The Hungry Hungry Writer

It’s time for… FANTASY BASEBALL!

I love fantasy baseball.

I’ve always loved fantasy baseball.

Even when I didn’t play fantasy baseball, I played fantasy baseball - in my head at least.

This year we had a live draft at 8PM (Wednesday night). I think most of the managers of the 10 team league showed up. I had a list of 11 ‘must haves’ before the draft. I got TWO of them. I was very happy. I was banking on at least one of two ‘must haves’ though - AROD 1st and Pujols 2nd if I didn’t get AROD… I had third pick in the draft which meant I may not get either based on all the reports of the top 5 picks going for fantasy leagues.

The top 5 picks in Yahoo Fantasy Baseball have been - in order of picks:

1. Alex Rodriquez (drafted 3rd)
2. Albert Pujols (drafted 2nd)
3. Vladamir Guerrero (drafted 1st)
4. Mark Teixeira (drafted 4th)
5. Manny Ramirez (drafted 6th AFTER Jo. Santana)

The first pick was Vladamir… which meant I was sure to either get AROD or Pujols!!! I was jumping for joy… and sure enough, Pujols went and I got AROD.

By the time it came back to me there was only one person left on my must haves… I didn’t hink I would even get two off my list but I did. And so I snatched Jason Bay up…

Then, in the third round Jeff Kent was still available. So I picked him up! What a steal! Finally, the fourth round and many of the big names or franchise players have been picked but Morgan Ensberg was still there.

What a lineup! AROD, BAY, KENT, ENSBERG and the 123rd choice in the draft that EVERYONE decided to pass up… I picked up BONDS in the 13th round!!!

Are you kidding me? Offensively, I have looked at the top four picks for every team and I don’t think anyone matches up with what I have. Two teams come close (Boston Yankees & R.B.I. Baseball) but I think I scored. The rest of the picks were fill needs with some sleepers and top ranked players that were left over.

Pitching, meh… decent enough but SP are so fragile you don’t know what you’ll get from an ace. So a pitcher can be picked up here and there but I wanted a solid offense so I won’t have to scramble when someone gets hurt or is under performing. My top five should be VERY consistent.

There are some pretty creative team names in this league titled: “Steroid Free America”. Here they are in draft order:

Itchy Baseballs
Just the Flax
ChunichiMagicDragons
Boston Yankees
Wireless_Webs
flying squirrels
€røüçhîñg £ígër§™
Quixotic Quakers
R.B.I. Baseball
SanDiego Prosecutors

It’s going to be a fun year of baseball!!!

And the CunichiMagicDragons are going to ROCK!!!

How sad. The number system will never be the same without it.

Jake had an audition for Kellogs last night. They asked him if he knew any jokes… his joke is the go to joke - “Why is Six afraid of Seven? … Because Seven ate Nine.” Funny… But I told him to use this - “Did you know 4 out of 3 people don’t understand fractions?” Then end it with a couple of… “Get it? Get it?” But he doesn’t get it. And it might fly over some of the casting directors heads until they drive home and think, hey, that was a funny joke.

I’m taking a break from work since my boss is doing something with his Fantasy Baseball team right now. I was going to get an apple but I don’t want him to know I know that he’s on the phone with someone discusing the ‘draft’.

So what video game did I get for Jacob doing the audition? I mean, what did HE get for doing such a great job at the audition?

Well, okay, he got a game and I got one too. I mean I deserve one right? He does look like me. And its his look that is getting the auditions right? See, its all justified.

Since he doesn’t really like the Nascar 06 game very much because of the difficulty level, he has been wanting this motorcycle racing game. It was pretty difficult when I tried it but he actually figured out breaking before the turns and is controling the motorcycle quite well. Better than me at least.

It’s called: MOTO GP 3 - The Ultimate Racing Technology.

Gamespot gives it a ‘Great’ rating of 8.9.

I like it because you start the game and you can choose a race right away. You don’t go through some start up race like in Nascar 06. And the motorcycles look awesome. He stayed up a little playing - around 8:00 PM, and in the morning, after feeding Gordon, he got to play it again.

