Battery Park, NYC

Battery Park is a large, open access green space and public park located at the southern tip of the island of Manhattan.  It's a common tourist destination and the site of may of New York's modern day war memorials.  Sally, the girls, and I visited Battery Park as part of our recent two-day vacation to New York City.

Sally and the girls in Battery Park.

Story Re-Write: Centurion Six (Opening Only)

Sketch in My Notebook

This is the "revised" opening for "Centurion Six," tentatively scheduled for part of the short story anthology I've been working on.  I feel like I've been struggling it, though.  I am therefore hanging it out to ask for a couple of opinions.

Centurion Six

In the near future, genetic mutation has become the weapon of choice in an increasingly chaotic world.  Easier to hide and cheaper by far to develop and control than the nuclear and chemical weapons programs of a previous era, soon every tin-pot dictator, cult-leader, and agenda-based non-state actor on the planet begins developing “ultra-human” capabilities.  Against the proliferation of politically violent “supermen”, mundane humans--so-called ”mundies”--can offer little defense.

Follow-Up on Bradshaw & the Army

I get letters.  This one is from a friend whom I'm not going to identify:

"Hey! This might be a case of filing under 'better late than never,' but while I can read your site on RSS at work, I can't comment because it blocks. Of course, when I get home, I have a ton of other things on my mind. 

"Anyways, your blog post about the rumor that Bradshaw was leaving ARMY that kind of turned into what the Service can do for you, really struck a chord with me. 

Back to Life, Back to Reality

It's Sunday, but after more than a week off, we're back to the grind today.  I have to swim, iron, and get to the grocery store, and tomorrow I have to go into New York City and do actual work.  My phone tells me that I have more than a hundred sixty-five emails waiting for me, and that's after I've had my out-of-office assistant on all week telling people not to bother trying to contact me.

Sally took this picture yesterday at Pier A in Hoboken.

What can you do?  We've got to pay the bills.

The High Line

The High Line is a nearly one-and-a-half-mile park built on an old section of a disused elevated railroad spur on the Lower West Side of Manhattan.  Visitors to the City tend to think of New York as an unremitting Hellscape of urban concrete, glass, and steel, but the City has plenty of public green spaces, many in cleverly hidden nooks a bit off the beaten path.  The High Line is an arch example of this.

Background from the High Line's Official Twitter account.

Swim / Triathlon Training: Building Emotional Resilience

I did my long swim of the week this morning, and despite making quite a few changes to the plan on the fly--among other things, I realized midway through that I'd miscounted the yardage total and needed to cut back--I was really pleased with the results.

I'm filing this one under "triathlon" not "swimming" because you can easily adapt the basic principles below to any of the three disciplines.

Triathlon: Swim / Bike / Run

College Football Preview: Week 1 Match-Ups

College football starts on Friday, people!  It’s time to get hot.

Here’s my look at the first week’s games, with notes on the ones I’ll be watching and why.  Mine is an Army-centric view of the world, so your list may vary.  If I missed a key game, let me know in the comments.  

Thanks!

Hampton Beach, New Hampshire (Part 2)

We got up late yesterday, walked down to the Secret Spot for breakfast burritos, and then sat on the seawall to eat.  Then we walked down the beach collecting cool-looking rocks.  It was all very reminiscent of my days in San Diego.

We headed to Water County water park in the afternoon.  This was totally awesome, but I didn't take many picture.

A Wedding in New Hampshire

We're on vacation this week.  Alas, we're not in Maine this year, but we drove up to the New Hampshire coast for Sally's cousin's wedding.  It was a glorious beachside ceremony, followed by a very enjoyable reception down at a local yacht club.

But hey, you came for the pictures, no?

Mind-Bending Pics of the Day

Бц на белой площади #рооссия #roof #rooftop #model #moscow #selfie #city #urban #dance #gymnastics #gymnast

A photo posted by Angela Nikolau (@angela_nikolau) on Oct 25, 2015 at 4:04am PDT

Source: Meet The Daredevil Russian Girl Whose Risky Selfie Game Is On Point!

Workout Journal: Coming Back Into Form

Blistering workout this morning, freely adapted from Sara McLarty's blog Master's & Triathlon Swim Workouts by Sara McLarty.

Friday Mad Science: The Curious Case of Ryan Lochte

Rio officials said that a security guard did brandish a weapon at American swimmers, but “there was no robbery” https://t.co/xMip4CQG4F

— The New York Times (@nytimes) August 19, 2016

Odds & Ends: Last Day Before Vacation

Today marks my last work day before we start next week’s vacation, and I am super excited.  We don’t have much in the way of specific plans, and for once, we’re not going away.  Nonetheless, I can’t wait for a little time off.

