brian – Regular Guy

2022 Reading Update #2

brian — Sun, 03 Apr 2022 17:24:36 +0000

Half a dozen books in after the first quarter of the year. My reading always picks up when the weather is nicer, so I feel like last year’s total of 31 is in reach.

Here are the four I have read most recently:

Drunk: How We Sipped, Danced, and Stumbled Our Way to Civilization by Edward Slingerland: I am not sure where I saw this, but I put it on my list for the Yule Book Flood that my wife, my daughter and I do each Christmas. This was a pretty deep dive into the history of alcohol from an alcohol-positive perspective. He did spend the final chapter going over all the negatives, but I really appreciated the historical insights into the benefits of a drink or two. He had a pretty good sense of humor about things and added some COVID context, which I appreciated.

The Bright Side of Going Dark by Kelly Harms: I had read one of her books in 2019 and thought I would give this a try. I didn’t hate it, but I enjoyed the other book more. This tale of a social media influencer who goes off the grid and the social media employee who secretly takes over the influencer’s account had some very serious topics going through it – sibling death, suicide attempts, and difficulty connecting with parents. But the heavy-handed examination of how social media influences our lives just didn’t work for me, especially when one of the critical moments was obvious from a mile away.

Too Much Too Late by Marc Spitz: An inside tale of a fictional rock band is one of my weak spots. Marc Spitz delivered in this one about a band that hits it big years after they broke up. Their attempts to embrace stardom on the back end of their career end up a hilarious (and sad) disaster. I was saddened to learn that Spitz died several years ago because I enjoyed both of his rock fiction books.

The Humans by Matt Haig: Having been blown away by How to Stop Time and The Midnight Library, I wanted to jump into some of Haig’s other work. This 2014 novel tells the story of an alien sent to Earth in order to assume the identity of a mathematician who found the key to advanced civilizations. Initially repulsed by everything on Earth, he comes to embrace our unusual ways, much to the dismay of his overseers. You can see the nuggets of wisdom in this book that make the other two books I mention so compelling. I highly recommend this if you have liked Haig’s other works.

I Did It!

brian — Thu, 31 Mar 2022 15:46:10 +0000

Finally! I have achieved my goal and blogged every single day of March. This silly little challenge was just a personal effort to see if I could get back into the routine of something I had kind of pushed to the background.

But I succeeded and now have 31 days of fantastic content for you to enjoy.

Oh, yeah, right. There’s something like 11 or 12 days worth of posts up there. I forget and don’t feel like going back and re-counting.

I still feel proud of that accomplishment given how sporadic I have posted over the past few years. I got a few thoughts out of my head and will hopefully find some sort of rhythm in the future.

There were a few things that contributed to me not making the goal:

Work has just been a bear for a while now. We have another person in my department so that helped some, but it’s still kind of crazy. That brings about mental fatigue that makes writing a chore since I write a lot all day, even if we’re just talking about e-mails.
I continue to throw myself into Football Manager content and question whether this should become a Football Manager blog or not. I love the game and have enjoyed making content, but am not sure whether I want to add writing about it to my plate. So I am focusing more on YouTube and streaming on Twitch for now.
Things started to peter out around March Madness. That is not a coincidence. Even once that big weekend is done, my mind is still reeling. I wouldn’t change a thing.
I am just plain lazy and would rather knock out a quick Tweet or Facebook post.
COVID fatigue is still real, y’all.

But I will probably fill this space with my words of nonsense more in the future. I have a personal challenge in mind for April. It will likely not result in something for public consumption, but it will cross something off the list of things I have in my brain and need to get out.

Searching for the Perfect Pair

brian — Tue, 15 Mar 2022 00:10:34 +0000

Not all sweatpants are created the same.

I have come to understand this truism over the past six months or so. Blame the pandemic.

I appreciated sweatpants long before COVID-19 appeared. But the way I lived my life – constantly running from activity to activity – meant that I did not get to wear them as much as I wanted.

And even when we found ourselves isolated at home, I probably wore them less than other people. I can only blame myself for that.

I feel like I need to put what we call “hard pants” on in the morning before I start working. I really had trouble motivating myself without getting dressed up at least a little bit. That meant I didn’t change into sweats until the evening usually.

