The Coolest Thing I Have Ever Seen

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Tradition

Doesn't anyone blog anymore? I know like 5,000 people who blog, actually 4, and they all post like one crappy blog a month...sheesh. I mean come on, it was Thanksgiving. You should have things to talk about.
Well,my Thanksgiving was great. It is the only time of year where I have time off work and don't fill it with trips, races, family events, or sickness. Four days to do whatever the heck I want. And I did. It was great. Being a single guy in 2005 makes it kinda difficult to have holiday traditions when I am not with my family. I am doing my best to make my own traditions. That kinda sounds lonely and depressing, I just realized that as I typed it. It's actually not. For the past two years I've spent Thanksgiving at the Browns. They do it right. Parades, Football, Video Games, Beer, a feast, great friends, good movies, and falling asleep on the floor. For the past two years, thats been my Thanksgiving tradition, and it's been great. Tradition is rare for a singe guy living 1000 miles away from home. The Saturday following Thanksgiving I have been going up to the Rim and hiking around Woods Canyon Lake with the dogs. Its cold, sometimes snowy, pine trees, Campfires, Solitude, perfect. Its a great way to feel like its Christmas time when you live in a desert. Along with Amy and I, Jon, Jack, and Lauren joined us. We built a fire by the lake, skipped rocks, and did some hiking.

Explosions in the Sky

This great evil - where's it come from?
How'd it steal into the world?
What seed, what root did it grow from?
Who's doing this?
Who's killing us, robbing us of life and light, mocking us with the sight of what we mighta known?
Does our ruin benefit the earth, aid the grass to grow and the sun to shine?
Is this darkness in you, too?
Have you passed through this night?

-Explosions in the Sky


I've been listening to this band for about six months now and have been really impressed with the little I have heard of them. They are an almost entirely instrumental rock band. Occasionally they will throw some kind of vocals into a song, spoken. It's always something really ambiguous and a little obscure, but interesting enough to make you wonder what they are talking about (see above lyric). In one song they sneeze into the microphone...it's not as gross as it sounds. Of the two albums I own, "The Earth is Not a Cold Dead Place" is my favorite. They are also on the Friday Night Lights soundtrack. If you have iTunes, check out the song, "The Only Moment We Were Left Alone". If my entire life was put into an 9 minute video, this song would be the soundtrack.


Call me lame, but I feel like every song on this albumn tells a story. It has angry points and sad points...rage, joy, worry, grief, anticipation, fear. Explosions is a great pick for the iPod for a long run. Check them out...I will be happy to lend you my CDs.


From an article...

'These four musicians came together in 1999 to form one of the greatest instrumental rock bands in modern history. Their music has been described as passionate, romantic, loud, melodic, powerful, tragic, and beautiful. Austin, Texas is home to many great artists but few of them stir emotions better than Explosions In The Sky!'

7 Minutes to Spare

We finished the Summit Challenge with 7 minutes to spare. It was a long day, but I had a great time. The day started when my alarm beeped at 4:45 AM. I headed to REI to meet Meredith and Brandy. We started a Papago at 6 AM. Brandy hiked with us for about 30 seconds. She couldn't stand it anymore...she took off jogging up the mountain. What the... Papago was no problem, a good warm up. From there we headed to the dreaded Camelback, which was not too bad since our legs were still fresh. Jack and Lauren joined us there and stay with us for the rest of the day. Next was South Mountain. It was 7 miles round trip. About half-way up the mountain I realized how much I was enjoying my day. The weather was perfect, I was with great friends, I felt good...it was just a great day. Lauren and I stuck together behind Merdith and Jack as they debated theology. Those guys are pretty smart. It got kinda heated though. I could see Meredith making a fist at one point. I just knew she was going to punch Jack in the nose if he mentioned John Eldredge one more time. Lauren and I had fifty bucks on who would draw blood first. Just to stir things up it was always fun for us to hollar things like "I'd like to debate that", and "I completely disagree" just to rile them up.
Piestewa (Squaw) peak was next. It was rough. Every step was an effort. It was definately my low point of the day, as expected. Lookout Mountain was the shortest of the day, it took Jack something like 15 minutes round trip. As we were going down North Mountain we saw Brandy running up the mountain...she was done, a full mountain ahead of us. Shaw Butte was long. 5 miles roundtrip. We tried to run the flats. Jeff C, Mandy, and Rhys joined us for encouragement...thanks guys.

