I have season tickets to the Eskies. For those of you that aren't familiar with the CFL, its pretty much the same as the NFL with the following exceptions:
- 3 downs.
- No fair catch rule
- Bigger fields (110 yards long, much wider)
- Bigger Balls (actually our balls are much larger, also, pun intended).
- Recievers and Running backs can be in foreward motion before snap.
- You can return a missed field goal.
- Field goal posts are @ the goal line.
The bottom line is that there's more passing, the game is quicker, and its much more entertaining to watch. It may not have the big name players, but I feel its a less boring game to watch.
Anyways, back on topic.
Our local team, the Eskimos, has the the league's leading passing yards quarterback and reciever, also we have a running back with 1300-1400 yards, with one game to go. It boils down to the simple fact we have a yards productive offense, but a generally "unreliable in key situations" quarterback. Yeah, I said it. Ricky Ray is unreliable. I've seen 10 games this season in person. I can count on one hand his good games, games where he didn't self destruct and hope to hell the defense kept it close.
To make matters worse, the coach seems handcuffed to keeping Ray in all the time. We have essentially 3 starter-quality quarterbacks. Our second string is Jason Maas. I've seen him "bullet" pass over 50 yards. The guy has a crazy arm, and can thread it. Our third string is Jared Zabransky. If the name sounds familiar, he's the Boise State quarterback that pulled off that massive upset in (I think) the Tostita Bowl with a massive trick/fake play. He got the opportunity to play a quarter in a preseason game, and tore it up.
So, essentially, we're hanging on by a thread to make the playoffs. We've lost many games this season because, quite simply, Ray couldn't get the offense going.
Well, we'll see if Ray blows it next week. Its sad really. For whatever reason, the upper leadership (not the coach) and the media paint Ray as a complete saint, not being able to make any sort of error, ever.. even when he can't complete a play to save his life.
Friday, October 30, 2009
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Not enough hours in the day.
Really busy lately, which is fine. I guess it comes with the territory, deadlines and juggling experimental work and documentation, real life and work commitments. Expectations are high, and rightly so.
Just finished editing a review paper that I'm planning to publish. Essentially its a topical review on implantable micro generators. Useful for my thesis, so its time well spent. The only problem is that the paper itself is 30 pages long. To give a better idea, as a paperback novel, my paper would be roughly 50 pages long... lol.. a non-trivial length. Problem is, editing it takes a lot of work, time, and patience.
Of course, life being what it is, wouldn't hesitate to throw a couple curveballs into the mix, just to make things interesting. Some major, some not so major, essentially just enough to occupy a little extra of my time. Essentially it ends up being an exercise in "bending but not breaking".
I stumbled upon a little tidbit of wisdom over the last week that has helped me cope a bit:
"God, give me the grace to accept with serenity the things that cannot be changed, courage to change things which should be changed and the wisdom to distinguish the one from the other."
Albeit this is the prayer given to new members of Alcoholic's Anonymous... lol. there is a fair bit of wisdom in that statement.
Anywho, back to the grind.
Just finished editing a review paper that I'm planning to publish. Essentially its a topical review on implantable micro generators. Useful for my thesis, so its time well spent. The only problem is that the paper itself is 30 pages long. To give a better idea, as a paperback novel, my paper would be roughly 50 pages long... lol.. a non-trivial length. Problem is, editing it takes a lot of work, time, and patience.
Of course, life being what it is, wouldn't hesitate to throw a couple curveballs into the mix, just to make things interesting. Some major, some not so major, essentially just enough to occupy a little extra of my time. Essentially it ends up being an exercise in "bending but not breaking".
I stumbled upon a little tidbit of wisdom over the last week that has helped me cope a bit:
"God, give me the grace to accept with serenity the things that cannot be changed, courage to change things which should be changed and the wisdom to distinguish the one from the other."
Albeit this is the prayer given to new members of Alcoholic's Anonymous... lol. there is a fair bit of wisdom in that statement.
