Vengeance

Illinois 68, North Carolina 64

The Illini are the new National Champions!

Okay, so maybe not. Maybe this game wasn't on Monday April 5, 2005 in St. Louis. Maybe Deron Williams, Luther Head, Raymond Felton, Rashad McCants, Sean May, and Marvin Williams are all millionaires in the NBA now. And maybe North Carolina was unranked coming into the game. But, it was a legitimate win for a young team that may be on the verge of something great. But, it was a win in Chapel Hill, right in the heart of Tobacco Road against one of the 2 marquee ACC schools. But, when North Carolina gels a little more and starts to roll, this will look much better on the resume than it does now.

I like how this squad moves at times. Our young guards are willing to move the ball and pass. They will look to get the ball inside. Our bigs are pretty active on the glass, and actually seem to be willing to bang on the inside. Randle seems to be back better than ever - makes you wonder how last year would have looked if he hadn't broken his hand. Dee can still fly up and down faster than anyone else on the court. Rich looks more active on offense. And I've liked Jamar Smith's game so far. He has a really pure jumper. Love the release - high and with a great follow-through.

But, we're young. The young guys still look around a little too much, expecting Dee to make something happen. Our bigs are still inconsistent on offense. And I'm wondering if we'll only have 2 big men all season. We really need either Warren to get into the flow of the offense (and stop looking lost), or Marcus Arnold to start playing for real. Ideally, both happens. And with Jamar, he missed a tough front end that could have iced the game. Happily, we pulled the game out, so he gets a learning experience that didn't cost the team.

Where I'm a little afraid is actually with Dee Brown. He's done a nice job carrying the load by himself a lot. He's good on D and in transition. And he does a nice job of passing off the dribble, both with the drive and drop or the drive and kick out. I love how tough he is, and I love how much heart he has. But when things slow down Dee still has some issues with running a half-court offense (namely not being able to make entry passes). It's scary, sometimes. I don't know if I've seen him make a successful lob entry this season. And more and more, I don't see Auggie fighting for position when Dee has the ball on his side. I hate to say this, but I think that Dee is hurting his NBA stock, and playing himself out of the first round. I just hope that I'm wrong.

As for my past critical comments on Bruce? Still under review. He seems to do a great job preparing the team before the game, and between halves. It just seems that we have stretches where the other team catches on, and we dont change it up quickly enough to prevent a run. And my point isn't that he isn't a good coach. Really, aside from Mike Davis and whoever's unlucky enough to be at Penn St., there are no bad coaches in the Big Ten. My point has always been that he hasn't shown that he's an elite coach. But giving credit where it is due - his record at Illinois is 69-9, and something like 56-4 (North Carolina, Ohio. St., Duke, and Wisconsin, all either on the road or neutral site) since we started out 3-3 in the Big Ten in his first season and he had his Bill Self funeral.

This team has a lot of room to grow up. This isn't the team from last year. Last year, after watching the first 8 minutes of the Gonzaga game, I was making calls across the country telling people that we were the best team in the country, without a doubt. This isn't the team that I predicted was going to destroy then-#1 Wake Forest when they came to visit. This is a team that will do well, end up being one of the top 16 teams in the country. As for where in the top 16? I have no idea. I'm not sure if we are quite as good as Duke, UConn, Michigan St., or Texas. But I think that we can give any of those guys a run, if we come together and have some of the young guys develop more.

As far as a prediction goes let's be cautiously optimistic. How about 25-5 in the regular season (losses at Oregon, at Indiana, at Ohio St., at Wisconsin, and at Michigan St.) and 12-4 in the Big Ten, good for a share of the title. Runner up to Michigan St. in the Big Ten tourney, and make it to the Sweet 16. I'm probably a little optimistic about the regular season, but I think that there's a chance that we could be a little better than this in the tourney. Who knows? It'll be a fun ride, though.

-Chairman

Whipping Boys

Okay. Real quick this time. Normally, I don't like kickers. One of my favorite sayings is, "never trust something that bleeds for 4 days and doesn't die." But that's neither here nor there. Another one of my favorite sayings is, "never trust a kicker." Kickers rarely get glory (Adam Vinatieri, aside), but will often get crucified if they miss an important kick (see Scott Norwood, and FSU Wide Right I, II, III, and IV).

