I'm officially a Mercer grad student

Well, I'm officially registered for my first graduate level course. It's a special topics EE course on robotics at Mercer. I didn't do so well in the robotics course I took at Georgia Tech, but at that point it was an extra class and I had major senioritis. This one ought to be easier and my motivation level should be higher than it was in spring 2007 – having to repay the $2500 tuition/fees if I don't make an A or B sounds like a good motivator.

 

I've been putting off this whole grad school thing for awhile despite people telling me for years that I should. This year, the Air Force upped the tuition assistance from 75% of tuition (and 0% of the additional fees) to now paying 100% of tuition and fees. That and the likelihood of getting to play in one more junior bridge event put me over the edge to fight through the paperwork and get registered. The world university bridge championships, open to people in college between people 18 and 28 years old is in Reims, France in July 2012. This is the competition that I went to in Poland in 2008. Reims is half way between Metz and Paris, an area I once knew well, and it has been too long since I spent some quality time in France.

 

The course is just 3 hours per week on Wednesdays and finishes early enough that I still would just barely be able to play bridge Wednesday nights in Macon. That's a game I rarely attend anyway so more likely is that I'll go to a bar after class most days. At the very least, taking courses at Mercer might open up more good places I can meet people – work, bars, tennis courts, and bridge tournaments have not exactly been the greatest of places to meet women. But maybe not – I will still be in engineering classes and only 3 people have registered for this course so far. And if I do wind up finishing with this master's degree in Engineering Management (at the rate of 1 course per semester it might take a few years), it might qualify me for other management positions if and when I decide to change careers.

Shopping and Ordering Online

A month or so ago, I was at a hotel with a friend and we wanted to order a pizza at about midnight. We had noticed a pizza place across the street – not even across the street but just across the parking lot – but ordering from them would require going outside, and it was a cold and rainy night. Neither of us wanted to go outside. Furthermore, neither of us wanted to call to place an order. Online ordering is so much easier and this restaurant didn't have a nice easy website to let you place an order. Therefore we took our business to Papa John's, which was a few miles away, and paid the delivery fee. It's not that we cared about the quality from one place over the other – they're pretty much equivalent.

 

 Yes, I choose where I spend my money based on the website. If a company has no website, they will get none of my business. If a company has online ordering while a competitor does not, the one with online ordering (or online bill pay) will almost always get my business. I have yet to find a doctor that lets you schedule appointments online, but if there is one, I will transfer there because calling is such a nuisance. I'd prefer the flexibility of using an app on my phone, hardly even functions as a phone anymore.

 

What reminded me of this was the post on the Dilbert blog today about the hassles of online shopping. On one hand, I wholeheartedly agree with him – the promo codes and various discounts and popup ads and websites that weren't designed by someone as smart as me, and various browser features that try to remember your information but don't do it well are getting to take too much time and be too complicated even for me. On the other hand, I generally have time and patience to deal with computer stuff and all the hoopla does make things cheaper if you know what you're doing (and I do).

 

online > in store > telephone

Asbury Computer Rankings heading into Championship weekend

For the season, my computer is 76.9% at picking the winner (in games involving a top 25 team) while the official spread is at 80.1%. However, my computer beats the spread 53.2% of the time. Over the years, my computer has consistently beat the spread - 51.1% in 2009 and 52.9% in 2010 - so if you want to bet on games, my picks look like a good bet.

My computer is predicting a close SEC championship game, LSU over UGA 28-24. Oregon over UCLA by 15,Wisconsin over Michigan State 31-24, and Virginia Tech over Clemson 33-20.

Rankings headed into Rivalry games

Somehow I don't feel like writing much but these rankings are messed up, at least compared to popular opinion. After 4 teams ranked in the top 7 lost, the SEC has the top 3 spots in the BCS but in my computer, those teams are #1, 4, and 13.

 

So, who's going to win the Thanksgiving week games. Even though I'll be playing bridge at the NABC, I should still be able to see GT vs. UGA, a noon start, which means it'll be 9am in Seattle.

Georgia 31, @Georgia Tech 25

@LSU 31, Arkansas 22

@Nebraska 28, Iowa 27

@South Carolina 31, Clemson 27

Florids State 26, @Florida 23

@North Carolina 33, Duke 20

@Michigan 31, Ohio State 17

Alabama 31, @Auburn 19

@Stanford 34, Notre Dame 27

@Oregon 41, Oregon State 20

@Wake Forest 27, Vanderbilt 25

Virginia Tech 24, @Virginia 21

OkSt and LSU Undisputed #1 and 2

Oklahoma State still tops the Asbury computer ranking. With Boise State and Stanford departing from the ranks of the unbeaten, my computer took a slight divergence from the BCS. Other notable games in week 11 were VT getting off to a slow start but coming up with several big 3rd down passes to beat GT 37-26, Clemson needing a late 4th quarter comeback to beat Wake Forest, and Nebraska topping Penn State during the aftermath of the Penn State scandal.

Michigan, a team that has been overrated by my computer all season, went up 3 spots to #8 despite being only #18 in the BCS. Penn State is similarly overrated, coming in at #14. Texas and Florida State, 23 and 25 in the BCS, meanwhile don't even make my top 30.

Apparently some people have gotten the impression that my computer predicts scores that are too close, but really I only put games that are most interesting on here. However, to show that my computer does indeed expect some blowouts, here goes.

@Alabama 42, Georgia Southern 7
LSU 38, @Mississippi 10
@Oregon 38, USC 27
Kansas State 30, @Texas 28
@Georgia 35, Kentucky 14
@Michigan 28, Nebraska 23
Georgia Tech 35, @Duke 21
@Wake Forest 35, Maryland 17
@Florida State 30, Virginia 19
@Virginia Tech 31, North Carolina 20

Week 11 rankings

In baseball, I love pitching duels – those 2-1 and 3-1 ball games where offense is hard to come by – so it only makes sense that I would like low-scoring football games. I enjoyed watching the Alabama-LSU game last Saturday despite having no real interest in who wins. Knowing that every little score mattered and that field position would be important makes it more interesting than say, the Oklahoma State-Kansas State or South Carolina-Arkansas games going on at the same time. So, while my teams of interest were off, LSU and Oklahoma State squeaked by, Arkansas won in a more convincing fashion, and there wasn’t really anything else noteworthy in college football in week 10.

