seriously though, it's a good place to start out, and we need players.
I completely spaced that. I'm in!
I didn't realize football had a disabled list!
Oh, maybe I should B-squad it... Someone pick for me, huh? And give me the relevant information for signing up?
We need one more A-squader. I don't care who it is - I just want to get the league full before we're scrambling late.
I can do it. I've played plenty of fantasy football. Why, I remember when Ryan Leaf was my starting quarterback...
Sign up info?
Email sent. Since we have a fixed number of teams you'll get a team that already has a name, but you can change it.
Signed up. Thanks.
regarding the b squad, we'll keep it open for everyone that wants to play that's not already in the other league for a bit, then we can open it up to those that just want a second team. or something. i dunno. whatever.
I posted on the ff site, but is there any way to do the draft earlier than 10:00 p.m.?
I don't recall that bein g the time, but I'll look again. If it is, I'm guessing I thought the times were defaulted to Central, but they might be defaulted to my region.
They really do have a similar way about them, and both are synonymous with New York. It's weird how much sense it makes.
And they both can draw from diverse audiences -- win-win
Jared's gonna be pissed.
When I started my post-MI rehab, one of the first goals I set was to get down to 190 lbs (from a starting point just north of 205). As of this morning I'm two pounds away and none of my pants fit anymore. I'm sticking to about 2,000 calories a day, upping my proteins and lowering saturated fats and refined carbs. I'm working out five days a week for about 30-45 minutes per session. I figure if I extend that to 45-60 minutes I can get rid of that last two pounds in a few weeks. Also, my research indicates that beer/wine/liquor in moderation really is good for you. In fact, some studies show a diet that includes 1-3 drinks per day (but no more) is just as effective as beta-blockers in reducing heart attack risk. Drinks are on the AMA!
bS likes this
Good stuff. I haven't been looking to lose weight, but I've found I feel better when I limit my refined carbs. Unfortunately, with working out, I've found it difficult to stay properly hydrated if I drink basically any alcohol at all. That probably won't be as much of an issue after it cools back down to Seattle's fall/winter/spring temperature, but until then I suppose a little teetotaling is good for my wallet.
you drink alcohol while working out? I want to join that gym. Or not.
Poorly worded sentence. If I drink tonight, I'll have trouble staying well hydrated while working out tomorrow.
Do high ABV beers count as one or two?
Cos I don't want to pour out half a bottle every night.
I would guess one 12 ounce serving of beer is figured at between 5-8% ABV. Based on the charts I just looked at there appears to be some wiggle room involved.
I have set a minor goal of getting back down under 195. Making very slow progress (I fluctuate in the 196-200 range), spearheaded by cutting out my (previously) daily can of soda with lunch.
To lose a pound a week, one needs to reduce consumption by about 500 kcals per day. A can of typical soda has 39 grams of sugar, equivalent to 140 kcals of food energy. So cutting out one can of soda per day gets me more than a quarter of the way to the 500 kcals/day target to lose a pound per week, all else constant. Plus, good for the teeth.
I ain't cutting out the beer. It is a wonder food second only bacon in its powers to amaze.
I have pretty much cut out pop but I eat more cookies to make up the difference.
I bounce back and forth between <1 soda a day and many, many more. I've cut out a lot of the "baked" goods though.
Do either of you have a taste for diet soda? There's some darn tasty ones out there. I switched to mostly diet about 10 years ago. Two months ago, after finding out I am diabetic, I've gone to straight diet. Between diet soda & Mio I don't really miss sugar pop one bit.
i stick to mineral water, myself. as an opening to one of my favorite complaints that no one cares about, how is mineral water almost twice the cost of soda? seriously, a twelver of pepsi can be found for $2.50, and hoity-toity lime flavored la croix is $5.69. how does that work? thankfully a local chain has a generic brand for about $2.25-$2.50, but still...
As a broke grad student, I developed a taste for tap water.
I've still got it!
hoity-toity lime flavored la croix is $5.69. how does that work?
it's called product differentiation and market segmentation. You could always buy generic/store brand fizzy water (as you mention) and squeeze your own lime juice into it.
my point is more questioning how a product with many more ingredients and (one would think) more labor involved in creating be over half the cost?
soda is colored sugar water. As you can readily determine by comparing store brands to national brands, or observing the regular, deep discounting of the national brands, price has relatively little to do with cost of production.
the most expensive input to a carryout cup of soda at a restaurant is the container. businesses charge what the market will bear -- and clearly, the market has not forced the soda sellers to sell at marginal cost.
Sounds like some type of inefficiency, though I'm not entirely sure what kind...
Odd this should come up today. Just yesterday I decided to switch from Diet Coke to fruit punch-flavored Crystal Light. I'm not cutting out Diet Coke entirely, but I was drinking an awful lot of it, and I felt like the acid and carbonation were doing things to my digestion.
probably just destroying the lining of your esophagus, so no worries.
I drink a lot of Crystal light mixes- they've got a ton of different flavors, so I don't get bored of them. That's increased my water intake by at least 2-3 quarts a day.
I also mix them one pack to a liter of water, or about half the dilution the "recipe" calls for.
I definitely find that having even one soda makes my stomach feel awful the rest of the day. All that carbonation disagrees with me. Higher quality sodas that tend to be far less carbonated are better, although still leaving me feeling iffy.
Fortunately, I've pretty much completely eliminated soda from my diet since I turned 21.
All that carbonation disagrees with me.
said the beer brewer...
I cannot stand any artificial sugar. It doesn't matter the foodstuff/beverage, I find myself preferring to go without. By a lot.
Philo, I'm with you, but have you tried sucralose? Costco sells its generic version both in bulk and in li'l yellow packets. 12 kcal per teaspoon due to the maltodextrin bulking agents, but because sucralose is 600X sweeter than sugar, it has a fraction of the calories per serving. And you can bake with it.
[I don't sweeten my tea or coffee, so this is not an issue for me]
or there's stevia if you're a damn hippie.
I've tried agave nectar, too. Not bad, but it takes some getting used to.
I think this is what they use to sweeten Vitamin Water Zero. I fully approve of it.
So far sucralose is my sweetener of choice. Aspartame is now pretty well documented to be bad in a lot of ways, depending on individual sensitivity to it. Sucralose is formulated from sucrose, replacing three hydrogen-oxygen groups with a chlorine atom. While it reacts with the taste buds like sugar, the chlorine prevents the body from breaking it down and absorbing the calories in it, thus it can be marketed as a 0 calorie sweetener. Most of the sucralose you ingest is filtered out by the kidneys and disposed of in your urine. I still use too much of it and need to cut down, but I'm getting there.
