One of Elijah’s favorite things to listen to in the car is a podcast called Wow in the World. It’s a science show aimed at kids, and they recently brought their live show to Seattle. We snagged some tickets and headed to Benaroya Hall in Seattle.
We were up in the second balcony, but we had a great view of the stage and enjoyed the show. I think Elijah had a lot of fun seeing the people behind the voices live and in person.
UPDATE: https://www.studio711.com/fantasy-football-2019-week-11-update/
There wasn’t a game for the Seahawks this week so hopefully they’ll come back rested and ready for their trip to Philadelphia.
Our league had plenty of drama though. There were so many upsets and shakeups in the standings! Most notably, 8th place Nick crushed 1st place Tyler. Dad beat Andy and Tim beat Logan by less than a point. I’m the only one who didn’t flip the tables on the standings as Luke beat me. After the dust settled, Luke, Tim and Tyler are tied for first. Logan and Andy are tied for 4th. There are only three games left in our regular season and it’s hard to guess how this is going to end! Next week’s key matchup is Luke vs. Tim as the brothers battle for potential sole possession of first place.
No change at the top of our power rankings:
1. Luke (Helmetheads)
2. Tim (Beer-me)
3. Ben (Kool Aid Kid)
4. Logan (Goat Roapers) +3
On to the weekly awards…
| This Week | This Season | All Time | |
| Highest Team Score | Tim had 130.84 | Luke had 202.63 (Week 5) | Luke had 202.63 (2019) |
| Lowest Team Score | Andy had 87.48 | Dad had 73.66 (Week 10) | Andy had 41.29 (2015) |
| Biggest Blowout | Nick beat Tyler by 34.19 | Luke beat Tyler by 71.46 (Week 10) | Luke beat Andy by 113.02 (2010) |
| Closest Win | Tim beat Logan by 0.29 | Was: Andy beat Tyler by 0.56 (Week 5) | Tyler beat Nick by 0.01 (2018) |
| Longest Active Winning Streak | Luke and Tim have 2 game winning streaks | Luke has a 5 game winning streak (Week 5) | Micah (2011) and Ben (2015) had 8 game winning streaks |
| Longest Active Losing Streak | Logan has a 3 game losing streak | Nick has a 6 game losing streak (Week 6) | Kyle had a 14 game losing streak (2011) |
| Highest Scoring Player | Lamar Jackson had 41.48 for Tim | Aaron Rodgers had 53.76 on Ben’s bench (Week 7) | Drew Brees had 60.54 on Tim’s bench (2015) |
| Lowest winning score | Dad won with 105.07 | Tyler beat Nick with 92.63 (Week 4) | Tim beat Jim with 79.34 (2015) |
| Highest losing score | Logan lost with 130.55 | Tim lost to Luke with 169.11 (Week 5) | Tim lost to Luke with 169.11 (2019) |
As the parent of a six year old and a lover of both Star Wars and the Avengers, signing up for Disney+ was a no-brainer. I jumped on an early deal and pre-paid for 3 years of the service so we’re on board whether it’s good or not. The only hiccup I’ve had so far came on launch day when the app was overloaded, but since then the reliability has been great.
As I sat on the couch last Friday watching Jungle Book with the family, I kept wondering what my 10 year old self would have thought if it could have seen me watching Jungle Book on a 10 foot screen in my own house without any tapes or discs in a player as it is controlled via my phone.
I’ve seen some comments about various movies that aren’t on the service, but it’s a treat to scroll through the list of what IS on the service. You know how you scroll through Netflix or Hulu and you’ve never heard of most of it? Not so with Disney+. It’s hit after hit after hit. No more frustrating “Disney vault”. It’s all there at your fingertips.
Over the past few years, I’ve felt the Disney brand rising up the list in my head. They’re becoming synonymous with a high quality but sometimes pricey product. Thankfully Disney+ only gets the first part of that. The cost is $6.99/month with cheaper options if you pay ahead. That’s crazy low when you compare it to other services.
Disney+ gets two thumbs up from me!
What a game! The Seahawks and 49ers took it down to the closing seconds of overtime and with a dud of a tie looming, Myers came through with a big kick to win the game (after he had previously had a big go-ahead kick in the 4th quarter.) It was nice to see him kicking well after a rough time last week. There was plenty of stuff to add to the Wilson MVP highlight reel too.
In our league, Tim, Luke and Andy are tied for 3rd place and they all won, pulling Logan back into the massive tie for second. Next week’s big matchup is Tim vs Logan which will break up that logjam a bit.
With another huge point total, Luke jumps two spots up to the top of the power rankings. I also make an appearance since my point total is pretty high but I’m going to struggle to make the playoffs with my record. Help help, I’m being repressed!
