2008 Round-up

10 years at Children’s – from long haired, bearded part time temp, to buzz headed, tie wearing consultant.

Marathon training – I didn’t admit that I was training for the marathon until nearly the summer, but I started running to my schedule in March. I kept to it, and only missed a few days over those eight months. Prior to this, I had never run eight miles before.

Trip to Denver – I think this was the first time we’d spent an entire night apart since our wedding. Since then there have been a few other sleeping apart occasions, such as:

K’s 40th birthday / N to Baltimore

WoW – I quit around the time that N started raiding. I would not have predicted this two years ago, or even at the beginning of the year.

Colville / Northport – We stayed at Benny’s in Colville for a few days and then the Bed and Breakfast run by Art and Nina in Northport. It was a truly amazing week.

D&D 4e & group – I was one of many to return to the game with the release of the 4th edition. I soon found a solid group and continue to play weekly.

BSG – Season 4.0 and board game. On a related note, I’ve made a project of converting my friends to gamers and intermingling gamer friends with non-gamer friends.

More motorcycle – sometime during the year I realized that I’m not as freaked out by riding on dark, rainy, trafficy nights.

Sports in Seattle – The Mariners were the first team to lose over 100 games while spending over 100 million on payroll. The Sonics moved to Oklahoma City. The Seahawks and Huskies lost 12 games each. While I don’t care about Cougar football, it’s worth mentioning that they lost 10 games.

Growing friendships – It’s been a good year for making new friends and further developing older relationships. Examples include B (& J), L, M and probably T. At the same time, other friendships have faded.

Isolde’s decline and death – this was a sad and difficult time.

N starts bicycling – it looks like her new bike won’t arrive until 2009, but she took her borrowed bicycle to work many times during the summer.

New job – Hurray!

Halloween – dressed up & went out!

N’s Dad’s illness – we were particularly worried about N’s Dad there for a few weeks. He seems to be back on the upswing now and is at home again after a lengthy stay inpatient and in rehab.

Thanksgiving with N's Mom and N's Mom's husband– our first time hosting a major holiday!

Marathon – 3:47:27!

Snow! We spent a lot of time cooped up in the house, but it was kinda nice to laze around during the Christmas week.

Fifteen Years Ago

Fifteen years ago, I was in Mogadishu Somalia.  Christmas dinner was underwhelming (Thanksgiving was much better, probably because we were several miles closer to the kitchen then), and my tank broke its track while turning to avoid a camel.  That was a hassel.

This year was immeasurably better, even though I lost at Scrabble and we're pooping out early.  But then, for someone to win, someone else has to lose, and I think pooping out early on Christmas is pretty normal.  

There's frequently, if not always an odd wind down there.  After the gifts and food, the holiday energy is usually expended.  People usually drag themselves home in the early evening with nothing much to do for the rest of the night.

Snow and Wii in Seattle

For the most part, discussing Seattle's series of snow storms has started to bore me to death, so I won't go in to much detail here.

I'm cat sitting for a few days, and this has given me a mission every day.  Rather than sitting here and going stir crazy, I've put on my snow boots and jogged the 2.8 miles up to my friend's house, fed his cat, played his Wii and then jogged home.  It's been a nifty work-out.  Since I'm not 'in training' for any big upcoming events, I don't mind the variety.

Yesterday I played some Rock-Band.  I particularly focused on the drums, and now I understand a little better what it takes to be a talented drummer.  It is very rewarding to play drums for the Rolling Stones.  Another benefit of the game is that you learn the songs in a way that non-musicians rarely manage.  I'm familiar with some of the transitions to Gimme Shelter now!

Today, I focused on Resident Evil 4.  Like Rock Band, I'd never played any of the franchise before, let alone on the Wii.  It was definitely a rewarding experience.  Like before, the learning curve was notable.

I had been under the opinion that the Hi-Def TV should come before the next gen game system on our luxury purchases.  That may be true, but having just played the Wii on a normal TV, I'm not sure.  More reflection is required.

BSG the Board Game; Humans Win!

My wife and I played The Game again on Saturday, and I have a few observations.