Oh… he had another 4:00 AM bloody nose again. Donna took care of it this time. So no school for the Jake-dawg today. He has school, he’s just missing it. And its not because of the 4AM bloody nose. It’s because he has to have his nose catarized at the doctor’s office due to all the 4AM bloody noses he’s been having. So his nose is a little sore after the catarization. He will have the right side done next week. Is that the right spelling? “Catarized”? I don’t care. Look it up and let me know.

And for me… I bought an older game, used, for nine bucks.

Fable

I’ve always wanted to try this game. They have another updated version out but they say the jump isn’t that big of deal. So the price was right and I got it.

Gamespot gives it a ‘Great’ rating of 8.6 as well.

Damn… I want to take a vacation and just hang out at the house, read, get a fire going, play Xbox and write.

I have a vacation scheduled in June - right after my Redondo Beach Triathlon which includes a half mile swim. Shit I’m freaking out! We might stay in San Diego or Sacramento or Santa Barbara… we are not sure yet. Somewhere quiet I hope.

Oh… and Jake has ANOTHER AUDITION today!!! Whoo hoo. That means we… er… HE gets another Xbox Game! I hope HE picks a good one.

Okay… back to my analysis.

A long weekend filming of “The Turning” – a Dramatic Zombie Movie. Yes, a Zombie movie. It ended at close to midnight for me on Sunday night – after needing a desperate bathroom break due to a bad stomach ache. I went home, took a shower, swallowed a couple Advils and chewed on some Tums, then to bed.

At 3:00 AM Bella did something she never does. I looked up at her and she said, “Papa, I can’t sleep.” Then I felt her forehead. She was burning up. I woke up Donna to tell her and then went to get her Infant Tylenol. She started crying – she said she didn’t want medicine. And to make matters worse, her crying woke Jacob up. And when Jacob wakes up in the middle of the night it means one thing. A bloody nose.

So while I’m getting Bella medicine, Donna’s holding Jake’s nose. Then we switched off… I took Jake’s nose and Donna took Bella’s temperature. It was around a 101 degree temperature . Jake rarely bleeds on both sides of his nose but last night it was gushing out of both. Finally it subsided and I had him take over with the nose pinch. Thank goodness he has an appointment with the ENT this week. This bloody nose thing has got to stop.

The long weekend started on Saturday morning with a four mile run. I went straight to Jake’s Little League game where I stood out on the field for almost two hours, then right to “The Turning” set for a 15 hour day. Five hours sleep later I was doing Sunday errands like dog food and dropping off my bike at the bike shop and then a 3:00 PM call time on the set. Nine hours later I’m in bed. But that is cut short because three hours later I had to get up to tend to the kids and their unfortunate fevers and nose bleeds.

It was a very long long weekend.

Being tired is an understatement.

I’ve recently started taking vitamins on a daily basis… I get daily Fitness text messages on my phone and one read like this:

V.FITNSS Over the past several years, studies — expected to prove dramatic benefits from vitamin use — have shown the opposite. (REP)

WHAT THE?!?!?

I think it is completely irresponsible to tell people this. Most people will read that and think, “Okay I’m going to stop taking vitamins - waste of money with no benefit”, without doing their due diligence. Which was my first thought, why take them?

So I did som research on it and it led to ONE rebuttal of that argument - which makes alot more sense than a blanket statement like - there’s no benefits from vitamin use.

Wall Street Journal Smears Vitamin Use

Well… apparently there are benefits. At least from this point of view. My argument on where to take sides is… why wouldn’t there be any benefits? It seems logical… it can only help. I’m not a doctor, but if your body is NOT giving you enough of one thing, a supplement can help… RIGHT? Why do we NEED certain fruits, vegetables, meats and things like that if our body doesn’t need those certain vitamins you get from them? If you can’t drink enough OJ, for vitamin C, why not use a supplement?

Tara Parker-Pope, the author of the above article, sure does not get much credibility after the above rebuttal that points specific things in her article as unfounded nonsense. It makes this Wall Street Journal writer look like a high school writer with no REAL facts to back her argument… And even in high school you need references to validate your report paper.

“Fiddley-foo-foo!” is what I have to Tara Parker-Pope. (Thanks to RTer FatClemenza for use of the word.)

