Life is big

I have too many hobbies.

That is an odd critique to hold of oneself, but it's certainly valid.
I have an intrinsic curiosity about things that I am not at least remedially familiar with, and tend to bounce from one activity to the next with no real goal of any particular mastery.

This being the case, I have never found myself the type of person to have a "thing" or a natural proclivity to a particular skill set.  I suppose generalist would be an adequate descriptor., and I used to view this as a great negative.  The issue is that I have found myself surrounded by some of the most talented and intelligent people to walk this earth.  Many of my friends find themselves at the top of the collective when it comes to talents and pursuits.  They have the greatest intellect, discipline, empathy, dedication, strength, skill that I have come across respective to their individual gifts.
They have a "thing".
It is inspiring to witness, and on rare occasion outright intimidating.

As I have gotten older I have grown to understand and appreciate how big life is.  There are countless inspiring people that are involved in a million diverse and fascinating pursuits and pastimes.
That's a beautiful piece of life: we may never even be aware of something that gives another an enormous sense of fulfillment and purpose.  I think this is so cool, and almost regret that there is not more time to explore what drives and inspires other people. 

And so, perhaps that is my talent: curiosity and willingness to learn of new skills.
People have commented that they think I know how to do anything (this isn't true, but thanks)
Another good friend of mine who I have known for many years told me that I am the best he's ever seen at not getting bored and always having something to work on.
I consider this one of the greatest compliments you can give someone.

I love spending time learning all I can about something I know little about and sharing it with others.
What's encouraging is that I believe this will be something that I can pass along to my kids, and very much look forward to sharing in their interests.

simple bacon

“I had rather be shut up in a very modest cottage with my books, my family and a few old friends, dining on simple bacon, and letting the world roll on as it liked, than to occupy the most splendid post, which any human power can give.” -Thomas Jefferson

I have a bit of an amateur obsession with the art of simplifying. This applies to things, processes, concepts, activities, scheduling, relationships, motivations, etc.  Almost universally, the more straightforward and modest something is, the more I am able to enjoy it.  As with many things, it is important to consider the deeper implications of these preferences.  I suppose to condense it down would be to say: I view many of the non-essentials of life as distractions from the real things of import.  Some of these would include relationships, shared experiences, small joys, good health, strong character. With simplicity comes a true measure of freedom.  Complications arise when too many unnecessaries are introduced and prioritized.

Speaking honestly, extravagance and excess often cause me to recoil.  I certainly do not hold the opinion that it is wrong to enjoy nice things and experiences that are affordable to you.  The key is in maintaining a pure motivation and perspective which, admittedly, is easier said than done.

Nature, in all her revelations, seeks to teach man the greatness of simplicity. Health is but the living of a physical life in harmony with a few simple, clearly defined laws. Simple food, simple exercise, simple precautions will work wonders.

been busy

I have an expansive variety of pet peeves.  I fully realize and accept that this is a personal issue and not an indictment on society at large.  However, one of the most prominent social grievances, particularly in recent years, is the response to the common question "How have you been?" in any of the following forms:
"Oh man, really busy."
"Just working, ya know."

To frankly sum up my issue with these responses - while they may be entirely accurate, they serve as an absolute conversation killer and offer nothing engaging to the person initiating the question.
Everyone works, and everyone has activity that occupies their time.  I've made strides over the past few years to have readily available answers to this question so that I can offer continuity in the conversation, if it is so desired.  I want to present myself as someone who has the time to properly catch up with people, and not as someone who is overly occupied.

A (hopefully) New Format

I love writing and the written word.  On a personal level I seem to like the idea of writing more than the practice, and that is something I would like to level out in the coming years.
As as becoming customary, my problem lies within the art of discipline.
In my history with writing I have traditionally waited for an idea or opinion to form that warrants many paragraphs, or that I feel is worth discussing at great length and with considerable difficulty.
Given that, on any writing I may deem worthy of posting, I place the arbitrary requirements that it be a time-intensive and thoroughly polished bit of exposition, more often than not (or all the time) the result is that I shy away from even starting the process.