But I found myself unhappy with my sweatpants situation as we approached cold weather late last year. So I invested in a few more pairs. This is where the inequality of sweatpants comes into play.

I generally rotate through four pairs of sweatpants (with some pajama bottoms occasionally thrown in on weekends when hard pants just aren’t going to happen). And I have even started changing out of my jeans around lunch to rock sweats for the rest of the day.

There is clearly a pecking order to these pants. At the top are the two pairs that are a little thinner fabric-wise. The other two pairs rank lower even though they keep me warmer. Again, I can only blame myself for this.

One pair – which I actually bought at the very beginning of the pandemic – suffers from a fatal flaw. They have no pockets. I can’t understand how anyone lets this happen in the manufacturing process. Who makes sweatpants without pockets? I still try to slide my phone into a pocket when I wear them.

When I bought another pair of thick sweats late last year, I checked very carefully to make sure that they had pockets. They do and are very comfortable. I missed one other thing though. The drawstring has these metal tips that clink around whenever you walk.

I probably like those sweatpants the most, bt I like wearing them the least. So the thin sweatpants win out for now as I remind myself to check for yet another thing in the product description in my search for the perfect pair of sweatpants.

Choose Your Setting

brian — Sat, 12 Mar 2022 17:10:46 +0000

Generally, I embrace change. I feel like some situations cause me to rise to the challenge and make me a better person.

However, getting a new toaster might not be one of those times.

We needed to make this change. I will 100 percent concede that. But I might have more than a few issues with the adjustment.

First of all, Maria bought a stainless steel toaster. She used a gift card she received for Christmas so I really get no say in this part of the matter.

I just know that I will manage to sully the shiny surface with fingerprints without even touching it. i have that kind of effect on things. She has put up with my general untidiness for more than two decades. Will this be the breaking point?

I exaggerate, but it will cause me stress, especially when I will do my best to clean the thing, but not do it as well as she would.

Beyond the whole “it has to stay shiny” thing (which I support), there is the whole matter of learning just what the number settings mean.

Sure, the manual defines what setting to choose for light, medium or dark, but what standard is the person who wrote those directions using?

We did do a test with a frozen English muffin and determined that it needed about three and a half minutes somewhere between 3.5 and 4.5. But I put toast on 2.5 the next day, and it only toasted for less than 2 minutes, barely reaching “light” status.

This is important stuff, people. So please show us some grace as we navigate this important challenge. Just don’t leave any fingerprints.

Caring by Not Caring

brian — Wed, 09 Mar 2022 19:27:25 +0000

My career as a full-time journalist ended almost 22 years ago. I last wrote something for a newspaper about 7 years ago. My identity is no longer wrapped up in that profession. I haven’t felt that way for a long time. However, I am immensely grateful especially right now for one of the lessons I learned in the decade where newspapers ruled every aspect of my life.

I have an incredible ability to not give a shit about the minutiae around sports because I had to write about the minutia around sports all the time.

Spending so much time as a full-time sports writer made me gain an incredible appreciation for sports on their own. I didn’t need to argue every finer point or take a position on every drama. I learned that I could just sit back and watch a game to appreciate the skills of the people involved and the chaos that can come from any competition.

In the end, I realize that none of it matters. Maybe a few things do, but they only matter to the people involved. That’s why I ask you sports talk radio or punditry because they really are just exercises in useless conversation.

Fast forward to this week when the college wrestling community, especially on Twitter, lost their collective minds over an injustice that some worry will destroy the sport as we know it for all eternity. The crime that will bring about this ruin? Some wrestlers decided to not compete in the final match of their conference tournament instead of risking injury or an embarrassing loss two weeks before the NCAA championship tournament.

Pretty much all of these guys were guaranteed a spot in the national tournament when they decided to take what is known in the sport as a medical forfeit. The extent of their injuries was not always clear, but the rigors of a collegiate wrestling season catch up to everyone by this time of the year.

That is the worst insult grown-ass men watching on television could ever imagine. I could not believe how people lost their minds. Well, I guess I should because as I sit back in my hobby chair of enjoyment, I have seen lots of idiots going crazy over things that matter very little in the scheme of things. But this was beyond the pale.

