You've probably felt something missing from your life, but couldn't put your finger on what it was. Don't worry, I'll tell you. That hole in your life has been you missing out on my ward basketball team updates!
The season started today, and we played . . . I don't know what ward. But somebody. We had about 12 guys, they had 7. We stayed close early. Then we got annoyed with the refs. (They do their best, I know them, and they're good guys.) The other team started pulling away behind some good free throw shooting. I think it's the first time I've ever seen a church team shoot 85%+ from the line. Anyway, our team, with all our people wasn't quite sure what we were doing on offense as most of us had never played together. Personally, I think I picked up 4 points. 2/2 from the line, and 1/3 from the floor. I got called for a charge, which is the first time that has happened in a long time, but it was definitely the right call.
Anyway, we found ourselves down by 12 in the 4th quarter, and switched to a box and 1, to shut down one guy who had been killing us with penetration. Somehow, I became the defensive stopper shadowing him, and I lasted a surprisingly long time before running out of gas. I'm not sure how, but we managed to crawl back into the game to find ourselves down by 2 with 11 seconds left. We bungled the inbounds play nearly had a back court violation when I ran into my own teammate who had the ball and the ball ended up in our center's hands about 25 feet from the basket, where he drained a 3 pointer with :01 left. It was fabulous. We managed to hold on for the one second and escaped with a victory we likely didn't deserve. But it was fun, I played ok and ran much better than I thought. But if I'm our teams defensive stopper in the front court, we've got some big problems.
Thursday, January 17
Wednesday, January 16
Boring NFL
Adam asks: "How is the NFL boring? There have been some awesome games this year. And the Patriots are always doing something tricky."
I wanted to respond where all could see it, and I'll go straight for the big guns. The NFL is boring, because no one scores. The Pats broke pretty much every significant scoring record in the NFL this season, and averaged 36.8 points/game. On the college side, they were outscored by Hawaii, Kansas, Florida, Boise St., Oklahoma, Tulsa, Texas Tech, Missouri, West Virginia, Navy, LSU, Oregon, Arkansas and Texas. That's 14 teams out of 119 (11.7%) that outscored the record setting Pats. Excluding New England, the highest scoring NFL team was the Cowboys at 28.4 points per game. That would place them behind 53 NCAA teams. 6.25% of NFL teams score 28.4 points per game, 44.5% of college teams do. Finally, 34.3% of NFL teams score under 20 points per game (11/32) compared to 12.6% of NCAA teams (15/119). Scoring makes interesting games! Games with more scoring naturally have less punting, and fewer 3-and-outs. Those are boring.
College teams go for it on 4th down more often. Only 3 NFL teams this year attempted 1.5 4th down conversions per game. 76 NCAA teams did the same. 40% of NFL teams succeeded more than half the time. 48% of NCAA teams did. So they're going for it more often, and succeeding more often! That's exciting football.
One final stat: 1 team in the NFL (the freak show Pats) moved the ball more than 375 yards per game. 74 college teams matched that.
College has more teams, and therefore more games, increasing the likelihood that there is at least 1 or 2 interesting games any given weekend. Some college teams run the spread, some teams run the option. Some teams (Texas Tech and Hawaii) don't seem to know what a running back even is. That's exciting!
Maybe you want to argue the NFL has better defense or something else, and that's alright if that's what tickles your fancy. But to me, it's boring.
I wanted to respond where all could see it, and I'll go straight for the big guns. The NFL is boring, because no one scores. The Pats broke pretty much every significant scoring record in the NFL this season, and averaged 36.8 points/game. On the college side, they were outscored by Hawaii, Kansas, Florida, Boise St., Oklahoma, Tulsa, Texas Tech, Missouri, West Virginia, Navy, LSU, Oregon, Arkansas and Texas. That's 14 teams out of 119 (11.7%) that outscored the record setting Pats. Excluding New England, the highest scoring NFL team was the Cowboys at 28.4 points per game. That would place them behind 53 NCAA teams. 6.25% of NFL teams score 28.4 points per game, 44.5% of college teams do. Finally, 34.3% of NFL teams score under 20 points per game (11/32) compared to 12.6% of NCAA teams (15/119). Scoring makes interesting games! Games with more scoring naturally have less punting, and fewer 3-and-outs. Those are boring.
