Manlio Rules

My life is busy again. i can’t remember the last time it was like this. Lyandra thinks it was right before I left New York City, which would make it 2006. Thinking about it, that makes some sense. back then i had one full time job, was usually working 1-2 others, was starting a band, playing bocce one night a week, and generally going out whenever i could. this is similar. I have band practice tuesdays, improv on wednesdays, poker is every other monday or thursday, and i almost always am in tahoe or out of town or have people visiting on the weekends, plus i’m going to the gym 2-3 times a week.

and it feels GREAT. i spent so long in this city trying to find my place and trying to balance out a healthy work life with a healthy social life and a healthy hobby life, but maybe that was just me trying to give myself extra free time for television or some other ridiculous thing. Ever since December i’ve felt an energy that i miss, it’s the first time i’ve been out here in SF that i can truly say that i’m happy on a day to day basis.

which isn’t to say that everything is good of course, there are always areas of my life that need some improvment, personal discipline issues that could be shored up, and i could definitely stand to make some changes in those areas. but for anyone who’s ever lived in NY, you know that feeling on a nice day when you roar out of the subway in the afternoon or evening, running 5-10 minutes late for something that you know will be tons of fun and you’re not mad because you’re late but you’re mad because the later you are the less time you will have to do the thing you’re about to do? i’ve been feeling that way almost every day for the last few months. i feel like i’m approaching critical mass.

how long i can sustain it is another question. the problem with periods like this is that i can forget to take care of myself and get enough personal time. social interactions replace alone time and all of a sudden i notice that i haven’t seen some of my closer friends or family in a month or two, which is sub optimal. but for now this feels like exactly what i should have been doing here all along.

this is a big facebook meme going around but frankly i don’t want to send it to 25 people and this may be a better format for it anyways. so, for those of you reading, here are my random 25 things.

1. I am the only member of my immediate family without blue eyes
2. My favorite band as a child was Aerosmith. i didn’t own any music other than aerosmith records till i was 14.
3. My measure of success is so high that i will never achieve it.
4. My first computer was a black and white Dell 286 that i had in high school. all it would do is run Word, and when i wanted to print i would take my floppy disk downstairs to my mom’s computer to print out my papers.
5. I played soccer for the first 13 years of my life, but i haven’t played in the last 6. I was never very good.
6. When i was a kid i really liked baseball but i wasn’t very good at it. on two separate occasions my parents forced me to quit a team because they didn’t think it was worthwhile for me to spend so much time on something i wasn’t good at.
7. when i went to college, i wanted to become an investment banker
8. My biggest regret from college is not living in the huge freshman dorm.
9. I spent a month interning in the philadelphia mayor’s office after my junior year, which was my first indication that the life of an econ grad was not for me.
10. In retrospect, i did not enjoy my senior year of college as much as my junior year.
11. Right out of college i lived in Dallas for 9 months. i have never felt so displaced.
12. I’ve moved across the country once for a woman, and not moved for another woman. Neither one worked out.
13. I had one job in philadelphia as a 23 year old where I called in sick once a week. needless to say this job didn’t last long.
14. My childhood dream was to have a car with flip up headlights. the 1993 ford probe SE fulfilled that dream.
15. I didn’t start snowboarding till I was 21, and I didn’t get decent at it till 29.
16. I sometimes wonder if i missed out by not going to college in a small town, considering i’ve spent almost all my adult life in cities.
17. I miss New York City every day, but i am not convinced that my life would be better if i was still there, or if i were to return
18. The best decision i made last year was to start taking improv classes again
19. I really want to start taking drum lessons again.
20. I am very risk averse in most areas of my life, except my career choices.
21. If i could give myself one quality that i do not posses, it would be patience.
22. My super power of choice would be super speed.
23. I am happiest when I am performing in front of an audience. especially if i’m slaying it.
24. the best thing i pay for is parking.
25. my sense of humor is remarkably dark and cynical, and yet somehow i consider myself an optimist.

fantasy baseball, that is.

I have been playing fantasy baseball for 10 years, starting in 1999 when i was fresh out of college and lived in Dallas. It started as a great way to keep in touch with friends from college, post college, and other places, and allowed me to get more involved in baseball as a whole, which strengthened my devotion as a fan. I think that without fantasy baseball, i would not be the red sox fan that I am today, and would certainly not have felt the joy of both world series victories as acutely as I did.

when i first started, I was a force. i was the guy with the regression charts showing precisely where the best value was to pick a 2B in the middle to later rounds, i always had a clear strategy in the draft, and I specialized in mid season rookie pickups. I kept up with the feeds constantly and if a closer got injured, you’d better believe I had the setup man on my team in a matter of minutes.

but in recent years, my skills have begun to erode. I wasn’t following baseball with the same vigor, i couldn’t be bothered to really prepare for the draft. once we got past round 15 i started taking guys whose names I knew, leading to embarrassing situations where i would pick up some washed up vet in favor of a hot rookie because i didn’t know who the hot rookies were. i would routinely miss great pickups because i wasn’t checking my team every day, let alone 5 times a day. It wasn’t that i didn’t have the time. it was that i didn’t want to use it like that.

and more importantly, it wasn’t fun anymore. sure, i’d get to chat with my friends over IM about our picks and what was going on, but it had been years since i had been in the same room as people for a draft, and I no longer relished getting on the conference call and talking shit just for the sheer joy of it. my heart wasn’t in it anymore.

last year was a great example. I started off hot in one league, but my players faded by August and I was out of the top 5 by september. I never even sniffed the top 10 in my other league. it was the worst season i have ever had, and i couldn’t help but feel like the trend line was pointing downwards. I wasn’t good enough or lucky enough to escape my total lack of preparation or commitment. not anymore.

so this year i resigned from both my existing leagues. as draft day planning approaches, i find myself surprisingly unaffected. Perhaps i should have done this a few years ago. but for one last hurrah, here are my top 5 best fantasy baseball moments ever. i couldn’t even remember most of these but luckily i wrote a top 5 best/worst list about fantasy sports before.

5. Last year I traded Jeff Francis for Joe Crede. Crede got hurt a few months later but Francis was terrible all year
4. Baseball 2005 season. Everyone had given up on Pat Burrell. not me. i grab him in both leagues with a mid (12 or so) round selection and ride his productivity to early season excellence.
3. Baseball 2002 season. i grab a former LA 5th starter named Eric Gagne as a backup 3rd closer, and ride his breakout season to a sole 1st place finish.
2. I’m pretty sure i traded someone who started hot but then was terrible for mariano rivera one year. but this could be a lie
1. waaaay back in 2001 I drafted Mark Buerhle when he was still a rookie and middle reliever. he won 15 games that year and i got him in the last rounds