Yesterday, Jay Feely missed 3 figgies late in the game for the NY Giants in their very important game against the Seattle Seahawks. Each of those could have been game winning kicks. Instead, the Giants lost 24-21 in overtime. Today, Feely is being grilled, justly so.

What annoys me is that Giants coach Tom Coughlin is getting a free pass. He had just as much to do with this loss as Feely did. The first field goal attempt, a 40 yard miss at the end of regulation was easily Feely's worst. Where I have an issue is with Coughlin taking the foot off of the pedal of the offense. There was a lot of time left on the clock when he stopped playing offense. With 55 seconds, the Giants had 1st and 10 at the Seattle 31. Coughlin was content to just run the ball. His offense had been shredding the Seattle defense that entire drive and the previous drive, as well. There was time to move the ball further and take a couple shots at the end zone. I'm screaming at the TV, "GO! You have them on their heels!" Instead, 2 runs get 9 yards, eat up all the clock, and you send in you kicker on 3rd down.

Later in OT, Coughlin goes the other way. Even knowing that he has a shaky kicker, once the Giants get in FG range, they don't try to run the ball to make it an easier kick. Instead, they go pass crazy, and throw. The Giants have 2nd and 15 from the Seattle 36. That's a 53 yard kick, which is really hard. I'm screaming at my TV, "Run! Run! Get some yards for your kicker!" Do you a) try to throw twice and hope to get a 1st down, or b) run the ball twice, try to get 6 yards for your kicker, and maybe even have Tiki bust one? Coughlin went with a) and got no yards. Feely never had a chance on the kick.

Later still in OT, Tiki busts a big one to the Seattle 31. Take a shot with a pass on 1st down, and miss. No big deal. Run Tiki on 2nd down. 4 yards, 3rd and 6. Now, knowing that you have a shaky kicker, do you a) throw and hope to get a 1st down, or b) run the ball, try to get 4 yards for your kicker, and maybe even have Tiki bust one (which would have been a real possibility)? Nope. Pass again. Feely misses. Seattle marches down and wins.

Coughlin didn't trust Tiki Barber enough, he trusted Eli Manning too much. And he left his kicker out to dry. Sure, Feely missed the kicks. But he wasn't getting a whole lot of help from his coach. Oh well. At least I'm not a Giants fan. Go Bengals!

-Chairman

I'm Supposed to be Smart, or Something...

I was just thinking about things like my future, how I live up to expectations, and what I want to be when I grow up, and how money fits into all of this.

Right now, I am a 2nd year PhD student here in the middle of Illinois, studying Marketing in the business college. I work quite a bit, since I still have classes to go along with my research. My income is low 20's, I drive a 10 year old Altima, and I share an apartment with a roommate. I more or less tithe, as I'm able to contribute to non-for-profits, but I'm not sure if I really make a difference with that money. I don't really know how everything works. But I don't really feel particularly brilliant, nor do I feel particularly wealthy. And that's good, because I'm not, and I'm not.

I like how I live. It's simple. My biggest splurge is eating out. I have nice clothes, but I'm not too worried about spending money on that. My car is beat up, but it drives fine, so I'm cool with that. I don't have a ton of other bills to worry about. I don't get to save a whole lot, but I do save some money. I've got a growing Roth IRA portfolio, which provides a nice security blanket. I honestly think that I could be happy living like this for a while.

And then I think about the future.

The U.S. census suggests that around 1% of the people in this country have a doctorate. That should mean that I'm smart. I've also heard that the average starting salary for a professor in marketing is something like $120,000. Yikes. That would make me rich, or something. I thinks that this means that I'm supposed to become particularly smart and particularly wealthy.

Looking around, it seems that business professors drive pretty nice cars. Lots of SUV's and BMW's and other acronymed vehicles. Those would seem to cost more than my Altima. Professors seem to travel to a lot of nice places. And it seems that professors have to live in nice houses or condos. And I think that they tend to live with themselves, unless they're married. I have a hard time seeing myself being able to contribute anything close to a true tithe with that income, as I'm having a hard time seeing the value of it now, much less at a price point 5.5x higher than it currently is. I think that prospect of wealth is working together with the prospect of making me more cynical.