Anywho, back to the grind.
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Heh.. WoW. >.>
In addition to my research and being married, I play WoW.
Yes, WoW.
I have a hard time explaining this to some of the people in my group. Some don't get it, some think they're "above it" (aka, academics do not stoop to that level), and others just see it as my pastime. Some people mountain bike, ski, spend their time with various NGO's. I play WoW.
I've played WoW for a long time because its fun, and its a reasonably decent investment vs time choice. Movies can cost you upwards of 15-20 bucks for two hours, WoW will cost you that for a month. Again, its one of those "If you use it, its worth the money ideas" (Not very dissimilar from the "Having alot of cheap shoes vs having a few pairs of expensive shoes" argument.. which I'll post another day.. lol)
Anyways, I enjoy the raiding portion of the game. The best analogy to raiding would be.. for example, playing a game of football (either or) against with 25 other real people versus a computer opponent. Somehow I always end up in a leadership role in these types of things. Perhaps that's the Engineer in me surfacing, I'm not sure. In all respects, a raid functions essentially like a football team. There are various different roles. Each role is required and important. Success is directly measured by personal ability/achievement and teamwork. Leadership is important as well. I am the raid leader for my group. Essentially consider me the coach/quarterback all rolled into one. I call the plays, assign roles, etc. Generally people cooperate. The only issue is, you're not dealing with these people face to face.
This is where the situation becomes a bit muddy. Instead of being able to communicate with these people face to face, in many cases, you're reduced to text. If you're lucky, you may have a VOIP system set up, where you can talk to the person. Either or, things like body language and tone are lost. This makes communication somewhat hard at times, since you're not able to infer people's attitudes easily. You have to pay close attention to what people say and do, that's more or less all you have to go on.
The second complication is the Internet. Yes. You're dealing with the commonly held belief that the Internet is better than Vegas - that there is no blame nor accountability for one's actions on the web. This is where the majority of the issues come from, and usually from the "I'm going to to whatever I want, because I'm invincible" group of 17-22 year old males.
The third complication is the simple fact that you're playing a game. I've learned some major life lessons on how to motivate people to perform a task well when there is no monetary or tangible reward. Not very easy, let me tell you. Unlike the real world, where managers and bosses can hold the possibility of losing your job for poor performance or lack of production over someone's head, in the game there are no consequences.
Let me tell you.. its not easy leading. Its even harder to be successful at it.
On occasion I'll get people in real life ask me: Why? Why do you put the time and effort into a game?
Well, here's why:
1. Its a release. Both myself and the wife enjoy games. We both find WoW to be fun. I enjoy the raiding, she enjoys the pets (yes. your characters can have pets, she enjoys collecting them). There, I don't have to worry about microfabrication, deadlines, publications, meetings, supervisors and their randomness.. none of it. Regardless the topic, I would probably spend equivalent time split between other hobbies. The only scary thing is that WoW catalogs the time you spend online. TV, websurfing, etc doesn't.. lol.
2. The more I thought about it, being an engineer and (hopefully.. I say hopefully today, because I'm proofing a 12000 word review paper, and its testing my sanity) a future PhD, I'm getting management experience. Sure, I may not be able to claim it on a CV (actually, it would be pretty funny if I could.. lol), but I'm being given a finite set of people and resources, and I'm being asked to manage both people and resources to meet a goal. Sounds like an exercise management to me.
3. I enjoy the sociology. Yeah, odd remark. I'm sure at this point with all the "learning" about the social dynamics of how people interact online, I may be able to even consider a publication.. ok.. maybe something in a non-refereed journal someplace. .. lol. In any case, it is interesting watching the dynamic that occurs when people believe that their actions won't come back to haunt them in any way, shape or form.
heh.. good times.
Yes, WoW.
I have a hard time explaining this to some of the people in my group. Some don't get it, some think they're "above it" (aka, academics do not stoop to that level), and others just see it as my pastime. Some people mountain bike, ski, spend their time with various NGO's. I play WoW.