Yeah. I remember being really excited about it when I first heard about it. I don't hate it like I hate aspartame, but I still have a strong taste-reaction against it.
Me too. Fake sugars taste fake to me.
In-laws made BBQ Ribs with sucralosed catsup in the sauce. Ruined some good pork.
plastic is not food. I tell the gurls in the household to just consume less. They ignore me.
I can't even drink non-diet soda anymore.
This is easy for me to say since I haven't ever had trouble with my weight, but I think that weight is the RBI of health statistics. Sure, it incidates something about your health, but if you take a step back, I think it seems like a strange metric to fixate on. I also wish there was more of a culture of improving short-to-medium distance running times rather than the seemingly popular view of running as a low intensity activity which should be done for increasing distance.
I also wish there was more of a culture of improving short-to-medium distance running times
i've wanted to start running for awhile now, though my laziness has made it difficult. i'll start one of these days, i swear. anyway, i'd never really considered that route.
I don't lift weights because they heavy.
I don't run because it makes me tired.
My background is as a cross country runner in middle and high school who also ran mostly 800m in track, but also some 400's and miles. For a small school, we had a lot of success, and while I would barely even crack the varsity, I improved a lot from 6th grade to 12th grade. When we were training to race 5k's for cross country, 7 miles was basically the longest run we'd do with any regularity--maybe averaging one of those every 10 days or so. About once a season we'd do a 10-miler, but that was by far the exception in our training. Probably largely due to that background, I've never made it a goal to run a marathon (or even a half marathon), since I know it's possible to get in good running shape without putting in a ton of miles.
If you're looking to get started from scratch, I've heard that the couch-to-5k program is pretty popular. I don't know really what the exact most optimal plan is to take a novice and make them a faster runner, but at some point if you want to be faster, you've got to run some intervals or some other kind of speed work.
In principle, I think it would be nice to run a marathon at some point, but if I ever do that, I want to build up pretty slowly to it. My first goal is to get back to running a sub-20 5k. That wouldn't be a PR for me, but at 30, I think it'd be pretty respectable. Then I'd probably aim for a sub-45 10k and take it from there. I'd also like to break 2:10 in the 800m again at some point, but it's hard to find a good 800m race after high school, which makes it a little harder to get motivated.
yeah, if when i start, i was thinking of going to C25K route, though i know a couple people that lamented they didn't just go with C210K. i think i'll work on getting a little distance (and routine), then we'll work on speed.
You are right, of course. BMI is somewhat more advanced metric. I need to get down to about 180 to get my BMI out of the overweight range. Also, body fat percentage is important, especially belly fat. I'll be adding those measurements into my routine eventually, but it's all about moving in the right direction, setting attainable goals, reaching them, and then moving to the next milestone.
BMI combined with body fat is maybe a metric I could be ok with. I hate BMI in general, however, because its never used with any kind of context. After college when I moved to Madison with a real income, I joined a gym and hit the weights pretty hard. I'm 5'11" to 6'0" (depending on the scale) and got my weight up to 215. BMI called me overweight, but I was in the best shape of my life. I had enough muscle that, when I was forced to not do any weight lifting or running for about a month, I lost 30 or so pounds. So yeah, BMI is flawed but treated like its not. (like any advanced metric, I suppose.)
BMI would be more accurately labelled height-adjusted weight. If you want to reduce your BMI, your only options are to lose weight or grow taller, and only one of those is a realistic option.
One of the listed BMI caveats is that the categories aren't accurate for athletes, but it's really exaggerated if your sport involves strength. Your story is easy to believe--if you hit the weights hard enough, it's not all that hard to be a healthy 215 pounds at 6'0". If you can still do a bunch of pull-ups, your weight probably isn't a big problem. (As a rule of thumb.)
If you can still do a bunch of pull-ups, your weight probably isn't a big problem.
Ruh Roh.
I always sucked at pull-ups. And hated those skinny little bastardos who could pop 'em out so easily.
I'm one of those skinny bastards (6'1", 160 +/-), only I can't do pullups for beans. I did 5 one time and I was super happy. Usually it's 3.
I just got my first pull-up (ever) a couple weeks ago. Supposedly the first one is the hardest to get. I'm up to 170 pounds at 6'0" from about 155 pounds a year ago. It turns out that having shoulders makes it easier to do pull-ups.
Sounds a lot like my experience, down to the height and weight.
I am very skinny and did the most pullups of anyone in my class. Hate away!
You're spot on again, ubes. Muscle tissue is more dense than fat.
when I was forced to not do any weight lifting or running for about a month, I lost 30 or so pounds
Roid Alert!!!!
but seriously, I think most of us are on the same page. Weight and BMI are perfectly fine tracking metrics at the individual level. When you start comparing across individuals, they become less fine, because they don't take into account body type. Athletes (non-distance type) tend to have much higher muscle mass than non-athletes, and muscle is much denser than fat. Comparing active athletes to the average person thus is Dumb.
I'm glad I have group health insurance. I'm 6'3, ~195 lbs, which puts me on the heavy end of "normal," uncomfortably close to the "overweight" range on BMI. A stoopidly implemented underwriting for individual insurance likely would ding me on those grounds, even though my cholesterol is far better than average, my blood pressure is decidedly normal, and my waist circumference is the same as it was when I was a senior in high school.
Still, comparison to population averages can be useful.
I'm 6'3, ~195 lbs, which puts me on the heavy end of "normal," uncomfortably close to the "overweight" range on BMI.
Heh. Last time I checked my BMI was 15-20 pounds ago. 5'5" at about 190. I was in the obese category, and not even by a little bit, far, far beyond "overweight." I was in good shape at the time, so the whole approach seemed fairly laughable to me.
Where I am right now, I'd love to drop back down to 190. And 180 should really be the goal. Finding time to work out is the tough part.
There's also the issue of body type, endo- ecto- and mesomorphic to consider and that's all a matter of genetics. Bottom line is that everyone is different and everyone has to determine what is healthy. Weight, BMI and body fat are only general indicators.
Not that I'm copying Philo here.. I'm 6'3, ~195 lbs, which puts me on the heavy end of "normal," uncomfortably close to the "overweight" range on BMI
You're an older wiser, carbon copy of me. Wait, I would be the carbon copy I suppose.
Now building off Philo, I made time for working out by commuting to work by bicycle. Takes a bit longer than via bus, but then (tying into ubes' point!) I have a goal of reducing how much time it takes to bike the constant distance.
Having met you (once), sean, I'm surprised to hear you say that. I recall you as taller and twiggy-er. 😉
I park ~10 blocks from my office and walk in/out daily. That plus going to the gym on weekends and occasional yard work is the extent of my physical activity.
