Thursday Things

August 10, 2017

I decided I need a title for when I post it not on Wednesday as planned but on Thursday. Sorry.

What I’m Reading

Smart Baseball: The Story Behind the Old Stats That Are Ruining the Game, the New Ones That Are Running It, and the Right Way to Think About Baseball – Excellent book debunking the old stats we grew up with and making the case for different analysis tools to evaluate offense, pitching, and defense.

Band of Brothers – This is my favorite easy-to-teach tactical WWII wargame. In fact my young friend (and future Army officer) Peter is coming over this afternoon for another session. That will be three plays in one week.
Mansions of Madness – Geoff and Lisa came over Sunday night and we played this semi-cooperative game. Technically “we won” but I went insane at the end and was forced to try to stop us from winning, and failed. Fun ride and a good successor to Betrayal at House on the Hill (but more complex).

An Engineer’s Guide to the Artificial Intelligence Galaxy. – A better than average commencement speech from Columbia University with some aggressive forecasting of AI. I’m in agreement.
Have Smartphones Destroyed a Generation? – When do things cross the line from “I don’t like it ’cause its different than how I grew up” to “this might be a genuine problem for our youth”?
My Family is “In Between”and I Love it – Some heartfelt commentary from a mom that is in about the same stage of life as Julie and me. I’ve subscribed to the blog.

Because I’m engaging in a frugal month, playing golf doesn’t fit in the picture. So that means… disc golf! I’ve played a couple of new courses in my area over the past week and I’ll be heading to another tomorrow.
- Disc Golf Rules for Recreational Play
- Improving Back Hand Distance – This is where I most need to improve.
- The Overhand Shot – I can still throw further with an overhand shot, but slowly my back hand is achieving similar distances.

Priority Pass Adds Capers Cafe Le Bar & Capers Market To PDX – Holy cow what a great deal. When I flew to Dallas last week, I took advantage of my Priority Pass on both ends. I got $28 credit at Capers (Cobb salad and a glass of wine) and $28 at House Spirits Distillery on the way out. On the way back, I stopped by Capers again and got another salad, which lasted me for two meals when I got home. PDX might be the best airport on the planet for using the Priority Pass (also get Alaska Airlines lounge access).
Intermittent Fasting Versus Long-term Fasting – I’m doing the 16/8 fasting model right now and it is easy for me to do. The problem is I’m also training for a half marathon and fasting before I do long (6+ mile) runs appears to be a terrible thing to do. At least my body is telling me that. So no more fasting before my runs the rest of the month, but I plan to resume this after the half marathon when I transition back into strength training combined with shorter runs.