Here’s how my computer has the teams ranked through ten weeks. Not surprisingly, Oklahoma State is #1 again. I only see a couple of screwy things, most notably South Carolina (7-2) is 4 spots ahead of Arkansas (8-1) despite Arkansas beating them by 16 last weekend.

 

This Thursday I’ll be at the Georgia Tech-Virginia Tech game. The winner is almost assured of playing in Charlotte for the ACC championship against Clemson. The official spread is GT by 1, which surprised me. My computer has them at a virtual tie, Virginia Tech by .05.

For the season, my computer has picked the winner correctly 78.3% of the time (in top 25, ACC, and SEC games) and beaten the spread 50.4% of the time. Last year, my computer beat the spread 52.9% of the time. Here are some predictions for this week.

Virginia Tech 26+, @Georgia Tech 26

@Notre Dame 28, Maryland 16

@Florida State 28, Miami 23

@Georgia 33, Auburn 23

@Clemson 37, Wake Forest 23

@Kansas State 35, Texas A&M 31

@Boise State 36, TCU 26

@Stanford 34, Oregon 30

Boise State solidly at #2 in the Asbury Computer

With 4 weeks left in the regular season, there are few things that people can agree on but one is that Alabama and LSU are the two best teams so far. They play each other Saturday night and may well still be ranked 1 and 2 in the polls after that. Computers don't seem to give them as much credit. And it's not just my computer program - it's the computers used in the BCS calculations, too. All but one of those computers puts Oklahoma State at #1.

Georgia and Georgia Tech are now pretty much tied with their 6-2 marks. Georgia Tech beat Clemson 31-17 and played far better than they did in the previous 2 losses to Virginia and Miami. I'm told Georgia looked like the far superior team in the 24-20 win over Florida. At the bridge tournament Saturday, I tried to bet a Clemson fan that they would beat Tech by at least 2 touchdowns but he smartly didn't take me up on that bet.

Boise State's opponents currently have a 31-25, which is awfully good considering Georgia is the only decent team they have played, but hopefully that will drop their strength of schedule down to where it actually should be around 90th to 100th toughest out of 119.

This week there really aren't many interesting games on tap with all 3 ranked ACC teams being off and Georgia pretty much being off. Actually, there are 3 games with top 15 teams playing each other, all at night. Here's what my computer predicts.

@Alabama 24, LSU 23
@Oklahoma State 42, Kansas State 24
@Arkansas 27, South Carolina 26
Notre Dame 32, @Wake Forest 24

Why should everyone seek more lucrative jobs

There is no doubt that Steve Jobs was a great engineer and a great businessman but a few weeks ago, just a few days after his death, I linked on my facebook to an article saying he was a bad role model. At the time I didn’t know quite whether I agreed or thought it was BS. The article on forbes.com said basically that he was arrogant for not following his doctors’ recommendations and that he gave bad advice for people to follow what they love, not settle, and keep looking for what they love until they find it, quoting him from a famous Stanford commencement speech.

 

I’m all for making kids feel good about themselves and encouraging people to try hard but in a way this is giving false hope to the masses. For Jobs, yes, he was successful and found a job he loved, but for the vast majority of people, even Stanford grads, we won’t find the ideal job or ideal spouse, and looking tirelessly for it would cause most of us frustration and unhappiness.

 

It’s one thing to tell a 6 year old that he can grow up to be a professional baseball player if he wants to and works hard at it. It’s another thing to tell a 16 year old C student that he can become a doctor or to tell engineers as a whole that they should get a master’s degree and pursue a promotion to management. We shouldn’t be encouraging people so much to work highly skilled positions, thereby making the laborers and even the engineers who have held the same decent position for 20 years feel like second class citizens.

 

I’ve always felt that Americans encourage people to get higher education and strive to get promotions entirely too much to the point that it is unrealistic for many people. Many people are better off not going to college or not going to grad school or not pressuring themselves to get a promotion – after all, along with more money, promotions mean more responsibility and more headaches and the majority of us would not be happier or couldn’t handle those jobs.

 

In Jobs’ famous commencement speech, Jobs says “the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do” but if we are telling people they need to keep striving for bigger things and searching for their ideal job, only a small fraction of the people will love what they do. People need to be happy with their job so I think we should focus more on encouraging people to learn to like what they do rather than striving for the ideal – how to be satisfied with your current job as a salesman or engineer or clerk rather than being told time and time again that in order to be successful and happy, you have to be a manager or executive. There are relatively few managers in the world.

 

I’ll leave you with a line from a Sheryl Crow song: “It’s not having what you want, it’s wanting what you’ve got.”

That 6-0 start seems like such a distant past

Georgia Tech has lost 2 in a row and has Clemson and Virginia Tech next. They looked pretty terrible yesterday but I think we all knew they weren't a top 10 team. Today, however, was a good day as the Falcons beat the Lions and Matt Stafford. And Calvin Johnson still had a good game, which makes me happy.

Apparently my computer rankings are much more in line with the BCS computers than with the voters with Oklahoma State #1, Oregon and Stanford significantly lower than the polls. I really don't see how Boise State could have the 45th toughest schedule but I'm pretty sure all the kinks of that are gone. the other strength of schedules seem about right, so maybe it'll improve as Boise plays more weak teams.

So, since plans to go to GT homecoming against Clemson fell through, I'll be at a bridge tournament and probably will get to see the last quarter of the game - hopefully it will still be a game.

For the 4th straight week, Wake Forest is expected to win.

Clemson 37, @Georgia Tech 27
@Florida State 31, NC State 27
Wake Forest 28, @North Carolina 27
Georgia 28, Florida 20
South Carolina 33, @Tennessee 17
@Kansas State 31, Oklahoma 30
@Oklahoma State 47, Baylor 30
Michigan State 28, @Nebraska 26
Wisconsin 30, @Ohio State 24
Virginia Tech 31, Duke 17
@Miami 31, Virginia 18

Who would win today: UGA or GT?

On the drive up to Athens Saturday morning, I was listening to 790 the Zone and they were having an informal poll of callers guessing who would win between the Bulldogs and Yellow Jackets if they played today on a neutral field. I was quite surprised that nearly everyone picked the Yellow Jackets. I didn't even agree with that. Yes, I thought, and still think, that UGA would and will beat Tech. Both teams struggled a bit this weekend but Georgia managed to survive with a win while Tech couldn't muster up quite enough offense against the Wahoos. Teams who have a bye week before playing Tech continue to have significantly more success than teams who only have 1 week to prepare. It's no coincidence - the extra week helps more against Paul Johnson's abnormal offense than it does against other teams.