I have been recently inspired to a new structure by my good friend Jared. He has made a wonderful habit of posting a short excerpt once a day and creating routine.
I believe in being honest with oneself, so I will recognize that I would not and do not have the necessary discipline to commit to posting daily.  However, I am very interested in attempting to regularly write shorter blurbs consisting of a couple of paragraphs and an engaging concept.
Let this be the first effort, and hope that a pattern emerges.

     There arises the odd instance in which you may find your freezer filled with an overly abundant supply of a particular type or cut of meat.  On such occasions, it is well served to have a simple high-yield recipe handy that can incorporate the meat that you wish to minimize.  Recently I found myself with an excessive amount of ground venison sausage, and a need to clear up some freezer space.  The following recipe for venison breakfast burritos is something that I came up with as a solution to this problem. 

     The yield of this recipe is around eight burritos, but can be tweaked to make more or less depending upon how much filing you allocate to each wrap. High in protein, these burritos are comprised of deer meat, hash browns, bacon, onion, pepper, salsa, cheese, and eggs wrapped inside a flour tortilla.

     You will Need:

• Venison sausage
• 6 strips of bacon
• 1 medium skillet worth of shredded hash browns
• ½ purple onion – chopped
• ½ red bell pepper – chopped
• 5 eggs
• Shredded pepper jack/cheddar
• 8 large tortillas
• Butter/olive oil
• Garlic powder
• Salt + pepper
• Sage
• Salsa, if desired
• Aluminum Foil

     You will need at least two skillets fired up, but everything should finish at roughly the same time.  In the first skillet, place on medium heat and begin to brown the shredded hash browns.  Add salt and pepper to taste, and apply a sufficient amount of olive oil. 

     In the second skillet, begin to fry the bacon.  Once the bacon is done, remove to a separate plate and use the bacon grease to sautée the chopped onion and pepper on low medium heat. 

     Back to the first skillet, coat the bottom of the skillet with butter and begin to brown the sausage.  Around a pound-and-a-half of sausage seemed appropriate for this particular recipe.  Add sage, salt, and pepper to taste as the sausage is browning.  Venison is very lean, so add another tablespoon or so of butter during the process.  Additionally, a little heat can go a long way with venison, so adding a dash of your choice of chilli powder or hot sauce to the mix may be advisable at this point.  Once the meat has browned, crack the eggs in to the skillet and begin stirring in until they are done and scrambled. 

     At this point, you should have hash browns, cooked bacon, sautéed veggies, and the egg and sausage hash in separate bowls or skillets.  Begin to place the various ingredients in the tortillas in balanced amounts.  Once this is done, crumble the cooked bacon in the wraps and sprinkle the shredded cheese on top to melt.  I happened to include a bit of peach salsa and thought it added a lot, but salsa can be a deeply personal experience so feel free to use your discretion.

     I will openly admit that I am lacking a good measure of sophistication in my burrito rolling technique, and find using a sheet of aluminum foil under each tortilla aids in the process.  This will also come in handy if you wish to save a few burritos by keeping them wrapped in the foil and placed in the freezer to enjoy later.  I have found that a single burrito makes for a filling meal at any time of day, and they keep quite well in a freezer bag, so it may be a good idea to make as many as possible!

2014 Aussie Open - Redux

The 2016 Australian Open is in full flow.  This is supremely exciting to me for two reasons:
1) I am a massive tennis nerd  2) Over the past few years, the AO has become my favorite slam to watch and follow.  There are several factors to this, not least of which (and this may seem counter intuitive) is that I have to wake up at 3am to catch a lot of the big matches.
In light of all of this, I decided to revisit a few of my old postings from this time in 2014.
Allow me set the stage for this lengthy monograph - I am an active member of the Talk Tennis forums and write contributing posts occasionally.  Truthfully, I spend a good portion of this effort messing with other posters and generally goofing around.  However, after the final of the 2014 Australian Open, I wrote a little exposition about the outcome of the last match.  Strangely, I do not have any recollection of writing this, but felt it was surprisingly readable considering the substance and structure of many of my other contributions.
Since this match, Stan has won another slam (2015 French Open), maintained strong results throughout 2014-2015, and solidified himself as a top 5 player on the ATP World Tour.