College teams go for it on 4th down more often. Only 3 NFL teams this year attempted 1.5 4th down conversions per game. 76 NCAA teams did the same. 40% of NFL teams succeeded more than half the time. 48% of NCAA teams did. So they're going for it more often, and succeeding more often! That's exciting football.
One final stat: 1 team in the NFL (the freak show Pats) moved the ball more than 375 yards per game. 74 college teams matched that.
College has more teams, and therefore more games, increasing the likelihood that there is at least 1 or 2 interesting games any given weekend. Some college teams run the spread, some teams run the option. Some teams (Texas Tech and Hawaii) don't seem to know what a running back even is. That's exciting!
Maybe you want to argue the NFL has better defense or something else, and that's alright if that's what tickles your fancy. But to me, it's boring.
Thursday, January 10
Forgetfulness
It's not just for pregnant ladies!
You know how days all tend to blur together? Yesterday, Shannon and I went to a doctors appointment scheduled at 3pm. I went to work a bit early and just left for the day before the appointment. At about 3:45 as we were still waiting, I noticed that I was getting hungry. It was then that I realized that I wasn't sure if I had eaten lunch that day or not. I really wasn't sure. After thinking for a minute or two, I decided that I probably hadn't. I considered calling work to ask someone to check the fridge for my lunch, but decided it wasn't necessary.
We've known for some time now that I was capable of forgetting to eat, but as it turns out, I can not only forget, but even when reminded, I may have difficulty remember whether I've eaten or not!
You know how days all tend to blur together? Yesterday, Shannon and I went to a doctors appointment scheduled at 3pm. I went to work a bit early and just left for the day before the appointment. At about 3:45 as we were still waiting, I noticed that I was getting hungry. It was then that I realized that I wasn't sure if I had eaten lunch that day or not. I really wasn't sure. After thinking for a minute or two, I decided that I probably hadn't. I considered calling work to ask someone to check the fridge for my lunch, but decided it wasn't necessary.
We've known for some time now that I was capable of forgetting to eat, but as it turns out, I can not only forget, but even when reminded, I may have difficulty remember whether I've eaten or not!
Tuesday, January 8
Chester
Back in October, Shannon and Celeste went and bought pumpkins so we could get together and make Jack-o-lanterns prior to Halloween. We didn't.
Then, in mid November, we got together to finally carve up our gourds. But jack-o-lanterns were no longer appropriate. Thanksgiving was almost upon us with Christmas right on its heals. So, we decided to carve some Thanksgiving and Christmas pumpkins, which we proudly displayed on our doorsteps for a few days. Of particular note, was the trip to the store to buy candles, where KC and I discovered that you can buy 11 scented tea lights for $4.14, or you can buy 100 scented tea lights for $4.14.
We were excited to post pictures of our pumpkins, but sadly, December was marred by computer difficulties experienced by the Hunts. (The aforementioned KC and Celeste.)
But January has arrived, and we've finally got art! So, I present to you, our pumpkins. KC carved the Christmas tree, Celeste did the holly leaves and berries, and I created the turkey which we named Chester.
No More Sports
I watched the last college football game of the year last night. (Really, it was the last game of last year, but that's not the point here.) The game was fine, but did not live up to the massive expectations we tend to put on championship games. Championship games rarely live up to the crazy expectations we put on them. College football is now over until the fall. College basketball is somewhat boring, unless it's March. The NBA is in the middle of a long season. The NFL is boring, and plays on Sundays. So, I've come up with a bold idea: No sports until March.
That's right, I plan to not watch sports until March. Now the caveats. I am allowed to watch sports center. I know, that may seem like watching sports, but it's not. I don't watch much sports center any more anyway, precisely because they don't show sports anymore. Sports Center has become filled up with 10 minute pieces of "all access" to some schools basketball team, and rarely touches on any sporting even that involves any team within 500 miles of where I live. My second allowance is that I can pause on sporting events long enough to become appraised of the score. Along with checking scores and standings on the internet, this will allow me to be plugged in enough that I will know what is going on when I tune back in to sports in March.
I expect two extra bonuses from my early Lent sports abstinence. First, loads of time will be freed up for other, more important things. Secondly, by not watching a single NCAA basketball game until March, I am all but assured of winning any and every bracket pool that I enter.