Anyway, here are the new rankings, including half of the SEC in the top 25. Oklahoma State is at the top, way ahead of #2 Oklahoma. Michigan State (5-1) beat my previous #1 Michigan but still is at only #31.

My computer doesn't think there will be many good games next week - out of all of the top 25 teams, my computer's spread is at least 6 in every game. But after my tennis league and a nap, I'll be watching Clemson-UNC and then GT-Miami and Auburn-LSU.

Week 8 computer predictions:
@LSU 34, Auburn 17
@Oklahoma 43, Texas Tech 26
Wisconsin 28, @Michigan State 21
@Clemson 33, North Carolina 23
Georgia Tech 33, @Miami 27
Wake Forest 31, @Duke 24
Arkansas 37, @Mississippi 17
@Florida State 34, Maryland 21

Modern dating: texting and online dating

Dating is really annoying.  But it’s kind of exciting. We all know there are tons of people out there who are looking for someone not unlike us but the trick is finding said person. For those of us in college or working in the service industry, there are plenty of opportunities to meet people. I am only imagine how often a decent-looking bartender gets asked out. But for those of us with office jobs that are predominantly male and hobbies that tend to not attract many potential mates, it’s difficult.

Every time I see a commercial for eHarmony.com or match.com, they say that 1 in 5 or so relationships now starts online. Despite being an engineer and addicted to facebook, the idea of meeting someone online has never really appealed to me. Nonetheless, I have an eharmony account. In the first couple months of 2009, I met 2 young ladies through there and had 3 or 4 dates with each. I wasn’t actually all that interested in either of them and discontinued using eharmony after 3 months, in favor of attempting to go out to bars and meet ladies there more often. 2 months ago I renewed my eHarmony account and 3 people have survived the multiple choice and short answer part only for me to then close but one I chose to actually send a personal message to. She was a recently graduated law student and had tons in common and after exchanging several emails (through eharmony), she suddenly closed the match –immediately after sending me a nice long message about how she is obsessed with Asian cultures and wants to play tennis. So, that’s it. I can’t respond anymore and I’ll never know what she was thinking or what she suddenly realized unless she re-opens the match. I actually had high hopes for this one. I hope she accidentally hit the wrong button and realizes it soon when she starts wondering why she hasn’t gotten a reply from me.

It also is a weird feeling to see someone you know in person on an online dating site. Eharmony only shows you people that it thinks are good matches so you only see a small percentage of the people registered. Last week, 2 people I know from church showed up as matches for me. Laura has since closed the match, not unexpectedly, and the other one has had no action. It’s somehow weird, but then again, so is this whole texting culture. When I see an article about texting to ask out a girl and they aren’t totally turned off by this, it makes me realize that the culture of dating in America really has changed – even in the last 10 years. Isn’t texting pretty much analogous to email or facebook message, and aren’t both of those still taboo as well?

Pick Six and Michigan still atop the Asbury college football rankings

This year, the phrase "pick six" has been used a lot more than I have noticed previously. I hadn't really heard anyone use it until a couple of years ago but it has become the standard way to refer to an interception that is taken back for a touchdown. I don't think I like this phrase but maybe it'll grow on me.

Of the 25 games I put into my computer predictor (all top 25 teams plus all ACC and SEC games), my computer only got two wrong and beat the spread on 15 out of 25. The two my computer got wrong were Arkansas over Auburn and Texas A&M over Texas Tech. My computer has always liked Auburn a lot and I guess it was down on A&M after their loss to Arkansas. I'm glad my computer got the WF win over FSU. People don't respect the Demon Deacons football program. I'm not sure I do either.

Georgia comes in at #31, Virginia Tech #34, and Wake Forest #39.

Next week doesn't appear to have many interesting games, which suits me just fine since I will be playing bridge all day Saturday at the Athens sectional, but here are my computer predictions. Something must be wrong - the computer is picking Wake to beat another perennial power in the ACC.

LSU 33, @Tennessee 14
@Oregon 34, Arizona State 29
Michigan 24, @Michigan State 16
Georgia Tech 37, @Virginia 24
@Wake Forest 27, Virginia Tech 26
Georgia 28, @Vanderbilt 17
@Duke 30, Florida State 26
@Auburn 28, Florida 26

Week 5 Rankings have Michigan at the Top

So, my new rankings for this week have Michigan at the top and initially they had unranked Texas Tech at the top, with Alabama and LSU #17 and 18. That all looked really wrong so I spent the last hour and a half looking for glaring errors and I found one - not in the algorithm but a typo or misaligned column. That resulted mostly in the strength of schedule numbers being way off. Anyway, these new rankings for week 5 look pretty good, with the exception of Michigan at the top. Just in time to watch the new episode of Pan Am.

I like that my computer ranks Clemson #4, more respect than the poll voters give them. The one team that my computer seems to have way off is Wisconsin, fresh off a good beating of Nebraska. And of course, I like that Georgia Tech is ranked so high. They seem to now be on a collision course to go into homecoming on October 29 against Clemson, both with 8-0 records. Both the Yellow Jackets and Tigers will be bog favorites in their next 3 games - GT vs. Maryland, Virginia, and Miami; Clemson vs. Boston College, Maryland, and North Carolina). Hopefully College Gameday will be in Atlanta that day.

Some computer predictions for week 6 games:
@LSU 34, Florida 16
Oklahoma 31, @Texas 23
Auburn 31, @Arkansas 30
@Georgia Tech 40, Maryland 23
@Virginia Tech 24, Miami 21
@Wake Forest 28, Florida State 26
Georgia 30, @Tennessee 28
@South Carolina 31, Kentucky 14
@Clemson 35, Boston College 13

Don't ask for someone's number and then never call

I don’t understand women sometimes. I’ve been a regular customer at a local restaurant lately. I always sit at the bar and always order one of two things – grilled tilapia or salmon – and always see the same bartender M on Monday night. So, we were on a first name basis and after M dumped her boyfriend, she asked for my number. I obliged, hugged goodbye and left.

