Wednesday night pickup rocks

For the past while, during winter league season there has been one slot set aside onWednesday nights for the touring players (plus a few non-touring players with aspirations) to play some pickup. Nothing formal... just show up, pay a token fee for field rentals, put on a light or dark shirt and get on the field as soon as there's room. Some players keep score, some don't, but don't take that as it's not competitive. This ain't rec.

Anyway I've been going since shortly after it started, and it's great. I always get something out of it. First time I got a kick in the ass and a wakeup call that I was out of shape and hadn't played at that level in along time. Other times I've got some pointers from more experienced players, practice on some key aspects of my game, a reminder about how offensive or defensive structres are supposed to work, and everytime it's a good workout. Last time out what I got was confidence. We had enough for two fields so I was on the far one with two teams that basically played savage... between that and the cold I was fighting I wasn't sure how long I'd last. But then about a third of the way in, something clicked. Everyone seemed to be tiring faster than I was. I was making cuts that were getting open... even deep, which I rarely do (and maybe should more often). And I was getting D's, which I often do at lower levels but much less frequently in competitive. By the end of it I think our team had a runaway win (not sure on the score though) and I wasn't feeling my cold at all.

Now I'm feeling psyched about our next league game (this Sunday, a rematch against a team that beat us last week by a single point)... hoping I can bring the same game. Or maybe I'm just brimming with overconfidence now and it'll take a schooling next Wednesday to bring back some humility. But I think I'll ride this as long as it goes.

Why I won't be voting strategically

Two days before the election now. Time to make a choice.

It's been pretty clear since the start of the campaign that my riding (Winnipeg South Centre) is going to go one of two ways in this election. It could stay a Liberal seat as it has for years now. Or it could go Conservative as they've been building moemntum here as nationally.

Now, neither are my first choice. And to be clear, I'd really rather not have the Tories pick this one up. I've pretty much resigned myself to the fact that Stephen Harper is going to be the next Prime Minister (hopefully in a minority government), but I really don't want to open the paper on Tuesday morning, look a those nifty colour maps of the ridings and see mine there in a deep blue. Yuck.

But at the same time, I find very little reason to vote for the Liberals. The rash of scandals is a bit off-putting but isn't a huge issue for me. It does kind of point to a general issue of arrogance (the word is overused, but seems accurate) or complacency. The Liberals have done a decent job of governing on the whole but haven't demonstrated any sort of real vision - their best ideas never seem to be their own - and they've basically stayed in power by having rival parties that can't seem to get their act together to win enough seats to challenge them. On a local basis, our MP, Anita Neville, didn't seem too bad... just not too good either. She's kept a pretty low profile through her tenure so far. I can't point to anything she's done of substance for the riding or nationally, and even her campaign literature isn't highly convincing.

Thus, I've been somewhat conflicted about how to vote. Certainly I was never going to vote Conservative. But would I hold my nose and vote Liberal? The polls were closing in... on Friday a Free Press poll put the two parties dead even at 32%, with the NDP back at 25% (note the margin of error, 19-times-out-of-20, was +/- 4.9%, so it might not be that close). My vote might actually mean something. Yikes. Time to think about it, hard.

And then, Friday afternoon, I come home to find an Anita Neville campaign flyer in my mailbox. Well, I think somewhat facetiously, she's actually making an effort. Must be getting worried about her chances. So I open it, and take a look. There's a stock quote about her from the justice minister (can't get one right from the PM, eh?), then this: In this election, in Winnipeg South Centre, a vote for the NDP is effectively a vote for Stephen Harper's Conservatives.

Well. My first reaction is against the sheer logic of this statement. A vote for the NDP is a vote for the Conservatives? Really? So even though I'd be adding to the NDP vote count, it would somehow count for the Conservatives? By that logic then... an actual vote for the Tories must 'effectively' be two votes in their column. No wonder the Liberals are worried, the Conservative votes count double!

After assessing that this statement had insulted both my intelligence and loyalty in one turn of phrase, I realised it ties in directly to the whole problem with recent Liberal leadership: arragance and complacency. Arrogance, for suggesting that they are the only real alternative to the Conservatives, and complacency, evidenced by the fact that they're basically running on a 'we're not the Conservatives' platform to begin with, rather than coming up with any inspiring ideas of their own. To paraphrase Walter from The Big Lebowski, say what you like about the tenets of the Conservative Party, at least it's an ethos. If the Liberals are driven from power and from Winnipeg South Centre for a while, and as long as the Conservatives are kept in check by the other parties, maybe it's not so bad. Perhaps they will have more convincing ideas and candidates next time around, following the fall what presumably will be another short-lived minority government.