Phoenix Summit Challenge

Tommorrow is the Summit Challenge. The Challenge: Climb 7 of Phoenix's most prominant peaks in11 hours or less. We will begin climbing at 6AM at Papago, then Camelback, Lookout Mt., Shaw Butte, North Mountain, Squaw Peak, and then South Mountain.

Right now I am kinda having a hard time getting excited about this. It sounded like a good idea when we signed up. There are three of us doing it, but some friends are planning on joining us for various peaks along the way. I will update with pictures next week. -bs

A New Backyard...Step 1

I've really got to put a new post up here to get rid of that ugly teen wolf. I am really getting tired of looking at him. I had a really shitty week last week, and this one hasn't gotten off to a good start. Please excuse me for using such a harsh 6-letter word, but honestly, any other word would not do my shitty week justice. I won't even get into it, b/c I really am tired of talking about it.

I am in the process of completely redoing my back yard. It's going to be a long process, but in the end it should be a kickin place to hang out by next summer. I'm trying to do it myself, otherwise I couldn't afford the labor. The first step is redoing my porch. I ripped up all the flagstone and laid a concrete slab to adhere them. That was a big job, here's some pictures of me and my helpful assistants:

Excavation #1



Excavation #2



Framing and Rebar



Pouring and Leveling Concrete



Smooth Concrete Slab



5 Stones back in Place

Words of Wisdom

Thanks Kirk, this is very helpful...

Covering Teen Wolf: One Coach's Guide.


Used to be, the key to beating Teen Wolf's Beavers was just to play them on any night there wasn't a full moon. We were unlucky one season in that we met them 28 days apart, both times in their barn, and Teen Wolf destroyed us—64 points in the first game, then a quadruple-double in the second, with 14 blocked shots and 25 steals. Our third matchup, though, we were fortunate enough to have a 76 percent waxing gibbous, so it was regular Scott Howard, who turned the ball over twice before fouling out, scoreless, in eight minutes of play. These days, however, it seems the guy can change over whenever he wants, which poses a real problem to opposing coaches. What follows is the best strategy my staff and I have come up with to limit Teen Wolf's effectiveness on the court. While admittedly far from foolproof, it will, hopefully, prove useful to your team. We're all in this together, folks.

To begin, you're going to have to resign yourself to the fact that Teen Wolf is probably going to drop at least 50 points. That might seem like a lot, but, unfortunately, it's just the way the ball bounces. As coach, you need to recognize that your job isn't to do the impossible; you're not going to stop Teen Wolf entirely, but you can try to contain him by making him play your team's style of basketball. Discipline and defensive fundamentals help: nose on the ball, feet moving, channeling him into traps—careful with those, though. Soon as Teen Wolf gets two guys on him, he tends to find the open man. He's a heads-up ballplayer with great court sense, so if you're going to bring a trapping zone against Teen Wolf, make sure you have solid weak-side rotation and your defenders are communicating.

Of course, that's only if he feels like passing. Teen Wolf gets scrappy once you put the pressure on, and he's a great ball handler with a low-to-the-ground style reminiscent of Pistol Pete or a young Isiah Thomas. Add to his skill and quickness those gigantic, hirsute paws, and you're up against one hell of a dribbler. We've tried giving Teen Wolf a step, respecting his speed, but we've found that if our guys slack off him, he'll generally hit the open jumper—or else take off from wherever he's standing on the court, sail over everyone's heads, and finish with one of those dunks where he ends up sitting on the top of the backboard, howling, feet dangling down through the hoop.

While you're welcome to try it, my feeling is that man-to-man defense simply isn't an option. Some teams like to play a box-and-one, which generally works well against most lycanthropes. With Teen Wolf, though, you have to be careful. He'll just stand baying by the sideline while the rest of the Beavers run four-on-four. Then, at a signal from Coach Finstock, Teen Wolf will come screaming down the lane, fur bristling and fangs bared, for the alley-oop. (And with him having what's rumored to be a 78-inch standing vertical leap, rest assured he's even more difficult to stop once he gets up in the air.) I've heard of coaches dealing with this by putting a sniper in the crowd with a box of silver bullets and a hunting rifle. We tried it once, back when Teen Wolf was only a freshman: the shooter missed, and when the cops showed up and cleared the gym we were forced to default.