After a few more trips, M said “Why haven’t you called me?” “Because you didn’t give me your phone number, but you have mine. Why haven't you called?” “Well here's my number…” A few days later I called and left a message, mildly suggesting we get a drink after she gets off work. A couple of weeks pass, she doesn’t respond and I don’t mention it when I see her at the bar. Now she says she promises to call me and really does want to hang out when she's not bartending.

So I refrain from going to her restaurant for a couple of weeks and then M sends me a text: “You gonna come visit me tonight?” “Maybe. Do you miss me?” No response so I didn't go and haven't been since. I guess I am mildly interested in her but these are signs of being undependable, and I can’t handle undependable.

ASsure, ENsure, INsure

Alright, it’s time for a grammar lesson. I’ve seen these words misused a lot lately and I feel a need to make sure my friends know how to properly use the three words. While they have the same general idea of guaranteeing that something will be done, assure, ensure, and insure are not interchangeable.

 

This line was in an email I received earlier today at work: “Make sure you get our CE and BIO folks down quickly to evaluate and assure all materials are properly handled.” It really irks me when highly educated people, in this case a colonel, make simple grammar mistakes. Typos and carelessness that occurs from going too fast is one thing and easily overlooked but things like using the wrong word make you look dumb.

 

Insure has to do with money and guarantees some financial retribution if things go wrong. To insure is to “secure from harm of loss.” The ones doing the insuring are almost always insurance companies. State Farm insures the driver so that he woudn’t be liable for the whole cost of an accident. Doctors, likewise, are insured by insurance companies to protect them from being financially liable if the doctor screws up a procedure or gets sued by a patient.

 

Assure has to do with one’s feelings. To assure is to “put someone’s mind at rest.” A assures B that he will show up at an expected time. Being assures of something should remove doubt or anxiety and make someone feel better about a particular event. The object of the verb assure must something alive that has feelings.

 

Ensure is merely a guarantee that something will be done. To ensure is to “make certain of something.” It’s sort of a promise and has no implication of financial redress. If I host a party, I will ensure that there is an adequate amount of food and drink. (Ensure is the word that should have been used instead of assure in the quote in the second paragraph.)

Investing in Chipotle

One of the first things I did when I got a job and started having regular income was put some money in the stock market. One of the things I regret is not investing as much as I could afford in Chipotle. Instead, I only invested a small amount in Chipotle and my portfolio overall has performed only slightly better than the Dow in these 3+ years.

 

You all know I love Chipotle and how it would make me so much happier if someone would bring one to Warner Robins.  I might well be able to afford to do it myself if I had put all my money in Chipotle stock for the last 3 or 4 years. Then again, if I could afford to open a restaurant, I wouldn’t do it here – I’d go some place where I actually want to live, like the Dunwoody.

 

And I’ve always heard that you shouldn’t invest in companies just because you like their products so I didn’t put much into it. There were doubters all around about how Chipotle could continue to grow so rapidly and those doubters have continued to be proven wrong.

 

Three years ago to the day, Chipotle stock traded for $60.31 per share and at the moment it is trading for $344.53 per share. Wow! That’s a 471% increase. In that time, the Dow Jones is up 1.17%.

 

Yesterday when Chipotle got to 335, I sold all but one of my Chipotle shares. There’s no way this can continue to go up so much and analysts have been saying for awhile that it’s overpriced and way overdue for a major drop despite the fact that it is perhaps the best company in the fast casual food industry.

Week 3 Rankings

Georgia Tech and Georgia both won big last weekend. Tech set several school and ACC records with their 768 offensive yard performance against Kansas. The ACC fared reasonably well in it's slate of marquee non-conference matchups. Clemson beat Auburn and Miami beat Ohio State soundly but Florida State was outclassed by Oklahoma and West Virginia barely held off Maryland.

This week, my computer rankings look a little more normal as Oklahoma is the clear #1.

A few computer predictions for week 4:
Georgia Tech 31, North Carolina 28
Georgia 33, Mississippi 24
Clemson 30, Florida State 24
Arkansas 31, Alabama 30
West Virginia 28, LSU 26

Fall Tournaments and Travel

August has gone by quickly and it's time to start looking for exciting things to do after the labor day regional this week.

August was fun (not as fun as July which is always the best month of the year) and included playing in 2 sectional bridge tournaments and 2 local tennis tournaments. This week I'll be at the regional bridge tournament in Atlanta, apparently playing 5 days, which will actually be the longest I've played at a regional, and my playing time will be split with Alli and Bryan.

For the fall, there seems to be a lot of interesting things. On the non-bridge scene, I wanna go see Third Day perform in Alpharetta on Oct 1. I want to go to GT homecoming against Clemson Oct 29 and the Thursday night game against VT Nov 10. Who wants to accompany me to any of those?

GT homecoming coincides with the Charlotte regional, which is disappointing, but I think GT homecoming will take priority, as long as some of my friends will be going too.

The game against VT is conveniently scheduled at the beginning of a long weekend (Fri Nov 11 is Veterans Day) so I'm thinking I may fly to a regional (Virginia Beach or Daytona Beach or Niagara Falls) the morning after the football game.

I guess I'll go to the Seattle NABC around Thanksgiving. That will be a good time to catch up with Hitesh, Arwa, and any of the others who migrated from GT to Microsoft.

I've always been disappointed the there are no regionals scheduled to end on Columbus Day (Mon Oct 10 this year) but this year there is one - Ottawa (Oct 10 is Thanksgiving in Canada). I really want to go to that tournament via Montreal with Shaz.

Sadly the league voted to keep the men's 4.0 tennis league Saturdays at 9:30 rather than moving to a week night so I still won't be making to to more than about half of the matches.

I also feel like I'm due for a Europe trip but that probably won't happen this fall.

Tournaments have a winner and losers

Last year I wrote a piece on flex leagues and why I dislike them. People don’t like to organize things and people are willing to pay for people to organize events so that we can play a lot and play against a variety of people. In leagues and tournaments you sign up and show up at the assigned time to play. Without leagues and tournaments, many of us wouldn't have the motivation to call up a friend or two or three and organize a game. Arranging doubles matches in tennis and teams for team events in bridge are quite possibly the two most stressful things in my life.

People play in tournaments for a few other reasons: they are competitive and want to have a couple of days immersed in whatever sport or game they play and they want to see and be seen.  To achieve these things, there must be a winner (and a bunch of losers) in each division/bracket/event and the winner must be determined in a timely-enough manner such that the other competitors will be around to witness it and the results should be posted online so competitors who leave the tournament early can find out who won. Tournaments are largely social events but part of the fun of tournaments is in getting to show off and having some sort of a crowd to watch the finals. If people want to just play for fun, not care about winning or getting tired, they’ll just play socially.