So there you have it. Two things gleamed from this post… 1) I’m still going to take Vitamins and… B) I have the qualities to write for the Wall Street Journal.

“…if it was easy everyone would do it. The hard is what makes it great.” Tom Hanks, “League of their Own”

Thursday - It was one of those crappy lack of motivation days. Add fifteen minutes to get from work to the 405 (a five mile drive) and another 45 minutes from there to home (a 12 mile drive)… Then there was a very unhealthy dinner (I HATE FAST FOOD!) and you can see why it was tough to get to the gym. At least dinner didn’t consist of a big fat juicy chilli Tommy Burger. But Burger King isn’t any better. BLECH!

I got home and waited for everyone to show up. I ate my Whopper and around 6:15 we went to Jacob’s Open House. It was nice to see all the things he does in class. Bella wanted to stay so bad. We finally had to carry her, kicking and screaming, out of the school and went home. It was past their bedtime.

Bella is three today (Friday) by the way!!! I’m sad about that. I can’t believe she’s three years old. I showed her how to tuck in her pinky under her thumb so she can show she’s three. It’s a struggle but she does it. I asked her if I still can call her ‘my baby’, she said no.

By 8:15 PM I was at the gym watching lap swimmers take up all the lanes and I was going to use that as an excuse to not swim. But I ended up getting undressed and just sat on the steps of the pool waiting. When a lane cleared up I swam over and asked, Young, another triathlete, if I could share the lane. We chatted about swim technique, open water swims, wetsuits and sprint triathlons. He gave me enlightening advice on open water swim and after five or so minutes of conversation I pushed off the wall and started my swim.

After what I thought was four 100 meter sets - that’s two laps per set - I lifted myself out of the pool and relaxed. I was ready to go home. Later I realized I had only done three 100 hundred meter sets (six laps) but at the time I had thought I swam 400 meters. And 400 meters was enough for a night with no energy I thought. I was exhausted.

I sat there, at the edge of the pool, lost in thought… Bella is turning three, I’m turning thirty nine, Jake is turning six, I have to go to work tomorrow, I’m not ready for the UCLA Triathlon…

The next thing you know the swimming pool was empty. It was odd. Empty on a Thursday night. The water began to settle and stand still. I kicked my legs in the water, stirring it a little, watching the small wakes I made expand into the empty pool. It was peaceful - it was relaxing - it was as if my mind cleared as the pool cleared. There was a sense of spirtuality that overwhelmed me. Instead of hitting the showers, I decided to do a non-stop 400 meter swim (eight laps). Not because I was gung ho to do it… not because I was motivated… not because I thought I should… I just did because my mind was convinced I shouldn’t do it. I needed to convince myself to do it. It’s a hump a triathlete or any athlete needs to overcome anyway. On race day I’ll have to battle these thoughts constantly. I told myself long ago to battle these thoughts on training days so you don’t have to fight so hard on race days…

So I did it. I’d say 70% of the time I was on my back, or on my side… But I did it… it was long and hard and a total struggle that I tried to train my mind to ignore… 14:31 was my time. It’ll probably be slower on April 9 after a 4 mile run and 10 mile bike ride. But I did it.

I got out, showered, went to Barnes & Noble and went home. I finished up an analysis and sent it to my boss. Then I turned on ESPN to find out that UCLA WON a game they should have lost. That put me in a good mood. But then my sister called and we talked about morbid thoughts - death, comas, stuff like that that depresses me and something I think about all too much. I need to stop.

Tonight I might not be able to swim. I might not be able to workout either. Hopefully I’ll be able to go on a quick run or short bike ride…

It’s Bella’s birthday today- 3/24/2006. She’s three. Jake is going to be six… I’m going to be forty in 15 months.

I’m depressed.

“When you’re going through hell, keep going.” Albert Einstein

My swim time for Thursday 3/23/2006:

23m 35s 750.00 meters 3m 08s /100 meters

For about five years now I’ve run a Fantasy Baseball league on Yahoo Sports. The turnout is pretty good with a good group of people. If you are interested in playing and want promise to be an ‘active’ manager, please email me at Glenn’s Email and tell me and I’ll send you the info to signup. This is a FANTASY BASEBALL PLUS league so its paid for and has more features available to you as a manager.