My last year of grad school, I walked 1.5 miles to and from school each day. I did very little other exercise, but in retrospect, I really underestimated how valuable that walking was.
I biked to work with some frequency when I lived in D.C. Now, not so much, as the commute isn't nearly so bike-friendly. And also my bike has a flat tire.
The time in my life when I walked the most was also the time when I gained the most weight in a short span of time (study abroad in Athens/Rome). I had been in top condition just before that trip and completely gave up working out and ate out for almost every meal. It's been all downhill since then. Law school was bad too.
Also, this conversation is making me hungry.
In Ireland and Prague both I went from 170 to 160-155 just from the increase in walking I did everyday.
You're absolutely right that it's all about moving in the right direction and setting attinable goals. I think my gripe is mainly that I'd like to see more encouragement for people to diversify their goals. We often are given goals by government/medical groups like excercise for X minutes for Y days of the week. And that's a good start for a compeltely sedentary person, but I think after that a lot of people don't set additional performance-related goals, like improving their mile time by 15 seconds over the next three months, or increasing their lifts by 5-10 pounds each month, etc. Those goals are harder to figure out, though, and reasonable goals can depend a lot on your age and current condition.
Also, even with reasonable goal-setting, people will sometimes fail to meet their goals. That can lead to a big loss in motivation and sometimes making some less healthy choices. I like having a variety of goals to shoot at so that I don't get too hung up on always meeting one over-arching goal.
I agree with you, but I'd also like to see more emphasis on the mental-health benefits of exercise. Maybe it can't be quantified, but I can tell that if I get a decent amount of exercise, I tend to be in a better mood and am mentally sharper.
me think your talk smrt.
That sounds good to me, too. I am quite sure that I'm a more pleasant person to be around when I am regularly exercising. Also, as a nerd, I always used to think that gym class was an unnecessary distraction, but now I'm pretty convinced that it was essential.
...I think that weight is the RBI of health statistics. Sure, it incidates something about your health, but if you take a step back, I think it seems like a strange metric to fixate on.
This is a fairly perfect analogy. I'm fat, and have been for the large majority of my life. I have health problems. Some are likely related to my weight/diet, but not all are. People see a fat person and tend to assume they're lazy, they eat nothing but Cheetos and Ho-Hos, and all sorts of other miserable things. People don't think that when they see someone who is skinny who might ACTUALLY be lazy and eat nothing but Cheetos and Ho-Hos. It's frustrating.
Admittedly there's more profit to be made in telling everyone that being fat is an awful thing and selling them yo-yo diets than there is in teaching people how to make better food decisions and make it so that non-processed foods aren't hard to get/expensive for everyone.
Spot on - I'm fairly healthy now and have never really worried about my weight, but for most of college and a bit after, I was pretty lazy. I've always been lean, though, so when I would tell people that I was in pretty terrible shape (winded going up a few flights of stairs, etc), they would assume I was being a bit pompous. I'm so much happier now that I exercise somewhat regularly (Even though it's climbing and ping pong) and have noticed a big difference, even though nobody else really has.
I'll chime in with my recent exercise exploits.
The little bro has long wanted to do the skeleton. During the Olympics, we were talking about what we could do to be on an Olympic team. Several ideas were bandied about, but we settled on 2-man bobsled. USA Bobsled holds open tryouts every year in locations across the country. There's a score sheet where you are graded on your results in several events, split between sprint times and strength drills. Things are scored 50-100 (anything below the baseline of 50 points is 0, I assume so you can't get 100 in a squat and 20 in a spring and average out to a 60). There are 9 events. You need 600 points to be eligible for skeleton combines, and 625 for bobsled.
I've got the sprint points down pat (best is 93 points for my split time from 0 to 15 m). It's the strength events in which I'm lacking. Most of them have to do with explosiveness, like squats and broad jump. That makes sense since they big thing with bobsled is how quickly can you get a heavy object moving and how fast can you make that object move. So right now I'm tackling how to get stronger, especially in the butt region, without getting so big I get slow.
This sounds awesome.
Keeping on the "cool sports you never thought about" thread... I want to do American Ninja Warrior. I'm so amazingly far away from being able to do even a single one of the obstacles, but it looks cool.
I think the only Ninja Warrior event I could do is the opening leap from slanted platform to slanted platform (the name escapes me). I've got long legs and am pretty nimble, but the rest just require too much strength.
Watching it on TV inspired me to hang from a door for a few seconds. That's about all I've got. Also, I'm short, so getting between those platforms would be brutal for me.
It's interesting that they have a 3-rep squat test in their combine, since it's not always easy to judge whether someone's gotten below parallel on a squat. There's also the low-bar vs. high-bar issue.
I am not an expert by any means, but I have found Starting Strength to be a good reference on how to perform the basic lifts--squats, deadlifts, overhead press, bench press, and power cleans--safely and effeciently, though I still have never done any bench pressing. (Overhead press is awesome, though.) You might also want to look into Jim Wendler's 5/3/1 in terms of programming, although that may depend on where your lifts are at. Wendler's program would have you progressing about 10 pounds per month on squat and it's not super high volume (depending on what assistance work you choose), so it shouldn't interfere too much with other training you're doing. Deadlifts are awesome for your butt region, though, and have a lot of carryover to squats and cleans.
It's pretty clear that I am not a great world-class sledding athlete at the moment. My last three-rep max for power clean was 55kg and my 3-rep max for back squat is around 80-90kg. Not great by any means, but a year ago at this time, I'd never used a barbell in my life, so there's that.
I'm far from Olympic level as well. My brother and I ran our own combine to see where we are. Even being generous and giving myself 50 points instead of 0 for both the broadjump (I missed by 0.02 m) and the split time at 45m (which I missed by 0.02 s)*, I'm still way off the bobsled. With my extra 100 points, I still need 51 points for the skeleton combine and 377 for the bobsled.**
I need to improve an average of nearly 40 points over 9 events. I scored really poorly on the 4 strenght events - broad jump, 16lb shotput***, clean, and squat. Improving my sprint finishing (I fade pretty poorly in the 45m-60m range) to the rest of my sprint times still means I need to improve my 4 strength events to nearly 80 points each, which equates to an increase of 0.6m broad jump, 5.0m shot put, 48kg clean and 70kg squats.
For cleans and squats, I've never done them. I've always been a runner and basic core stuff. When I tried them recently I felt very awkward. I think with a little help on my form, I can squeeze out another 10-15kg as I am just by improving how I lift. I feel stronger than my results might otherwise indicate. Also, I didn't have a spotter and I'm kinda freaked out by the idea of seriously hurting myself so I didn't really push it super hard.