Andre going up for a serve.

If a tournament is said to be Saturday and Sunday, unless there is some natural disaster or loss of power or just an abundance of rain, by the end of Sunday, there should be a winner. This could go for any sport or game but in this case I am referring to a tennis tournament that was held this weekend at the new tennis center in Perry.

Before I go on with this rant, let me acknowledge that tournament organizers should be commended for getting it organized to begin with – it’s a tough job that most people don’t want and it’s almost impossible to satisfy everyone but there are some things that are essential to having a good tournament. This tournament in Perry was actually quite nice except that there are no winners – at least not any winners that anyone will know about. I fully intend on playing both of the finals matches that I am in even though scheduling them myself irritates me.

People like scores. Tournament draws should have scores. When we see that someone won, we like to know whether that person won 6-0, 6-0 or 7-6, 6-7, 7-6. No, we shouldn’t be concerned with embarrassing someone who lost badly. Matches should have staggered start times. Yes, most tennis matches take about an hour and a half but there is a wide variance. So, with 8 courts, if a match starts on each court at 9:30, should you schedule the next set of matches all for 11:00, and then another set of 8 matches for 1:00? No, the start times should be staggered. Schedule a couple of matches for 10:30 (some people will have really short matches), some for 10:45, and the rest for 11:00 or 11:15. For the next group of 8 matches, do the same – stagger start times between 12:15 and 1:00.

Those are both very minor complaints compared to this one: FINISH THE TOURNAMENT. Tournaments have winners, not just finalists. Don’t leave at the end of the last day of the tournament and tell the people in the finals to play the match on their own time whenever they can agree. I bet about half of these final matches won’t get played simply because of having to schedule it themselves. If the idea of the tournament is to not finish the weekend tournament on Sunday, schedule the matches for Monday. Schedule all of the matches to finish. And include in the advertisement that divisions with large turnouts may have the finals on Monday evening. I would have no problem with this other than the fact that it discourages out of town players from attending, but simply refusing to schedule the finals is absurd. Or you could start the tournament Friday night if the concern is having people play too many matches in one day. If the tournament flyer accurately stated that matches for the finals will not be scheduled, I would not sign up. If the tournament flyer said that some divisions may have Monday matches scheduled or Friday night matches would be scheduled for some larger divisions, I would still sign up with barely a second thought. I expect I am in the overwhelming majority opinion on these things but if I'm not, well, maybe I'm wrong.

Getting to Toronto

Third Day is an awesome band. I've had their song "Make Your Move" stuck in my head for a week now.

I'm off to Toronto for 11 days. It seems to be one of the nicer destinations for the NABC's lately. And one of the most expensive. But I'll be getting by pretty cheaply. Or rather, I'll be saving a ton on transportation and lodging so I can spend more on food and drinks. We're saving by flying into Buffalo, where flights are less than half of the cost of flying to Toronto, then bussing 3 hours (actually it took 4.5 for some unknown delays) from there to downtown Toronto (only $14 each way), and staying at a youth hostel for about 1/3 the cost of an average downtown Toronto hotel.

It's a little awkward that the hostel people put us in a room with teenage girls but really the bed rooms are for sleeping and nothing else - how it should be on a trip to Toronto. This place meets all the basic criteria I look for in a place to sleep on a trip: decently clean bathrooms, a bed, free wi-fi. It also seems to be in a really happening part of town. We checked in around 12:30am and were starving and thirsty. Fortunately there are numerous bars, restaurants, and night clubs just around the corner.

Now to go exploring, then chipotle, and bridge!

It's Your Move

The theme of River of Life this year was “It’s Your Move.” What will you do (after River of Life) to be more Christ-like, to serve others, and to be good to society? Will you be sucked in by bad influences or will you continue to strive to make the world a better place? Each year, speaker Brian Loper has a good message. He started out Wednesday spending 10 minutes teaching the proper way to side hug. Then he proceeded to say that he hates side hugs. It was a funny bit. Brian’s inspirational talks at ROL and videos from the work sites can be found at http://www.foresthillsmacon.com/media.php?pageID=66. 

 The other part of his talks that I remember vividly is that he claims “the greatest contributor to atheism today is Christians to profess Jesus with their mouth but deny Him with their lifestyle.” I used to have a rather negative opinion of religious people who would talk about going to church and Jesus but then be rude and sinful, seemingly not even trying to apply the lessons from church to their life. My opinions wavered throughout high school and college but when I met Hillery and started going to Forest Hills in January 2008, I realized a lot of good that comes from going to church and saw a group of people that has a good balance between work, service, family, fun, and faith.

It’s always good to see all these upper-middle class kids and young adults have so much fun, be silly, and still serve God and serve others. I’m not one for being silly and loud and talking a lot so I frequently found myself standing back observing, which is fine. And after a day of working/supervising/directing painters, I wasn't much in the mood for more social activity anyway.

 It’s a humbling experience and so good to help us all, especially the kids, get a perspective on life. My group included 12 kids and 2 adults and we painted 3 houses over the 3 days of work. Seeing the home owner’s appreciation was priceless. Many of them are elderly or disabled people who can’t do the home repairs themselves and can’t afford to pay for someone else to do it. Working with the kids and being outside lifting ladders and paint cans all day makes me thankful for the job I have, but also kind of sad that my regular job isn’t so fulfilling. I mean, it’s a lot of fun for a few days to paint but I never get so exhausted in my regular job. Kids are great and it feels so good to see them grow and learn, especially when you have a part in it, but I’m thankful I don’t have to be responsible for kids all day every day. Sitting at a computer writing computer programs (or just writing), while I am good at it, is not exhausting and leaves me craving some social activity. Where is the happy medium?

July is always my favorite month of the year. It starts off with the super sectional bridge tournament in Atlanta over the July 4^th weekend, a week or two later is River of Life, my birthday is the 22^nd, and the North American Bridge Championships are at the end of the month. It’s a close call as to whether I look forward to ROL or the NABC the most. They are vastly different events. River of Life is all about service, giving back to the community, leading children, and it is very fulfilling and emotional, but fairly stressful because it really brings me out of my comfort zone. It kind of justifies the week-long trip I will take to the NABC, which is a whole lot of the greatest card game in the world, eating, drinking, and socializing with people I relate to best.

