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!!!
Thursday, April 30, 2020
Tuesday, March 24, 2020
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!
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.
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!
Friday, February 28, 2020
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!
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!
Friday, January 31, 2020
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
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
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