healthy food is better to eat during physical activity than Clifbars, Powerbars, or Snickers Marathon bars.  Hiking food all seems to follow the same path:  chocolate and nuts.  While I'm a fan of both, I don't really prefer either of them when I'm doing physical activity on a hot day.  On a sidenote, beef jerky covers over a multitude of sins. 

3.  It's nice to have a warm, relatively large meal at night.  In the middle of the woods, there are two viable options:  MREs and freeze-dried meals.  MREs come with chemical heaters so you don't need any extra tools or equipment.  But they weigh about 13-18 oz each.  This isn't much, but it's mostly water weight, which seems like it excess weight should be avoided if necessary.  The alternative is a freeze-dried meal like Mountain House.  These packages of food weigh next to nothing, and all that's needed is some boiling water.  But that presents another problem:  Where/how do you get boiling water?  One method is a thing called Jetboil, which is a lightweight thermos-like container that can easily attach a burner and propane tank to boil water.  It weighs 2.6 lb, but it's a great tool. 

4.  A sleeping pad is most likely worth the extra cost, weight, and ego hit. 

5.  Gatorade is the nectar of the gods.  Maybe I'm brainwashed from all the advertising, but Gatorade seems to do some amount of good during physical activity.  It might be a good idea to bring two bladders:  one for water and one for Gatorade. 

6.  Maps are hard to find online.  They're available at outdoorsy stores.  An abbreviated copy of the Appalachian Trail Thru-Hikers' Companion is available online. 

7.  Motives are good to settle before starting the hike.  Should you cover as much ground as possible in as short a time as possible?  Or should you take it slow and enjoy nature?  Or should you do something in between those two options?  Nothing is wrong with any of these choices, but it's good to get the whole group to agree to a goal before the hike starts. #sports
Basketball (1) Apr 25, 2006
My favorite sport to play is basketball.  I don't exactly fit the mold of a stereotypical basketball player (i.e. I'm short and white ... oops, was that racist?), but I still like to play.  The reason I like it is pretty simple:  It's pretty much the only sport you can play by yourself.  With baseball, you need someone to pitch to you.  With football, you need someone to catch your passes.  With soccer, you need someone to defend the goal.  With tennis, you need someone on the other side of the net.  Sure, there are ways around this, such as using a pitching machine or one of those tennis ball shooters, but it's not quite the same.  Basketball requires only one person.  Though you can't play 1-on-1 with only one person, you can do pretty much everything else. 

Basketball is therapeutic for me.  I like to play to relieve stress and unwind.  I also use it as a way to exercise.  I can only run and/or bike around my neighborhood so many times.  I need something different, and basketball is great for that.  So basically, basketball is a very selfish thing.  It's my thing.  My time.  It's all about me. 

The problem with this is that other people don't agree with me.  Almost every time I play basketball in a public place, people ask me if I want to join their game.  It's weird having to figure out a way to say no.  "No thanks" tends to work, but it causes an awkward moment:  A bunch of guys see me playing by myself, and they need another guy to even out the teams, so they invite me.  A "no thanks" doesn't make any sense to them.  Why wouldn't I want to play with them?  It's not like I don't know how to play.  It's not that I'm incapable of playing.  So there's usually an awkward pause as I turn back around and continue playing by myself.  Sometimes I'll give in just because they're persuasive.  "C'mon, just a few minutes."  That's usually a lie and I know it. 

But sometimes it's good to play with other people.  That's when I realize how incredibly basketball-socially-awkward I am.  It's similar to a person living in a locked cell for an extended period of time.  When they get out, they have some social problems because they're not used to interacting with other humans.  When I play basketball by myself all the time, it's difficult to join a game because I don't know how to interact and I'm not used to someone trying to take the ball from me.  So I usually just flip out and knife people.  Actually, I just lose every skill I had previously learned and I revert back to how I played when I was 8.  It's ugly. #sports
Running in the rain Apr 16, 2006
On Friday evening, I went running in the rain.  It was awesome.  I always have good experiences running in the rain, and I'm not sure why.  It might be that the rain takes my concentration off the pain in my calves and liver.  It might be that it makes it look like I'm really dedicated, when in reality I'm just a kid who's pretending to be doing a workout.  My favorite part is jumping in puddles.  I'll be running along, making it look like I'm serious, and then I'll do a two-foot stomp in a big puddle.  I guess that just never gets old. #sports
Walk around the world Apr 7, 2006
Karl Bushby is walking around the world, and it's taking him across 36,000 miles of land in 12 years.  He started in southern Chile, travelled through South America, Central America, and North America.  Then he crossed a frozen ocean near the Bering Straits, where he plans to continue through Asia and Europe, eventually finishing in the United Kingdom.  (via Neatorama) #sports
Day after Feb 6, 2006
White Castle has a petition on their website that's a suggestion to make the day after the Super Bowl a national holiday.  Their reasoning is solid:  1.4 million employed adults call in sick.  More people go to Super Bowl parties than New Year's Eve parties.  "Play Sunday.  Rest Monday.  That's our angle, dig?"  I'm feeling it. #sports
Fair-weather fan (2) Jan 31, 2006
I admit it:  I'm a fair-weather fan.  I usually only like a sports team when they're doing well.  As soon as they stop doing well, I have no problem abandoning them.  I feel ok doing this because my team has never been a great team.  I wasn't a fan of the Dallas Cowboys or Atlanta Braves or New York Yankees or New England Patriots.  I was always a fan of the loser team.  The last place team.  The Philadelphia Phillies.  The Philadelphia Eagles.  Etc., etc. 