I'm not going to feel guilty about voting my conscience this time around. Sorry Anita and the Liberals, you don't have my vote.

Two weeks in

Two weeks gone in the new year, good time for a preliminary look at my resolutions. Here's what I have so far:
- My two-week detox is now over and it seems to have worked out well. I feel fitter and a bit heathier in general, and seem to have kicked the coffee dependency (though I find I can't skimp on sleep anymore. One thing though - I wouldn't advise a rapid 'retox' process. Yesterday we had a mid-winter team meeting over fattening foods, beer and coffee and I had plenty of everything. The combination of these didn't sit well and I felt gross the rest of the day. I guess that's kind of indicative the detox 'worked', but I wasn't expecting that kind of a reaction.
- Other than that, eating healthy has gone well. I've fallen off a bit in my goal to drink a litre of water a day, but haven't been feeling dehydrated without it.
- Exercise is going well. Ran my fastest 5 km run in a long time (24 minutes, a decent pace) last weekend, and I'm actually starting to see some definition in my upper body. Stil some fat to lose in the midsection, that'll take some time though.
- For ultimate, haven't played much league but have played a few games of men's pickup, and have been pretty pleased with my play. Also had the aforementioned team meeting and it sounds like everyone's pretty committed to playing competitively in both winter and summer leagues, an we were able to address some difficulties we've had on offence in indoor. We'll see how the adjustments go on Tuesday.

Watched the 2nd leaders debate last night...

Or most of it anyway, I was caught by the early start and missed the first topic and Martin's 'notwitstanding clause' bombshell, but other than that I think I didn't miss anything of substance. Not that there is usually too much in terms of susbatnce in these things, the platforms and positions are for the most part there already and it's just a chance for the leaders to get across their talking points in an easy-to-digest 2 hour format. Still, must-watch material for a political spectator like myself.

Anyway, my thoughts on how the leaders performed, not so much on their platforms:
- overall it was a bit more interesting than the first debate, you could sense a bit more was at stake now that the election was in full swing and there has been some actual movement in the polls. The moderator (Steve Paikin) did a pretty good job of keeping the debate moving and had a good feel for the flow of the debate with follow-up questions. As for the leaders...
- Paul Martin looked pretty animated, at times impassioned but mostly flustered. He was being attacked from all sides and a few times looked like he just couldn't handle it. Main talking points were on the value differences between the Liberals and Conservatives; he did reasonably well with these. But man, he got hammered on ethics and the 'sense of entitlement' attacks and his responses were far from convincing. Grade: C-
- Steven Harper, on the other hand, looked very calm going through every one of his responses. Too calm. In fact, he looked as if he were under the effect of a mild sedative. Also the cadence of his voice is very measured and deliberate, I have to agree with a description I saw that indicated it was the same tone you might use when explaining something to small children. And that goofy smirk he got seemingly at the end of every answer, and occasionally when they panned over to him during other points... kinda creepy. But he did a good job of sticking to his points and sounded reasonably intelligent even though I don't agree with a lot of his platform. Grade: B-
- Jack Layton probably had the best delivery in his responses, and did a pretty good job of highlighting the NDP's accomplishments in the past session. Where he faltered, like in the last debate, was getting way too repetetive towards the end on his talking points - third option, OK, we get it, now just answer the question please? Still, did pretty much what he needed to with this one. Grade: B-
- Gilles Duceppe was probably the most entertaining of the leaders to watch, definitely worth having the guy in the debate even if a few of his points get lost in translation (Quebeckers aren't bitter? What the heck are you... oh, you mean better. Carry on then...). He knows he's not really talking to his target audience in the English debate so he's free to take shots, mostly at Martin's expense. Best moment was Duceppe making a point, announcing what Martin's response would be, then during Martin's response (as predicted) the camera angle shows Martin talking with Duceppe in the background in one of those 'I told you so' shrugs whilst mugging at the camera. Awesome. And even though he could've just taken shots all night, he actually made some decent points and contributed to the debate. Grade: B+

Overall, the debate didn't do anything to change my mind, probably didn;t change anyone else's, just solidified support for the people who heard what they wanted to from the people they were hoping to hear it from. For me, another few weeks of watching the campaign, probably won't change anything for me but always seems to be interesting to watch. I've pretty much made up my mind who I want to vote for but it could come down to some strategic voting in the worst case... I'll keep my eyes on the polls I suppose.