The other thing that worries me is the lifestyle. Professors are always working. Breaks in class aren't time to relax, but rather a good time to get research done. Weekends don't really exist. They are also very "lone wolf-ish." You do your research. Other people do their research. Sometimes the goals intersect, but often, they don't. I've heard that it's a lonely life. It also sounds exhausting. I think that I can do it for a while. And knowing me, I'll try to do things my way. Maybe I can pull it off. Maybe I can't.

I almost wish that things could just stay this way. Minus the classes. And with a little more money. And a nicer car. And... well, maybe I don't wish that things could stay this way.

Beats me.

-Chairman

While We're at it...

... just another thought before I turned in for the night.

Maybe I can stop leaving my computer and printer on all the time... well, maybe I can stop leaving both my desktop and laptop on all the time. A PC and printer will run between 115W and 185W (give or take, depending on your system and components). Just for reference, leaving something continually on that is using 1W, will result in 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, or 8.76KWH per year. Remembering that I pay something like $.074/KWH for my power, that adds up to $97.24 per year that I pay to leave my desktop on all the time. Let's say that I'm on the desktop for an hour a day, and that means that I'm essentially wasting $93 per year by leaving the dumb thing on.

And my laptop runs 72W all the time, too... maybe I can just deal with the extra 2 minutes it takes for it to load up... Hmmm... so power is sort of expensive. Thankfully, water is cheaper - something like $0.01 for 3.75 gallons of water. (http://www.illinoisamerican.com/awpr1/ilaw/pdf/rates_champaign_2005.pdf ). I think that I'll just go turn off my computer and start running all of my faucets all day. My kitchen faucet takes about 44 seconds to fill up a gallon container. That means that it takes me 2.75 minutes to use up $.01 worth of water. This is about 22 cents an hour... nevermind. I'm going to bed.

-Chairman

A Light Bulb Just Went Off in My Head

You know - it's amusing when you just realize that certain days weren't meant for work. For myself, those days are easy. They are generally the days that start with consonants. For the days that start with vowels, I'm all gung ho about doing work. Maybe it's just coincidence. But maybe something more sinister is at work.

So, during this day of non-work, I was just thinking about ways to save a buck, ways to help slow the increasing size of our ecological footprints. One thing came to mind quickly. Doing a little work around the house can really help. Things like making sure that your air filters are clean and closing the air vents to rooms that you don't use regularly are sort of obvious. Today, we also bought some of those window insulation kits that are really Saran Wrap and tape. Two of our windows got closed up, so that should help the cause, as well. But the one little change that I want to make a case for is with the long-life, energy-saver light bulbs.

Really, they're just like mini-flourescent light bulbs that fit into normal light fixtures. They're guaranteed to last 5 years. Let's take a peek into this:

If you buy a 3-pack of these bulbs out at Wal-Mart, you spend about $2.70 per bulb. A regular light bulb costs you about $0.20. So, right off the bat, you see that these bulbs cost 13.5 times more than regular light bulbs. Can you ever justify this purchase?

Well, first of all, you see that you'll have this bulb for at least 5 years. For them to make this guarantee, you have to figure that the average bulb will last something like 7 years (if you're interested in the stats behind this outrageous claim, I'm just ballparking a break-even figure with a 95% confidence interval, an exponential distribution for defects, and 20% rate of return on defective parts). Based on casual observation, it seems that normal light bulbs wear out every 5 or 6 months. Let's just say that it's 6 months. This means you're looking at using 10 - 14 regular bulbs for each of these fancy mini-flourescent bulbs. Let's just use 10 bulbs, since that's what guaranteed. That means that this is the same as buying $2.00 worth of light bulbs. So, you're getting close. But you have more of an upfront cost - you're paying for everything up front. If you have a simple 5% discount yield (too lazy to use the rate), you could save another $.35 or so in the long run.

