Una Historia de Fútbol

[google-translator]

Mientras estoy en países donde los gentes hablan español, voy a escribir en español. Puede traducir con Google Traductor.

Quiero contarles mi mejor historia de la semana pasada…

Yo compré un balón de basquetbol y fui con mi amigo del hostal a la cancha. Mi amigo es de Irlanda, y lo llamamos “Rojo” de cariño.

Cuando llegamos, había niños jugando fútbol en la cancha. La cancha tenía aros de baloncesto y canchas de fútbol. Después de una hora, los niños nos invitaron a jugar con ellos. Durante el juego, un niño pateó muy fuerte el balón y este fue a parar demasiado lejos del campo de juego, y había mucho tráfico. La calle estaba muy empinada y el balón rodó hacía abajo muy rápidamente. Un niño corrió detrás del balón, entonces, después de dos o tres minutos, empezamos a jugar con un balón diferente. Pero, ¿Adónde fue el niño por el balón? No sé. No regresa. Continuamos jugando fútbol y mi equipo le ganó al equipo de Rojo en todas las rondas porque los jugadores de mi equipo eran mayores más veloces que los del contrincante (Rojo).

Después de cuatro rondas, también un niño volvió a patear el balón muy fuerte y lo lanzó muy lejos. En esta oportunidad, yo fui por el. Cuando salí corriendo, los niños gritaron, “¡Rápido, rápido!” Corrí y corrí bajé y después de tres cuadras, un hombre me dijo, “¡Allí, allí!” y él me señaló con el dedo hacía donde este se dirigió. Seguí bajando la montaña, y otra persona me dijo lo mismo. Después de dos cuadras más, un hombre finalmente pateó el balón hacía mí, y hasta aquí llegué.

Mi búsqueda duró más de quince minutos, y ahora sé a dónde fue el niño. ¡El niño corrió hacia abajo y no regresó ya que estaba muy cansado!

Yo corrí lentamente y me devolví al campo de juego. Hasta que atardeció y el juego terminó.

Non-Fiction

Stranger than Fiction

A man fails as an actor, then goes to Alaska to live with grizzly bears? No way you say. Yep. The only question is, will the bears eat him?

A church founded by a science-fiction writer gains worldwide power? Yep, true. Watch out for Scientology.

Better than Fiction

A dolphin loses its tail, then becomes an inspiration to human amputees. Check it out! Straight out of Clearwater, Florida.

Uncle Fun and Aunt Funny!

I just departed Clearwater, Florida, home of two retirement experts. I had a great time and learned a lot.

  1. Where am I? Where do I want to go? How am I going to get there? Write it down!
  2. Thomas Aquinas’ “uncaused cause.”
  3. Don’t cross the “church” of Scientology.
  4. Winter the dolphin, check out the movie Dolphin Tale.

Madonna took me on one final bike ride in the states for 20 miles. I couldn’t ask for a better final bike ride for the year. Picture to follow, the Mega Bus Wi-Fi is too slow!

Aunt Madonna and I at Dunedin on our bike ride.

With Uncle Fun in Clearwater.

The rest is in my visitors book entry…

Thank you John and Madonna!

Ventures Update January 2016

695 Riverview Drive

The new new management company is doing really well. This is our 4th—my brother Thad started, then Renting Ohio, then North Point Asset Management, and now Panzera Realty. Changing managers 3 times sounds like a lot and sounds like we might be the problem and not the manager, but each manager has been better than the previous. We have found that timely and effective maintenance is the #1 most important thing, followed by accurate accounting. They all charge basically the same price.

 

2015 11 04 New Pic from Front 2
Notice the new pavement in the parking lot. Also, the front lights are now on a dusk to dawn sensor, so they are on all night.

Simple Kneads Gluten-Free Bread

The team in North Carolina is growing and the company is taking shape as it begins to hire employees. Sales began in August and, though there are challenges, demand for the excellent quality gluten-free bread makes meeting those challenges well worth the effort. It is now available to buy on Amazon, and will soon be available directly from the company website.

Kineomen

Nothing significant to report!

The Stock Market

With my available money, I am still “all-cash,” and have been since December 2013. However, I spent about a week last month nerding out on the internet to sort through all the news, economists’ opinions, indicators, and general stock market chatter to find some sources that I can understand and trust to make sense of the market and use to make confident, informed buy and sell decisions. I came up with four sources that, in order, tell first when to pay attention, then once the market is primed for buying, what to buy. Those four items are listed in this post.

Vino de Coco

Nothing significant to report!

Click the picture for the website.
Click the picture for the website.