"If you don't step out of your comfort zone and face your fears, the number of situations that make you uncomfortable will keep growing." In order to grow, we need to try new things because the old things (at least some of them) will inevitably go away. If we stay within our comfort zone all the time, we won’t be ready to get out into the rest of the world when our comfort zone is no longer or temporarily unavailable. Comfort zones are good to have but we also should be expanding our comfort zone. The only way to make a new comfort zone is to be uncomfortable.

Humans are creatures of habit. We like talking to familiar people, doing familiar things, going to familiar restaurants. But every time we move, start a new job, graduate, breakup with someone, or have a best friend move away, we lose one of our comfort areas and may be afraid of what will happen. Building that kind of situation or relationship again takes time and certainly requires enduring some uncomfortable situations. It is inevitable. Don’t shy away from something simply because you might be a little uncomfortable. Being uncomfortable sometimes is healthy and is a sign that you’re growing.

In the last couple of months I’ve seen myself in several uncomfortable positions including dinner and bridge with Richard whom I had only briefly met once, when he was passing through Atlanta, that Braves game I went to a few weeks ago with Laura and one of her friends, playing tennis with new people, starting a job in a new office, sharing a room (but not a bed) with Meg at the Richmond tournament.

River of Life starts today at Forest Hills UMC. For the next 4 days, 200 middle and high school students will be staying at the church, going out during the day with about 30 crew leaders and assistants to repaint, reroof, and do minor carpentry work on some houses for the less privileged people in Macon, come back and listen to an inspirational speaker and listen to the wonderful FHUMC band. It is totally funded by donations and the students pay around $100 to come sleep on the floor for 4 nights and work in the sun, and people like me use vacation days to supervise and lead them.

For many, it will be a very uncomfortable time due to being around lots of different people and in different places, being in the sun long hours, and sleeping on the floor, possibly next to several unfamiliar people. The kids will be fine – they can handle change and uncomfortable situations better than older people. The older you get, the more difficult it is to try new things. For all of us, it will make us stronger and feel better about ourselves for doing this volunteer work.

Texting in Church

For people in my generation, I was one of the last to conform to the fad of texting. I’m still not a big fan of it as a primary means of communication but I suppose that if my friends want to communicate this way, I will too.

Sunday at church, our pastor encouraged us to send text messages during the service. Don’t get the wrong idea, though. He wasn’t saying it’s good to chat with friends, thereby ignoring the sermon. He was making the service interactive. He had us text in what we thought about certain things and display the results of a poll on the screen for everyone to see. The band had us text in what we wanted them to play for the closing song. It looked like about half, maybe a little more than half, were participating. It was kind of neat. This was the 9:45 contemporary service at Forest Hills UMC, by the way, which has a more technologically advanced and much younger crowd than most other services. This certainly wouldn’t fly in the 8am service.

Only recently did I get an unlimited texting plan. Well, 1500 per month, which for many 20-somethings and late teens might not be enough, but this is still more than enough for me. I still have a tendency to call people, leave a message, but get a text in response. This trend has increased tremendously over the last few years. Texting is too short and impersonal to suit me.

Yes, I know it is strange that I feel this way because I am generally kind of frugal with words and don’t like to be close to many people. Somehow, I like the formality of calling someone and talking on the phone, at least for personal things, and until the relationship becomes so informal that you communicate through whatever medium happens to be most convenient at that time, whether it be phone, text, email, face to face visit. For business things and things that might require extensive thought, email is probably best because it is easy to maintain a record and review things later. Texting should be reserved for urgent communication when one person is in a situation where talking on the phone is not convenient.

Apparently some dedicated readers were thinking I had quit traveling because I hadn't written much about traveling lately. That is certainly not the case but my travels have not been too exciting. Bridge trips to gatlinburg and Augusta and day trips to Atlanta (mostly for chipotle) are not blog-worthy.

I guess the Charlottesville trip the first weekend of April could have been blog-worthy but I actually did hardly anything but eat and play bridge.

Perhaps my upcoming 4 day bridge trip to Richmond will have some excitement that's non-bridge-related.

If not, surely my Toronto/Montreal trip in Juky will be blogger about. Now that I'm definitely not in the GNT, I guess I can start actually making travel plans.

Sent from my iPhone

Dreams

While I was in Charlottesville last weekend, I had a couple of strange dreams. In the first one, I had taken up a second job as a bartender at a strip club. Apparently I had a girlfriend working there. And during the slow times, I would get out and dance on the pole some. After awhile, the club decided to have a role-reversal day – the male employees would be the strippers and the girls would be the bouncers, managers, bartenders. But as the time came, a bunch of the guys bailed and I woke up so I can’t complete the story.

In the second dream the following night, someone had recommended a car repair shop that was attached to a restaurant that was overlooking a river.  So I took my Solara there and it was really sketchy. I had to park on a shaky pier and they had to tie down the car to make sure it didn’t go rolling into the river. For some strange reason, I went along with this. Sure enough, while I’m in the restaurant, I see the car start to roll away so I run out of the restaurant to try to save the car but it drowns. However, I go buy a Prius on the spot and drive home happy.

Maybe I should buy a Prius and work at a strip club?

Business Cards

How do you feel about business cards? Would you rather someone hand you a business card with all of the person's contact info or just add the person's number in your phone on the spot? Is it different for guys and girls? I mean, is it appropriate for a guy to give a girl he is interested in his business card and say "call or text me when you're free so we can hang out" or is it still better to straight up ask for her phone number or to straight up ask her on a date (and then exchange phone numbers)? Or have we progressed even farther that the in thing to do is just add the girl on facebook and send her a facebook message the next day?

I think we all would rather the burden be on someone else to make the first move and it's not fair that in the traditional sense, guys have to make all the first moves and women have veto power. Giving out your business card has a sense of professionalism and class that might not otherwise get conveyed. Plus, it puts the ball in the girl's court. You made the first move and showed your interest, let her make the second and call you.

People hate being rejected, so this system of giving your number and asking them to call you later kind of masks the rejection. If she's interested, she'll call (one would think) and if she's not interested, she won't but you haven't totally be rejected because you never actually asked her out.