One guy even traced back to a match in December when one wrestler decided not to compete in a dual meet against another highly ranked opponent. He said that decision was part of a season-long scheme to game the system in order to have a better road to the finals match at the national tournament. Somehow, this kid and his coach knew how every other match in his weight class would end up back in December so he could enact his master plan in March. Diabolical!

These points often come from people who are sad that they never achieved what they wanted to and need to insult other athletes in order to overcome their weaknesses. One of my problems with the wrestling community, like other niche communities I am part of, is the people involved. They can ruin it with their myopia and selfishness.

But I won’t let that get to me. I intend to sit in front of the television watching all three days of the NCAA tournament and loving every second of it because sports, when it comes down to it, are awesome. I can just do without the fans.

Surviving the Mean Streets

brian — Tue, 08 Mar 2022 01:02:58 +0000

One of my favorite things about living in a small town like Hanover is making fun of people who freak out about every little thing. This mainly takes the form of talking about safely walking through town at night as a miracle even though it is a common occurrence.

(I know bad things can and do happen, but they never do the way some Nervous Nellies like to pretend.)

Anyway, I did have a brush with danger a few years ago. And another one a week or so ago.

I knew I would be drinking that night as I enjoyed a show at The Church of Satire Comedy Club so I left my car at home. At the end of the night, I grabbed some carryout beer and headed home.

As I approached an alley headed toward my house, I heard a rustling in a nearby yard. I hesitated for a second and then saw something that scared me to my core. People were right. Hanover is dangerous at night.

I backed up with my hands in the air and shuffled away from the alley. Thankfully, my attacker understood that he had no quarrel with me and let me go on my way via another route.

The moral of the story is that walking home can stink sometimes.

A New Challenge

brian — Sun, 06 Mar 2022 01:05:54 +0000

I don’t really know why I decided to start “creating content” around the games I play on Football Manager. I think it had to do with a lot of the things I get involved with – I saw someone else doing it and figured I could do it too.

I have no illusions about this endeavor. I just want to have fun. Sure, other people have made this into a career, but that has never entered my mind. I really just want people to enjoy my videos and watch for more than a few seconds when I stream.

But if that is what I want, doesn’t that mean I have hopes of getting enough of those people to make some money off of this? In other words, maybe I am lying to myself in the previous paragraph.

I will 100 percent cop to this. Sure, I would love if I got more attention on this, but I know others have a greater head start, more free time to dedicate to this and – to be brutally honest – aren’t 53 years old playing a video game online for the enjoyment of others.

So I will keep going. Because one of the reasons I decided to make videos and ultimately start streaming was to become better at the game., if I put myself out there, I figured I would pay more attention to the nuances so that I could succeed more.

That has happened somewhat. My goal of winning a championship for D.C. United in five years of gameplay came true in just three years. I also had a successful season with the low-level English team I am playing on my Twitch stream.

But mostly I have discovered a whole community of people who love this game and, for the most part, just like to support one another. And those kind of connections are enough for me.

Just don’t forget to like, share and subscribe.

I’m a Loser

brian — Sat, 05 Mar 2022 03:48:57 +0000

I could not figure out today’s Wordle puzzle. And that’s OK.

I didn’t share that one to the thread I use for my results because I don’t really need to share my failures. (I have a single Facebook thread for Wordle instead of making a new one every day.) But I feel like maybe I should have.

For the first few days of the Wordle craze, I resisted. And for no real reason other than the stupid mind games that follow any Internet craze. Then I did a puzzle and fell in love with the game.

I love the rhythm of one daily puzzle that we all can share. Of course, this has been ruined by people whining about colored squares in their Facebook or Twitter feeds or the ultra-competitive who make it seem like not guessing a word is some sort of moral failing.

Neither of these groups should make me pause before posting my result. The first one definitely does not. In fact, they make me more eager to share what I have done because their humorlessness deserves pushback.

The second one, however, gives me pause. Because I am competitive even though I don’t always do my puzzle at the most ideal time which leads me to not share my result some days.

