Happy Thanksgiving!

Today is Thanksgiving and also the first time I've ever spent it alone in Tucson.  This year has been difficult with COVID, and my dad is especially paranoid, rightfully so being 70-years-old.  I told him it's fine if we don't celebrate Thanksgiving on November 26th.  It's just a day and if we really want to, we can celebrate it later after things are a little safer.  It's certainly been a little weird hanging around today and not being with my parents and my sister's family, but it is what it is.  I ate leftovers for lunch and am gonna make spaghetti for dinner, it's just another day.

It feels like we just can't shake off this pandemic, but I'm still trying to stay as active as possible.  Fortunately, I can work remotely for IBM and they are still taking care of me.  I've been working on my Twitch stream and content more than ever lately.  And I've picked up a Monday pool league in addition to Tuesday nights, while also bowling on Thursdays.  I still hit the gym as often as possible, but with all the activities going on, it's more like 3 times a week.

Anyway, stay safe out there and see ya next month.  Thanks for stopping by and Happy Thanksgiving!

Benzi's 2nd Birthday!

Today is Benzi's 2nd birthday!  He is the oldest of my three pets and it's crazy to think that there was a chance I might have lost him when he was just 7 months old.  Anyway, he is doing great and is loving life with Ember (my other cat) and Lucy (my dog).  Today for his birthday, I will make sure he gets a nice Royal Canin feast. :)

Life has been slowly getting back to normal.  We are 7 weeks into the bowling season and my team is currently in 1st place by a nice margin.  I'm currently sitting at a 201 average, which doesn't really seem sustainable although I have bowled 4 straights weeks with a 600+ series.  I feel like the new competition and bowling with better players has given me extra motivation to do well.  I find myself focusing more each throw.  We'll see if I can keep it up!  I haven't finished a season over 190+ in over 5 years.

Pool league has also started back up!  My team did not do well in the playoffs (myself included), but it's nice to be back.  I'm also going to pick up a league on Monday nights in a couple weeks for the winter session and hopefully playing twice a week will crispen my skills and accuracy, which has been lacking ever since Covid.

And the final update is that I ordered the iPhone 12 Pro today!  I went for the Pro to get the extra FPS (60 with the Pro instead of 30 with the base) for video recordings, which could help for any potential IRL streams I might do on my Twitch.  I then went for the 256GB storage just to be safe.  I'm super excited to get a new phone seeing how I still have an iPhone 6 that is 6 years old! :O

Hope everyone is doing well!  Take care and stay safe out there!

Bowling is Back!

 Bowling league is back!  Well, sort of...

For the past 15 or so years, I have been bowling in the IBM league.  When the league first started, there was a lot of IBMer participation and we had maybe 12 full 4-person teams filling out the league.  Over the years, participation would gradually fall to the point where last year we only had 6 teams and two of them weren't even teams containing any IBM employees or retirees. :(

It is now 2020 and I am sad to say that the IBM league was only able to gather 4 interested teams, which is under the minimum required to have a league.  So unfortunately there is no IBM Bowling League this season and honestly there might not be for a while.

However, there's a house league that bowls on Thursday nights and a few of the IBMers still interested in bowling decided to join that league instead, which contains over 20 teams.  I was on the fence about joining since basically all of my former teammates from the past decade no longer bowl with me.  I got invited by a former IBM team to join their squad and eventually I decided to give it a try.  Honestly, with stay-at-home life, it would be nice to just get out of the house and I do still very much love bowling even though it is a dying sport.

And so with that, bowling is back!  We are now in our 3rd week already and the new team is good and we're also doing well, off to a 22-2 start!  I'm currently sitting around a 180 average, which is where I want to be.  It'll be interesting to see how the season goes and if it doesn't get shut down to Covid.  One must wear a mask at all times unless they are eating, drinking, or up on the lanes to bowl.  Here's seeing if I can carry my championship level success to a new league!

Introducing Lucy!

Last year, I adopted two kittens named Benzi and Ember.  For a while, I had been thinking about adopting a dog as well.  I had researched several breeds and suggestions from people about how and what kind of dog to get, but of course, everyone has different opinions.

 

Taking care of cats is easy since they require very little maintenance: they use a litter box, you don't need to walk them every day, they are self-grooming.  Taking care of a dog is a large responsiblity and very time-consuming and since I live by myself, I didn't know if I'd have enough time for one.  Ironically, because of Covid and stay-at-home life, I've been home pretty much 24/7, so I figured now was the time to adopt a dog if it were ever going to happen.