Don’t get me wrong.  2016 has been a pretty good year.  We joined the Housatonic Boat Club, the oldest yacht club in the state of Connecticut, and got our kids enrolled in sailing and ballet and ever more gymnastics.  They both also did very well in school.  All that stuff is great.  But it keeps us hopping, and for as much as I enjoy the club, reality all summer has kept us away more often than we’d have liked.  It’s been hot these last few weeks as well, and we’ve had a bit more excitement at times around my office than I’d prefer.  

Bottom line, I can use the break.

Bradshaw Does NOT Leave West Point

BREAKING: QB Ahmad Bradshaw has left team & is leaving academy. Bradshaw started 7 games last year. #ArmyFootball https://t.co/SUZ2d8l8Su

— Sal Interdonato (@salinterdonato) August 17, 2016

New Poster

Army Football is shocking the world this year! pic.twitter.com/lLdRUBpr1j

— Alex Funderburke (@AlexFunderburke) August 16, 2016

I guess they gave these out at the Summer Scrimmage.  I'm sorry I missed that.

Army Football Preview: at Temple

It’s August.  The Summer Scrimmage is over, and we’re only a few weeks away from the start of college football season.  I am more than ready to get it on.  Army opens the 2016 campaign on the road at Lincoln Financial Field against the Temple Owls.

What will this season hold?  Who knows?

When you’re an Army Football fan, all of a life is an adventure.  Every win is a win against the odds.  Let’s go!

Friday Mad Science: Phelps is King

What a 200 IM last night by the greatest swimmer of all time!  Phelps took the butterfly out easy, looked a little uncomfortable but held serve on the backstroke, and I told my wife, "If they can't put pressure on him in the breaststroke, he's going to destroy this field when they hit the freestyle."

That is exactly what happened.

Workout Journal: On the Value of Goals

It's amazing the difference that having a goal can make.  I said over the weekend that I wanted to try to go a 500 free under 5:40, and it totally changed the way that I approached last night's swimming workout.  I got to the pool a little before seven, talked briefly to the YMCA age-group team's coach, and asked if he had anyone he thought would like to do a 500 freestyle time trial in the next few weeks.  Around October or so.  One of the girls standing said that she was interested, that she thought she could do it, so I guess we're racing.

Workout Journal: August 8, 2016

Man, watching all this swimming in the Olympics makes me want to compete again.  I just watched Katie Ledecky destroy the field in the 400M freestyle, and it felt like it triggered something.  I always wanted to be a better mid-distance freestyler, but I never quite found the time to dial it in.  I was always stuck doing butterfly because that was my best event.  As a high school swimmer, I spent my time chasing Junior National cuts.  At the Academy, the team needed me to score points in my best events.  I got so focus on stroke work that my freestyle lagged as we got into the mid-season form, and for whatever reason, I never managed to put both butterfly and freestyle together at the same time.  It’s one of the issues that came up in my memoir, and watching the Olympics makes me wonder a bit what could have been.

Odds & Ends: Olympics (Day 1)

First off, I heard "Bang Your Head" yesterday on my way to the train, and it's been stuck in my brains ever since.  It's got to be the toughest heavy metal song ever written, so here you go:

Memoir Excerpt: Hannah's Birthday

I've been writing a memoir about my family and my athletic career.  I'm not sure who's going to care about it, but this is a project that my wife and have been talking about for several years now.  Basically since my dad died.  In theory, we're going to sync our stories and talk about how we complete each other, how athletics and our marriage saved our lives.

Me and Sally in the Mess Hall during my 20th Reunion.

I know I shouldn't share the excerpts before they're all together and in context, and I especially shouldn't share this one because I wrote most of it just this morning.  But.  Writing this piece almost brought me to tears.  Also, this is the story of me and my wife both, and this part concerns Sally quite a bit.  It's past time to share some of that.

If you're wondering, the memoir currently sits at 62K words covering approximately 172 pages.

Army Football Camp Opens: What to Watch

Army opens its preseason football camp today.  I can’t make it to the summer scrimmage this year, unfortunately, and that leaves me with little choice but to follow the team through press coverage as best I can.  Good thing, then, that Army beat writer Sal Interdonato published a pair of articles this past weekend covering the current happenings of the team.