Ultimate goals - 2006

Played my first game of the calendar year on Tuesday and followed it up with touring team pickup on Wednesday. Not too bad overall, though we lost our league game to an opponent we could have beat. Anyway, while the turf burn is still fresh, time for thinking about my goals for ultimate this year.

First, some skills I’d like to improve over the year:
- breakforce throws
- hucks
- timing of cuts
- marking
- defensive positioning
- field sense and vision
A lot of these I can work on over the rest of winter season, but of course there are some aspects that just aren’t there in indoor – no wind, smaller fields, five players a side – so some of the nuances of the above aren’t going to improve till I can get outdoors again. I’ll do what I can for now.

Secondly, some concrete, measurable goals for the upcoming outdoor season:
- make Chaos, practice regularly and play tournaments
- play at least 3 out-of town tourneys (tentatively, Regina, Saskatoon, and a third to be determined), and both local tourneys
- budget permitting, play Nationals in Halifax
- play 1 or 2 league teams
- observe 1 night per week
- at each tournament – average at least 5 points played per game, 1 point thrown or scored per game, and positive or neutral on turnovers (turnovers caused defensively less turnovers caused offensively)
Some of these should be fairly easily attainable but I don’t want to take them for granted (e.g., I was basically able to walk on to Chaos last year, but want to make sure I earn my spot again, even if there are no cuts). For the quantified goals, I’ll reevaluate after the first tournament (likely in early June) to make sure they’re reasonable.

Finally, I’ll make it a goal to play with spirit every game. I don’t think I was terrible at this last year, but on occasion I’d do something that was inadvisable spirit-wise… I don’t want to have that reputation. Plus, I think I play better when I’m playing spirited (might be karma, or just that I get preoccupied when I think I might have made a bad call), and it just makes the games that much more enjoyable.

On the whole, I think it’s going to be a good year. Can’t wait for the snow to melt.

Resolutions part 3

Thought I could get two in the last one, but it ended up being too long. Anyway, continuing with elaborating on those resolutions:

Resolution #3: Stay in Shape. As stated, a very vague resolution, and one I wouldn’t really need to do anything to fulfil. I’m already ‘in shape’ by many standards – I can sustain physical exertion for an extended time, I don’t feel winded after running up a few flights of stairs, I have decent muscular strength, my BMI is within the range considered healthy. But still, it can be better. I’d like to be able to play a full game of ultimate at maximum effort without getting fatigued, and by summer be able to play a full two-day tournament (or I suppose four days if I can make it to nationals) without getting worn down by the end. And I’d like to get rid of my gut and maybe develop a bit of muscle tone.

With those ends in mind, I need some concrete goals. These can be of two kinds – those focused on results and those on the process. Unfortunately the former can be a bit hard to measure so most of these are the latter. Perhaps when spring comes I’ll add something along the lines of a minimum fitness level defined by the ‘beep test’ but I’m not sure I’ll be able to test that regularly until I can run it outdoors. Anyway, goals:
- Run a minimum 5 km every week. Note that’s a single run, not cumulative. I’ll probably add distance and frequency as spring approaches/arrives, but this should be a decent start for now. The goal of this is to increase muscle endurance and aerobic fitness.
- Train for, and run, the half marathon. This is a performance goal related to the distance running above. As a more specific goal, I want to beat my previous best time of 1:50, set several years back.
- Minimum one other workout every week. This should be something to complement distance running, something like stairs, interval training, circuit training, etc. Basically, more focused on short range endurance, anaerobic fitness, muscle tone, etc. Minimum 30 minutes for this to count.
- 50 pushups and 50 situps every day. This will develop muscle tone and core strength. Might need to increase the situps later to make sure I’m getting a substantial benefit from this.
- Maintain weight between 160-170 pounds (current: 169)
- Lose and keep off one inch around gut (current: 33)

This is all I have for now, but as summer approaches there will likely be more. This should do for a holding pattern for the winter but more will be needed, and indeed more should be feasible, as the summer season approaches. More on this later in the year.

