Author: gfox (old content)

Approached Action

On the ride home from ulti tonight I was in a bike lane, and my spidey sense started tingling. Over my left shoulder a car appeared and pulled in front of me. As we approached a road their right turn blinker came on, the slowed, and started moving over.

Instantly I slammed on the brakes and watched as the car stopped as well. This driver was waiting for me to pass. If they couldn’t make the turn, then why start passing me? Just slow down a little, wait for me to go past the road, then make their turn.

I was fuming, and was contemplating saying something, then noticed the big N on the back of the car. I cut the person some slack, and they waved at me and made their turn.

In retrospect I shouldn’t have cut the slack. I should have pulled up beside them and explained why that was a dangerous thing to do, and explained the better course of action. Obviously the parent in the passenger seat didn’t know how to handle the situation any better. I could have informed two people with a few words.

Windy Thrower

Ultimate was on the agenda tonight. The game was pretty good for me. I felt like I played pretty well, once I got the first couple bad throws out of the way. Once again it was windy making throwing for the newer players difficult and daunting.

Along with the wind comes a zone defence. This was something I never did when I was first learning. We always played using the vertical stack no matter the conditions. This was great for learning, but definitely is not how we do things now. The zone is makes learning the game just that much more difficult.

One of the zones we did was a 1-3-3. There was one person as the mark, then three players as a wall, then the other three as another wall. I was the lone guy chasing the disc. It actually felt good to be out runnig, though I did get the force wrong a couple times.

I also made a couple good defensive blocks. Those always feel great when you poach off your check a little to entice the thrower to him. I managed this a couple times, and swatted the disc down.

I even managed to catch for a couple points. Weee.

In the end we lots 7-6 which was unfortunate. We scored more than one upwind point which is very hard to do.

Next week we have a double header which should be intersting this early in the season.

Shorter Sights

Yesterday we me up with some friends to watch the Victoria Day Parade. Someone had mentioned to me that it was going to be shorter this year, but I have to say that it was still a very long parade. We didn’t stay to the end.

Below are some of my pictures, the rest are here.


My daughter enjoying the sights.


My son had a great time this year at the parade.


This is the group we watched with.


My daughter showing us her non-sleepy face.

Some cool cars:

Some other sights:


Experienced Money

Sunday night I was out late at a poker game. I was one of the least experienced players there, and at times it showed. I wasn’t happy with how I played, especially with the first hand I was dealt.

On the flop I paired up my kings. The only other guy bet into me pretty hard, and not thinking I called. The River and Turn were more of the same, and each time I called. On the River I had a feeling something was up, but I didn’t listen to my instinct. The other guy a trip 10’s. I deserved to lose the money I did.

I simmered down a little and checked my anger for a bit. How could I be so stupid. I managed to claw back most of what I had lost, but then it started going downhill again.

One hand I was pretty happy with I managed to get a lot of money out of a very good player. I think he put me on a set when I actually had a straight. I am happy with how I bet since I got the most out of him I could have. After I showed, he said that if I had bet any higher he would have folded.

Much later in the night I was sitting on the short stack and was down to just over $3. I got a K6 and was almost last to act. By this time the pot count had improved a lot so I shoved all in. I had one caller, so I managed to doubled up. Next hand I was dealt a K10. Again all in and won that pot, but didn’t double up. Still sitting on the short stack the next hand was something like a KJ. All in again (noone would believe me) and raked in another pot. In three hands I drastically improved my chip count and felt much better.

Alas it wasn’t to be, and by the end of the night I was busted. Fun night though.

I borrowed one book on cash games and started reading it, but I think it has done more harm than good so far. The concepts in this book are too far over my head. Since starting the book, the two games I’ve played in I’ve busted out, and I truly think it was because I played horribly. That is because I’ve been trying too hard. I want to learn more, but I need a different book. Something more simple to read.

Sandbox Deterrent

Sunday after the dog walk, we also broke ground on a sandbox for my son and daughter. We are kind of winging it, but we outlined the general size, cut out the grass, and started digging out the dirt. The plan is to line with gardening fabric, fill with sand, then ring with garden ties. The ties might be one or two high, not sure on that. Then I am also planning on building some kind of cat deterrent. I’m thinking a screened lid, or maybe a tarp based lid. I’m not concerned about keeping water out, just cats.