How long will it take for you to save $.90 using this light bulb? We'll use a 100W light bulb as our reference point. Let's say that each light bulb is on for 2 hours a days. Most of the lights in my apartment are on more, some are on less, but let's keep it conservative. Anyway, that's .2KWH per day, or about 6 KWH per month. Right now, I'm averaging about $0.074/KWH on my energy bill (https://www2.ameren.com/ACMSContent/Rates/Rates_ipel13rtSC2.pdf ). So, I spend about $0.444 per month for each light bulb. Over the course of a year, that's $5.32 per year. Now, what's interesting is the number of light bulbs you have in an apartment. A quick count in my little place reveals 24 light bulbs. That's a cost of $127.68 per year with normal light bulbs. Now, there's about a 4 to 1 ratio for the actual watts used by these energy saver light bulbs. Basically, this is a 75% discount in power cots for switching to the energy saver, long life bulbs. This adds up to $4.30 per light bulb, or about $95 per year for the entire apartment.

And keep in mind, this is using a very conservative estimate. The bulb cost could be as much as $1 off. And the energy cost could be off by as much as a factor of 2.5 (depending on how many hours you ordinarily leave your lights on). So really, you could be saving as much as $10.75 per year for each light bulb by making the change.

So, we see that you save a few bucks by making the change. What does this do for our ecological footprint? The EPA suggests that 1 KWH is equal to burning 1 pound of coal, or the production of 2 pounds of carbon dioxide (http://www.cogreenpower.org/EnvBen.htm ). Each light bulb runs at a 75% lower wattage than normal light bulbs. So, if a 100W normal bulb is on for 2 hours a day for 365 days, that's 36.5KWH that is used on that light bulb. Our energy saver light bulbs would only actually use 9.125KWH, for a savings of27.375KWH per year. If I were to switch 20 bulbs over to these energy saver bulbs, that would be 547KWH saved. That would be like removing the pollution from 1400 mile drive , or making the round trip from Urbana to downtown Chicago 5 times (http://www.mapquest.com ).

Interesting, huh?

Don't worry. We'll be back to talking about drinking, gambling, women, sports, and the brutal nature of the PhD program soon enough.

-Chairman

Thanksgiving

My week has been inspiring. No work. No productivity. Though, to be fair, I've been sick, so I've been more or less just getting healthy and getting my life back in order. And it's not really true when I say that I haven't been productive. I've cleaned the apartment, I've organized my office, and I've done some PM on my computers. I just haven't done any research or work for my classes. So, tomorrow is the start of getting back on the horse. At least in theory.

Thanksgiving was nice and relaxed for me. No travel. Just hanging out, watching bad football, and cooking up a nice meal. Decided to mix it up again this year. In the past, I've done a big Thanksgiving turkey dinner w/some traditional sides. Turkey, stuffing, gravy, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, corn casserole, cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie, the whole 9 yards. And after I didn't need to feed a whole group of people, I switched over to making rib roasts for Thanksgiving. Basically, it ended up being me versus a 3 pound bone-in ribeye, cooked a nice medium rare.

This year, I decided to switch it up again. Osso Bucco. Slow braised beef shanks. Pretty good stuff. As it cooked, it made this incredible sauce. I also made a pretty simple sourdough dressing w/ sausage, onion, and celery to accompany it. Dessert this year was a pumpkin bread pudding, with some white and milk chocolate in there to mix it up. And the best part? All-day food coma. This will probably get a full writeup over on my food blog, which I'll be firing up soon.

So what am I thankful for this year?

-Having a great family.
-My old friends.
-Meeting new friends.
-Making the transition from 204 to 116.
-Having a car that doesn't seem to ever die.
-Continuing to survive the PhD program.
-My relatively good health.
-Being able to still play sports.
-Being able to cook a great meal.
-Getting better at the things that I like to do.

Anyway, it's off to bed for now. Back to work tomorrow.

-Chairman

Moving Across Town

I think that I'll be trying to move across town, from Xanga to Blogspot, to see how it goes.

It seems that this is where to cool kids play... we'll see

-Chairman

Matthew 28:19

You Don't Know What You've Got Until It's Gone

Not me, for once. I'm sad to report that I've been missing the show on the Quad for the last few days. We've had the return of the fundamentalist Christian fanatics. Back in the day, it was Mad Max. Then there was some other dude, Preacher Dan, I think. And now, apparently, we have this hillbilly family that's coming into the big city (yeah, I mean Champaign-Urbana) to tell us all that we're going to Hell. Not just the gays, or the Jews or the Muslims, or the immoral. But all of us. Even the new-age evangelical.