That's right, I plan to not watch sports until March. Now the caveats. I am allowed to watch sports center. I know, that may seem like watching sports, but it's not. I don't watch much sports center any more anyway, precisely because they don't show sports anymore. Sports Center has become filled up with 10 minute pieces of "all access" to some schools basketball team, and rarely touches on any sporting even that involves any team within 500 miles of where I live. My second allowance is that I can pause on sporting events long enough to become appraised of the score. Along with checking scores and standings on the internet, this will allow me to be plugged in enough that I will know what is going on when I tune back in to sports in March.
I expect two extra bonuses from my early Lent sports abstinence. First, loads of time will be freed up for other, more important things. Secondly, by not watching a single NCAA basketball game until March, I am all but assured of winning any and every bracket pool that I enter.
Tuesday, January 1
Happy New Year
It's been a while since my last post. I would like to site various reasons:
Christmas, travel, puking, vomiting, ralphing, spewing, hurling, tossing cookies, upchucking and yakking.
If you'd like to take count that is one alternative word for each time Sunday that my stomach attempted to turn itself inside out. So as to not mislead the public, I will clarify that these 8 events were grouped into two trips to the bathroom Sunday morning, not 8 separate trips. But, as the 8 individual attempts at gastrointestinal suicide represent an eight fold increase over the previous decade combined, I felt them worth of individual attention. I puked exactly once in November of 2001, the result of a very memorable potato salad and home-made mayonnaise. Prior to that, it had been sometime in high school. And so, my streak begins anew.
Shannon, Sabrina and Adie were also sick and threw up from the same disease. It put a bit of a damper on our new years, but we managed to have a good time anyway. Here's hoping that 2008 will be filled with less vomit than 2007, both of us, and for each and every one of you!
Christmas, travel, puking, vomiting, ralphing, spewing, hurling, tossing cookies, upchucking and yakking.
If you'd like to take count that is one alternative word for each time Sunday that my stomach attempted to turn itself inside out. So as to not mislead the public, I will clarify that these 8 events were grouped into two trips to the bathroom Sunday morning, not 8 separate trips. But, as the 8 individual attempts at gastrointestinal suicide represent an eight fold increase over the previous decade combined, I felt them worth of individual attention. I puked exactly once in November of 2001, the result of a very memorable potato salad and home-made mayonnaise. Prior to that, it had been sometime in high school. And so, my streak begins anew.
Shannon, Sabrina and Adie were also sick and threw up from the same disease. It put a bit of a damper on our new years, but we managed to have a good time anyway. Here's hoping that 2008 will be filled with less vomit than 2007, both of us, and for each and every one of you!
Sunday, December 23
Why you can't learn physics
I believe that, more so than most branches of science, people have problems with physics. I see it every time I tell people I have a degree in physics when they ooh and aah at my clearly superior intellect. For some reason, the world seems to believe that physics is Hard. I don't fully understand this, but while I was browsing at Barnes and Noble I found a book that demonstrates an interesting point.
A series of books are available at your local book store (unless you live in St. George where all book stores suck) titled "[Science] Demystified". I saw "Physics Demystified" as well as "Biology Demystified" and "Calculus Demystified" today. I fully support the idea that any of these topics can baffling. What concerned me, however, was something that was written on the cover of "Physics Demystified". It's one of those things like "474 full color images" or whatever they say to convince you that the book will be easy to understand and interesting. Their most important selling point that they wanted to get across to the world about their book was: "LOTS of illustrations to relate PHYSICS to the REAL WORLD".
And that, right there, is why people don't understand physics. Because they don't know what physics even is. It would be like making "Auto Repair Demystified" and claiming that it has "LOTS of illustrations to relate AUTO REPAIR to FIXING CARS". Physics is nothing more than a quantitative description of the real world. You don't need to relate it to the real world. It is the real world. Physics is about describing how things happen. You throw a ball up, it comes back down. (Unless you can throw it up at 11km/s.) Can anyone tell me how throwing a ball up relates to real life?
A series of books are available at your local book store (unless you live in St. George where all book stores suck) titled "[Science] Demystified". I saw "Physics Demystified" as well as "Biology Demystified" and "Calculus Demystified" today. I fully support the idea that any of these topics can baffling. What concerned me, however, was something that was written on the cover of "Physics Demystified". It's one of those things like "474 full color images" or whatever they say to convince you that the book will be easy to understand and interesting. Their most important selling point that they wanted to get across to the world about their book was: "LOTS of illustrations to relate PHYSICS to the REAL WORLD".