In the middle of August, I decided to start looking online at what dogs were available at the local shelters.  I'm not too picky on look honestly, it's more about personality.  I looked online at Pima Animal Care Center's website one day and found a small dog that I thought looked cute, so I wanted to go check it out.

I scheduled an appointment with the shelter and when I got there, they told me that dog was no longer available.  I decided to look and see what dogs they had anyway, since not all of them are listed on the website.  First, I looked at all the big dogs, picking out 3 that I was interested in.  Then I ventured through the small dogs and puppies.  I didn't want a puppy though, because I feel like that would be a lot of work training and for a first-time dog owner, maybe something over a year old would be best.  Most of the small dogs had been claimed, but there was one that I noticed because she didn't say anything and I like quiet dogs. :)

They gave me the rundown of the dogs I showed interest in, but all the big dogs were "special needs" dogs requiring additional attention and training, which was not good for a first-time dog owner.  The small dog they had very little information on since she just arrived as a stray the day earlier.  I decided to meet her and she was very calm and quiet, which is what I was looking for.  And so I put a reservation down on her and planned to pick her up a couple days later!

Her name at the shelter was Faith and when I brought her home, I couldn't decide what to name her right away.  I let her go nameless for a while before I eventually picked out the name Lucy.  I don't know, she just looked like a Lucy to me.

The first night, I was very nervous.  I have two cats, I kept stressing about how they would get along.  I had never owned a dog, I had no idea what I was doing.  I took 3 days off work and wrapped it around the weekend to get a full 5 days off taking care and supervising the new dog.  I also had to take her out on a walk, train her to use the bathroom outside, etc.  Make sure she liked her new food.  Just a lot of new territory for me and after the first two days I started questioning myself, "what have I done?"

After the first couple days separated off in her own room, I slowly started to introduce her to other parts of the house.  I'd keep the cats in her room and basically do an exchange, allowing them to get used to the smells before letting them see each other.  Of course, the biggest strategy to getting pets to get along is FOOD!  Food unites everyone, so I made sure that dinner time was a family thing, getting all pets to eat at the same time was very important.

It's now been 2+ weeks since Lucy has been here and everyone is more comfortable with having her around.  She still occasionally pees in the house, but we're working on that.  And she'll probably need obedience training down the road.  Regardless, I've been taking it one day at a time, learning about her and the cats' reactions to them, and I think we can be one big pet family in a few months or years or whatever it takes. :D

I never thought I'd get a small wire-hair terrier for a dog, but like I said, it's not so much about looks for me but their personality and obedience.  I wanted a couch potato dog, and I got lucky because she fits that role quite well.  And so my pet family is complete!  I won't be adopting anymore pets, I think 2 cats and 1 dog is purrfect for me.  Welcome to the family Lucy!

Sports are back!

Not a whole lot to blog about these days with stay-at-home life, but I'm really excited for sports to be back!

Last week, we got the MLB back and it was really interesting watching games with no fans in the stands.  I like how each stadium is using sounds from "MLB the Show" to add cheering and audience noise to bring back the experience for the players and those watching on TV, but of course it's not the same.  It's gonna be interesting to see what happens to teams that get hit hard with a heavy dose of Covid (like the Miami Marlins for example), but I feel like this entire year needs to be flexible if we're to enjoy and get back to some kind of humanity.

The NBA is starting back up tonight, so that's super exciting!  I've seen highlights from life in the NBA bubble and a few scrimmages.  Again, things just feel different without fans...almost as if the games aren't as "important" when in fact they are.  Either, way I'm just happy to have sports to watch again. I can only watch so much Hulu and Twitch. :D

Speaking of Hulu, I spent the last month watching Dragon Ball Super and it's sooooo good.  I loved the stories and development of characters outside of the usual main Saiyans (Goku and Vegeta) and I couldn't stop watching.  It was hard to just watch 1 episode at a time, I'd usually end up watching 2 or 3 at a time haha.

I did make it out for a round of golf and I shot decently considering I haven't played since February.  Not saying much because I still shot about a double-bogey per hole, but it was fun (and exhausting) to be out there once again. :)

Okay, well unfortunately that's about all the updates I have for now.  Still working from home, working out from home, playing video games, and Twitching.  Have a good month of August and I hope everyone continues staying safe so that we can get back to a normal life sooner than later!