Here are a couple pictures of our progress so far. Sprout helped get the bigger rocks out of the hole.


Canine Romp

Sunday was such a nice, warm sunny day. We managed to spend a lot of time outside, and part of that was at the Citizen Canine, Everybody and Their Dog Walk. We looked at the booths, checked out some of the tricks, watched some face painting, ate some hot dogs, and thoroughly enjoyed the weather.

Yoshi and Digger enjoyed the setting too. They got a bit of a romp in the field and both spent a little time in the water cooling down.

For our walk, my son Sprout sported a blue tail. He insisted on walking quite a way like this. It was pretty cute.


Treat Mileage

Today was the final day of Bike to Work Week. I had a nice treat for my ride today: I got to ride with Sox! My mom was looking ater the kids at home, so Sox was able to ride to work. It was a short ride to downtown, but then I was off to Oak Bay.

The ride home was pretty uneventful too. Just the way it should be.

My mileage this year was nothing like last year, but it was sure good to actually spend some time on my bike. Some day I will actually install those fenders that I bought a long time ago. That would have helped keep me dry this week. 🙂

Collision Lane

The ride to work today was a normal ride. It was quite cloudy out, and since all my gear got soaked last night, I had to wear my riding pants.

Some time in the afternoon the sun came out and it warmed up a little. The ride home was actually quite pleasant, but I was on the verge of overheating.

Unfortunately I came across a few morons.

The first was a near car collision as I was about to get on the bridge. I saw an older mercedes approaching the yield sign, but it showed no signs of slowing down. I slowed down but the car in front of me didn’t really slow down. The Mercedes cut in front of the car in front of me then suddenly hit the brakes and stopped. All traffic was stopped and I had to jam on the brakes to avoid running in to the cars. Watch what you are doing people.

The next moron was right as I neared Tyee while riding up Esquimalt Ave. It is a decent hill, and this douche guns it to get past me with his right turn signal on. This guy wasn’t paying attention though. I saw it before he did, but the right turn lane was full since the cross traffic had the right of way. The gunner had to slam on the brakes and just managed to not rear end a porsche. This meant he was blocking my way up Esquimalt Ave. I gave him the thumbs up as I rode by slowly.

The last idiot was a real dork. As I was climbing the final hill near my home a guy in a minivan passes me then honked at me. Quickly he made a right turn in front of me, not using his right turn signal. Nice maneuver. Why the honk though? Don’t do that.

Cold Zone

This morning before work I decided to check my weight before I started playing Ulti again. My goal of Ulti is to get regular exercise, but in the end I do hope to lose a little more weight. I was surprised to see that I was already down to 170 pounds.

The game tonight was a hard one for the first game of the season. It was cold. Very, very cold. I was wearing a biking jersey, two t-shirts, and my riding arm warmers. I was still cold.

It was also very windy tonight. The league we play in is recreational so there are a lot of new players. People who are still learning to throw, and people still learning to catch.

Playing on a cold windy night is rarely fun for veterans, but really sucks for newbies. Veterans of the sport know that when it is windy, zone coverage works really well. Newbies have a hard time understanding what they are supposed to do in the zone defense. Hell, I still have a hard time with zone.

So far I am glad that I signed up again. The game tonight was fun, and I played alright. I was a handler for portions of the night and when my hands were warm I was throwing decently.

For the first point of the game I was on the field and part of the cup.

I made a couple of good defensive moves that may have saved us from getting scored on. I even layed out for the disc at one point, but was unable to come up with the disc. That was unfortunate since it also resulted in me getting soaked. A later point we were on our endzone and the handler walking up with the disc told me to strike since he was going to huck. I took off breaking free of my check. When the disc was up in the air, the wind caught it, and it floated up pretty high and wide. At a full sprint I was looking up over my right shoulder to track the disc, and I did a pretty god job of reading it. Unfortunately the wind kept it aloft for a while and the defense was able to catch up to me and block me from making the catch. Too bad.

Our team looks good, and I am looking forward to getting to know them better.