I'm not saying that they're wrong. I'm not even saying that their delivery is off. And I'm not even saying that... well... hmmm. I think that they may be on to something. Maybe this whole teaching on God's love paradigm isn't working. Maybe Hell, fire, and brimstone is making a comeback. I mean, retro is cool, isn't it? This is totally retro. Hello, Dante. Goodbye, Billy Graham.

Here's the thing. These guys have an interesting position. They're not saying, "Repent, for God loves you." They're not even saying, "Repent, for the end is near." They're saying, "You're on the losing team. Suckers." Instead of wasting all this energy trying to get people "saved," they're simply happy that they're on the winning team. Think of it as gloating. Or an end zone celebration.

There May Not Be A "ME" In "Team," But There's An "I" In "Win."

That may be why I've sort of liked these kooks in the past. They're sort of happy that they're on the winning team, and they're letting you know that you're on the losing team. Kind of like my guy, Chad Johnson. What better way to celebrate a victory than Riverdancing in front of the losing team and their fans? How cool was it when Terrell Owens pulled that Sharpie out of his sock and autographed that ball after he scored a touchdown? Or when he posed twice on the Dallas star?

And maybe that's the sort of message that will finally reach people in this modern age. I mean, how much of a bandwagon effect do you see out there? A huge one. How many White Sox fans were there in early September, when they were on the verge of an all-time collapse? And how many were there in late October? Exactly. So could it be that to really get people to believe in the God message (or at least ponder it), that you need to show that you're on the winning team? And what better way to show that than to tell people that they're on the losing team? I can't think of one, either.

Here's the thing. These bold, borderline insane Quad preachers are probably considered by most to be extreme. But really, what's wrong with just being extreme? And you may say that they're message is too harsh. But I don't think that they're saying that everyone else is bound for Hell, with no alternative. How do you think that they would respond to someone who sincerely asked, "I've led a sinful life. What must I do to be saved?" I have a suspicion that they are actually giving a pretty standard message. I think that they're just giving the same message a different tone. And I wonder how much people have watered down the perceived nature of God by not offering a true reflection of the justice and wrath of God?

What bothers me is that our evangelical "Christians" go off and label these folks as wackos who are setting back their agenda by years. I really don't think that's the case at all. In fact, I would be awfuly curious to see, percentage-wise, the "hit rate" of Quad preachers like these guys versus the church at large. Let's get to it. How many converts will these guys win? One a year? Two? But if there's only 4 of these guys, that's a pretty good hit rate. Think of it this way. Even if they only get 1 convert a year, from the efforts of these 4, how does that compare to the efforts of a campus church. Rather favorably, I'd imagine. First of all, a church of 100 people would need to get 25 new converts per year. And if you factor in the time that is spent in God's name to win one of these converts? I think that it favors the Quad preachers even more.

And it gets more interesting. I have a suspicion that the converts that these guys get would be more devoted and pious than the typical convert that you would get in a normal church. What's the attrition rate in the church? What's the level of devotion that you see? How would you characterize the level of devotion of one of these Quad preachers? What would you expect from one of their converts who become disciples? After 3 years, how would the hit rates compare?

Overall, here's my best guess. If you believe that God has a plan for this world, and part of it includes reaching the non-believeing, then you have to figure out how to reach them. Different messages work in different settings on different people. I think that with something like, say, Intelligent Design, you offend as many people as you do with crazy Quad Preachers. But here's the thing. You'll likely offend different people. And at the same time, you'll ring true with different people. It seems that people want to treat the evangelistic method as a cookie-cutter. Something where you have a "best-practice." I don't think that's how it works.

I think that the Uzi method works best as a first cut. Lots of different approaches from lots of different people to a lot of different targets. And after you get a hit, you can then go in with a more precise weapon. Like a tack hammer.

Anyway, it's bedtime. So, next time you see a Quad preacher, rather than just shake your head in disgust, or try to argue that you're not going to Hell, or whatever, how about just asking them sincerely how you can be saved. Then you can figure out if they're a kook, or they're just using a different style to say the same message. Or, you can just make fun of them for dressing funny.