Welp, here we go again...

This is gonna be a short blog entry because I don't really have a whole lot to update lately due to stay-at-home life.  Arizona had re-opened in early May and for a while we were able to go to gyms and my pool league was meeting once a week.  However, that quickly ended yesterday with another state order to close down gyms and bars again for 30 days.  So back to that life for me...

I have been going to at least once a week and some weeks I spend more days in there than others.  But overall I was starting to get excited about returning to a normal life.  Unfortunately, Arizona is just too crazy right now with too many people going out and about without wearing masks as if Covid is just gone.  *sigh*

Twitchcon was officially cancelled as well, so I have zero travel planned for the rest of the year with over 20 days of vacation still leftover.

For now, I'm back to working out at from home and just playing more video games I guess.  I'm super excited for sports to returning: the NBA and the MLB.  That'll be really exciting!

Anyhoo, I hope everyone out there is staying safe and sane!  I personally have been very lucky not to have been affected by Covid yet nor do I know anyone personally that has been affected.  However, I do know friends of friends who have gotten it and who have not been so lucky, so it's definitely a serious matter that we should acknowledge and be aware of.  Take care and see ya next month for hopefully better news!

ATrain64's PC Build for Streaming on Twitch

The core of my build was constructed in May of 2018, but I have since upgraded it to improve the quality of my stream to the level where you see it today.  If you're just stopping by to see what I've got in my build and how much it costs, you can find everything in the table below.

	Core Build (5/7/18)	Vendor	Cost
CPU Cooler	Cooler Master Hyper RR-212E-20PK-R2 LED CPU Cooler	Amazon	$29.99
Motherboard	ASUS Prime Z370-A LGA 1151 (300 Series)	Newegg	$164.52
Case	RAIDMAX Cobra Z ATX-502WBU Black/Blue ATX Mid Tower	Newegg	$39.99
Operating System	Microsoft Windows 10 Home 64 Bit System Builder OEM	Amazon	$101.08
Monitor 2	ViewSonic XG2701 27" 144 Hz 1ms Free Sync Gaming Monitor	Newegg	$319.99
Ethernet Adapter	TP-Link TG-3468 Gigabit Ethernet PCI-Express Network Adapter Card	Amazon	$16.29
DVD-RW	LG Electronics 8X Ultra Slim Portable DVD Writer Drive	Amazon	$27.47
		Total:	$699.33
	From Previous Build
Monitor 3 (12/2/12)	ViewSonic VX2703MH-LED Black 27" 3ms HDMI LED Monitor	Newegg	$239.99
SSD 2 (6/20/16)	SAMSUNG 850 EVO 2.5" 250GB SATA III 3-D Solid State Drive	Newegg	$87.69
Mouse (1/17/18)	Logitech G502 Proteus Spectrum RGB Tunable Gaming Mouse	Amazon	$54.29
		Total:	$381.97
	Add-Ons / Upgrades
Cam Stand 1 (6/22/18)	Smatree Adjustable Jaws Flex Clamp Mount 13.4"	Amazon	$13.99
USB Card (3/4/19)	Inateck 4 Ports PCI-e to USB 3.0 Expansion Card	Amazon	$16.99
Camera 1 (10/21/19)	Sony Alpha ILCE-6000L Digital Camera with 16-50mm Lens	Amazon	$558.00
Capture Card (10/21/19)	Elgato Cam Link 4K	Amazon	$116.22
Cam Stand 2 (10/26/19)	Smatree Adjustable Jaws Flex Clamp Mount 13.4"	Amazon	$13.99
Processor (10/31/19)	Intel Core i9-9900K 8-Core 5.0 GHz LGA1151 (300 Series)	Amazon	$484.99
M.2 SSD (10/31/19)	Samsung 970 EVO 1TB NVMe M.2 V-NAND Solid State Drive	Amazon	$169.99
Capture Card (11/26/19)	Elgato Game Capture HD60 Pro	Amazon	$159.99
Monitor 1 (12/5/19)	ViewSonic Elite XG270 27" 1080P 1ms 240Hz IPS G-Sync Gaming Monitor	Amazon	$429.99
Monitor Mount (12/11/19)	WALI Extra Tall Single Monitor Desk Mount (M001XL)	Amazon	$37.99
Mic Stand (1/10/20)	RODE PSA1 Swivel Mount Studio Microphone Boom Arm	Amazon	$100.44
Stream Deck (5/4/20)	Elgato Stream Deck with 15 Customizable LCD Keys	Amazon	$153.36
Camera Light (5/5/20)	Lume Cube Panel Adjustable Bi-Color LED Light	LumeCube	$144.00
Headphones (5/10/20)	Sennheiser HD 660 S HiRes Audiophile Open Back Headphones	Amazon	$543.45
Microphone (5/11/20)	Shure SM7B Cardioid Dynamic Microphone	Amazon	$433.71
XLR Mixer (5/12/20)	TC-Helicon GoXLR Mini	zZounds	$270.49
Side Light (6/29/20)	Tranesca Selfie Ring Light	Amazon	$21.69
RGB Light (7/1/20)	GLW LED RGB Flood Light, 30W with Remote Control, 16 Color	Amazon	$18.99
Camera Lens (8/26/20)	Sigma 16mm f/1.4 DC DN Contemporary Lens	Amazon	$430.21
Power Supply (3/19/21)	EVGA SuperNOVA 850 G5, 80 Plus Gold 850W, Fully Modular	Newegg	$189.77
Memory (4/2/21)	G.SKILL Ripjaws V Series 16GB (4 x 8GB) 288-Pin DDR4 3200 SDRAM	Amazon	$179.99
Camera 2 (4/2/21)	Logitech BRIO Ultra HD Webcam	Amazon	$178.30
Foot Pedal (5/10/21)	OLLGEN USB Foot Pedal Mechanical Switch	Amazon	$29.99
Video Card (3/10/22)	EVGA GeForce RTX 3080 10GB GDDR6X Ultra Gaming FTW3	eBay	$1,339.40
Keyboard (7/2/21)	Logitech G815 RGB Mechanical Gaming Keyboard (Tactile)	Amazon	$195.54
		Total:	$6,231.47
		Grand Total:	$7,312.77