Also, I should point out were shooting for 2018 in South Korea, not 2014 in Sochi. I'd like to hit the combine minimums by 2014 and then work 4 years from within USA Bobsled. I'll be 32 by then, but why not? The 2-man gold medalists in Vancouver were 37 and 31 at the time. My brother would still only be 26.
*Both of which I consider within the margin of error for our half-baked setup. **Bobsled and skeleton have different grading scales in addition to needing more points for the bobsled ***Our shot was 2 8lb weights lashed together with a trailer strap. I may do a lot better or worse with an actual shot. We're trying to borrow one from the HS over Labor Day.
If you can lift with your brother, that'd probably help a lot. Squats and cleans are not the most complicated thing in the world, but when you're starting out it's good to have someone watching you to make sure you're keeping your back flat and all that.
I hadn't thought much of the shot put test. It seems pretty technical if they are just trying to identify good athletes. At least, my impression of shot put is that you can improve a lot by improving your technique. Can you use the special throwing shoes on the test? It always seemed like those would help a lot if you had good technique.
Anyway, awesome project. I hope you make the cut. One of the women on my softball team from a couple years ago moved to Park City to train with the bobsled team. Good move for her, bad move for the team.
The girl in the Combine video (about 1:00 in) used an underhanded granny shot approach to throw the shot, and jumped about 3 feet forward in the process. We used that technique since it was very awkward to get two dumbells in the palm of your hand. I think they're less concerned with shotput technique as they are with the power you can get behind 16 pounds. Also, the video says 12 pounds, which is Olympic weight for women. We assumed then that the men would use the men's Olympic standard. If it's 12 lb for men too, then we'll have an increase in shot distance.
httpv://youtu.be/6ShZqL9CMTk
My brother won "Lifter of the Year" in freshman football. It's based on consistently showing up for weight sessions, form, and personal improvement and not necessarily who can lift the most. So he's a great lifting partner. It's just too bad he's finally in Des Moines while I'm not anymore.
This is pretty awesome. My weight - and where it should get to - is fairly similar to yours. I should probably take this as a cue to fix some of my lifestyle things... It's encouraging to get a glimpse into your efforts.
Good for you! Keep it up. You remain in our prayers.
I look forward to seeing that Kluwe piece featured in an upcoming team game program.
also:
They HATE people who aren't from Minnesota (particularly Vikings owner Zygi Wilf, supposedly because he's from New Jersey, but mostly because he's Jewish).
Yep. That's why Jews like Rudy Boschwitz and Paul Wellstone could never get elected to statewide office in Minnesota, because Minnesotans hate Jews.
don't forget that new yorker norm coleman!
Pffft. He lost to a wrestler and a comedian. But, he beat the dead guy!
BTW, Sen. Franken is Jewish.
Sen. Dean Barkley (briefly) broke the string of that seat being "MN's Jewish Senator".
Proof that Minnesotans hate Jews: never have elected more than one to the Senate at a time.
Wisconsin, represent!
Proof that Wisconsin hates Jews: elects them to jobs that require they leave the state.
Pffft. He lost to a wrestler and a comedian. But, he beat the dead guy!
Heh.
Wellstone, btw, was a Div. I wrestler in college. But not a comedian, at least in my experience.
Maybe the name Jesse Ventura rings a bell.
So who was the wrestler then?
I should have put wrestler in "quotes".
oh, I knew you were referring to the Body. I was just adding to the discussion.
also, Al Franken was BOTH a wrestler and a comedian. I'm so confused.
Plus, apparently Minnesotans' thing with wrestlers at least rivals its infatuation with Jews.
I was being helpful in case you were completely unaware of our state's recent political history, donchaknow.
Ya, sure, youbetcha.
I got a bit bothered by that line because it seems to dismiss my legitimate reasons to dislike Zygi, particularly because people could probably say that it fits into Jewish stereotypes.
i was considering posting this, but the article, and then the comment section burned my brain. thanks for bringing up bad memories, rhu_ru.
Humorously, I know someone named Brian Neary, as mentioned in Kluwe's article.
I admit, I've had a lot of fun reading the comments sections of the various installments of the series. I'm constantly amazed that Drew will include something in his post, only to have someone comment in seemingly non-ironic fashion affirming that particular point. (best example: Detroit Lions and racism.)
Amazingly, the Vikings post seemed to get the least amount of that.
Kluwe about the comment section on Deadspin-
I feel like I've just tuned into an episode of Sesame Street where The Count has suffered a debilitating stroke. "Plus one. Ha... ha... ha... Plus one. Ha... ha... ha... Plus one. "
That's the hardest I've laughed at anything on Deadspin in a long time, and it was more of a chortle.
I don't understand how a MN native could not understand that "Minnesota Nice" is the same as "Minnesotans Aren't Nice".
Do we need to put it in quotes? "Minnesota 'Nice'"?
That would be different.
Actually, the quotes around nice invalidate it.
Because if you had said, "That would be 'different'", you'd be actively letting us know it's dismissive, which isn't really the Minnesota Nice thing at all.
Minnesota Nice is like a trademark.
"That would be different" is practically trademarked Minnesotaneze, is it not?
I watched a movie last month called "Young Adult" with Charlize Theron cast as a semi-successful writer returning to her small Minnesota home town. Everyone there referred to Minneapolis as the Minny Apple. It was Minnesota Nice to the nth degree.
Denard Span ( @thisisdspan ) is in the #MNTwins lineup tonight.He is in CF & leading off.
Done. I've edited tonight's game log to add the poll.
I noticed something this morning. I still carry a checkbook in my pocket. I always have it with my wallet. I havent written at a store in like 2 years, but still carry one.
Do young people get checking accounts anymore?
I have a checking account, but use the accompanying debit card for 99%+ of my transactions. I remember looking through my checkbook last year and there was 1 non-rent check in there over 2 years and it was my rugby dues.
The last checks I used have been voided to set up direct deposits.
I am not allowed to hold the check book, except when mrsS will be out of town for an extended period and the bills that can't be paid by electronic payment must be paid.
Kyle Gibson promoted to Rochester, so he's back to the level he was at when he got hurt. Twins say he won't be pitching in Minnesota this year.
I'm fine with not rushing him to the big leagues. The season's been sunk for some time now, so there's no use in overextending him. Give him the offseason to get stronger and see how he is come Spring Training.
Fully agree. I hope next year to be writing that Kyle Gibson has nothing to learn in Rochester.
Just got home from Denver. 910 miles in 13:58. I obeyed the speed limit, went through 8 road construction projects, and averaged over 65 MPH. Did I mention I had a five year old in the car? She is a champ.
Hey Foot and Ball Guys: We need one more guy and the draft is soon. Just sayin.
