Monday, June 27, 2016

Discing as a numbers man

Yesterday, I got up at 4:30 AM and drove 100+ miles to play in my first disc golf tournament of the year. First of all, the right elbow injury which caused my first event to be this late in the year had NO issues. I did tweak a calf muscle late and cramped my right shoulder changing my shirt in the parking lot after it was over.

Since I was physically and personally unable to play Saturday, I played in the 50+ group as opposed to the Am3 group. Though I had never played the course before, I shot a very good first round and a respectable second round.

How the Professional DISC Golf Association rates tournament and club play is by a number created based on how well the best player(s) that day did and subtracting from that number points for every shot worse than the best player. The amount of points subtracted (anywhere from 6-14) depends on the overall difficulty of the course that day.

My round ratings were 867 and 838 which meant I had by best played event ever. In spite of that I finished 7th out of 10.

The cool thing about ratings is that they can be applied to other events. All I need to do is find the round scores that are closest to my round ratings and that would determine what my game yesterday would have scored there.

In the Am4 division held the day before which I am eligible because my player rating is 819, (best in the world is over 1,050) I would have finished third with the ratings I had yesterday. In what probably is my next event on Aug 13, my ratings from yesterday would have finished third, one shot out of first in Am4 at last year's event.

Though not 100% guaranteed like the time I played Am4 in an event last year where my arm had major issues and I missed cashing by one shot, I expect to cash for the first time at an Illinois Open Series event after not doing so the first 8 times.

I also went to the PDGA site to look at all the 50+ year old players and found the #1 player in Illinois is ranked tied for 21st in the US and my rating puts me in a tie for 881st.

Two women in the 50+ bracket have a better rating than I do but I question one listing as the person is significantly in first, someone who was recently added, and has a first name of James.

Thursday, June 23, 2016

Trolling the whales

On Facebook, there was an article about a high school girl who after being shamed about her weight decided to make shirts supporting those like her with a picture of a whale on it. Not liking that, I stated her energy would have better used elsewhere... (like losing the weight)

Replies to that ranged from wanting me dead to commenting on my Power Puff app profile pic, to posting a pic of me from a couple of years ago where I actually weigh less than I currently do.

I was going to comment and then realized I was wasting my time. Had I referenced the famed whale Shamu which I associate with fat due to the Weird Al song, I could understand the hateful response. This is what I was going to write:

Thank you for stating that I am fat. I know. In Jan 2011, I was approaching 300lb and after a whole lot of effort lost over 50 lb and it stayed off until July 2012 when life caused weight to be added as well as in the winter of 2014 when a hereditary medical condition emerged leaving me off and on in a whole lot of pain for a couple of years.

This March, I finally was able to get a working and stable routine with my medication and with that problem resolved, I have been losing weight again though currently I am nowhere near the point I was 4 years ago.

Anyway, I have to put a whole lot of effort into attempting to resolve my weight situation to get results. If I just accepted who I am like the girl appears to be doing, I could easily end up over 350lb. Every day I need to make an effort for my weight. I keep food for work in a desk at work so I don't eat it at home. Currently, there are Pop Tarts, Fiber One bars, bagels, and potato chips in the desk next to me along with the medication I take to offset the heavy duty medication I use to manage my medical condition and I have to limit myself even on days I get hungry or angry or both.

Less than 100 feet from me are vending machines which can transport a dollar or two into something tasty which can also make my day at work a little less irritable. There are also many situations where complimentary food becomes available and I need to manage what I eat when I decide to eat something, figure out what I can do in its place. When I leave my work, I have to pass about 2 dozen places on my 3.5 mile drive that could provide something I can eat.

Managing my weight takes a lot of effort and to be honest, many times I still take the easy temporary gratification of something I know I should not eat because I am tired or angry or bored. Even on a weekend where I walked 36 miles, I gained 2 pounds due to what I ate at a party on Saturday and before, during, and after the multiple walks I made on Sunday.

Right now some of the law creating representatives of our country are attempting to correct a problem instead of dealing with it. I hope that girl and others like her make the difficult choices I try to make every day and instead of dealing with the weight issue, try to correct it.

Monday, June 20, 2016

A madman might have been walking in your town

Every once in a while my brain defaults to the Van Halen video Right Now which among phrases that are right now, is one stating a madman is walking the streets in your town.