The playing time is listed as 2 - 3 hours.  So far, I don't think we've finished in anything less than 4 hours.  Our playing times have probably been stretched for two reasons:  we're all still negotiating the learning curve, and every game has included at least one new person.  Similarly, we're still working out the best strategy for both humans and Cylons.  Thus, games take longer as we flail around trying to kill each other.

Again, the Cylons nearly manged to get all the humans into the brig.  This time, there were two humans, one cylon and one cylon sympathizer.  The unrevealed cylon was loaded with skill cards and nearly pulled it off.  I was playing Bill Adama, and even as I saw it happening, I couldn't even try to put him in the brig via the Admiral's quarters.  Instead, I managed to grab the presidency (through sheer luck of a crisis card), and found the Quorum card that allowed me to imprison the 'unrevealed' cylon.  The Quorum deck also allowed me to release my cohort so I didn't have to lead the fleet alone.

On reflection, I think the unrevealed Cylon player's strategy was valid, and came damned close to working.

The fleet also jumped early several times.  This underscores the fact that humnas must use the 'add 2 to dice roll' cards on all important die rolls.  We lost 3 population at least once, but we also caught a break at least once, which allowed us to keep jumping.  I also used the 'Motivational Speech' Quorum card in conjunction with the +2 roll card at a crucial point.  We had 1 motivation and 1 fuel at the time, near the end of the game, and would have later lost.

The last thing that helped us win was the not particularly focused strategy by the revealed Cylon at the end.  Had he focused on getting the Centurian boarding party to the end of the track, again, I think we would have lost.  Instead, he barraged the Galactica with the basestars. 

We're all looking forward to play with more experienced players.  Can the humans win throughthe  optimal play of equally experienced players?

Seahawks Beat the Jets

This game felt special in several ways, for one main reason:  this is Coach Mike Holmgren's last home game as head coach for the Seattle Seahawks.  It also happened to be against Brett Favre, former protege of Holmgren's.  It also happened to snow throughout.

The players wanted the win; the defense played very well.  Seneca Wallace ran the offense efficiently and played a tight game.  Yes, he could probably start in this league.  I don't know that he would ever be a great starter, but he's at least in that John Kitna / Trent Dilfer range of competant professional quarterback.  Plus he's more athletic than either of those guys, which gives him a definite edge.

Anyway, it felt good to have an important game to watch.  It was great to have your team play well for an important game.  And, quite importantly, it was great to win that game.

I'm not ashamed to say I was crying (yep, tears flowed) as Coach Holmgren took his walk around the stadium; thousands of us stood and waved or applauded.

This is the sort of experience that makes me treasure my season tickets, even during a 4 - 11 season.

Photo Credit

Schmap.com found one of my pictures on Flickr from our 2006 honeymoon in Maui and asked to use it for for their travel guide. See the Napili Point entry.

Christmas Prep 2008

Every year I have some trouble or other getting everything done for the holidays. In addition to the challenges shared by every other gift exchanging person, both of my parents have birthdays within weeks of Christmas. My mother was born on December 8th, my father on January 6th. As a result, I barely get through Thanksgiving and I need to get her card and gift mailed; just after New Year’s I have to gear up for my Dad’s.

One major piece of best practice is to take a day off early during December, and use that to get the majority of planning and shopping complete. Since that allowed me to finish nearly everything, my stress level is lower, and I’m free to enjoy the next few weeks.

For the first time, Nora and I set an explicit dollar limit for our gift exchange; that helped too. Now, I don’t need to wonder if I’ve done enough.

I’m actually looking forward to getting a tree. That doesn’t happen every year.

Marathon Emotions

Running 26.2 miles is, on a whole, an emotional experience. It started half an hour before the race as I looked out across Memorial Stadium, and my mind drifted forward to the finish.

There were many more moments; since I tend toward the emotional in situations like this, when people lay it all out, give it their all, while others cheer for these, their temporary heroes.

During a long run, you have to be careful. The energy burst from a wave of emotion can drive you up and over the steepest hill, but it will also bury you if you let it. Trust me on this: I lived it during my 21 mile prep run two months ago.

The tallest roller-coaster high came around mile 17. I was fully in the long distance fragile haze of ups and downs, and had recently (a mile and a half prior) seen a friend while listening to “Flying High Now.”

