Whoa, Fell Off the Wagon Something Fierce There

Yes, he meant to do that. And he landed it too!

You know its been a long time since you've blogged when you get an email from your mom asking why there haven't been any new posts in a while. And then I swing through here to see that we're going on three weeks since the last peevy post about stuff I'm over.

What's been going on? Work. Lots of work. Combine that with two boys play tee ball, working at least one and usually two nights a week and then also trying to get in workouts and that equals something gets squeezed out.

For now that has been this blog which is okay. It doesn't mean I don't enjoy blogging any less and don't find value in doing these posts. I certainly do but the more immediate nature of Twitter is distracting me from posting. As well as all of the other hats that I have to wear in a given day.

Let's do a quick scorecard to catch up, shall we?

UFC 126 Scorecard

FanFest in San Francisco ended up being a good day. We were pretty sure we weren't even going to get in since Murph announced the event was sold out while we were still driving into the city. But we went anyway, wandered around the outside of the park and then got lucky as they opened the 2nd Street Gate and we were able to walk out onto the field with literally no wait at all!

Damn, there were some crazy ass fights last night. A snoozer in Torres vs Banuelos but most of the rest of the card was pretty darned good. And the whole night culminated in the kick heard round the world as Anderson Silva retained his title, extended his record wins and title defenses and made Vitor Belfort smell his foot before he went to bed!

TUF 8 Finale Recap

Alrighty, first off, props to Ryan Bader for showing some very solid stand up and knocking Vinny down and out with a partially blocked punch. Very impressive. And way more interesting than his last fight against Eliot Marshall.

Let's see how I did on my predictions from the other day. Overall, I called 5 of the 10 fight outcomes which is a failing grade. I got a couple of the means of victory correct but none of the rounds right. I did not hit it out of the park.

Let's check the scorecard and see how I did.
155 lbs.: Phillipe Nover (155) vs. Efrain Escudero (156)
Prediction: Nover by TKO in Round 2
Actual result: Escudero by unanimous decision.

Main card (Televised):
205 lbs.: Ryan Bader (205) vs. Vinicius Magalhães (205)
Prediction: Vinny by submission in Round 1.
Actual result: Bader by TKO (strikes) in Round 1.

185 lbs.: Wilson Gouveia (189) vs. Jason MacDonald (184)
Prediction: MacDonald by TKO (strikes) in Round 2.
Actual result: Gouveia by submission in Round 1.

170 lbs.: Kevin Burns (171) vs. Anthony Johnson (171)
Prediction: Who knows but its going to be good! But I'll go with Johnson by TKO strikes in Round 2.
Actual result: Johnson by TKO in Round 3.

155 lbs.: Junie Browning (156) vs. Dave Kaplan (156)
Prediction: Kaplan by KO strikes in Round 2.
Actual result: Browning by submission in Round 2.

Under card (May not be broadcast):
205 lbs.: Krzysztof Soszynski (202) vs. Shane Primm (205)
Prediction: Krzysztof by TKO strikes in Round 1.
Actual result: Sosznski by submission in Round 2.

205 lbs.: Eliot Marshall (203) vs. Jules Bruchez (205)
Prediction: Marshall by submission in Round 2.
Actual result: Marshall by submission in Round 1.

205 lbs.: Kyle Kingsbury (205) vs. Tom Lawlor (204)
Prediction: Lawlor by TKO strikes in Round 2.
Actual result: Lawlor by unanimous decision.

155 lbs.: Shane Nelson (156) vs. George Roop (153)
Result: Nelson by submission in Round 2.
Actual result: Nelson by split decision

155 lbs.: Rolando Delgado (155) vs. John Polakowski (152)
Prediction: Polakowski by TKO strikes in Round 3.
Actual result: Delgado by submission in Round 2.

The fight of the night, for me, was Escudero/Nover or Burns/Johnson. The Browning/Kaplan fight was okay but I don't think it should have gotten fight of the night honors.

100 Skills You Should Know

Originally found on Lifehacker and was culled from Popular Mechanics but I got there after the poll closed so I'm reposting it here so I can note the skills I've got and the skills I don't got. Skills I pwn now are in bold, skills I have but just barely are in italics, skills I don't got are in plain text. Scoring will be 1 point for bold and a half point for italics. Score will be tallied below.