Resolutions part 2

As previously indicated a few of my resolutions needed some further detail to be worth anything. A vague resolution is easily satisfied through mere semantics and therefore can be ignored without any real change. Thus, some specifics.

Resolution #2: Eat Well. I already do a fairly good job at this but could definitely improve in some areas. Essentially, I want to put more good stuff and less garbage into my body on an ongoing basis. This includes:

- More fruits and vegetables. I don’t ignore these completely right now but don’t go out of my way to eat them. Resolution: get back to eating salad or similar serving of vegetables with dinner, and substitute more fruits and vegetables for snacks.
- More fibre. I honestly have no idea if I had been getting close to the recommended intake of this daily, but from the way my digestive system is handling the increased intake over the last few days, I would guess I haven’t. With more regular intake I should get acclimatised to it. Resolution: eat high-fibre cereal every weekday.
- More water. I’ve been feeling dehydrated way too much recently, especially in the dry winter air. No doubt this is in part due to way too much coffee, but also I haven’t been drinking too much ordinary water – mostly I have been drinking other beverages like juice or soft drinks (diet ones at least), and other beverages containing diuretics like caffeine and alcohol. Not so good for hydration. Resolution: one litre of water per day. More as required with exercise.
- Less overtly unhealthy foods. Essentially, just avoiding the obviously unhealthy choices as a matter of course. I’m sure I’ll still have the occasional fat boy or cheesecake, but in an everyday situation I’ll steer away from things like that. Resolution: no overtly unhealthy foods except on an occasional and considered basis.
- Less alcohol. Too much of this on a regular basis has contributed to dehydration, ‘beer gut’, an overly high tolerance, and can’t be good for my liver. Resolution: drinking in social situations only and no drinking to excess.
- Less caffeine. Got into the habit of drinking way too much coffee on workdays, made me wired for the first part of the day, crashing by the end of the day (often with that horrible depressive feeling, not to mention coffee gut), and thoroughly dehydrated throughout. Plus using coffee as a substitute for sleep is not sustainable in the long term. Resolution: use only when necessary, not as a daily habit.

In order to kick-start a few of these I’m taking the first two weeks of the year to detoxify, during which I’m abstaining from all alcohol and caffeine, eating a tonne of fibre and drinking lots of water. Hopefully this will clean out my system, get my body acclimatised to the change in diet, quit some bad habits cold turkey, and get my tolerances for alcohol and caffeine down to more reasonable levels. So far I’m feeling pretty good, but we’ll see over the next few weeks.

New Years Resolutions

Now, it’s not my usual style to make New Year’s resolutions. But for some reason this year I’m starting to see the sense in them. It just seems worthwhile to have some goals to work towards and make sure I end the year farther ahead than where I started out. Anyway, without further commentary, here they are:

1. Start and maintain a blog. This one’s half satisfied already… of course I’ll have to keep on it and make sure this thing stays alive and continually updated through the year and beyond. And it’ll help me track the rest of my resolutions, which means they may actually be kept.
2. Eat well. Yes, this is terribly vague on its own and needs some specifics, too much to go into in entirety here. I’ll elaborate in a subsequent post.
3. Stay in shape. Again, pretty vague. Watch for details in another post.
4. Improve my game in ultimate. This is in part related to resolution #3, but there are a number of other aspects to improve and particular goals I have in mind… again, wait for another post.
5. Keep in touch with friends. Last year I was not great at this, particularly for friends out of town but also some still here who I just haven’t made a point of seeing. I’ve also had that ‘out-of-the-loop’ feeling way too much. Must do better at keeping regular contact with people and making sure I see them when I have the chance.
6. Stress less. Basically, I want to make an effort to not put more stress on myself than needed. Some stress is unavoidable – e.g., tight deadlines at work I can’t just blow off – but a lot is simply worrying about things I can’t change, or where worrying (or getting frustrated or angry) does no good. There are a few cases it’s been pointed out to me where I do this – on the road dealing with idiot drivers, in ultimate games where I’m frustrated our team is underperforming – those are a key start, but I’m sure other situations will reveal themselves. Be cool, let it slide.

More details to follow on the ones I’ve indicated, and progress reports periodically.