I just wanted to let you know I will not be joining. Thanks!
maybe the painter'll want in.
Sorry, I'm busy.
I've never played fantasy football before, and I'm not sure if I'd be able to make the draft, but I could field a team if no one else is interested.
I'm interested. I had just navigated over to ask if there were still openings.
don't forget about the B squad, you guyz!!!!11
seriously though, it's a good place to start out, and we need players.
I completely spaced that. I'm in!
I didn't realize football had a disabled list!
Oh, maybe I should B-squad it... Someone pick for me, huh? And give me the relevant information for signing up?
We need one more A-squader. I don't care who it is - I just want to get the league full before we're scrambling late.
I can do it. I've played plenty of fantasy football. Why, I remember when Ryan Leaf was my starting quarterback...
Sign up info?
Email sent. Since we have a fixed number of teams you'll get a team that already has a name, but you can change it.
Signed up. Thanks.
regarding the b squad, we'll keep it open for everyone that wants to play that's not already in the other league for a bit, then we can open it up to those that just want a second team. or something. i dunno. whatever.
I posted on the ff site, but is there any way to do the draft earlier than 10:00 p.m.?
I don't recall that bein g the time, but I'll look again. If it is, I'm guessing I thought the times were defaulted to Central, but they might be defaulted to my region.
So, Regis Philbin's replacement is Michael Strahan.
makes sense.
They really do have a similar way about them, and both are synonymous with New York. It's weird how much sense it makes.
And they both can draw from diverse audiences -- win-win
Jared's gonna be pissed.
When I started my post-MI rehab, one of the first goals I set was to get down to 190 lbs (from a starting point just north of 205). As of this morning I'm two pounds away and none of my pants fit anymore. I'm sticking to about 2,000 calories a day, upping my proteins and lowering saturated fats and refined carbs. I'm working out five days a week for about 30-45 minutes per session. I figure if I extend that to 45-60 minutes I can get rid of that last two pounds in a few weeks. Also, my research indicates that beer/wine/liquor in moderation really is good for you. In fact, some studies show a diet that includes 1-3 drinks per day (but no more) is just as effective as beta-blockers in reducing heart attack risk. Drinks are on the AMA!
bS likes this
Good stuff. I haven't been looking to lose weight, but I've found I feel better when I limit my refined carbs. Unfortunately, with working out, I've found it difficult to stay properly hydrated if I drink basically any alcohol at all. That probably won't be as much of an issue after it cools back down to Seattle's fall/winter/spring temperature, but until then I suppose a little teetotaling is good for my wallet.
you drink alcohol while working out? I want to join that gym. Or not.
Poorly worded sentence. If I drink tonight, I'll have trouble staying well hydrated while working out tomorrow.
Do high ABV beers count as one or two?
Cos I don't want to pour out half a bottle every night.
I would guess one 12 ounce serving of beer is figured at between 5-8% ABV. Based on the charts I just looked at there appears to be some wiggle room involved.
I have set a minor goal of getting back down under 195. Making very slow progress (I fluctuate in the 196-200 range), spearheaded by cutting out my (previously) daily can of soda with lunch.
To lose a pound a week, one needs to reduce consumption by about 500 kcals per day. A can of typical soda has 39 grams of sugar, equivalent to 140 kcals of food energy. So cutting out one can of soda per day gets me more than a quarter of the way to the 500 kcals/day target to lose a pound per week, all else constant. Plus, good for the teeth.
I ain't cutting out the beer. It is a wonder food second only bacon in its powers to amaze.
I have pretty much cut out pop but I eat more cookies to make up the difference.
I bounce back and forth between <1 soda a day and many, many more. I've cut out a lot of the "baked" goods though.
Do either of you have a taste for diet soda? There's some darn tasty ones out there. I switched to mostly diet about 10 years ago. Two months ago, after finding out I am diabetic, I've gone to straight diet. Between diet soda & Mio I don't really miss sugar pop one bit.
but diet soda's bad for you!!
i stick to mineral water, myself. as an opening to one of my favorite complaints that no one cares about, how is mineral water almost twice the cost of soda? seriously, a twelver of pepsi can be found for $2.50, and hoity-toity lime flavored la croix is $5.69. how does that work? thankfully a local chain has a generic brand for about $2.25-$2.50, but still...
As a broke grad student, I developed a taste for tap water.
I've still got it!
hoity-toity lime flavored la croix is $5.69. how does that work?
it's called product differentiation and market segmentation. You could always buy generic/store brand fizzy water (as you mention) and squeeze your own lime juice into it.
my point is more questioning how a product with many more ingredients and (one would think) more labor involved in creating be over half the cost?
soda is colored sugar water. As you can readily determine by comparing store brands to national brands, or observing the regular, deep discounting of the national brands, price has relatively little to do with cost of production.
the most expensive input to a carryout cup of soda at a restaurant is the container. businesses charge what the market will bear -- and clearly, the market has not forced the soda sellers to sell at marginal cost.
Sounds like some type of inefficiency, though I'm not entirely sure what kind...
Odd this should come up today. Just yesterday I decided to switch from Diet Coke to fruit punch-flavored Crystal Light. I'm not cutting out Diet Coke entirely, but I was drinking an awful lot of it, and I felt like the acid and carbonation were doing things to my digestion.
probably just destroying the lining of your esophagus, so no worries.
I drink a lot of Crystal light mixes- they've got a ton of different flavors, so I don't get bored of them. That's increased my water intake by at least 2-3 quarts a day.
I also mix them one pack to a liter of water, or about half the dilution the "recipe" calls for.
I definitely find that having even one soda makes my stomach feel awful the rest of the day. All that carbonation disagrees with me. Higher quality sodas that tend to be far less carbonated are better, although still leaving me feeling iffy.
Fortunately, I've pretty much completely eliminated soda from my diet since I turned 21.
All that carbonation disagrees with me.
said the beer brewer...
I cannot stand any artificial sugar. It doesn't matter the foodstuff/beverage, I find myself preferring to go without. By a lot.
Philo, I'm with you, but have you tried sucralose? Costco sells its generic version both in bulk and in li'l yellow packets. 12 kcal per teaspoon due to the maltodextrin bulking agents, but because sucralose is 600X sweeter than sugar, it has a fraction of the calories per serving. And you can bake with it.
[I don't sweeten my tea or coffee, so this is not an issue for me]
or there's stevia if you're a damn hippie.
I've tried agave nectar, too. Not bad, but it takes some getting used to.
I think this is what they use to sweeten Vitamin Water Zero. I fully approve of it.