-Chairman

The Four Horsemen Of The Apocalypse

Alright. So check this out. We're thinking about having "Alias Night" out at the bars. Not like the TV show, though if we could get a non-pregnant Jennifer Garner in a skimpy outfit, I would be swayed. But rather a night where we use aliases all night. And they have to be ridiculous ones. For example, our buddy Marten has been using "Patrick Fitzpatrick", which we've modified to "The Fitz." Who the hell is actually named Patrick Fitzpatrick? Even better, he's from Norway, so we love the confused looks when people ask him if he's Irish.

I think that given our target audience (hot, young, naive/dimwitted undergrad girls), I think that we can do this with 80's, or even early 90's references. Chatting with CJ about this, we agreed that this would be awesome. As of now, we've settled on "Rick Springfield" for CJ. That' the dude that sang "Jesse's Girl." We still need to run this by him, but I think that Erik will make a good "Michael Knight," of Knight Rider fame. The problem is, I'm not quite sure what will be good for me. It's tough to go Asian and cheesy 80's. I don't know if we can pull off something like "Bruce Lee." That would be too obvious, wouldn't it? Perhaps "Brandon Lee?" Maybe we need to go something less 80's? "Jack Chan?" Or maybe something from a video game, like "Edmund Honda" or slightly modified like "Shane Tsung?" Or perhaps go Hispanic?

Anyone out there have any ideas?

I'm getting exciting just thinking about Alias Night.

-Chairman

Update:

The prospect of an Alias Bar Crawl has also had mixed reviews as a way to hit on women. Basically, it's a simple way to get a conversation opened up. Problem - many of our young, dimwitted undergrads don't know much about the 80's, and just feel dumb when you ask them what they would be for this bar crawl. Maybe some refinement?

-Chairman

Damocles Can Have His Sword Back...

So I got the results from my lastest paper. And I passed. This is quite the burden removed from my shoulders. See, we don't have qualifying exams. We do two papers, one after each of the first two years in the program. People can fail these things. They will get an attempt to revise the papers. And most people will pass on the 2nd attempt. But some don't. And then they're asked to leave the program, and get a MS in marketing for their troubles.

So, I had the task of getting this paper churned out, starting in September. It was due at the end of October. Two months to make the first real hurdle of the PhD program. It wasn't exactly smooth sailing. I also had classes to deal with while I was taking care of this. It wasn't a pretty sight for most of the time. But somehow, I managed to pass. Which means, that for the first time since the start of school, I feel caught up. Damn skippy.
But for now? I'm taking a nap.

-Chairman

Dude, where's your car?

I was just thinking about how strung out I was a few weeks ago. And how I forgot to mention of the all-time funniest exchanges (in my mind, anyway).

So it was a few Wednesdays ago. Right before OD's wedding in Texas. I was getting pretty tired from all the work that I had to churn out. I normally have to be at the Principles of Marketing class that I TA from 1:30 until 3, and then I have class from 6 to 9 at night. What I usually do is take the 1:10 bus to campus, take a bus home, and then drive back for night class, since parking is free after 5. I had pulled a late night work session for my papers the night before, and I had worked until 9 in the morning to get the section churned out that I needed. I figured that I had time for a 3 hour nap before class. So, at 9:30, I go to sleep, and I end up oversleeping. I don't get up until 1:10, so I had to hustle just to get dressed in time to drive to class. I find a place to park, and pump the meter with enough to last me until 3:15.

So I sit through class, and realize that I was zoned out. I knew that I still had to read through like 5 articles for class that night. So, I walk out of class tired, just ready to go home and push the next few hours. And I do what I always do after class on Wednesday afternoon. I walk through the library and jump on a bus and got home.

I fire up the laptop and I'm reading some articles in my room (on my very nice park bench, I might add) when CJ comes home. He hears me in my room, so he comes over and asks, "Dude, where's your car?" All we needed was Ashton Kutcher.