My 42 day work step challenge ended June 19 and the results are in. Here they are from my POV:

Total steps/average per day: 755,760/17,994
Total miles/average per day: 356.3/8.48
Total steps on 29 work days/average: 514,339/17,736
Lowest/highest daily total on work day: 14,074/20,590
Total steps on 13 off days/average: 24,1421/18,571
Lowest/highest daily total on off day: 7,286/42,431
More steps walked per day on days I DIDN'T work: 835

Towns walked from home: 5 (Bensenville, Wood Dale, Itasca, Elk Grove Village, Elmhurst)
Towns walked from place I rode: 4 (Elmhurst, Des Plaines, Mount Prospect, Hobart, IN)
Towns I played disc golf: 7 (Carol Stream, Lombard, Naperville, Elk Grove Village, Hinsdale, Midlothian, Woodridge)
Other towns where I had steps: 5 (Chicago, Stickney, Plainfield, Winfield, Rosemont)

T shirts worn on final day which had a high of 92 and I had 42,431 steps: 5
Pounds gained during the last weekend which I walked 36 miles: 2
Estimated steps not walked on final day since my planned vacation day the one after was needed by my teammate in the company challenge and I could not walk from 10PM to 1159 PM since I had to be at work the next morning at 6AM: 10,000

State highways jaywalked: 5 (IL 19,58,64,83 IN 51)
US highways jaywalked: 3 (12,14,20)
Times illegally crossed railroad tracks: 3
Value of items lost during challenge by wearing gym shorts instead of jeans shorts with decent pockets because I had chaffing issues: $100

Trailers either loaded or unloaded during that time: 20
Steps I take while driving a power jack or a 4 ton forklift while moving that material: 0
Number of times I had to stop while driving a power jack or 4 ton forklift for people who were walking in the warehouse area in an attempt to get more steps: 11

Place in company challenge out of 135 people: 11
Others in top 17 I would have been able to pick out of a police lineup on the date the contest started: 0
Coworkers in Illinois who had more steps than me: 4
People out of about 50 in the building I work who had more steps than me: 0
Steps/miles ahead of second place in my building: 58,281/27.6
Steps/miles ahead of highest placing person I personally knew on the date the contest started: 87,803/41.2

Different people who won gift card: 13
Additional number of steps/miles I would have needed to win: 184,845/87.5
Additional number of steps/miles my "team" would have needed to win: 303,984/143.9
Number of people with more steps than me who did not win anything: 3
Hours wasted for a contest whose prizes reward those who are fit instead of encouraging those who (like me) are not: Too many to figure out as I have already wasted way too much time, energy and effort in the contest and for this post.

Pedometers smashed with a sledge hammer: 1

Wednesday, May 11, 2016

50-40

Yesterday, I went to my doctor who wanted to see me after the results of the multiple blood tests I took because I am now 50. She noticed that I am borderline on many things (still NOT diabetic) but nothing that would require me to take any additional medication.

Then it was time to address the white elephant but to be honest it was more a white Penguin/Cat combo as I was wearing my Bill and Opus for president in 2016 shirt. Though I was 2lb lighter than I was three months previously, I was still medically extremely obese as my BMI was over 40.

I told her I know my weight divided by 6.97 is by BMI which is 40.45. The doctor, impressed by my math skills, asked why am I doing what I am doing and not something like curing cancer?

I felt obligated to explain to the female of Asian descent that because my knowledge is so biased in math and science and I could not stand written fiction, my GPA would not allow me to get a college scholarship unless I provided something special to the school. Her face turned when I explained that meant I am a white male.

I then explained that even though I could do integral calculus in my head and knew 95% of the atomic table when I walked onto the campus of the Illinois Institute of Technology in August 1983, I did not know how to masturbate. All the awkward moments teenage boys go through in high school and earlier I started to have about the time I legally became an adult and the college world is not really a place for that. I then talked about how I tried to do what others said I should but to be honest, I was not socially ready at that time.

The doctor brought the subject back to my weight asking what could fix it knowing that if my weight was 1/4 lower, many of my current issues would be a whole lot better. Of course my first thought was eliminating a couple hundred pounds of burden.

I stated that I know my wife is real stupid because she married me and then tried without too many details to explain why I find myself a very disturbed individual. As a coworker once recently suggested, there are things I believe which I know if stated would get others angry with me without providing any benefit to anyone. In the past, I have stated a couple of ideas only to find that someone I know and care about would have their current or past significantly altered if my ideas were incorporated. The conversation even got dark after explaining how I got stuck in my situation but lack the courage to change it though I know many ways to get unstuck.

By the time I was done, I felt like my doctor was deciding if she should call police, the hospital or even the "men in white coats" and I did not even get to talking about the chain of ignorance she prominently displays.

Anyway, she wanted me to see a nutritionist. I stated that I know what foods I should eat and that I am fat because I eat things that make me happy forgetting for a short time the long term effect of my intake.

She then suggested what I associate as a "fat doctor". I know there is a name but like calling the grain quin-o-a, I am going to say fat doctor. Deal with it. Apparently, they do more than surgically reduce a person's intake.

As I left the building, I did not immediately throw the referral in the garbage.

Monday, May 9, 2016

"Home field" playoff games

Many times over the years a team in the playoffs ends up being the "home team" due to timing or luck and many times that has changed sports history.

10) Super Bowl 14 and 19

Twice a team has played the game (which is determined years in advance) in its own metropolitan area. The LA Rams gave the Steelers a game in #14 and 49ers coach Bill Walsh stated playing #19 at Stanford University Stadium made pregame preparations feel like a home game.