If you do not follow tennis, or don't care to read due to the length, that is quite alright.  It was posted with a specific audience in mind and, quite frankly, I am just putting it here so that I don't have to dig back through 2 years of posts should I need to reference it again.

 ______________________________________________________________________________
(Let it be first said that I like Stan and Rafael and respect them both as players)

This Australian Open this year was very interesting from a spectating perspective.
It seems that there has been an undue amount of controversy drummed up over the proceedings and results of the final. Additionally, it would seem that there is no middle ground to be had on the subject, based on the largely unreadable polarizing stances taken by most people who have been posting recently.

I would like to submit that, while there was the factor of a less-than-100% competitor in the final, the tournament ended how it should have, and most probably would have.

Stan played an exceptional 2013, and either defeated or took to the wire all members of the top 4 at slams and large arenas. He played with consistency and heart during big moments, and began to develop the mentality and tactics of someone who could challenge any top player on any given day. He reached a well-deserved high in the rankings and made a significant impression on the tour, both with fans and with other players. All said, he’s been knocking on the door for a while now.

Additionally, he worked his tail off during the off-season, and his results have been indicative. He marched through the Chennai Open. Coming into the Australian Open, he looked to be on a mission, like he believed he could make a run. I know that many people on this forum had him selected as a dark horse to push deep or possibly win the whole thing.

He played very well through a supremely tough draw, finally ousting the defending champ at his favorite tournament. I will not say that beating Novak at the Aussie is as meaningful as taking out Rafa at the French Open, but it is up there. In my opinion, this was the Final Boss.

He then beat Berdych in the SF, who remained unbroken the entire tournament. Again, he was playing solid, tough tennis. Credit to him for not taking the typical ATP route and allowing a big win on a big stage to cause you to lose focus and fall to a lesser opponent in the next round.

We now come to the final.

Stan was playing lights-out, completely dominating the court. Even he said after the match that the first set-and-a-half of the final was some of the best tennis he has ever played. If you doubt that go watch a few highlights. Again credit to him for not folding when reaching the big stage, as many predicted this final would be a walkover.

As far as Nadal’s injury goes, I do not think that he was faking. I also do not think that he was suffering with the injury to any significant extent during the first set of the match. He was moving well and playing well.  However, Stan was, on this day, obviously the better player.

As far as the controversy on the Medical Time Out goes, I think that Rafael is generally a pretty sporting guy. As the rules stand now, he was within his rights to take the MTO (I personally believe that the rules should be amended a bit to only allow for MTOs at the end of sets or before the injured player serves). However, I also believe that Stan was well within his right to challenge the umpire and ask what the issue was. This MTO was probably entirely legitimate, but the problem was, as Stan stated, that this had happened multiple times in the last few matches and just generally did not look favorable. That combined with the issue of some repeated on-court coaching made this in to more of a talking point than it should have been.

(As for Rafa’s press conference, I thought he did a fair job giving Stan the credit for the win and the solid two weeks, but I felt he could have done without alluding to his back being injured prior to the match. I don’t know if this was necessarily accurate, and shouldn’t have been a considered a factor throughout the first set.)

At the end of the day, although Nadal is a warrior and has been known to fight back, we cannot suddenly speculate that if not for a sore back he would have simply turned everything around and began dominating Stan for the next three sets. Any guesses on the result of the match based on the first set-and-a-half would result in Stan winning cleanly.

Again, credit to Stan for composing himself and finishing a job against an opponent who was playing unexpectedly and erratically. It would have been very easy for him to let the situation and the occasion get in his head, but he remained focused and displayed the mental discipline of a champion.