As soon as he gets to "Dude..." I just start laughing. I knew what he was going to ask, and I knew that I was a moron. My car was still on campus. And I had to get back to class that night. How ridiculous is that? I was so tired that I forgot that I drove to class. I'm laughing hysterically, and I'm just amazed at how scatterbrained I had gotten. CJ was nice enough to give me a ride out to the post office and then to class, where I discovered that I had gotten a very nice ticket from the parking Gestapo. Oh well.

Then and Now

So things have gotten a little better. I'm done with the papers for now. I'm going to figure out a topic for a final paper, and that's really about it for the semester. The final paper's going to be tough, but that's par for the course. And it's for a class, so I'm not too terribly concerned. I'm already looking forward to Thanksgiving Break and Winter Break. I'm hoping to churn out enough of the paper so that I can actually have a nice Thanksgiving Break. And I'm wanting to get to Winter Break so I can actually get ahead on the papers and research that I need to churn out for my conferences in the spring.

Physical Goals

I'm liking hitting the gym again. I'm back on the 3-4 times a week schedule. And I've expanded the workout to include the abs a little more. Interestingly, I was able to churn out a set of 8 reps at 187 on the incline bench toward the end of the workout. Which is interesting because it was the first time I had done incline in ages. I think that we'll work in some bench exercises, mainly for CJ. I don't really need to build mass. I just need to shed 20 pounds of fat. And then shed another 20 pounds of fat. And then... you get the picture.

The body feels good, and I think that I'm getting a little more go back in the system. Which is the ultimate goal. I need to build the body up so that I can be more resilient to stressful times. I was great at that for so many years. I need to get back there fast.

Anyway, until next time.

-Chairman

Commitment to Excellence

This weekend was much needed. Not much work. Had some fun. And got some of the little things in my life back in order... and here I am.

Al Davis had it right. You need to commit to something to really excel. Over the last few weeks, I had let much of the momentum that I had picked up from August and early September fade. I got myself too deep into school again. And I found myself eating poorly, not working out, and just missing out on life happening all around me. I had that paper due on the 31st, and it finally got done. This past week has been me picking up some of the pieces, sweeping up the mess that I had made, and cleaning up. Hopefully, we'll be able to keep up the momentum until the end of the semester.

So, my room is actually reasonably clean for the first time in a few weeks. The apartment looks pretty nice, as well. I'm about halfway through cleaning and organizing the office, but there are a ton of papers that need to be filed. I think that things are getting back under control on the home front. I even spent some time today making a big pot of chili that I'll be eating for the next few days. I think that I'm going to be cooking more over the next couple weeks. Can't beat that with a stick.

CJ and I hit the gym today for the first itme in a few weeks as well. It felt good. Usual routine, plus a couple new twists. I feel a little stiff already, so that means that we worked it well. I think that I'm going to start back up with the jumprope. I need to get the legs back somehow. I was just plain slow during flag football. A few years ago, I was actually able to make some things happen with my legs. Not this year. I haven't been this slow in a while. I've also brought back my stretching routine from high school. I used to stretch every night before I went to bed. It helped a ton with my flexibility and my recovery time. For the rest of the semester, I'm on the 3-4 times a week schedule. No exceptions.

Where to go now?

This has been a recurring theme, but where to go to get my spiritual community is a question that's been floating around for what seems like forever. I was ready to jump back into an I-Team this fall. But we hit some bumps early on. One of my classes got shifted to Wednesday night, so I was left with really only 2 realistic opportunities for I-Teams. And one of them ended up disbanding. Which left me with really only a single I-Team option. And I'm not quite sure if that's what I'm looking for. It's strange. I went to this I-Team for 3 weeks in early October. I've missed the last couple weeks as things got crazy for me with school. It was okay when I was there - it wasn't obviously the perfect fit for me, but it seemed to be perfectly fine. It wasn't like instant bonding with the guys there, but how often does that happen? But the last few weeks, when I haven't been there, I haven't really missed it. I don't know. I like to think that there's something out there for me that is the right fit. I just haven't really gotten there, yet.

Oh well.

Anyway, a few tidbits for you - you still haven't gotten the rest of my interesting trip down to San Antonio, and this past weekend had some fun moments that are worth mentioning. But for now, it's bedtime, followed by getting back to work.

-Chairman