In this modern world, more and more communication is done through email and the number of couples that met through online dating is getting a bit ridiculous. But apparently some people still are not as attached to their phones and the internet and facebook as I am. That is hard for me to understand. What do people do at home without internet? However, everyone does have a phone. Nothing beats face to face interaction and asking someone out face to face. Calling on the phone is next best but do girls really still care about how they are asked out any more or would a facebook message saying "dinner tomorrow night at 7?" be adequate for asking you out for the first time?

Essential vs. non-essential personnel

Something seems backwards. A couple of days ago, people at work were finally talking about the potential government shutdown and the fact that it probably wouldn’t affect us because we are paid by the project and funding has already been allocated for our specific project while other government workers might get some unpaid vacation time because they are paid more directly.

Aside from that, the government shutdown should affect only non-essential personnel, meaning that essential personnel would still have to report for work, even if the federal budget expires. That would include police, fire fighters, air traffic controllers, and other jobs that directly impact public safety. I am clearly a non-essential employee and honestly, would not mind a few days of unpaid leave even though it is very unlikely to happen now.

Anyway, shouldn’t essential personnel be paid more than non-essential personnel? The simple distinction between essential and non-essential indicates that one group of people is more important than another group of people, and therefore should be compensated more generously for the work. I know fire fighters, EMT’s, and police officers don’t make near what most engineers make but it would be a major problem if they were to all stop working, even for a day, but society could live without engineers for awhile. Eventually, the lack of engineers would cause a problem but it wouldn’t be the disaster of going without police officers for a day.

Trust Issues

It’s hard to trust people. Unless it’s someone who has a proven track record of dozens of encounters with me, I have doubts in my mind about whether someone will flake out on me or forget about a plan we made or just not understand me clearly. I can count on one hand the number of people I never worry about being a bad friend. I try to trust people and accept that when they say they’ll do something that they will do it (or have a damn good excuse for not doing it). In the past, that has left me disappointed too many times and mentally unprepared to adapt to the situation well. But the truth is that most people are unreliable, except to their immediate family and a couple of their closest friends, and trusting people who haven’t proved to you that they are dependable only leads to more disappointment later on. I’ve found that a good attitude to have in situations like this (having a date or other plan with someone relatively new to you) is: “I don’t care much what happens. If the person does come through, great, but if not – well, I didn’t expect them to anyway and I’ll find something else to do.” I tend to think I am extremely reliable, even with people I barely know but I may be delusional.

Turning a Hobby Into a Job

Many times we say that we should do what we want and try to not be concerned about money but no matter how hard we try, money always winds up being a factor. Money is why many of us stay in jobs we have rather than search for something more satisfying or fulfilling. Some of us are able to pursue a passion while not having to worry about money or do mindless jobs to make ends meet but such people are in the minority. In theory, having a job where you essentially do what you love most should be the most ideal situation.

A lot times I hear that having a job you like is the most important thing in the world. It is what you spend most of your waking hours doing and theoretically should take priority over finding something enjoyable for your free time - maybe a hobby or girlfriend or family. If you enjoy playing sports, playing professionally would surely take some fun out of it but would becoming sports writer take the fun out of playing sports or would it just drive you crazy for being on the “wrong side” of things? Or would you be able to view the writing aspect as a job but still enjoy playing as much as when you had a job that had nothing to do with the sport and sort of get the best of both worlds? I don’t know. Everyone reacts differently and it is probably hard to predict how you’d react until you try.

But perhaps taking or keeping a less interesting but higher-paying job that allows you time and money to enjoy your hobbies is worth the sacrifice. Some of us try to turn our hobbies into work, thinking that it might help us to be happy all the time rather than just the time off from work. But what frequently happens is that when a hobby turns into a job, it no longer is fun and often results in a pay cut. Take a baseball player or actor or musician – they can make more money at the start doing other things and keeping sports or the arts as a weekend or night-time hobby and starting to work as an athlete or artist might make it be less enjoyable, so you lose out on income and on the hobby. Of course, there are people who make it big and get lots of money but such people are in the minority.

On another note, are journalists typically people who have a love for something but are not talented enough to be one of the participants or people that get written about but have a passion for that activity or are they people who are over the hill or are they more often people who have the passion and may have the talent but just prefer a more normal life to the touring or nomadic lifestyle that frequently is common among athletes, celebrities and artists? Can a person write a popular article about someone else’s accomplishments while also being the subject of another similar piece at the same time? I generally think of journalists as being experts in a certain field, and therefore people who actively engage in that activity. For sports journalism, that’s less frequently the case because the careers of athletes are much shorter than in other games or industries. But, most popular sports journalists are former athletes, right?

"Trusting anything – your family your instincts, the dimwitted anchor in the 10:00 news – is a gamble, with plenty of promises and no guarantees. But I’m finding that the longer I live, no matter how many times I fall on my face, folding is for losers, that winners take hits, call it going all in, call it rolling the dice. Screw hedging your bets – bluff, raise, call, stand, again and again and again." – Mary Shannon in season 3, episode 10 of "In Plain Sight."

How to Travel Leisurely

I used to be a good traveler. I mean, I used to go lots of places just to see the place back when I went with my parents a lot, and even in college I did a lot of traveling just to see a new city and wander around, get a sense of the culture, and maybe go in a museum or something like that. I still maintain that my favorite trip was when I went to Interlaken, Switzerland with Mike, Neha, Kathy, and Leah. It was a 3 day weekend during our study abroad in Metz, France, and that is one gorgeous place. We had no real plan or idea of what we wanted to do but we got there and found a nice bed and breakfast place and decided to try canyoning. Even though it was the middle of June, way up there in the Alps, the water was still frigid. Canyoning, walking around that cute town, playing silly card games was so much fun.

Since I started working, almost all of my trips have been either for bridge or to simply see family, only to rush back home so I don't use up too much vacation time. Basically only the last 2 Christmas trips - a cruise to the Bahamas and a trip to Biloxi - have been my only non-bridge trips. I miss that. I'm going to be a better traveler/tourist. Hopefully, a potential new job will allow me to be more of a tourist and take away some of the urge I have now to have trips that are so crammed that I don't have time except for the dinner break between sessions to do anything touristy. I mean, this is fun but I'd really like my trips to be a day or two longer so that I get a little tired of bridge and have time to do other things when I go to Orlando or Louisville or wherever bridge tournaments take me.