1. Luke (Helmetheads) +2
2. Tim (Beer-me) -1
3. Ben (Kool Aid Kid) +2
4. Andy (RAAAWWWRRRRR!!!) -2
On to the weekly awards…
| This Week | This Season | All Time | |
| Highest Team Score | Luke had 160.62 | Luke had 202.63 (Week 5) | Luke had 202.63 (2019) |
| Lowest Team Score | Dad had 73.66 | Was: Andy had 79.13 (Week 6) | Andy had 41.29 (2015) |
| Biggest Blowout | Luke beat Tyler by 71.46 | Was: Logan beat Andy by 66 (Week 6) | Luke beat Andy by 113.02 (2010) |
| Closest Win | Andy beat Nick by 12.67 | Andy beat Tyler by 0.56 (Week 5) | Tyler beat Nick by 0.01 (2018) |
| Longest Active Winning Streak | Andy has a 3 game winning streak | Luke has a 5 game winning streak (Week 5) | Micah (2011) and Ben (2015) had 8 game winning streaks |
| Longest Active Losing Streak | Logan has a 2 game losing streak | Nick has a 6 game losing streak (Week 6) | Kyle had a 14 game losing streak (2011) |
| Highest Scoring Player | Lamar Jackson had 39.42 for Tim | Aaron Rodgers had 53.76 on Ben’s bench (Week 7) | Drew Brees had 60.54 on Tim’s bench (2015) |
| Lowest winning score | Andy won with 98.31 | Tyler beat Nick with 92.63 (Week 4) | Tim beat Jim with 79.34 (2015) |
| Highest losing score | Logan lost with 105.22 | Tim lost to Luke with 169.11 (Week 5) | Tim lost to Luke with 169.11 (2019) |
In 2007, I purchased a Korg C303 digital piano. It was a good size for the condo that I lived in and the ability to plug in headphones was a huge bonus. The headphones are still paying off since most my playing is done while Elijah is in bed.
Anyway, when I bought that piano, I didn’t have any music so I headed to Half Price Books. I somewhat randomly picked a book of some classical favorites. I got home, opened to page 1 and it was the first movement of Bach’s Italian Concerto. Umm… way over my head. At some point, I struggled through the first page and got to where I could sort of play it.
Fast forward to May 2019 and I was watching a video from Mike Boyd about how to stick with really hard learning challenges. He used learning a difficult guitar song as his example and for some reason the whole thing reminded me of that Bach piece. I decided to actually learn the entire first movement well enough to play it in church. How hard could it be, right? As Randall Munroe said in his latest book, “Playing the piano is easy. The keys are in order and easy to reach. All you do is memorize which keys make what notes, then play them in the order written on the sheet.”
The good and bad thing about the internet today is that you can fire up YouTube and see tons of examples of people doing all kinds of things extremely well. This piano piece is no different, so after watching videos of 10 year olds playing the song in a little over 4 minutes (from memory), I set a timer to see how long my first attempt would take. 25 minutes and it didn’t sound even remotely like Bach. I had a long way to go.
For six months, I’ve played that song almost exclusively nearly every day. I played and I played and I played. And then I played and played and played some more. I think it’s fair to say that I averaged about 20 minutes of practice per day for 6 months.
This had clearly become an obsession for me, but no matter how many times I hit a wall and eventually broke through it, I could never get the level of polish that I wanted. Eventually I decided that me learning this song was like the average person sitting on their couch and deciding to run a marathon. They’re not going to win the marathon but finishing alone is a huge achievement.
So I set up a date to play it in church and went for it. Was it perfect? Nope. Not even close. If you want to hear how it’s supposed to be played, there are lots of other YouTube videos that are perfect renditions. But I feel like I’ve accomplished my impossible goal. Not only am I proud of the accomplishment… I’m very excited to start playing something else!
While not unique to learning this specific song, a few things struck me:
It was fun to watch the Seahawks pull out a close game despite Wilson having to win the game for them multiple times before he could finally do it without the kicker involved. It sure is fun watching Wilson and Lockett work together though!
We only have 5 weeks left in our league and we’re probably not too far away from the first team clinching playoff berth. Tyler, Logan, Tim and Luke have been in the top half all season but Tyler and Luke have swapped places with Tyler winning four in a row and Luke losing four in a row. Luke and Tim are still crushing the rest of us in terms of point totals but they’re stuck in a tie for third. Other than those two, the point totals are more even this year than I remember them being in the past. Let’s see what happens in week 10 as we pretty much half the top half of the league take on the bottom half of the league. Who’s ready for an upset?
Tim keeps his top spot in the power rankings this week, but the big mover is Andy who jumped up four spots!