In the rest of this blog entry, I will go over the core components of my build and important pieces that really boost the quality of my computer and Twitch stream.

CPU: Intel Core i9-9900K 8-Core 5.0 GHz

This was the best CPU available at time of purchase.  When it comes to streaming, multitasking is very common with the several apps you'll be running in the background in addition to some CPU-demanding games.  I chose the highest CPU since it's the last resource I ever want to be constrained on for what I use the computer for.

SSD: Samsung 970 EVO 1TB NVMe M.2 V-NAND Solid State Drive

Most won't see a noticeable benefit from NVMe drives over standard SATA SSDs, as the gain is mostly seen with multi-threaded operations that most Windows 10 applications don't currently utilize.  However, SSDs are significantly faster than traditional spinning HDDs, so I would never recommend anyone putting an HDD in their computer unless they are on a very tight budget.  Bottom-line, get at least a 500GB SSD for OS and games.

GPU: EVGA GeForce RTX 3080 10GB GDDR6X Ultra Gaming FTW3

When it comes to streaming on Twitch, I can't recommend anything less than the RTX 20 series cards from NVIDIA.  If you are going to use OBS or Streamlabs OBS, you will want to take advantage of the newest NVENC hardware encoder that comes with these cards.  If you follow the bitrate and encoding guidelines from Twitch, you'll learn that these cards produce similar quality to that of "Medium" with the x264 encoder via CPU.  The GPU cost to encode is minimal and saves valuable CPU usage to the point where you can get away with pairing it with a lesser i7 CPU and still produce great stream quality. I know they're expensive, but if you're gonna play on it almost every day, it's worth it. Also, I love EVGA products!

Capture Card: Elgato Game Capture HD60 Pro
I went with the HD60 Pro because arguably it provides better response time than the HD60 S.  I also like the internal PCI-E mini connection.  I plug my PS4/Switch console directly into the card via the HDMI input and then I output it to my gaming monitor via a SLOBS source projector.

Gaming Monitor: ViewSonic Elite XG270 27" 1080P 1ms 240Hz IPS G-Sync Gaming Monitor

When it comes to gaming monitors, the decision right now is between 1440p x 165Hz or 1080p x 240Hz.  This is a personal preference, but I elected for the frames over the visual quality to improve gaming and response for competitive battle royale games like Fortnite.  I currently own 3 monitors, which is extremely helpful for multitasking, but at least two monitors are necessary for effective streaming (1 to game on, 1 to read chat and notifications).  As for brand, I am very loyal to ViewSonic monitors.  I've owned several over the past couple decades and have never had a single problem with any of them.