Anyway, it was a period with a moderate number of spectators, and a mom had her four(ish) young kids lined up, watching the race. They were very interested; she coached them all to hold our their hands for high-fives. Excited, I angled over, smiled and delivered high-fives. I was careful to hit all their hands: it wouldn’t do to miss one, not at all.

A moment after, the “Stone Cold” Steve Austin kicked in; another moment later, I had tears flowing down my face, and I angled to the middle of the road, away from other spectators. It was too intense for me, I couldn’t be anyone else’s hero that day.

I don’t think I can properly express how honored I was to have four little fans who cared enough to get high-fives. I wonder if this is something they’ll talk about, or if they’ll even remember. Somehow, I don’t think that matters.

Seattle Marathon Pictures

More at http://chadsmarathon2008.shutterfly.com/

Quick Marathon Summary

I hope to write more later, below, I'll paste my twitters of the day. My race time was 3:47:27.

Home now, and bathed. I probably won't wear clothes for the rest of the day. This robe is comfy. Need to eat soon. My chip time: 3:47:00 about 1 hour ago from web
Finished! about 4 hours ago from txt
Mile 20! about 5 hours ago from txt
18 done 8 left about 5 hours ago from txt
Half way! about 6 hours ago from txt
Off we go! about 8 hours ago from txt
Clothes checked. Now to find start. about 8 hours ago from txt
Arrived Seattle Center about 8 hours ago from txt
Freaking out a little. In a good way. about 8 hours ago from txt
Buses work. Good start too day. about 9 hours ago from txt
Been through the checklist twice; nearly ready to leave. about 9 hours ago from web
I slept reasonably well last night; now I'm up having coffee before the final preparations. about 10 hours ago from web

Marathon Prep

I picked up my chip and whatnot today. The marathon is Sunday. I'll send brief twitters along the way, specifically at the start, mid-point and 18 mile mark. My username is modernkutuzov

I need to remember all the important things:

band-aides on nipples
Buckaroo Banzai hat
special socks
running shoes
utility belt
bottle with 1/3 Powerade, 2/3 water
ID
House key
cel phone (charged)
iPod (charged)
earphones
iPod armband
boxer-briefs
non-bunching running shorts
long sleeved, synthetic running shirt
cash (enough for cab fare home)
the chip
stocking hat (for before and after, weather dependant)
sweatshirt (ditto)
the bag to put those in
watch

The itinerary there follows:

Walk 0.2 mile SW from S SPOKANE ST to
Depart	Rainier Ave S & 33rd Ave S	At 06:54 AM	On Route MT 7 Downtown Seattle
Arrive	Rainier Ave S & S Walker St	At 06:58 AM
Transfer to
Depart	Rainier Ave S & S Walker St	At 07:08 AM	On Route MT 4 Downtown Seattle
Arrive	5th Ave N & Republican St	At 07:38 AM
Walk 0.1 mile S to MEMORIAL STADIUM

The race starts at 8:15 a.m.

My first goal is to finish
second goal is to finish in less than four hours
third goal is to finish under 3:41

My training pace has been right around eight minute miles, creeping up to 8 1/2 and over for long runs of 10 miles or more.

Battlestar Galactica, the Board Game

I first caught sight of the Battlestar Galactica Board game at the Fantasy Flight Games booth during PAX. I kibitzed for awhile, wandered the hall awhile, then checked back; the table was still full, so I wandered some more, and returned again. This time, a game was wrapping up, so I was able to reserve my spot for the next round.

By the end of the hour long demo, I’d fallen in love. Unfortunately, aside from about 300 copies between Gen-Con and PAX, the game hadn’t really been released yet. October, they said.

October came, I asked my game shop to hold a copy for me, but the game didn’t arrive. I even scheduled a party with some of my closest friends for mid November.

Finally, on November 11th (Veteran’s Day), four days before my party, the Fantasy Flight website announced the game’s release. I called my normal game shop: no luck. Their games arrive on Friday. That was okay, I thought. The party was scheduled for Saturday.

I stopped in on Friday, and they hadn’t received the game: it was looking bleak for Saturday’s event. We might wind up playing Munchkin, I thought.