1. Tim (Beer-me)
2. Andy (RAAAWWWRRRRR!!!) +4
3. Luke (Helmetheads) -1
4. Tyler (Krazy Kanuck) -1
On to the weekly awards…
| This Week | This Season | All Time | |
| Highest Team Score | Andy had 151.25 | Luke had 202.63 (Week 5) | Luke had 202.63 (2019) |
| Lowest Team Score | Logan had 91.99 | Andy had 79.13 (Week 6) | Andy had 41.29 (2015) |
| Biggest Blowout | Tyler beat Logan by 31.06 | Logan beat Andy by 66 (Week 6) | Luke beat Andy by 113.02 (2010) |
| Closest Win | Dad beat Ben by 8.42 | Andy beat Tyler by 0.56 (Week 5) | Tyler beat Nick by 0.01 (2018) |
| Longest Active Winning Streak | Tyler has a 4 game winning streak | Luke has a 5 game winning streak (Week 5) | Micah (2011) and Ben (2015) had 8 game winning streaks |
| Longest Active Losing Streak | Luke has a 4 game losing streak | Nick has a 6 game losing streak (Week 6) | Kyle had a 14 game losing streak (2011) |
| Highest Scoring Player | Russell Wilson had 49.22 for Andy | Aaron Rodgers had 53.76 on Ben’s bench (Week 7) | Drew Brees had 60.54 on Tim’s bench (2015) |
| Lowest winning score | Tyler won with 123.05 | Tyler beat Nick with 92.63 (Week 4) | Tim beat Jim with 79.34 (2015) |
| Highest losing score | Tim lost with 128.55 | Tim lost to Luke with 169.11 (Week 5) | Tim lost to Luke with 169.11 (2019) |
The Seahawks logged another win to move to 6-2, but those pesky 49ers are still undefeated. Football Outsiders says that the 49ers have an 86% chance of winning the division and the Seahawks have a 43% chance of winning the wild card. (Minnesota and Phildelphia have similar wild card chances.) As for the Super Bowl, the best odds are that it will be New England vs the 49ers or the Saints. Don’t worry, they say there’s only a 4% chance that the 49ers will go undefeated…
Our league rebounded from our lowest scoring week of the season to the highest scoring week of the season. Our low score this week would have easily beaten everyone (except Tyler) last week. Logan is getting hot as we move through the middle of the season. His 4 game win streak has him in a tie for first. Luke and Tim still have huge point totals but they’re a game behind in 3rd. After next week we’ll have someone in sole possession of first place because Logan and Tyler are facing off. Only 6 weeks left until the playoffs!
Tim might be hanging out down in 4th place in the standings but the power rankings say he’s the toughest opponent right now.
1. Tim (Beer-me) +1
2. Luke (Helmetheads) -1
3. Tyler (Krazy Kanuck)
4. Logan (Goat Roapers) -1
On to the weekly awards… but wait… there are two new awards this time! I went back through all the data since 2007 and dug up the “Lowest winning score” and “Highest losing score”. Interestingly Tim holds the all time records for both ends of that stat.
| This Week | This Season | All Time | |
| Highest Team Score | Tim had 171.35 | Luke had 202.63 (Week 5) | Luke had 202.63 (2019) |
| Lowest Team Score | Dad had 115.77 | Andy had 79.13 (Week 6) | Andy had 41.29 (2015) |
| Biggest Blowout | Tim beat Ben by 35.95 | Logan beat Andy by 66 (Week 6) | Luke beat Andy by 113.02 (2010) |
| Closest Win | Tyler beat Dad by 0.42 | Andy beat Tyler by 0.56 (Week 5) | Tyler beat Nick by 0.01 (2018) |
| Longest Active Winning Streak | Logan has a 4 game winning streak. | Luke has a 5 game winning streak (Week 5) | Micah (2011) and Ben (2015) had 8 game winning streaks |
| Longest Active Losing Streak | Luke has a 3 game losing streak. | Nick has a 6 game losing streak (Week 6) | Kyle had a 14 game losing streak (2011) |
| Highest Scoring Player | Aaron Jones had 38.10 for Andy | Aaron Rodgers had 53.76 on Ben’s bench (Week 7) | Drew Brees had 60.54 on Tim’s bench (2015) |
| Lowest winning score | Tyler beat Dad with 116.19 | Tyler beat Nick with 92.63 (Week 4) | Tim beat Jim with 79.34 (2015) |
| Highest losing score | Dad lost to Tyler with 115.77 | Tim lost to Luke with 169.11 (Week 5) | Tim lost to Luke with 169.11 (2019) |
The Seahawks couldn’t handle Lamar Jackson. He looked like a younger Russell Wilson. It kind of makes you wonder why Russell isn’t getting 100 yard rushing games anymore. The last one he had was 2014. He’s had four of them and now Lamar Jackson has had four as well. The next couple weeks look pretty easy against the Falcons and and the Buccaneers, but then come the improbably undefeated 49ers. What’s going on with that!? Can we just pretend it’s not happening and it will go away? I can’t handle Sherman smug face.