Camera: Sony Alpha ILCE-6000L Digital Camera with Sigma 16mm f/1.4 Lens

I first started with a Logitech C920, arguably the best webcam for streaming on Twitch when it comes to cost and quality.  I then learned about digital cameras operating as webcams and they are on their own level in terms of camera quality.  I chose the Sony a6000 because it's the same camera used by a couple popular streamers I like to watch, plus I love its mirrorless picture.  The Sigma lens is not necessary, but it will increase the sharpness of the picture even more so.  You'll need the "Elgato Cam Link 4K" and an AC power source adapter in order to get it working with your computer as a webcam.

Lighting: Lume Cube Panel Adjustable Bi-Color LED Light

This lighting kit was on display at Twitchcon 2019 and it's a beast in terms of producing light.  I currently run mine at just 15% brightness, which speaks how powerful it is.  Lighting can be more important than the camera itself in terms of producing a good picture, so you need to invest in a good light.  For some environments, multiple lights are preferred as well as a dark background, depending on what kind of image you are trying to produce.

Microphone: Shure SM7B Cardioid Dynamic Microphone

The first microphone I used was a Blue Yeti, which for its price is a very good microphone for streamers.  I recently upgraded to an XLR microphone because I was curious and I could hear the higher audio quality on other streams.  I decided to go with a Shure SM7B based on popularity and reviews.  Make sure you have a good mic stand to go with this microphone so that you can have it close to your mouth when you speak.  I highly recommend the "RODE PSA1 Swivel Mount Studio Microphone Boom Arm".  It's more expensive than average but it's extremely sturdy.

XLR Mixer: TC-Helicon GoXLR Mini

A mixer for the XLR microphone is not necessary, but it's really nice to have.  The GoXLR Mini comes with a compressor, gate, and equalizer to really fine-tune the quality of your voice.  It has a USB output so that you can plug your XLR cable directly into the mixer and then the mixer does the rest.  I will say that the software for the GoXLR is not great, but hopefully the bugs will disappear and functionality will improve over time.

Headphones: Sennheiser HD 660 S HiRes Audiophile Open Back Headphones

My first pair of headphones were the Sennheiser HD 280 Pro closed back headphones that I owned for almost a decade.  They were very good headphones, but they were starting to feel worn out and outdated, so I went for an upgrade.  I decided to stick with Sennheiser because I am loyal to their brand, having owned a set for so long with complete satisfaction.  I am very impressed with the HD 660 S.  The spatial sound is impressive and open back headphones really immerse you into the audio environment of the game you're playing.  This set is also much lighter than my previous set and ultimately more comfortable.

Stream Deck: Elgato Stream Deck with 15 Customizable LCD Keys

A stream deck is completely optional for streamers, but once you have one, you'll love it and never go back to life without one.  It's extremely useful and can perform actions that you cannot do easily within OBS or Streamlabs OBS.  You can change scenes easily, disable/enable sources quickly, and even add multi-actions to generate special scenes unique to only those who possess a stream deck.  15 keys is a must-have minimum.  6 is too few and I feel like 32 would get harder to manage and take up valuable desk space if you don't have much to begin with.

ATrain's Build:

That pretty much covers the important components that contribute to my stream and its quality.  The rest is pretty straightforward.  16GB of RAM is the sweet spot in terms of memory.  The additional USB card in my computer is helpful since I have 9 USB connections.  A foot pedal is helpful to act as a push-to-talk button and save valuable keystrokes when gaming.  Make sure you have a nice gaming chair and it's designed ergonomically, critical for your long-term health when you'll be playing for several hours in the same spot.  My computer might be expensive, but it's so nice to play on and if you're gonna spend as much time on this thing everyday, you might as well put nice things in it.

Hope you enjoy the stream!  Feel free to say hi to me at https://www.twitch.tv/atrain64 and thanks for watching!

♪ Ah ah ah ah, Staying-At-Home, Staying-At-Home ♫

For as long as I've been alive, I've never seen the world like this.  Stay-at-home orders for multiple weeks, self-quarantine and isolation, it's quite unreal...