So when the Eagles made it to the Super Bowl last year, I was proud to be an Eagles fan.  People respected me because I liked a good team (as if I had something to do with it).  But this year, when they stunk, I was the first person to criticize them and acknowledge that they wouldn't make it anywhere.  Why believe a lie?  Why hope for a certain player to come back and be the savior of the team?  Why should I root for a loser?  It's like throwing your money out the window or digging a whole to the center of the earth:  It's pointless; it's a waste of time and effort. 

But at least I don't claim to be a lifelong fan as soon as my team is doing well.  Well, actually, that's kind of what I did.  But not exactly.  I think it's interesting that right around championship games like the Super Bowl and the World Series, a bunch of fans will suddenly pop up out of nowhere and claim they've been fans for life.  Like the Seattle Seahawks.  No one ever liked the Seattle Seahawks.  They were that team from out west that always sucked.  But all of a sudden, they're in the Super Bowl and a bunch of people like them.  Or the New England Patriots before them.  No one liked the Patriots until superman Tom Brady stepped in and won a few Super Bowls.  Until you've been a fan during your team's down years, you're not a real fan. 

I'm not a real fan.  But at least I admit it. #sports
NFL drinking problem Jan 23, 2006
Recently, as I've been watching football on TV, I've been noticing that NFL players have drinking problems:  As soon as they get water in their mouths, they spit it out.  Now, I ain't no genius.  But it would seem to me that by spitting out the water, they wouldn't be reaping the benefits of putting the water in their mouths in the first place.  Perhaps someone should tell them, "Hey fella, swallow that water.  You won't be thirsty anymore." #sports
Snowboarding Jan 17, 2006
I just spent most of the day snowboarding.  ("It's a Tuesday.  Shouldn't you be at work?"  Eh...)  Here's what I noticed: 

There are 4 types of falls:  Bump/bruise, twist, slide, and hyper-extend.  I covered 3 of the 4 today.  I fell on my butt while facing uphill, which meant I also smacked my head on the ground (bump/bruise).  I went over a couple jumps and didn't quite nail the landing (slide).  And I sort of hyper-extended my elbow by trying to keep myself up while almost falling down (hyper-extend).  I'm glad I didn't have any twists.  They're usually day-enders. 

Most skiers hate snowboarders because they always fall down and get in the way.  As a snowboarder, I hate skiers because they think they're better than me and they use the whole mountain to do their big, dumb swooping moves.  And right when I try to pass them, they swoop over to me and don't even look.  Buncha jerks. 

It's been suggested that there be different hills for skiers and snowboarders.  This is an unbelievably great idea and here's why:  Snowboarding and skiing are two completely different sports.  Snowboarding involves leaning to turn and zig-zagging down the mountain to maintain a reasonable speed.  Skiing involves [something; I'm not sure what] and making big S-patterns down the mountain to maintain a reasonable speed.  Snowboarding involves falling.  Skiers are too good to fall.  On a serious note, snowboarders fall in a specific way, and this is different than how skiers fall.  By putting these things on different hills, everyone's problems would be solved.  Blammo. 

It occurred to me as I was sitting on a freezing cold gondola:  I don't really get cold because there's quite a bit of adrenaline involved.  As I've mentioned in the past, snowboarding is the most illogical thing on earth.  Speeding down the face of a mountain with a board strapped to your feet sounds ridiculous.  But somebody tried it once, and it stuck.  And so each dumb thing I do produces a lot of adrenaline in me.  I speed down the hill, I pass a few people, I dodge a few fallen people, I try to "hit" a couple jumps, I merge with another hill, I attempt to stop before hitting a crowd of people at the bottom.  These all have a certain amount of danger in them, and that danger makes my blood flow, which keeps me comfortably warm.  And it makes me forget about the bump on my head. #sports
Robot camel jockeys Jan 12, 2006
In America, we race horses.  In Qatar (literally pronounced "kuh TAR", told to me by my Qatari friend in college), they race camels.  And instead of making people mad and earning more international criticism by using children as jockeys, they started using robots. No need for a racist comment.  Robots are seriously a great idea.  Bravo, Qataris. #sports
New York Giants Jan 8, 2006
The Giants' season is over after an ugly loss to Carolina.  I have a couple thoughts: 

Everyone keeps saying that Eli Manning is a young quarterback, and that's why he makes mistakes and doesn't do very well.  Did people say the same things about Michael Vick or Ben Roethlisberger?  No.  Why?  Because they were good quarterbacks, and they proved it by the way they played.  I like Eli, but I think people need to stop using the "young quarterback" excuse and let the kid prove himself.  Let's not assume that he'll be good based on family history.  Stupid talking heads. 

My second point is that Eli isn't the only reason the Giants lost.  I feel bad for the guy.  I was a quarterback when I played football (though it's a bit of a stretch to compare midget football to the NFL), and the main reason I didn't have much fun was because I was held responsible for everything.  If a play didn't work, it was my fault.  If there was a fumble, it was my fault (though it usually was my fault).  Instead of blaming Eli, maybe we could blame his sub-par receivers that drop the ball or don't run their routes properly.  Or maybe we can blame Jeremy Shockey for always looking for a flag instead of trying to catch the ball.  Or maybe we can blame Curtis Deloatch, the guy who's responsible for every defensive mistake in every single game.  Or maybe we can blame the offensive line after their 5 (five) false start penalties in a row against my brother-in-law's team, the Seattle Seahawks.  Sure, Eli isn't the best.  But let's not put all the blame on him. 

Oh yeah, and I'm an Eagles fan.  I don't have much to say about them.  They sort of spoke for themselves. #sports