So far sucralose is my sweetener of choice. Aspartame is now pretty well documented to be bad in a lot of ways, depending on individual sensitivity to it. Sucralose is formulated from sucrose, replacing three hydrogen-oxygen groups with a chlorine atom. While it reacts with the taste buds like sugar, the chlorine prevents the body from breaking it down and absorbing the calories in it, thus it can be marketed as a 0 calorie sweetener. Most of the sucralose you ingest is filtered out by the kidneys and disposed of in your urine. I still use too much of it and need to cut down, but I'm getting there.
Yeah. I remember being really excited about it when I first heard about it. I don't hate it like I hate aspartame, but I still have a strong taste-reaction against it.
Me too. Fake sugars taste fake to me.
In-laws made BBQ Ribs with sucralosed catsup in the sauce. Ruined some good pork.
plastic is not food. I tell the gurls in the household to just consume less. They ignore me.
I can't even drink non-diet soda anymore.
This is easy for me to say since I haven't ever had trouble with my weight, but I think that weight is the RBI of health statistics. Sure, it incidates something about your health, but if you take a step back, I think it seems like a strange metric to fixate on. I also wish there was more of a culture of improving short-to-medium distance running times rather than the seemingly popular view of running as a low intensity activity which should be done for increasing distance.
I also wish there was more of a culture of improving short-to-medium distance running times
i've wanted to start running for awhile now, though my laziness has made it difficult. i'll start one of these days, i swear. anyway, i'd never really considered that route.
I don't lift weights because they heavy.
I don't run because it makes me tired.
My background is as a cross country runner in middle and high school who also ran mostly 800m in track, but also some 400's and miles. For a small school, we had a lot of success, and while I would barely even crack the varsity, I improved a lot from 6th grade to 12th grade. When we were training to race 5k's for cross country, 7 miles was basically the longest run we'd do with any regularity--maybe averaging one of those every 10 days or so. About once a season we'd do a 10-miler, but that was by far the exception in our training. Probably largely due to that background, I've never made it a goal to run a marathon (or even a half marathon), since I know it's possible to get in good running shape without putting in a ton of miles.
If you're looking to get started from scratch, I've heard that the couch-to-5k program is pretty popular. I don't know really what the exact most optimal plan is to take a novice and make them a faster runner, but at some point if you want to be faster, you've got to run some intervals or some other kind of speed work.
In principle, I think it would be nice to run a marathon at some point, but if I ever do that, I want to build up pretty slowly to it. My first goal is to get back to running a sub-20 5k. That wouldn't be a PR for me, but at 30, I think it'd be pretty respectable. Then I'd probably aim for a sub-45 10k and take it from there. I'd also like to break 2:10 in the 800m again at some point, but it's hard to find a good 800m race after high school, which makes it a little harder to get motivated.
yeah,
ifwhen i start, i was thinking of going to C25K route, though i know a couple people that lamented they didn't just go with C210K. i think i'll work on getting a little distance (and routine), then we'll work on speed.You are right, of course. BMI is somewhat more advanced metric. I need to get down to about 180 to get my BMI out of the overweight range. Also, body fat percentage is important, especially belly fat. I'll be adding those measurements into my routine eventually, but it's all about moving in the right direction, setting attainable goals, reaching them, and then moving to the next milestone.
BMI combined with body fat is maybe a metric I could be ok with. I hate BMI in general, however, because its never used with any kind of context. After college when I moved to Madison with a real income, I joined a gym and hit the weights pretty hard. I'm 5'11" to 6'0" (depending on the scale) and got my weight up to 215. BMI called me overweight, but I was in the best shape of my life. I had enough muscle that, when I was forced to not do any weight lifting or running for about a month, I lost 30 or so pounds. So yeah, BMI is flawed but treated like its not. (like any advanced metric, I suppose.)
BMI would be more accurately labelled height-adjusted weight. If you want to reduce your BMI, your only options are to lose weight or grow taller, and only one of those is a realistic option.
One of the listed BMI caveats is that the categories aren't accurate for athletes, but it's really exaggerated if your sport involves strength. Your story is easy to believe--if you hit the weights hard enough, it's not all that hard to be a healthy 215 pounds at 6'0". If you can still do a bunch of pull-ups, your weight probably isn't a big problem. (As a rule of thumb.)
Ruh Roh.
I always sucked at pull-ups. And hated those skinny little bastardos who could pop 'em out so easily.
I'm one of those skinny bastards (6'1", 160 +/-), only I can't do pullups for beans. I did 5 one time and I was super happy. Usually it's 3.
I just got my first pull-up (ever) a couple weeks ago. Supposedly the first one is the hardest to get. I'm up to 170 pounds at 6'0" from about 155 pounds a year ago. It turns out that having shoulders makes it easier to do pull-ups.
Sounds a lot like my experience, down to the height and weight.
I am very skinny and did the most pullups of anyone in my class. Hate away!
You're spot on again, ubes. Muscle tissue is more dense than fat.
when I was forced to not do any weight lifting or running for about a month, I lost 30 or so pounds
Roid Alert!!!!
but seriously, I think most of us are on the same page. Weight and BMI are perfectly fine tracking metrics at the individual level. When you start comparing across individuals, they become less fine, because they don't take into account body type. Athletes (non-distance type) tend to have much higher muscle mass than non-athletes, and muscle is much denser than fat. Comparing active athletes to the average person thus is Dumb.
I'm glad I have group health insurance. I'm 6'3, ~195 lbs, which puts me on the heavy end of "normal," uncomfortably close to the "overweight" range on BMI. A stoopidly implemented underwriting for individual insurance likely would ding me on those grounds, even though my cholesterol is far better than average, my blood pressure is decidedly normal, and my waist circumference is the same as it was when I was a senior in high school.
Still, comparison to population averages can be useful.
I'm 6'3, ~195 lbs, which puts me on the heavy end of "normal," uncomfortably close to the "overweight" range on BMI.
Heh. Last time I checked my BMI was 15-20 pounds ago. 5'5" at about 190. I was in the obese category, and not even by a little bit, far, far beyond "overweight." I was in good shape at the time, so the whole approach seemed fairly laughable to me.
Where I am right now, I'd love to drop back down to 190. And 180 should really be the goal. Finding time to work out is the tough part.
There's also the issue of body type, endo- ecto- and mesomorphic to consider and that's all a matter of genetics. Bottom line is that everyone is different and everyone has to determine what is healthy. Weight, BMI and body fat are only general indicators.
Not that I'm copying Philo here..
I'm 6'3, ~195 lbs, which puts me on the heavy end of "normal," uncomfortably close to the "overweight" range on BMI
You're an
olderwiser, carbon copy of me. Wait, I would be the carbon copy I suppose.Now building off Philo, I made time for working out by commuting to work by bicycle. Takes a bit longer than via bus, but then (tying into ubes' point!) I have a goal of reducing how much time it takes to bike the constant distance.