Let me know ASAP as the draft is set for March 29, 2006 at 8:00 PM Pacific Time. YOU DO NOT NEED TO BE THERE ON LIVE DRAFT DAY… You will get a team no matter what but if you want, please join the live draft.

Limit to 10 teams so hurry up. If it gets filled I will add two more teams.

The whole Randy Jackson thing was too difficult so I’m abandoning the idea of writing in such a foreign tounge…

So here’s a normal post…

My buddy Dean put together a collage of the pics of Jake he liked (like Jessica’s) …

(click for larger picture)

To see Jessica’s “JAKE COLLAGE” - (go here)

Yo Deaner!!! Thanks for taking the time!

So listen… it was a LONG NIGHT, know what I’m sayin?
(in Randy Jacksonesque’)
Yo dawg… here’s what I’m saying. So listen… Here’s what I’m saying you know… Dood… tonight was not happenin for me, dawg. I mean, listen… like I got it going on you know - I got work, then I go home, spend time with the family you know, do the dinner thing, then to the Dojo and then struggle to the gym for a quick workout ’cause you know the dog pound has got to keep it fit you know what I’m sayin? So I got it all down, the whole full day you know what I mean? But dude, it’s like 12 midnight and I’m like feeling all sleepy and it’s time to turn out the lights and catch some “Z’s” and so like I’m out right? And I’m sleepin’ and dreamin’ and my 2 year old baby girl is snorin’ next to me and I got to change her diaper so I do the daddy thing and change her and then I’m out again and then listen… it’s like a fire or something, dude, you know what I’m sayin? Two A.M. and the Jake-dawg is screamin’, “I got a bloody nose - I got a bloody nose - I got a bloody nose.” It’s like a fire right, like I said. So I’m jumpin’ out of bed, stumblin’ on my feet and dude… you know how its like to see something really tragic and you freeze for a moment not knowing what to do… man… like… yo dawg, listen, that’s what it was like last-NITE, you know what I’m sayin’, man, you know what I’m sayin’? So there’s the Jake-dawg holding two hands under his nose with blood gushing out and I’m like Jake-dawg, man, whats’goin’ on doood, waz’ up?!? So I get some tissue and squeeze the Jake-dog’s nose, and grab more to soak up the blood on his hands and take him to the bathroom, and listen, let me tell ya, man, that’s just not happenin’ for me after a long day, a workout, a diaper change and my alarm set to go off like in three hours you know what I’m sayin’, dude? So its like Two Twenty now and I’m like worried I’ll fall asleep as I sit on the edge of the tub and fall back and bash my head while I’m holding the Jake-dawg’s nose, so I snap out of it you know what I mean, and concentrate on what’s happenin’. So, listen… Finally Jake-Dawg’s awright, you, know, nose bleed is done, his hands are washed so everything’s awright, you know, but like I’m totally, TOTALLY, tired know what I’m sayin’? It just wasn’t happenin for me. So like Jake-dawg gets in bed and I’m all like trying to fall asleep thinkin man, it ain’t a hot one toNITE know what I’m mean’? You know what I’m sayin’? It’s not the worst night, you know, but it wasn’t like the best night you know what I’m sayin’? Man, not happenin for me… not happenin’…

“Yo, man. So, yo, you know what I love man? Great song choice for you. I like the little mic technique. I like that dude I got to try that you know what I’m saying? You got your hair back you got the old Bucky hair back. You know what I’m saying. And… and you know what’s cool, man, the falsetto at the end. It wasn’t the best vocal that you have done but dude it was the perfect song for you, man. Good choice, man, good choice.”

This was Randy Jackson’s comment to Bucky on American Idol.

You can’t write better dialogue than that! Well… maybe you can… er… of course you can… but its still cool which has convinced me to finish off this week with all my entries with a Randy Jackson flair!

SAD EVENT AT THE LA MARATHON!

FROM THE LA TIMES

The tragedies unfolded unnoticed by most runners.

Go to www.latimes.com for the rest of the story.