The times were lean in our league with the average score barely topping 100. There were a lot of important matchups though and even though Tyler was the only one with a respectable score, we still record the wins and losses. Logan took down first place Luke for a share of the lead and Tyler is tied for the lead as well after beating Tim. I beat Andy and Nick got his first win of the season against Dad. I’d like to point out two things:
Luke is still on top of the power rankings as we head into week 8:
1. Luke (Helmetheads)
2. Tim (Beer-me)
3. Tyler (Krazy Kanuck) +1
4. Logan (Goat Roapers) -1
On to the weekly awards…
| This Week | This Season | All Time | |
| Highest Team Score | Tyler had 132.79 | Luke had 202.63 (Week 5) | Luke had 202.63 (2019) |
| Lowest Team Score | Andy had 70.80 | Andy had 79.13 (Week 6) | Andy had 41.29 (2015) |
| Biggest Blowout | Ben beat Andy by 31.52 | Logan beat Andy by 66 (Week 6) | Luke beat Andy by 113.02 (2010) |
| Closest Win | Logan beat Luke by 7.46 | Andy beat Tyler by 0.56 (Week 5) | Tyler beat Nick by 0.01 (2018) |
| Longest Active Winning Streak | Logan has a 3 game winning streak | Luke has a 5 game winning streak (Week 5) | Micah (2011) and Ben (2015) had 8 game winning streaks |
| Longest Active Losing Streak | Andy has a 2 game losing streak | Nick has a 6 game losing streak (Week 6) | Kyle had a 14 game losing streak (2011) |
| Highest Scoring Player | Aaron Rodgers had 53.76 on Ben’s bench | Deshaun Watson had 51.74 for Tyler (Week 5) | Drew Brees had 60.54 on Tim’s bench (2015) |
The Seahawks find themselves at 5-1. They took a very interesting route to get there and it’s hard to argue that they should have won every game, but in the end, they are finding ways to win. Next they have the Ravens at home. We’ll see if the refs blatantly pick the winner for this game like they have so boldly been doing in other games. Monday Night Football was particularly atrocious this week.
In our league, Luke’s reign of terror was brought to an end by Dad. Nick put together his best game of the season but didn’t quite find that first win. Next week the top four teams all square off against each other in what might be a preview of some playoff matches. The rest of us will run around aimlessly at the bottom wondering why we can’t score more points.
I’d like to take a minute to point out that the New England defense is going wild this year. They are the 11th highest scoring “player” in the league behind 9 quarterbacks and Christian McCaffrey. Who would have guessed they would be outscoring Aaron Rodgers in Week 6? Kudos to Tyler for that waiver pickup.
Tim is doing really well to still be up there in second place. He’s had the most difficult schedule so far. The weekly power rankings still have Luke on top though.
1. Luke (Helmetheads)
2. Tim (Beer-me)
3. Logan (Goat Roapers) +1
4. Tyler (Krazy Kanuck) +1
On to the weekly awards…
| This Week | This Season | All Time | |
| Highest Team Score | Dad had 159.00 | Luke had 202.63 (Week 5) | Luke had 202.63 (2019) |
| Lowest Team Score | Andy had 79.13 | Was: Nick had 83.87 (Week 4) | Andy had 41.29 (2015) |
| Biggest Blowout | Logan beat Andy by 66 | Was: Luke beat Andy by 61.07 (Week 1) | Luke beat Andy by 113.02 (2010) |
| Closest Win | Tim beat Nick by 4.66 | Andy beat Tyler by 0.56 (Week 5) | Tyler beat Nick by 0.01 (2018) |
| Longest Active Winning Streak | Logan has a 2 game winning streak | Luke has a 5 game winning streak (Week 5) | Micah (2011) and Ben (2015) had 8 game winning streaks |
| Longest Active Losing Streak | Nick has a 6 game losing streak | Was: Nick has a 5 game losing streak (Week 5) | Kyle had a 14 game losing streak (2011) |
| Highest Scoring Player | Stefon Digs had 40.00 points for Dad. | Deshaun Watson had 51.74 for Tyler (Week 5) | Drew Brees had 60.54 on Tim’s bench (2015) |
Campus Update
If you live in the area and haven’t driven through the Microsoft campus recently, take a little time to drive down 156th and prepare for a shock. An enormous chunk of the main campus is now a giant hole. There is a main project page that shows the overall project vision, but a few weeks ago, they also published an aerial time lapse showing the demolition. It’s hard to get a real sense of the progress from street level so it’s neat to see this from the sky.
It’s going to take years for this to complete but it’s not for lack of effort. There are a constant stream of trucks going in and out. Click that link above for the full story because it has some very interesting stats at the bottom. When we walk around campus, I like to see how many dump truck loads of dirt people think are being removed. That article says it was around 1 million cubic yards which comes out to something like 60,000 truck loads!