Bike Versus Truck Result

My bike versus truck challenge is finished. It ran from August 2015 through January 2016. In the final 3 weeks of the challenge, I biked almost zero and drove my truck everywhere doing projects at my apartments and moving my stuff into storage. The final score was a crushing defeat by 250 miles:

Truck: 1924 miles

Bike: 1674 miles

The bike wins in the end, however, because I sold the truck! In addition to getting estimates from local dealerships, I put the truck on Craigslist and a dealership from North Carolina found it and sent an inspector by plane to inspect, buy, and drive the truck back to North Carolina. He had a refundable return plane ticket in case he found something wrong with the truck. I may have had to accept the local price of $2,000 less if my brother had not offered to buy it and sell it for me enabling me to hold out until the last day. It was a great truck, but I’m glad to have the cash!

Expert Downhill Skiing in 5 Days

Rule #1: maximize time on skis, so get in shape. Every time down the hill you learn something!

Monday

  • Watch a skiing YouTube video.
  • Go down the hill without hurting yourself.

Tuesday

  • Keep skis together (easier said than done) and put weight on the downhill / outside ski.
  • Should be able to lift inside ski off the snow. Rotate hips, tighten core.

Wednesday

  • Rotate around the inside pole, not the outside! Use it to lift weight and shift.
  • Mogul drills: point out each mogul with pole and negotiate them half-speed.

Thursday

  • Don’t land on top of moguls to control speed. Moguls are a horizontal obstacle. Center of gravity goes over mogul, skis go around.
  • Weight transfer up and down to shift skis side to side. Center of gravity travels in a straight line.

Friday

  • Get off your heels. Press toes of foot on the outside ski. Ski on the ball of outside foot.
  • Inside ski with no weight goes forward of outside ski. Do this by pushing inside knee forward with hip flexor.

Week 2

  • “Walk” down the hill with poles. Keep “3 points of contact.”

Expert Source:

We took a family ski vacation to Stowe, Vermont last week. Stowe was awesome and the vacation was perfect. The snow came just in time.

I hadn’t skied since 1995, so I started from scratch and took notes. It was a blast and I’m hooked. Next time I go I want to pick up where I left off, so here is what I learned:

Close Race on the Home Stretch

I drove 157 miles this past week on many trips to Lowe’s and one trip to Delaware. I rode 0 miles. The bike is now in the lead by 1 mile, 1626 – 1625.

Answer to last week’s quiz question: I don’t know what kind of bird that is.

This week’s quiz question: What actors play the parts of Princess Leia and Luke Skywalker in the newest Star Wars, The Force Awakens?

The Tiananmen Square

Bike leads truck by 158 miles, 1626 – 1468. I’m hanging on to that lead.

I was trying to catch a bus on High Street on Friday from behind. Sometimes you can catch them if they are in traffic or while they stop, but generally they go faster than a bike. I have pedaled myself to exhaustion before only to see the bus continuously pull away and stop just ahead of me like a carrot on a stick. This time, however, I was more bold. I call this move the “Tiananmen Square.” The bus stopped long enough for me to catch up, but was closing its doors as I overtook it. Rather than hope the driver would see me pull up to the stop and be nice, I passed the bus on the left and stopped in front so the driver couldn’t ignore me. He stopped. I loaded my bike quickly and had my fare ready to go. Total delay for the bus, 30 seconds. Saved me a lot of work!

I am renovating the steps at our apartments. This bird was hiding from the wind and let me get really close. I don’t think he was OK.

This week’s quiz question: what kind of bird is that?

To Blog or Not to Blog?

That is the question.

In this my third year of “blogging,” I have decided that it’s time to discuss “blogging” itself. I have had a website since summer 2013 when my friend Biff showed me how easy it is to do. Most of you have probably not ever blogged and view bloggers as self-absorbed blabber-mouths with an inflated sense of their own importance. Well, actually, maybe you don’t–but that’s how I felt, and so I assumed others felt that way, and that is where I started two and a half years ago…

When I wrote my first post, I can remember clicking the little “Publish” button and waiting for this imaginary something to happen because I had simultaneously spoken to the entire world all at once. I felt like the collective criticism of the world was going to descend upon me and laugh me off the face of the earth. I called my brother and some friends to look at my post just to get some feedback because the anticipation was killing me. Instead of something cataclysmic, nothing happened. I found not only had I not spoken to the entire world all at once, but hardly anyone noticed. This is bad for someone trying to get hits on his website, but for me, I was relieved, and as time went by, I found that I felt more and more free to write what I want and click that “Publish” button. I have come to the point where I enjoy having my website and it has proven very useful. To take it one step further, I will go so far as to say that if you use the internet, you too should blog!–or at least dabble in blogging, or at least have a simple site. The following is why.