Automotive
1. Handle a blowout
2. Drive in snow
3. Check trouble codes
4. Replace fan belt
5. Wax a car
6. Conquer an off-road obstacle
7. Use a stick welder
8. Hitch up a trailer
9. Jump start a car

Handling Emergencies
10. Perform the Heimlich
11. Reverse hypothermia
12. Perform hands-only CPR
13. Escape a sinking car

Home
14. Carve a turkey
15. Use a sewing machine
16. Put out a fire
17. Home brew beer
18. Remove bloodstains from fabric
19. Move heavy stuff
20. Grow food
21. Read an electric meter
22. Shovel the right way
23. Solder wire
24. Tape drywall
25. Split firewood
26. Replace a faucet washer
27. Mix concrete
28. Paint a straight line
29. Use a French knife
30. Prune bushes and small trees
31. Iron a shirt
32. Fix a toilet tank flapper
33. Change a single-pole switch
34. Fell a tree
35. Replace a broken windowpane
36. Set up a ladder, safely
37. Fix a faucet cartridge
38. Sweat copper tubing
39. Change a diaper
40. Grill with charcoal
41. Sew a button on a shirt
42. Fold a flag

Medical Myths
43. Treat frostbite
44. Treat a burn
45. Help a seizure victim
46. Treat a snakebite
47. Remove a tick

Military Know-How
48. Shine shoes
49. Make a drum-tight bed
50. Drop and give the perfect pushup

Outdoors
51. Run rapids in a canoe
52. Hang food in the wild
53. Skipper a boat
54. Shoot straight
55. Tackle steep drops on a mountain bike
56. Escape a rip current

Primitive Skills
57. Build a fire in the wilderness
58. Build a shelter
59. Find potable water

Surviving Extremes
60. Floods
61. Tornados
62. Cold
63. Heat
64. Lightning

Teach Your Kids
65. Cast a line
66. Lend a hand
67. Change a tire
68. Throw a spiral
69. Fly a stunt kite
70. Drive a stick shift
71. Parallel park
72. Tie a bowline
73. Tie a necktie
74. Whittle
75. Ride a bike

Technology
76. Install a graphics card
77. Take the perfect portrait
78. Calibrate HDTV settings
79. Shoot a home movie
80. Ditch your hard drive

Master Key Workshop Tools
81. Drill driver
82. Grease gun
83. Coolant hydrometer
84. Socket wrench
85. Test light
86. Brick trowel
87. Framing hammer
88. Wood chisel
89. Spade bit
90. Circular saw
91. Sledge hammer
92. Hacksaw
93. Torque wrench
94. Air wrench
95. Infrared thermometer
96. Sand blaster
97. Crosscut saw
98. Hand plane
99. Multimeter
100. Feeler gauges

I scored an 83.5 out of 100 which is a decent B but I'd argue that some of the skills I don't have are pretty niche-y. A stick welder is a core skill I should have? Really? And calibrating my HDTV settings is a more important core tech skill than, say, being able to virus check a computer? Or set it up a new printer? Really?

Overall, I think the list of skills is pretty good but it gets a little soft in places. How'd you score?

Today's Scorecard

In chronological order.

Department meeting stretching to 2+ hours - 1
Erik getting any work done this morning - 0

Not quite enough hours on my work contract - 0
A fully employed Erik - 1

Gas nozzle - 1
Erik not smelling like gas - 0

Broken Windoze box - 1
Erik - 0

Missing Mac password - 0
Erik - 1

Two hour drive home from Santa Cruz, about 20 miles - 1
Erik's sanity - 0

Moldy rotting plums - 1
Nande sneezing about a million times - 0

New principal trying to micromanage my hours - 1
Erik - 0

Final score:
Life: 6
Erik: 2
Not a great day but it could have been worse and would have been without a couple of wins on the books. The gas one could have sucked far worse as I only got a little bit of gas on me but it still sucked. That plus the drive home from picking up a freebie from Craigslist on the westside of Santa Cruz were the two suck points on the day.

The good things are, indeed, good. I completed my work calendar and even filled in the missing 5% of my hours. I also got an interview scheduled with one of the places (no, not THE place but a place) I applied over the break. I'm pretty sure I don't really want the job as it pays just a little more than what I make now and would entail a chunky commute that would blow quickly. But I will probably do the interview just to hone my skills a bit and see if there might be a solid fit. I'm not ruling much of anything out right now.

Tomorrow should be an improvement over today if only because I'm riding my motorcycle and am at one school for the entire day.

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Now playing: Cake - I Will Survive
via FoxyTunes

Monday Morning Scorecard

Refrigerator door hinge - 1
Erik - 0
First round to the refrigerator door hinge. But reinforcements (spare parts) are on the way and the battle will be won by Erik.

Pile of old pay stubs and bank statements - 0
Crosscut shredder - 1
Never bet against the shredder despite two stoppages due to overheating and a jam.

Bag of Mega Bloks - 1
The never ending pick up - 1
Stalemate here. These blocks get picked up once a day minimum but you'd never know it.

My sanity - 0.5
My non-stop mess monkeys - 1
A close battle but the boy's win on persistence and an ability to whine without pausing for breath.

Nande's sanity - 0
The Watsonville Fly-in - 1
The jets have no idea how much total pwnage they have over my dog. She howled all weekend long because of the planes but especially because of the two jets, an FA-18 fighter and a C-17 cargo transport (which was frigging' ginormous).

More to come as they occur to me.