I hadn’t quite given up home, however, and earlyish Saturday, I got my phone, sat down at the computer, and started calling game stores. I’d already scouted Borders and Barnes and Noble; both had board games, but neither could help me.

Immediately, I struck gold: Gary’s Games in Greenwood had a copy. Yes, she would hold it, yes it may be the last copy. Please bring cash because our machine is broken.

After a few stop hunt to find some soundtrack accompaniment (I’d resisted the day prior because of the theme’s uncertainty), I returned home around 3 p.m.; I had just enough time to glance at the rules before guests started to arrive.

The game has many elements and can be confusing to new players. No single element is particularly complex, and for the most part, a player doesn’t need to know the details of each piece.

Early in our inaugural game, we discovered the first Cylon. That’s when it started getting good. We had strong suspicions about the second, but had some trouble getting her into the brig. She proclaimed her innocence, but then, any sleeper Cylon would plead innocent.

With both suspected Cylons (Baltar and Helo) in the brig, we reached the half way point; by rule Boomer was sent to the brig. Otherwise, space was quiet; unfortunately we weren’t spooling our FTL very quickly, but we saw no cause for alarm.

We freed Boomer, and by a twist of fate, Tyrol was thereafter imprisoned. That’s when the dirty Cylon spy struck: it was Boomer, and we had freed her. Through her dirty machinations, my character, Saul Tigh (the commander of the fleet) was imprisoned as well. At this point, every character aboard Galactica was in the brig. Lucky for us, Laura Roslin was on Colonial One. Helo was righteously indignant.

Even though I was on the wrong end of it, this was a moment of pure gaming beauty. My team, the human team, thought we had control, and suddenly BAM! virtually everyone was in the brig.

A few turns later, the brig was empty. Baltar left Galactica to join his partner in the Cylon fleet, and the rest of us were pardoned. Slowly, the fleet jumped closer to Kobol, as our resources dwindled.

We reached a point where the FTL was nearly ready; on my turn I would take us home; I would lead us to victory.

That’s when Baltar struck again: there was an explosion in our food stores. It was worse than a crisis. It was, the end. The human fleet starved in space, mere moments from freedom.

I had heard that it was difficult for the humans to win; at first I didn’t believe it. We seemed to be cruising along with little difficulty. However, now I understand. We had even overlooked a few rules and strategies that may have helped the Cylons even more: we didn’t know to launch Raiders during their activation step, if none were on the board, and Baltar probably would have been better off if he’d joined the Cylon fleet sooner.

I also forgot to abdicate military control of the fleet when I was thrown in the brig, but that probably didn’t affect the game’s outcome.

Next time, I want to play a pilot, or the president. Next time, maybe I’ll get to be a Cylon...

Brain Power / Consulting

Lately most of my brain energy has been focused on developing in the new job, not to mention the physical energy I continue to expend duirng the last phase of marathon training.

As a result, I've been lax on adding to the blog. Below are recent observations following a class I co-facilitated yesterday:

11/21/08 – CPI Fundamentals

This group had many social workers and others for whom the class was mandatory.

I was struck again how there is often one or two questions written in the evals that could have easily been answered, had the student asked during the class. At some point, they need to meet us half-way. Students need to take responsibility for their own educations.

Having said that, I have an idea to improve based on the feedback that we got afterwards: it sounds like at least one person would have liked to hear ‘how a RPIW is born / comes into being’ story, not unlike the ‘how a bill becomes a law’ story from those old Schoolhouse Rock episodes in the ‘80s.

I always build in time for questions, and I frequently ask if they have any. This emphasizes that I certainly don’t do it too much, and could still benefit from building in more ways to pull out the class members.

There were several comments about the dryness of the content. Part of this probably ties back, again, to the fact that the members didn’t particularly want to be there. On the other hand, there’s always room to make the content more dynamic and interesting. This exists both for the presenter and for us as a group, as we continue to polish the material.

Another feedback disconnect occurred between the perception that the class was too long, and the sufficiency with which the content was covered. For example, I felt like the Quality module went really well. Discussion went well, folks were engaged, I trust in my own understanding of the content... yet I got many ‘4’ out of ‘5’s, along with feedback that the class was too long.