If we are concerned with such things, the facts of the matter are:
• In 35 previous Slam appearances, he never made a final.
• No eighth seed had won Oz since 1980.
• No player had beaten the top two seeds en route to a Slam title since Sergi Bruguera in 1993.
• No player had ever vanquished Nadal and Novak in the same Slam.
• Stan was 2-27 against the world's top two heading into the Aussie

But, when all is said and done, stats are just stats. They’re numbers about the past. It did not seem that Stan cared much about stats, and came in playing like he would win the trophy throughout the tournament.

I do not think that the conclusion can now be drawn that “Stan is in Rafa’s head” based on the result of one match. But all in all, I hope that we can all agree that for two weeks Stan was clearly the best player and more than earned the title.


He does not deserve an asterisk of any kind next to this victory.

It is 5am.  I rarely encounter this iteration 5 o'clock.
With a good measure of difficulty I roll out of bed and begin to make my way downstairs towards the smell of cooking breakfast.  It is dark throughout the house, save for a small light above the sink in the kitchen.  My roommate is already up and working his magic over the skillet.  We share our traditional jabs about who was able to wake first, and who will get a lesser share of the bacon.
This is our ritual, the beginning of some of the best times we can hope to spend together.
After breakfast and coffee, we load up the truck and begin barreling down the road, bound for more elevated territories.  Much of the trip to Location X is filled with talk of strategy and timelines; which fly patters to use in what waters, what part of the creek we will be in by which time of day- that sort of thing.  Both of us have been lately practicing a technique called Tight Line Nymphing.  "Competition regulation", my roommate says, and the new challenge lends itself to a good deal of excitement.
We continue to bump along the dusty dirt road, a bit worn from the most recent heavy rainfall, until we reach the mouth of the creek.  The truck is tucked back in the brush along the bank, and we throw on our gear and packs.  We are in the water and making our way upstream just as the sun is beginning to peak through the trees.
To the casual observer, it would all appear more closely associated with hunting than fishing.  We wear camouflaged patterns, creep low through the thicket, and crawl over river rocks like lizards.  These are all very necessary measures, as we are stalking through Native Trout territory.  These fish are much more elusive than their stocked siblings, and many times more difficult to land.  The particular nature of native trout requires a delicate approach to the water.  Once a run has been cast into a handful of times, we move on.  If one of us slips on a stone and causes more than a small ripple upstream, we move on.  If the sun peaks from behind a cloud and causes us to cast a shadow towards the other bank, we move on. As is such, there is a fair balance of moving through rough-cut trails and along the bank between cast series. 
Each run is approached with a due level of respect and consideration.  The first few casts allow the nymph to dead-drift through the current.  Each subsequent cast incorporates various jigging techniques in order to rouse any particularly coy salmo trutta that may be patrolling nearby.
By noon we have made our way several miles upstream to the confluence.  We share our customary mid-day meal of Pepsi and beef jerky, with Cow Tails for dessert and sustained energy. 
It is at this moment that the serious business begins.  After lunch we each pick a side of the fork to work up, and assign ourselves a 200-yard beat to fish exclusively.  This is to simulate the circumstances in a competitive scenario, and practice having to catch fish in an area with limited potential. 
"Fish to the right side of the fork if it has rained recently, fish to the left side if it is cloudy".  This is what we were told by a guide we met along the way, who begrudgingly offered the information due to the fact that we already had knowledge of this particular location.  It was neither cloudy nor had it recently rained, so we consider conditions to be all square.
The remainder of the afternoon continues on in similar fashion, as it usually does.  We see no other people moving about.  It is sincerely rare that anyone ventures this deep in to the wilderness area.  Being among wilderness so rarely exposed to humans, we regularly see patterns of animal behavior that surprise us.  You come to understand and appreciate the depth and beauty of the natural world beyond what one can observe from the side of a nature trail.
We meet back up at the confluence before daylight begins to wain and begin to make our way through the woods and back towards the footpath.  The walk back is filled with talk of successfully implemented strategy, and a comparison of catch numbers.  This is, of course, on the honor system.  In a way, this conversation and the long trek out of the wilderness is the best part of the trip.  The conclusion of another good day, marked by some great shared experience.