I've played WoW for a long time because its fun, and its a reasonably decent investment vs time choice. Movies can cost you upwards of 15-20 bucks for two hours, WoW will cost you that for a month. Again, its one of those "If you use it, its worth the money ideas" (Not very dissimilar from the "Having alot of cheap shoes vs having a few pairs of expensive shoes" argument.. which I'll post another day.. lol)
Anyways, I enjoy the raiding portion of the game. The best analogy to raiding would be.. for example, playing a game of football (either or) against with 25 other real people versus a computer opponent. Somehow I always end up in a leadership role in these types of things. Perhaps that's the Engineer in me surfacing, I'm not sure. In all respects, a raid functions essentially like a football team. There are various different roles. Each role is required and important. Success is directly measured by personal ability/achievement and teamwork. Leadership is important as well. I am the raid leader for my group. Essentially consider me the coach/quarterback all rolled into one. I call the plays, assign roles, etc. Generally people cooperate. The only issue is, you're not dealing with these people face to face.
This is where the situation becomes a bit muddy. Instead of being able to communicate with these people face to face, in many cases, you're reduced to text. If you're lucky, you may have a VOIP system set up, where you can talk to the person. Either or, things like body language and tone are lost. This makes communication somewhat hard at times, since you're not able to infer people's attitudes easily. You have to pay close attention to what people say and do, that's more or less all you have to go on.
The second complication is the Internet. Yes. You're dealing with the commonly held belief that the Internet is better than Vegas - that there is no blame nor accountability for one's actions on the web. This is where the majority of the issues come from, and usually from the "I'm going to to whatever I want, because I'm invincible" group of 17-22 year old males.
The third complication is the simple fact that you're playing a game. I've learned some major life lessons on how to motivate people to perform a task well when there is no monetary or tangible reward. Not very easy, let me tell you. Unlike the real world, where managers and bosses can hold the possibility of losing your job for poor performance or lack of production over someone's head, in the game there are no consequences.
Let me tell you.. its not easy leading. Its even harder to be successful at it.
On occasion I'll get people in real life ask me: Why? Why do you put the time and effort into a game?
Well, here's why:
1. Its a release. Both myself and the wife enjoy games. We both find WoW to be fun. I enjoy the raiding, she enjoys the pets (yes. your characters can have pets, she enjoys collecting them). There, I don't have to worry about microfabrication, deadlines, publications, meetings, supervisors and their randomness.. none of it. Regardless the topic, I would probably spend equivalent time split between other hobbies. The only scary thing is that WoW catalogs the time you spend online. TV, websurfing, etc doesn't.. lol.
2. The more I thought about it, being an engineer and (hopefully.. I say hopefully today, because I'm proofing a 12000 word review paper, and its testing my sanity) a future PhD, I'm getting management experience. Sure, I may not be able to claim it on a CV (actually, it would be pretty funny if I could.. lol), but I'm being given a finite set of people and resources, and I'm being asked to manage both people and resources to meet a goal. Sounds like an exercise management to me.
3. I enjoy the sociology. Yeah, odd remark. I'm sure at this point with all the "learning" about the social dynamics of how people interact online, I may be able to even consider a publication.. ok.. maybe something in a non-refereed journal someplace. .. lol. In any case, it is interesting watching the dynamic that occurs when people believe that their actions won't come back to haunt them in any way, shape or form.
heh.. good times.
It begins!
So yeah.
I've been considering starting a blog for quite some time. Nothing serious, nothing majorly political, more so something to catalog the things that I happen to come across in daily life that fall into the "you can't make this stuff up" category.
Hopefully the posts that follow will be just something entertaining to read.
More to come.
I've been considering starting a blog for quite some time. Nothing serious, nothing majorly political, more so something to catalog the things that I happen to come across in daily life that fall into the "you can't make this stuff up" category.
Hopefully the posts that follow will be just something entertaining to read.
More to come.
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