While it's a scary time in the world, I've personally been quite fortunate during this situation, being able to continue working and getting paid.  The biggest inconveniences and changes in my life at this moment are just that I can't go to the gym, I don't have pool league or golf league to play in, and I don't have sports to watch on TV.  Realistically all of those are pretty trivial issues.

Without sports to play and be entertained by, I've turned to video games to keep me busy.  While I still play a good amount of Fortnite, I have also been getting time in playing Final Fantasy 7 and the Remake. :) I spend a lot of time streaming and watching Twitch TV, more so than I ever did before the whole stay-at-home order.  Honestly, Twitch has been a good way to stay connected with friends, especially ones that I have befriended on that platform.

Earlier this month, I did have to cut my hair for the first time ever and it took me 90 minutes with some Phillips Norelco clippers I bought from Amazon.  It was definitely a challenge but my hair was getting pretty long and I didn't want to wait any longer.  With the governor of Arizona extending the stay-at-home policy to mid May, it looks I may have to go one more round at it by myself. :(

During this time, I've also been eating from home so often that I feel like I've lost weight.  I don't have a scale at the house, so I can't confirm this though. I work from home basically everyday now and continue to do enough maintenance to make sure I don't lose any muscle mass not having a gym to go to.

I hope all my friends are staying safe and finding ways to stay creative and entertained during this time.  I have had some friends affected with Covid, but fortunately they all recovered with a couple weeks.  Hopefully next month, I'll be back to blogging about my usual interests.  Fingers crossed!!!

Spring Training Games, Bowling, Pool Tournament, Corona, and Ember's Birthday!

Spring Training - an Arizona tradition:

Every year, my friend Mike coordinates a trip back to Arizona to go to multiple spring training baseball games.  He gets his friends from the east coast to all attend and it's a good time hanging out and just checking out games during the day, since it's so convenient to go to multiple games in different stadiums throughout the Phoenix area.  At the beginning of March, Nate, Chris, Head, Brian, and Paul were all able to make it out to Phoenix for this yearly tradition.  Kevin and I were the local ones in the photo below.

While I didn't attend all the games they did, I still made it to 4 games in 4 days, featuring ballparks in Peoria, Salt River Fields, and Mesa and seeing teams like the Padres, the Royals, the D'Backs, the Brewers, and the Athletics.  For me, I don't even really watch much of the baseball game.  It's honestly just a great time to enjoy the weather, drink some beer, and hang out with my friends I grew up with who now live on the other side of the country and I only get to see a few times a year. :)

IBM Bowling League Ends:

The most recent bowling season ended on March 12th.  This was a strange season for me.  My entire team from last year moved on from bowling (leaving Arizona, to take care of kids, etc).  I was the only one to return to the league, so I ended up joining another team in the league that had lost two members.  Our 4th member actually turned out to be a coworker of mine, who had always wanted to try bowling league.  He had never really bowled before, but he really got into it this season, purchasing a new ball and learning how to bowl a ball with the proper form and mechanics.

While we were able to sneak into the playoffs as the 4th and finally seed, unfortunately we weren't able to overcome some of the huge scores other teams were bowling the championship night and yours truly did not pull-off a miraculous repeat.  It's okay though, I'm still very much into bowling and I look forward to the next season!  Just not sure who I'll be bowling with yet...

Singles Local Qualifier for APA Pool League:

I recently moved up to a 6 in pool league.  If you need a refresher, the skills levels vary between 2-7 with 7 being the highest.  I would say most people in the league are on average a 4-5, and being a 6 is quite an accomplishment.  However, there's also a lot of pressure being the highest rated player on my pool team.  I am expected to play the other top players in the league and beat them.  I don't really feel like I can hang with those studs just yet, so I've been trying to enter more tournaments on the side to improve and get better.

On March 14th, I entered the singles local qualifier tournament.  It's open and free to enter, and if you win, you go to Phoenix for regionals for a chance to play at Nationals in Vegas.  You may recall this is something I tried back in 2016 when I moved up from a 4 to a 5 in 8-ball.

Honestly, I only wanted to play in the tournament for practice, but after 8 hours at the pool hall, a bye, and 4 matches later, I found myself a winner and qualified for the regionals at Phoenix.  Whoops!  I am gonna consider going though, not with the intention of winning, but to play other great players and learn how to beat them on a more consistent basis. :)

Corona:

It's a really sad time in the world right now.  Many people are unable to work and forced to stay at home for the upcoming future, without a real good estimate of when they can go back and start making money again.  Personally, my job has not changed too much.  I already work from home 3-4 days a week, so going a full 5 is no big deal.  I am on the list of "essential employees" who have access cleared to go into the lab should I need to.