And that, right there, is why people don't understand physics. Because they don't know what physics even is. It would be like making "Auto Repair Demystified" and claiming that it has "LOTS of illustrations to relate AUTO REPAIR to FIXING CARS". Physics is nothing more than a quantitative description of the real world. You don't need to relate it to the real world. It is the real world. Physics is about describing how things happen. You throw a ball up, it comes back down. (Unless you can throw it up at 11km/s.) Can anyone tell me how throwing a ball up relates to real life?
Sunday, December 16
95% Doesn't Cut It
At work, sometimes we talk about "six sigma". This is a statistical term that is fairly easy to understand. Assuming that processes exhibit random variation through a normal Gaussian distribution, the standard deviation (represented by the Greek letter sigma) is basically a measure of how wide the variation in your process is. One standard deviation is about 70%. The standard deviation measures how far from the average you must extend boundaries to cover 70% of the product. If my process is good to 1-sigma, then 70% of my product will fall within the specified limits.
I read a bit of a six-sigma book which points out that for most processes, 70% isn't very good. If 70% of the rulers in your ruler factory come out 13" long, not 12", you won't be in business for long. Two-sigma get you up to 95%, and three-sigma is 99.7%. 99.7% sounds really good, but it turns out that for some things, it really isn't. If the electric company gives you power for 99.7% of the year, then you will go about 26 hours and 17 minutes of the year without power. If a burger joint finds a way to ensure that 99.7% of it's burgers are e. coli free, dozens of people can still get sick in a single day. "Six-sigma" in business generally means producing less than 3.4 defects per 1,000,000 products.
I bring all this up, because our newspaper delivery person needs to learn that 95% isn't cutting it. Yesterday we had no paper by 10am, so we had to call them and have one sent over. Today, we were missing parts of our paper. 3 or 4 times over the last year we've received the Tribune instead of the Desert News. About once a month we receive no paper at all. We're even on our second carrier. Growing up, I never really kept track of when the paper came or anything but I never remember it being an issue at all. Every day the paper was simply there, and I took it for granted.
So, if you get the paper, and your carrier does a good job, appreciate them, because you could live in St. George.
I read a bit of a six-sigma book which points out that for most processes, 70% isn't very good. If 70% of the rulers in your ruler factory come out 13" long, not 12", you won't be in business for long. Two-sigma get you up to 95%, and three-sigma is 99.7%. 99.7% sounds really good, but it turns out that for some things, it really isn't. If the electric company gives you power for 99.7% of the year, then you will go about 26 hours and 17 minutes of the year without power. If a burger joint finds a way to ensure that 99.7% of it's burgers are e. coli free, dozens of people can still get sick in a single day. "Six-sigma" in business generally means producing less than 3.4 defects per 1,000,000 products.
I bring all this up, because our newspaper delivery person needs to learn that 95% isn't cutting it. Yesterday we had no paper by 10am, so we had to call them and have one sent over. Today, we were missing parts of our paper. 3 or 4 times over the last year we've received the Tribune instead of the Desert News. About once a month we receive no paper at all. We're even on our second carrier. Growing up, I never really kept track of when the paper came or anything but I never remember it being an issue at all. Every day the paper was simply there, and I took it for granted.
So, if you get the paper, and your carrier does a good job, appreciate them, because you could live in St. George.
Friday, December 14
Creeque Alley
Last night one line sent Shannon and I on a music history adventure. Shannon knew exactly one line from a song: "John and Mitchy were were gettin' kinda itchy" and I new one line more: "Everyone's gettin' fat, except Mama Cass".
It turns out the song is Creeque Alley by the Mamas & the Papas and has a wealth of stories hidden in it's lyrics. We already knew that Papa John and Mama Michelle were married, but that was about it.
As I started reading the lyrics, I wasn't sure they were talking about anything interesting until I reached the line: Sebastian and Zal formed the Spoonful. And I thought, 'These people they're singing about in the song, could they be the ones who formed The Lovin' Spoonful? It turns out that the song is about John Sebastian and Zal Yanovsky who were in a band called The Mugwumps along with Denny Doherty and Cass Elliot. It turns out I know who those people are! They're Mama Cass and Papa Doherty! So half of the Mamas & the Papas and half of the Lovin' Spoonful were in a band together.