Both times the team with the better regular season won the title including the one loss champ who came closest to a 19-0 season.

9) 2008 AL Central playoff

The White Sox hosted the Twins in a one game playoff for the division title because of a coin flip. What made home field so important was that 17 of the 18 regular season games they played were won by the home team with the Twins winning the one road game.

The winning White Sox playing the game hurt the team in the Division series since it had to use its best pitcher in the playoff game.

8) 1972 AFC Championship game

The Steelers hosted the undefeated Dolphins because that is how the yearly home team rotation worked.

Though the Dolphins won the game, the NFL a few years later adapted the rule allowing teams with the better record to host the home playoff game.

7) Super Bowl 48

The NFL decided to play a Super Bowl outdoors in a cold weather city so Met Life Stadium (home of the Jets and Giants) was chosen.

Peyton Manning returned from surgery and was league MVP though he struggled near the end in Denver with the weather.

Seattle is a turf team that prefers bad weather in an outdoor game and it led to the blowout.

6) 1997 MLB playoffs

The rotation of home field advantage in MLB was changed to better record after 4 of the six series to determine the pennants were hosted by the team with fewer wins.

5) The Big 8 champ vs Florida teams in the Orange Bowl

Until the BCS, the Big 8 champ (later Big 12) always played in the Orange Bowl against a team that did not win the SEC, Big 10, PAC 10, or when it existed SWC.

Many of those games that determined the national champion were against Florida State or the University of Miami which played home games in the Orange Bowl Stadium.

Most of the Big 8 teams played home games on a fast artificial turf field while the Orange Bowl surface after grass replaced artificial turf in 1975 was slow.

4) 1954 World Series

Home field flips between NL and AL. I referenced game 1 in a prior post.

http://notnormalworld.blogspot.com/2015/05/lose-is-four-letter-word.html

That game lead to a Giants sweep over a team that won 114 regular season games.

3) 1984 NLCS

Due to the year the Padres hosted the Cubs and the home team won all 5 games allowing the Padres who won fewer regular season games to win the pennant.

2) 1987 Minnesota Twins

Four AL East teams and four NL teams won more games in 1987 than the 85 the Twins won but due to rotation the Twins had home field advantage in the World Series.

The Twins won every home game while losing all road games to win their first title.

1) 1967 NFL Western Conference Championship

In the first year the NFL had 4 divisions, the Green Bay Packers who finished 9-4-1 hosted the LA Rams who went 11-1-2 because home teams was on a rotational basis.

The Packers winning that game led to the Ice Bowl league championship game the following week.

No doubt the Colts 11-1-2 record is the best record of a non playoff team in league history as it lost a tiebreaker to the Rams to determine the Costal Division champion.

Monday, April 4, 2016

Nocturnal injuries

A week ago Sunday, woke up, rolled over, and felt pain under right shoulder. Since I played on Friday and practiced on Saturday without taking medicine due to being at my mom's, can understand.

Last Sunday, woke at 5:30 from a dream where I was playing football and my right knee was throbbing with my right leg up off the couch. In spite of ice and medicine, pain did not stop. The next morning, the discomfort was located on the inside of the knee meaning I sprained my MCL.

While powering through work the day needing to get things done, was asked about seeing a doctor. I stated what would happen:

I walk in, pay copay.
Explain what happened to nurse and doctor both whom would find unusual and that since I tweaked my shoulder the week before did not play or practice which could lead to an injury.
Wince in pain as doctor examines leg and puts pressure where it hurts.
Go for x-ray with note excusing work the rest of the week.
Toss note in garbage then power through balance of work week maybe taking Thursday and or Friday off.

Would also state doing that saves copay.

Wednesday, March 23, 2016

Mom, don't read this.

Though I don't miss casting most Thursday nights since the second computer over a 14 month period died last June, this one is an exception. During the first year, I tried to get my mom to listen to my show and one time while on the phone with her, I told her to not listen. Of course she tuned in and then informed anyone in her family what I play on my show.

So every year on that week, I played a "mom, don't listen" show featuring the most offensive and religiously inappropriate material I have. Though I can't cast, this is what I would play if I could:

What Your Parents Think (All your music sounds like) live at Marscon 2008 - Worm Quartet
Urban Dictionary - Dino Mike
That Doesn't Make Sense - Whitney Avalon
Sex Rhymes - Schäeffer the Darklord
Altar Boy - Seamonkey
The Loophole - Garfunkel and Oates
Hasa Diga Eebowai - The Cast of the Book of Mormon
Night of the Living Christ - Schäeffer the Darklord
The Rabbit Song - Worm Quartet
Unexpecting the Expected - Dino Mike
The World is Made of ... - Carrie Dahlby
Asshole - Dennis Leary
Atheism - The Awful Show
The Here and Now - Tom Smith