I am however affected in other ways because of Corona.  I can't go to my gym anymore (closed until at least the end of the month) and there is no pool league or golf league (which would have started on the 18th).  With no leagues to play in, I find myself just working out every day from home to the point that my legs are starting to feel like jello.  But in reality, my problems are very minor and trivial.  I don't have kids who are staying at home because school is canceled, so I don't have my hands full or a family using up all of the house's resources.  I am still working and making money, so I am the least of anyone's worries right now.

Take care out there, it's a scary time but hopefully all this crazyiness will be over real soon and we can get back on with our lives!

Ember's 1st Birthday:

And now to end the blog entry on a more positive note.  March 23rd was Ember's 1st Birthday!  She is officially an adult cat and a wonderful one at that.  She's so friendly with anyone she meets and is a great addition to my little cat family.  Happy Birthday Ember, I love you!

Not much going on here!

Not a lot going on since our last blog post, but I still want to get my monthly update in, so here goes:

The Chiefs won the Superbowl, so I'll need to go to Vegas within a year of the big game to collect my winnings on that sweet bet I made. :)

The cats are doing well, no issues with Benzi and Ember is a very healthy kitty.  Ember actually turns 1-year-old next month, but I've already started transferring her over to adult food.

I'm still playing pool, but our team has kind of hit a wall in terms of performance.  They moved me up to a skill level 6, which doesn't help, and I've already been bouncing back and forth from a 5 and a 6 this season.  I got that new Jacoby Black shaft but I'm still waiting on my custom butt to be made, so maybe that will give me some inspiration.  I'm also looking to join more tournaments and play in a summer 9-ball league to just get more reps in hopes of improving my game.  Right now, I just don't feel like a 6...yet, but it's definitely where I want to be.

Bowling league will be ending in 2 weeks, and our team looks to make it to the playoffs.  I have a brand new team (everyone from my roster of years past did not return), so it's been a bit of an adjustment.  But we're still in the hunt, which means I have a chance for another championship.  Updates on that to come later.

Next month will be busier and I'll have some new stuff to blog about.  I'm going up to Phoenix for spring training games to see Mike, Nate, and Chris.  Golf league should also be picking up soon, so I'm looking forward to that.

Sorry for the lame post today, but I figure it's better to blog about something than nothing at all (just like how I feel about working out!).  Until next time and thanks for checking in on me!

Chiefs are going to the Big Game!!!

I had never watched the NFL before the year 2000, but my friends in high school invited me to to try this thing called "Fantasy Football".  I wasn't really sure about any of it, but I wanted to participate with my friends so I gave it all a shot.

The first year of fantasy football, I remember owning a running back named Eddie George.  He was a really good player for the Tennessee Titans, but coming towards the end of his career.  I didn't do well in Fantasy Football, probably because I just had zero knowledge of the game and the sport.

Eventually, I would continue to draft players that I grew to like, some of them being Tony Gonzalez of the Kansas City Chiefs and Trent Green (but when he was first playing for the St Louis Rams).  Eventually Trent would lose his job for the Rams to some guy named Kurt Warner, but he found a home in Kansas City and had great running backs like Priest Holmes and Larry Johnson to run for him.  It was basically then that I started to really love the chiefs.  And eventually in 2006, I would travel out to Kansas City to visit my friend Chris from college who was working for Cerner at the time.

During my visit to Kansas City, I really wanted to go to a Chiefs game, which would also be the first NFL game I ever attended.  That's how I built a connection to the Chiefs, through Fantasy Football, through visiting the city and attending the game, and just becoming a fan of the team regardless if they were good or bad.

Now after 20 years of being a KC Chiefs fan, they had never really been a winning team...until now.  I had never seen them make it to the Superbowl, but the time has finally come.  And the past two years ever since Mahomes has taken over at QB, I have been feeling confident in the team.  I like their chances so much at the beginning of each year that I'm willing to put $100 on them to win it all.

So here's to the Chiefs!  I'm super excited for Sunday!  I guess we'll find out in a couple days if you'll see me agonizing in pain or celebrating in glory! :D