Having met you (once), sean, I'm surprised to hear you say that. I recall you as taller and twiggy-er. 😉
I park ~10 blocks from my office and walk in/out daily. That plus going to the gym on weekends and occasional yard work is the extent of my physical activity.
My last year of grad school, I walked 1.5 miles to and from school each day. I did very little other exercise, but in retrospect, I really underestimated how valuable that walking was.
I biked to work with some frequency when I lived in D.C. Now, not so much, as the commute isn't nearly so bike-friendly. And also my bike has a flat tire.
The time in my life when I walked the most was also the time when I gained the most weight in a short span of time (study abroad in Athens/Rome). I had been in top condition just before that trip and completely gave up working out and ate out for almost every meal. It's been all downhill since then. Law school was bad too.
Also, this conversation is making me hungry.
In Ireland and Prague both I went from 170 to 160-155 just from the increase in walking I did everyday.
You're absolutely right that it's all about moving in the right direction and setting attinable goals. I think my gripe is mainly that I'd like to see more encouragement for people to diversify their goals. We often are given goals by government/medical groups like excercise for X minutes for Y days of the week. And that's a good start for a compeltely sedentary person, but I think after that a lot of people don't set additional performance-related goals, like improving their mile time by 15 seconds over the next three months, or increasing their lifts by 5-10 pounds each month, etc. Those goals are harder to figure out, though, and reasonable goals can depend a lot on your age and current condition.
Also, even with reasonable goal-setting, people will sometimes fail to meet their goals. That can lead to a big loss in motivation and sometimes making some less healthy choices. I like having a variety of goals to shoot at so that I don't get too hung up on always meeting one over-arching goal.
I agree with you, but I'd also like to see more emphasis on the mental-health benefits of exercise. Maybe it can't be quantified, but I can tell that if I get a decent amount of exercise, I tend to be in a better mood and am mentally sharper.
me think your talk smrt.
That sounds good to me, too. I am quite sure that I'm a more pleasant person to be around when I am regularly exercising. Also, as a nerd, I always used to think that gym class was an unnecessary distraction, but now I'm pretty convinced that it was essential.
...I think that weight is the RBI of health statistics. Sure, it incidates something about your health, but if you take a step back, I think it seems like a strange metric to fixate on.
This is a fairly perfect analogy. I'm fat, and have been for the large majority of my life. I have health problems. Some are likely related to my weight/diet, but not all are. People see a fat person and tend to assume they're lazy, they eat nothing but Cheetos and Ho-Hos, and all sorts of other miserable things. People don't think that when they see someone who is skinny who might ACTUALLY be lazy and eat nothing but Cheetos and Ho-Hos. It's frustrating.
Admittedly there's more profit to be made in telling everyone that being fat is an awful thing and selling them yo-yo diets than there is in teaching people how to make better food decisions and make it so that non-processed foods aren't hard to get/expensive for everyone.
Spot on - I'm fairly healthy now and have never really worried about my weight, but for most of college and a bit after, I was pretty lazy. I've always been lean, though, so when I would tell people that I was in pretty terrible shape (winded going up a few flights of stairs, etc), they would assume I was being a bit pompous. I'm so much happier now that I exercise somewhat regularly (Even though it's climbing and ping pong) and have noticed a big difference, even though nobody else really has.
I'll chime in with my recent exercise exploits.
The little bro has long wanted to do the skeleton. During the Olympics, we were talking about what we could do to be on an Olympic team. Several ideas were bandied about, but we settled on 2-man bobsled. USA Bobsled holds open tryouts every year in locations across the country. There's a score sheet where you are graded on your results in several events, split between sprint times and strength drills. Things are scored 50-100 (anything below the baseline of 50 points is 0, I assume so you can't get 100 in a squat and 20 in a spring and average out to a 60). There are 9 events. You need 600 points to be eligible for skeleton combines, and 625 for bobsled.
I've got the sprint points down pat (best is 93 points for my split time from 0 to 15 m). It's the strength events in which I'm lacking. Most of them have to do with explosiveness, like squats and broad jump. That makes sense since they big thing with bobsled is how quickly can you get a heavy object moving and how fast can you make that object move. So right now I'm tackling how to get stronger, especially in the butt region, without getting so big I get slow.
This sounds awesome.
Keeping on the "cool sports you never thought about" thread... I want to do American Ninja Warrior. I'm so amazingly far away from being able to do even a single one of the obstacles, but it looks cool.
I think the only Ninja Warrior event I could do is the opening leap from slanted platform to slanted platform (the name escapes me). I've got long legs and am pretty nimble, but the rest just require too much strength.
Watching it on TV inspired me to hang from a door for a few seconds. That's about all I've got. Also, I'm short, so getting between those platforms would be brutal for me.
It's interesting that they have a 3-rep squat test in their combine, since it's not always easy to judge whether someone's gotten below parallel on a squat. There's also the low-bar vs. high-bar issue.
I am not an expert by any means, but I have found Starting Strength to be a good reference on how to perform the basic lifts--squats, deadlifts, overhead press, bench press, and power cleans--safely and effeciently, though I still have never done any bench pressing. (Overhead press is awesome, though.) You might also want to look into Jim Wendler's 5/3/1 in terms of programming, although that may depend on where your lifts are at. Wendler's program would have you progressing about 10 pounds per month on squat and it's not super high volume (depending on what assistance work you choose), so it shouldn't interfere too much with other training you're doing. Deadlifts are awesome for your butt region, though, and have a lot of carryover to squats and cleans.
It's pretty clear that I am not a great world-class sledding athlete at the moment. My last three-rep max for power clean was 55kg and my 3-rep max for back squat is around 80-90kg. Not great by any means, but a year ago at this time, I'd never used a barbell in my life, so there's that.
I'm far from Olympic level as well. My brother and I ran our own combine to see where we are. Even being generous and giving myself 50 points instead of 0 for both the broadjump (I missed by 0.02 m) and the split time at 45m (which I missed by 0.02 s)*, I'm still way off the bobsled. With my extra 100 points, I still need 51 points for the skeleton combine and 377 for the bobsled.**
I need to improve an average of nearly 40 points over 9 events. I scored really poorly on the 4 strenght events - broad jump, 16lb shotput***, clean, and squat. Improving my sprint finishing (I fade pretty poorly in the 45m-60m range) to the rest of my sprint times still means I need to improve my 4 strength events to nearly 80 points each, which equates to an increase of 0.6m broad jump, 5.0m shot put, 48kg clean and 70kg squats.