I wonder if there’s room to split the groups into 2’s and 3’s for the more pivotal discussions. That way everyone hears and is heard, even if the group gets fragmented.

The Airplane Simulation was the funnest part of the day. For one thing, it strongly resembled teaching folks to play a new game – more than resembled – in many ways, that’s what it is.

I’ve had some practice with this lately, so getting everyone to understand what they were to do went smoothly. Everything else just kinda worked. The total run time didn’t get out of hand, the lead time was reasonable, and shrank appropriately with the second run. Productivity worked, and tripled between runs (from .06 to .2). As always, it’s important to keep the units: the number represents percent of a plane built per person per minute.

Halloween 2008

I'm still a little impressed that we managed to get home from work, into costume and go out for Halloween. We don't have a great record for Friday night entertainment.

We went to the Little Red Studio's "Erotic Haunted House, the Dreaming." Nearly all of the attendees were in costume, and it was a very attractive group of people. There was lots of lovely cleavage; cuteness abounded.

The show itself followed a young woman's subconscious throughout her dreams. As dreams often are, the narrative was largely non-linear, but with themes and characters that threaded throughout. Some lovely, some funny, some erotic and some rather horrifying.

After the show, we lucked out and hailed a cab very quickly, and were home a little after nine.

Collaboration and Competition

Lately I've been thinking about collaboration and competition; I don't have any interesting conclusionk, but I do have a list of observations and opinions:

People, and by 'people' I include myself, often wrap their competitive natures in with their sense of self worth.

Competitive play is often exciting and more fun than non-competitive play.

Sometimes play with less competition is more fun.

Competition and hierarchy are often connected. Sometimes this is right and appropriate.

We as an American society tend to connect the two too much rather than too little.

The value of collaboration is often overlooked.

A collaborative effort will generally accomplish more than a competitive effort.

We are all in this life together.

When you're escaping from a burning plane, sometimes only the first [insert unknown coefficient] number of people out the door will survive.

Sometimes everyone can survive if you work together.

Unhealthy jealousy spawns from allowing competitive impulses too much influence over one's relationships.

D&D Feats

Notes to self: when Ayn hits level four, he gets another feat. I plan to take Channel Divinity: Harmony of Erathis. This provides a +2 to hit once per encounter to an ally.

Paladins are primarily defenders, but also can perform as back-up leaders/healers or strikers. I'm trying to balance his feats and powers to fill out the dual nature of the character and to allow him to perform in some of those roles capably.

My vision is to focus on the defender and leader aspects; that aligns with his impulse to hit the bad guys balanced with his urge toward harmony.

When I first created him, I took Ritual Casting as his feat. However, he couldn't afford a spellbook, and hasn't been back to civilization since. Now, ritual casting doesn't really fit into his concept. So, I think I'll retrain that feat into something defendery: either Ferocious Rebuke which allows characters to push opponents once per encounter, or Weapon Focus: Heavy Blade, which gives +1 damage rolls.

Grace beats Karma

I'm blessed by many things: good health, great job, amazing friends, a deep and ever growing love for my wife, the sun is shining etc...

I don't believe for a second that I 'deserve' any of it. Sure, I've earned much of it, I had to work hard to get this job, and I try to make and grow meaningful relationships... but that's not the same thing. It's a trap to think that anyone 'deserves' anything, whether it's good or bad.

Starving kids in Africa don't deserve their fate, and Bill Gates doesn't really deserve the resources he controls. Yes, he's earned it, but that's different.

1792

1792 is the name of my favorite bourbon. I get confused by numbers sometimes.

Friday is for...

relaxing.

I have a bottle of 1738, my favorite bourbon, purchased in honor of my recent (long time coming!) job transition.

Today I got to play tour guide to a group of five on the Children's CPI Showcase. I always love to play smarty pants and talk about Lean and Children's CPI journey.

Tomorrow, we're going out to dinner and to see a play about zombies. Life is good.

****
Earlier today I heard Paul Simon's "The Sounds of Silence" again thanks to Pandora.com. It disturbs and awes me as much now as when I first heard it twentyish years ago.

Smile

Click the link.