Who is Vision AIrlines

A few weeks ago, I started trying to figure out how I was going to get to the spring national bridge tournament in Louisville in March and was not pleased when I saw that Delta was charging $339 for a Friday to Monday trip and Bing.com said there's virtually no chance that price is going to decrease. Now, I'm as loyal to Delta as anyone, probably only because it flies almost everywhere, I have lots of Delta SkyMiles, and fly mostly out of Atlanta, but for a 500 mile domestic trip, that's pretty high. Frequently you can get cross-country flights for less than that.

I found no other airline that was flying this route until happened to run across an article on macon.com about Vision Airlines. They have 1 or 2 round trips per day between Atlanta (ATL) and Louisville, KY (SDF). Also, Vision is planning to revive commercial service to Macon, GA on March 25. Many airlines have tried this and failed but Vision is planning to start flying twice per week between Macon (MCN) and Destin, FL (VPS).

Anyway, I've booked a round trip from ATL to Louisville on Vision Airlines for the first Thursday to Monday of the Spring NABC. It cost all of $119 and will be on a 30-seat propeller plane. Exciting. But if things in the next few weeks go down the way I am currently expecting, this will be my last time making my own frugal time-crunched travel arrangements for going to NABCs. I need to learn to start calling them NABC's instead of Nationals.

Going Through the Motions

"This might hurt
It’s not safe
But I know that I’ve gotta make a change
I don’t care
If I break
At least I’ll be feeling something
‘Cause just ok
Is not enough
Help me fight through the nothingness of life

I don’t wanna go through the motions
I don’t wanna go one more day
Without Your all consuming passion inside of me
I don’t wanna spend my whole life asking
What if I had given everything?
Instead of going through the motions
..."

This is one of my favorite songs and it's by Contemporary Christian singer Matthew West. From time to time in nearly 4 years here, I've felt the urge to move and do something different but each time before I ended up deciding that I actually like it here. Weekly bridge games with Emory and weekend trips to Atlanta, Columbia, and other places in the Carolinas have been in abundance and kept me happy. But in the last couple of weeks it really became apparent that things are really shaking up here and it is a good time to move before I get started in new stuff that's probably going to be more of the similar unfulfilling work. 3 people have announced their departure from the flight, some to other flights in the same squadron and some to different jobs entirely.

I'm at that time where people usually either move on to something else or they become lifers at Robins. People who have been here a long time typically say that when new people come, they stay about 3 years and them move on or they wind up getting married and staying here practically their whole career. It is a short drive to Valdosta and Atlanta, where I do have several friends, but I have almost no friends here, and as great as it is to be a GS-12 with the great federal benefits and low cost of living in middle Georgia, and I feel like I'm just going through the motions Monday to Friday from 8-4:30. My first-level supervisor knows this and knows that I am looking for other jobs and wants to be kept in the loop on this so it's not like posting this is going to cost me brownie points with her or anything like that. I think I've found a job I want but it's still a long way from being anything official.

Automated Doors and Stuff

I'm sure we've all had isues with automatic doors or paper towel dispensers or faucets not working optimally. Doors seem to have improves a lot in the last few years - the used to be either too slow at opening or so sensitive that they open when you're just walking by 20 feet away. Paper towel dispensers have worked well for awhile - you just have to know where to wave your hand and accept that the paper towels come at a fixed size. It is very annoying to me when I see someone try to pull the paper while the machine is dispensing it. That's how the machines get screwd up or how they get mis-calibrated and later on give out inappropriately-sized paper towels.

 

Automatic sinks still have significant improvements that need to be made. Maybe they are harder because the background to the next object is so close - only a foot or so from the sensor to the sink wall and therefore it may be harder to judge whether someone's hands are there. You wet your hands, then you reach for soap and the water turns off, you pull your hands back an inch or two and the water turns off, you try to wash your face and the water turns off. Additionally, it is hard to find how to control the water temperature, if that's even a feature of most automatic faucets. I think I would like a job designing automated things. What companies do such engineering?

 

Today I found an automated toilet that really got on my nerves. I was stuck on the toilet longer than I 'd like to be and 3 times the toilet flushed automatically and I jumped up each time to keep from getting my whole butt wet. It got to the point where I was jumping up even when I heard a neighboring toilet flush. It was totally not good at predicting when I was done. A slight movement forward or re-adjustment triggered a flush. I don't even think automating toilet flushing is a very useful thing. I mean, we are all washing our hands afterward so it's not saving on getting out hands dirty by touching things, which I consider to be one of the main benefits of automatic doors and paper towel dispensers. Next time I'll wait for the handicapped spot, like I usually do, which does not have the automatic flush feature.

Que Queue?

It really bothers me when professional people misspell words in professional documents. I was in one of the first groups to take a class this newly required 1 day course on Lean. It was a class on efficiency and assembly lines and generally how to use common sense. I felt like the class should be geared toward lower-level management or quality assurance people, but there were 2 engineers from my office and 20 or so blue collar workers, mostly laboring on aircraft maintenance.

 

Anyway, at some point the instructor started an exercise in which we pretended to be people in a production environment trying to improve efficiency on an assembly line, so the word queue came up a lot. Now, the instructor said the word several times and used it in proper context ("The man at station 4 had a long queue so it might be a good idea to balance the work more evenly so he doesn't have a queue so long that drags down the overall efficiency.") The problem was that he had sheets of paper with "QUE" written on it for where each person was supposed to place their items when passing to the next one in line. I was the last one in the line, the quality control person, and I was defiant and turned the piece of paper over. Que is not a word, at least not in English, and it is painful for me to look at it. The assistant instructor comes over and turns the paper right-side up and I immediately flip it back over, while pointing out that the word is misspelled everywhere. No one acknowledges my comments and everyone goes on with the exercise.

 

Was I the only one to notice this gross misspelling or was I just the only one who knew or was I just the only one that cared? I have seen people make this error other times lately (leaving off the second ue on queue) but I had always thought this was a fairly common word. Some of the engineers I play scrabble with have recently tried to use "que" in our Wednesday scrabble games and I cringe every time I see it. I know engineers aren't supposed to be great at spelling (and neither are assembly line workers) but the guy teaching should definitely know better. Presumably, he at least typed this into MS Word and should have noticed the squiggly red line underneath the word indicating that it is wrong.

 

Que is Spanish for what.

Queue is an English word for a FIFO (first in, first out) line of people or things waiting their turn.

Get it right.