For cleans and squats, I've never done them. I've always been a runner and basic core stuff. When I tried them recently I felt very awkward. I think with a little help on my form, I can squeeze out another 10-15kg as I am just by improving how I lift. I feel stronger than my results might otherwise indicate. Also, I didn't have a spotter and I'm kinda freaked out by the idea of seriously hurting myself so I didn't really push it super hard.
Also, I should point out were shooting for 2018 in South Korea, not 2014 in Sochi. I'd like to hit the combine minimums by 2014 and then work 4 years from within USA Bobsled. I'll be 32 by then, but why not? The 2-man gold medalists in Vancouver were 37 and 31 at the time. My brother would still only be 26.
*Both of which I consider within the margin of error for our half-baked setup.
**Bobsled and skeleton have different grading scales in addition to needing more points for the bobsled
***Our shot was 2 8lb weights lashed together with a trailer strap. I may do a lot better or worse with an actual shot. We're trying to borrow one from the HS over Labor Day.
If you can lift with your brother, that'd probably help a lot. Squats and cleans are not the most complicated thing in the world, but when you're starting out it's good to have someone watching you to make sure you're keeping your back flat and all that.
I hadn't thought much of the shot put test. It seems pretty technical if they are just trying to identify good athletes. At least, my impression of shot put is that you can improve a lot by improving your technique. Can you use the special throwing shoes on the test? It always seemed like those would help a lot if you had good technique.
Anyway, awesome project. I hope you make the cut. One of the women on my softball team from a couple years ago moved to Park City to train with the bobsled team. Good move for her, bad move for the team.
The girl in the Combine video (about 1:00 in) used an underhanded granny shot approach to throw the shot, and jumped about 3 feet forward in the process. We used that technique since it was very awkward to get two dumbells in the palm of your hand. I think they're less concerned with shotput technique as they are with the power you can get behind 16 pounds. Also, the video says 12 pounds, which is Olympic weight for women. We assumed then that the men would use the men's Olympic standard. If it's 12 lb for men too, then we'll have an increase in shot distance.
httpv://youtu.be/6ShZqL9CMTk
My brother won "Lifter of the Year" in freshman football. It's based on consistently showing up for weight sessions, form, and personal improvement and not necessarily who can lift the most. So he's a great lifting partner. It's just too bad he's finally in Des Moines while I'm not anymore.
This is pretty awesome. My weight - and where it should get to - is fairly similar to yours. I should probably take this as a cue to fix some of my lifestyle things... It's encouraging to get a glimpse into your efforts.
Good for you! Keep it up. You remain in our prayers.
Keep up the good work, bud.
Chris Kluwe takes umbrage to the Deadspin article.
I look forward to seeing that Kluwe piece featured in an upcoming team game program.
also:
Yep. That's why Jews like Rudy Boschwitz and Paul Wellstone could never get elected to statewide office in Minnesota, because Minnesotans hate Jews.
don't forget that new yorker norm coleman!
Pffft. He lost to a wrestler and a comedian. But, he beat the dead guy!
BTW, Sen. Franken is Jewish.
Sen. Dean Barkley (briefly) broke the string of that seat being "MN's Jewish Senator".
Proof that Minnesotans hate Jews: never have elected more than one to the Senate at a time.
Wisconsin, represent!
Proof that Wisconsin hates Jews: elects them to jobs that require they leave the state.
Pffft. He lost to a wrestler and a comedian. But, he beat the dead guy!
Heh.
Wellstone, btw, was a Div. I wrestler in college. But not a comedian, at least in my experience.
Maybe the name Jesse Ventura rings a bell.
So who was the wrestler then?
I should have put wrestler in "quotes".
oh, I knew you were referring to the Body. I was just adding to the discussion.
also, Al Franken was BOTH a wrestler and a comedian. I'm so confused.
Plus, apparently Minnesotans' thing with wrestlers at least rivals its infatuation with Jews.
I was being helpful in case you were completely unaware of our state's recent political history, donchaknow.
Ya, sure, youbetcha.
I got a bit bothered by that line because it seems to dismiss my legitimate reasons to dislike Zygi, particularly because people could probably say that it fits into Jewish stereotypes.
i was considering posting this, but the article, and then the comment section burned my brain. thanks for bringing up bad memories, rhu_ru.
Humorously, I know someone named Brian Neary, as mentioned in Kluwe's article.
I admit, I've had a lot of fun reading the comments sections of the various installments of the series. I'm constantly amazed that Drew will include something in his post, only to have someone comment in seemingly non-ironic fashion affirming that particular point. (best example: Detroit Lions and racism.)
Amazingly, the Vikings post seemed to get the least amount of that.
Kluwe about the comment section on Deadspin-
That's the hardest I've laughed at anything on Deadspin in a long time, and it was more of a chortle.
I don't understand how a MN native could not understand that "Minnesota Nice" is the same as "Minnesotans Aren't Nice".
Do we need to put it in quotes? "Minnesota 'Nice'"?
That would be different.
Actually, the quotes around nice invalidate it.
Because if you had said, "That would be 'different'", you'd be actively letting us know it's dismissive, which isn't really the Minnesota Nice thing at all.
Minnesota Nice is like a trademark.
"That would be different" is practically trademarked Minnesotaneze, is it not?
I watched a movie last month called "Young Adult" with Charlize Theron cast as a semi-successful writer returning to her small Minnesota home town. Everyone there referred to Minneapolis as the Minny Apple. It was Minnesota Nice to the nth degree.
sean, we need a poll: will span playing for 1 game before going on the DL, or 2?
I'm going to go with 3.
Done. I've edited tonight's game log to add the poll.
I noticed something this morning. I still carry a checkbook in my pocket. I always have it with my wallet. I havent written at a store in like 2 years, but still carry one.
Do young people get checking accounts anymore?
I have a checking account, but use the accompanying debit card for 99%+ of my transactions. I remember looking through my checkbook last year and there was 1 non-rent check in there over 2 years and it was my rugby dues.
The last checks I used have been voided to set up direct deposits.
I am not allowed to hold the check book, except when mrsS will be out of town for an extended period and the bills that can't be paid by electronic payment must be paid.
Kyle Gibson promoted to Rochester, so he's back to the level he was at when he got hurt. Twins say he won't be pitching in Minnesota this year.
I'm fine with not rushing him to the big leagues. The season's been sunk for some time now, so there's no use in overextending him. Give him the offseason to get stronger and see how he is come Spring Training.
Fully agree. I hope next year to be writing that Kyle Gibson has nothing to learn in Rochester.
Just got home from Denver. 910 miles in 13:58. I obeyed the speed limit, went through 8 road construction projects, and averaged over 65 MPH. Did I mention I had a five year old in the car? She is a champ.
immmmmpresive, indeed.