  1. A website gives you elbow room on the internet. Let’s face it, these days we all spend some time on the internet. Even those stubborn technophobic Facebook hold-outs who just got a smart phone use the internet. So wouldn’t it be nice to have some of your own space here? “It’s just virtual space!” you say. Yes. Correct. It’s just a virtual internet too, but you’re on it. It must have some value. Own, don’t be a lifetime renter. Having your own personal space, that elbow room, allows you to direct your information seeking efforts so you don’t get lost in the black hole that leads to the end of the internets. If nothing else, you can set up a page with a list of your favorite links as a starting point when getting your news from the internet. Click the link. I do just that with my website.
  2. Having a website gives you a behind-the-scenes perspective on the internet. Ever watch the “behind-the-scenes” of the making of a movie? Seeing it changes how you perceive the movie and you understand it better. Producing video gives you some perspective on what is possible in movies and video production. The same applies to internet information. Once you produce information on the internet you realize how easy it is and impresses upon you the importance of screening the information. Anybody can do it! There is a whole bunch of junk information out there – especially on the internet – and you are much better equipped at recognizing it if you supply some of the junk yourself! I do. Click the link and buy something, dang it!
  3. Blogging gives you a voice. Have you ever played a game where you aren’t allowed to speak for an extended period of time? It’s frustrating, right? Have you ever been frustrated by the stupid things people say in public forums? “I heard so-and-so said such-and-such on Twitter. What an idiot!” Twitter user or not, you’ve seen tweets. You can’t stop them. Twitter is free. You can’t escape them. Tweets are part of the news these days. Don’t fall into the trap of helpless frustration! Believe me, no matter how many followers one has, they are frustrated too. Dear Twitter Idiot, a million people may have read your tweet, but it still only took those million people 10 seconds to read your 140 characters, and they moved on to the next tweet with little more than a nagging feeling of neglect that you didn’t even bother to use punctuation when speaking to millions of people. Dear Frustrated Mute Listener, find your voice! Blabber on! Look no further for an example. This is me blabbering right here! Look! An excessive exclamation point! Where? Right there! You can too. If you are my friend, I will even go out of my way to read and promote your unlimited characters, but you have to take that first step.
  4. You can use your blog to discuss with your friends more efficiently. Whenever I research a subject, I write my conclusion in a post instead of just an e-mail. That way when the subject comes up again, I send the link to my conclusion! You systemize your discussions! Yes, I really do this and it is fun.
  5. A website is an efficient way to communicate and organize. I used my site for an event over Thanksgiving, and it worked great. Facebook works too, and so does group e-mail, but a website has an advantage over each. With a site, you can adjust it after sending the link, which you can’t do with a group e-mail. Some people do not have Facebook, and you can reach those people as well. You definitely want to be able to reach the Facebook hold-outs, they are the coolest people out there. Just ask them!
  6. Those from the pre-internet days will say we don’t know anything, we just know how to search fast. People say we have off-loaded our brains to the internet. We have transferred memory itself to computers. I agree. It is truly amazing how much information one can take in. Even more amazing, with a blog, you can hyper-organize the information. With the internet, our brains can become an index of searches. With a blog, you don’t even need to do that. You can become an index to the table of contents of your own cross reference to all information known to man – the internet. Most importantly, with a blog you can quickly reference only the specific information you have deemed quality.
  7. The internet can be compared to real estate. Many people will say that blogs are out of date and you will not get any traffic. You should use established places like LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube, et cetera. It is true that you will get more traffic in these established places. They are like a store front in a mall. There is naturally traffic passing by. With a blog you must generate your own traffic organically. However! Space on the internet is like real estate. With a blog you own the space and you own the traffic. You control how your content is displayed and in the event that you do generate traffic, you own the advertising rights. If you are already producing content in any other place you should blog it first then copy paste it to the other established formats. Own your content!
  8. Last and certainly not least, blogging is a journal. Maybe you want to sit down for a few minutes each day / week / month and reflect. Journaling is a timeless activity. I argue that blogging is an improvement on journaling. Journaling is for hermits. In a journal, you may write some of your deepest secrets feeling the security that nobody will ever read it. How do we know that people write secrets in their journal? Because they wrote them down and somebody found their journal and read them, duh! With blogging, hopefully you’re smart enough not to publish your deepest secrets (I don’t recommend drinking and blogging, bad idea). Blogging is journaling with 3.26 billion of your closest friends keeping you honest. There is an imaginary force of motivation knowing that someone might be reading that keeps you to your routine of a few minutes of writing. So thanks for keeping me honest. The best is when somebody in real life tells you he has read your blog and makes some comment on it. It’s kind of a rush. It’s like a tiny piece of that tidal wave of criticism that you felt on day one–but not criticism at all–and you become a little less self-conscious, and a little more bold each time.

To blog! That is the answer.

Exactly…

…83,000 miles on my truck,

…2,700 total miles on Strava,

…and 200 total rides on Strava.

That puts biking holding steady to 159 mile lead over the truck, 1,593 miles – 1,434 miles. The weather has been unseasonably warm, I have only gotten a little wet riding my bike, and biking isn’t that cold anyway.

The other factor in keeping my driving miles down has been completely nerding out on the internet for days on end systemizing where I get my news and market indicators. See the result here.

Answer to last week’s quiz question: the Scioto River empties into the Ohio River near Portsmouth, Ohio.

This week’s quiz question: to blog or not to blog? Answer here.

Produce. Persist. Own. Succeed. Fail. Care. Do. Learn. Win.