The song also makes several references to McGuinn and McGuire. Roger McGuinn was in the Byrds and Barry McGuire was a solo folk rock singer. The Mamas and the Papas certainly knew the Byrds, because Mama Michelle had an affair with one of the Byrds members.
Eventually, we discovered www.creequealley.com which has a bunch more information. We thought it was interesting, at least. Hopefully this post makes some sense, as I've written it one sentence at a time over the entire day.
It turns out the song is Creeque Alley by the Mamas & the Papas and has a wealth of stories hidden in it's lyrics. We already knew that Papa John and Mama Michelle were married, but that was about it.
As I started reading the lyrics, I wasn't sure they were talking about anything interesting until I reached the line: Sebastian and Zal formed the Spoonful. And I thought, 'These people they're singing about in the song, could they be the ones who formed The Lovin' Spoonful? It turns out that the song is about John Sebastian and Zal Yanovsky who were in a band called The Mugwumps along with Denny Doherty and Cass Elliot. It turns out I know who those people are! They're Mama Cass and Papa Doherty! So half of the Mamas & the Papas and half of the Lovin' Spoonful were in a band together.
The song also makes several references to McGuinn and McGuire. Roger McGuinn was in the Byrds and Barry McGuire was a solo folk rock singer. The Mamas and the Papas certainly knew the Byrds, because Mama Michelle had an affair with one of the Byrds members.
Eventually, we discovered www.creequealley.com which has a bunch more information. We thought it was interesting, at least. Hopefully this post makes some sense, as I've written it one sentence at a time over the entire day.
Wednesday, December 12
South of Timbuktu
Shannon, Alex and I were recently discussing Christmas songs about animals. Alex had just introduced us to "Dominick the Donkey"and of course there is "I want a Hippopotamus for Christmas" and I guess "Christmas Don't be Late" might count [make sure to watch this video, as it's both informative and weird], because it is sung by chipmunks, at least. But some of you out there already know where I'm going with this. I couldn't pass up the opportunity to mention "Santa's Using Zebras Now". For those who don't know, this is a piece of piano sheet music that's been floating around the Blockburger home for decades now.
"Santa's Using Zebras Now" is about a kid in Africa that writes Santa a letter, but when Santa tries to go down there to give him presents, the reindeer revolt because it's too hot. (Apparently, until 1968 Santa just ignored much of the African continent.) So, Santa starts using zebras south of Timbuktu. Not surprisingly, neither Alex nor Shannon had heard of this song, so I set about googling it. As it turns out "Santa's Using Zebras Now" turns up only 17 hits on the whole internet. Maybe someone else does know the song! But no, they don't. The #1 hit on google turns out to be my cousin's blog. His last name isn't Blockburger, but he is from the Blockburger side of the family. But it's not even him that is writing about it, the reference to the song is found in a comment posted by "Cousin S" who is my sister. It turns out that the Blockburgers are the world's leading scholars on "Santa's Using Zebras Now". [And with any luck, this blog post will soon be the number 1 result on google.]
And now, for all you non-Blockburgers out there, I present perhaps the only audio copy of this song on the internet, brought to you by Mrs. Anderson's 2nd grade class: "Santa's Using Zebras Now".
"Santa's Using Zebras Now" is about a kid in Africa that writes Santa a letter, but when Santa tries to go down there to give him presents, the reindeer revolt because it's too hot. (Apparently, until 1968 Santa just ignored much of the African continent.) So, Santa starts using zebras south of Timbuktu. Not surprisingly, neither Alex nor Shannon had heard of this song, so I set about googling it. As it turns out "Santa's Using Zebras Now" turns up only 17 hits on the whole internet. Maybe someone else does know the song! But no, they don't. The #1 hit on google turns out to be my cousin's blog. His last name isn't Blockburger, but he is from the Blockburger side of the family. But it's not even him that is writing about it, the reference to the song is found in a comment posted by "Cousin S" who is my sister. It turns out that the Blockburgers are the world's leading scholars on "Santa's Using Zebras Now". [And with any luck, this blog post will soon be the number 1 result on google.]
And now, for all you non-Blockburgers out there, I present perhaps the only audio copy of this song on the internet, brought to you by Mrs. Anderson's 2nd grade class: "Santa's Using Zebras Now".
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