So, I bet you're wondering, if it's impossible to cover him through conventional defenses, what can we do? Here's the key: Teen Wolf doesn't get along with his teammates. While he's certainly got the individual skills to dominate most games, I'd have to struggle to think of ever seeing a more selfish player in my 28 years of coaching. He tends to alienate his fellow Beavers by doing things like stealing the ball off them, or stealing their girlfriends, and their resentment is easy for opposing teams to exploit. Sympathy seems to work well; get your players to say stuff like, "Man, sure sucks playing with Teen Wolf," or "I'd hate to have a guy like Teen Wolf on my team," and you'll be surprised how quickly the Beavers' team defense will start to open up.

Another trick is to keep on the officials about aggressive play. Granted, most refs are pretty scared to call anything on Teen Wolf, what with the risk of being devoured in the parking lot after the game. Still, it's hard to ignore someone being gouged by lupine talons, especially if the player's entrails are exposed. Coach Finstock hates sitting Teen Wolf, but if his star picks up three fouls early, there won't be any other option. Just make sure to tell your guys to resist taunting Teen Wolf while he's on the bench; it only makes him angrier, and with that anger comes frightening strength.

Finally, keep in mind that beneath all that fur, Teen Wolf is only human—or half-human, whatever—with weaknesses, just like any of us. And as a hormonally imbalanced, eternally cursed teenager, he's particularly fragile. For one thing, at just under 70 percent, Teen Wolf's free-throw shooting is comparatively weak; if you've got a kid on your team brave or crazy enough to knock Teen Wolf down with a hard foul, encourage it. Make him earn his points at the line. "Hack-a-Wolf" brought us within 10 of the Beavers during last year's playoffs—that is, until Teen Wolf dunked eight consecutive trips down the floor from the 3-point line, putting the lead out of reach.

OK, that's pretty much all I've got. As I mentioned earlier, defending Teen Wolf isn't an exact science, and you're more than welcome to alter these tactics as befits your own ball club. I hope that between us we can keep the lines of communication open and continue to share strategies that seem to work. My feeling is that there's no team that is completely unbeatable, even if their star transforms into a werewolf before every game. Oh, and if you come up with some way of preventing Teen Wolf from jumping up and catching your team's shots, I'd be particularly interested in hearing it.

BY PASHA MALLA

Some of Life's Greatests...

Inspired by Audrey's "Autumn's Most Wonderful" posts...

I love...

-The Smell of Scout's feet after he plays in the park
-Patty Griffin and strong coffee
-6PM in Phoenix in the Fall
-Long bike rides
-Teen Wolf
-Physically pushing myself to my limits and beyond
-The Smell of Home Depot
-and Gasoline
-The taste of a sour margarita with a lot of salt
-Reading myself to sleep
-My mom's voice when she sings
-Calls from my Grandmother
-Old Hmyns
-Talk Radio
-Mornings
-The magical feeling of Christmas Eve
-Yard Work
-Solitude
-The feel of a fish on the end of a line
-Mountains
-Adventure, risk, and the unknown
-The Coffee Fellowship with my coworkers
-Mrs. Butterworth's Syrup
-Reading an old journal
-Looking at maps
-Gmail
-The feeing that I could go forever during a long run
-The smell of leather
-East Africa
-Efficiency
-Blue's Wrinkles
-The feeling of being forgiven
-Memories of college
-Saturday Mornings in the Fall in Auburn, Alabama
-Doing yardwork with my dad
-Tino's salsa
-The Los Olivos Special
-Sleeping with my dogs
-My commute to work
-Movies that make me think
-Fishing with my grandfather
-Productivity
-Playing hide-and-seek with my niece
-Laying in bed after a full day's work
-The smell of Jasmine in the Spring
-Coldplay
-The intensity of a triathlon swim start
-The unexpressable feeling of joy
-The feeling after a long, necessary cry
-Irony
-Long showers
-Red Wine
-Classical Guitar
-My bike
-The smell of new clothes
-and carpet
-Clean Teeth
-Waking up early
-Texas
-Willie Nelson on vinyl
-The Aggie War Hymn
-Most of the people who read my blog