I generally do my puzzle very early in the morning before I try and catch another hour or so of sleep. If I don’t do it then, I might toss and turn thinking about Wordle. If I do log in, I might get frustrated around guess 4 or 5 and just throw in the towel.

And that is what happened on this one. I just didn’t care at some point. But I did care enough to not show it, which is dumb because this is a free word game that means absolutely nothing.

Can you forgive me?

2022 Reading Update #1

brian — Thu, 03 Mar 2022 23:18:48 +0000

My reading journey for 2022 has started a little slower than some other years. I am only two books in with the third one not too far away from the end.

I kept meaning to blog about the first two books, but kept putting it off. Knocking this post out was part of the impetus for trying to blog every single day (except the first one) this month.

I will strive to keep the format of all of my book posts this year consistent, but I can’t promise anything.

The Night the Lights Went Out by Drew Magary: I first started reading Magary 20ish years ago when he was part of the foul-mouth crew who wrote irreverent stuff on a sports blog whose name I won’t use because it isn’t really funny in hindsight.

Anyway, he made me laugh back then and stayed in my consciousness as a writer for Deadspin and other outlets. I was less fond of his juvenile stuff as time went on (even though I am still very juvenile), but also saw some really powerful takes on a number of issues.

That’s why I couldn’t wait to read this book, a memoir/oral history about the traumatic brain injury he suffered several years ago and his recovery. The book is funny, heart-wrenching and brutally honest. He has an incredible gift for writing. I highly recommend this.

We Ride Upon Sticks by Quan Berry: I am not sure how a book about how the members of a high school girls field hockey team use magic (maybe) to enhance their senior season ended up on my reading list, but I am thoroughly happy I did.

First of all, it is a delightful ride through late 1980s nostalgia. The way Berry uses song lyrics or commercial tag lines seamlessly through the narration just amazed me. She also deftly uses a first-person plural narrator without really distracting from the story.

The sports angle may not be for everyone, but it truly is more about the relationships than the actual games. This book definitely should be on your to-be-read list.

A Day Late and Many Dollars Short

brian — Wed, 02 Mar 2022 19:38:20 +0000

I made a private promise that I would blog every day in March. I didn’t share this with anyone because I know myself and had low expectations. But here is my first post of March explaining why I didn’t post on the 1st of March.

The problems started a while back. We randomly lost Internet one day. I went through rigamarole with Comcast online and eventually got the service restored. At the end of the call, I agreed that a tech did not need to come out because everything was working.

Plus, I might have to pay for that service call. Mind you, I can afford to do that. The idea just didn’t appeal to me if everything was fixed.

Fast forward a few weeks and we start having random dropouts. The only solution is to turn off both the modem and router and turn them back on. High-level stuff.

Then it starts happening more. Like, every 30-60 minutes sometimes. So I contact Comcast again, this time on Feb. 28. They immediately tell me I need a new modem – which is not untrue because I have increased the speed of our package, but that shouldn’t be causing the problem. I tell them we need someone to come look at the line into the house.

So they schedule that. Then they try to move up our appointment for a time I told them we were not available. So I get snippy in the Twitter DM thread and they schedule us for the afternoon of March 1.

The first thing the guy does is say we need a new modem. Then he spends a while working on the outside lines, which had been damaged by squirrels. That gets repaired, and he tells us that everything is working fine.

Then it dies again. Reset. Dies again. So I do what any smart person should do – grudgingly admit they may have been right and head out to Target to get a new modem.

Setup is easy, peasy. We climb into bed. Maria turns on our Fire Stick.

And it dies again. At this point, I’m gutted. It can’t be our router. It just can’t. I don’t know why I refuse to accept this, but I do. So I do a factory reset of the router. Then another when it won’t connect. Then a third. At some point in there, I order a new mesh router package on Amazon.

My router finally connects. Then is not connected when I wake up in the middle of the night. I resign myself to us having to just use the hard-wired connection to the modem and the data on our phones until the new router shows up. Until …

Target has pretty much the same router for the same price. So I got it this morning. And it’s easy to set up. Now we have Internet again, hopefully for good.

So that’s why I will write a blog post every day in March except one.