Studio711.com – Ben Martens

Fantasy Football – Week 10

The Seahawks tried to penalty their way to another loss but still won with another safety and scrambling QB prowess. Maybe instead of penalties they could just spot the other team a touchdown or two? I could be wrong but I think they had 7 penalties that resulted in first downs including four in one drive. What’s the point of even playing defense if you’re just going to give away freebies? They did get the win but there were 12 injuries including a season ending injury for Sherman and Kam Chancellor also carted off the field. Earl Thomas was already on the bench. So now we have a decimated defense, still no offensive line, and more penalties and penalty yardage than any other NFL team. Remember when I said the Seahawks were heading into an easier section of their schedule? That was probably wrong.

In our league, wins for Logan and Luke made them feel pretty good about their playoff chances. Austin and Dad have 3rd and 4th place to themselves. The league is starting to spread out a bit and it’s getting harder for the 4 of us on the bottom to figure out a scenario that might land us in the playoffs. Thank you to everyone for keeping your rosters full!

Power rankings for week 11:

1. Logan
2. Austin (+1)
3. Andy (+2)
4. Dad (+4)

On to the weekly awards…

This Week This Season All-Time
Highest Team Score Dad had 143.79 Luke had 161.89 (Week 3) Tim 200.51 (2015)
Lowest Team Score Jim had 60.95 Dad had 61.50 (Week 1) Andy had 41.29 (2015)
Biggest Blowout Luke beat Jim by 52.30 Luke beat Jim by 74.22 (Week 3) Luke beat Andy by 113.02 (2010)
Closest Win Austin beat Tim by 29.16 Andy beat Jim by 2.96 (Week 6) Jim beat Ben by 0.12 (2012)
Highest Scoring Player Cam Newton had 43.66 on Andy’s bench. Tom Brady had 45.72 for Luke. (Week 3) Drew Brees had 60.54 on Tim’s bench (2015)
Longest Active Winning Streak Austin has a 3 game winning streak Logan had a 5 game winning streak (Week 5) Micah (2011) and Ben (2015) had an 8 game winning streak
Longest Active Losing Streak Ben and Jim have 2 game losing streaks. Tim had a 5 game losing streak. (Week 5) Kyle had a 14 game losing streak (2011)
benmartens November 15, 2017 Fantasy Sports

IsoTunes Pro Review

I enjoy using my shop time to catch up on podcasts, YouTube and Netflix. But obviously when I’m running loud equipment, I have hearing protection in and I can’t hear the show. I finally splurged and got the IsoTunes Pro bluetooth earplug headphones. They connect wireless to either my phone or a bluetooth transmitter hooked to my TV.

They do a good job of canceling out shop noise and I can easily hear whatever audio source I have selected. The downside is that I’ve been spoiled with the custom ear plugs I got back when Tyla worked at the hearing clinic. They just slide right into my ear and I don’t have to mess with squishing foam and getting it fit into my ears. That’s not a huge drawback though and I still use the IsoTunes a lot.

benmartens November 13, 2017 Gadgets

Ice Skating

We have a year-round indoor ice rink less than a mile from our house. Elijah and Tyla have killed quite a few hours during the day sitting in the stands and watching random hockey games and watching the Zamboni do laps.

This year, we figured he was finally big enough to fit into some skates and give it a shot. I was pretty sure he could do it, but this trip also meant that I had to dig ice skates out of a box for Tyla and me.

I’ll cut to the chase… we were able to come straight home without stopping at the hospital on the way. So that means it was a victory!

Kidding aside, Elijah did great. I figured we’d get about 5 minutes in and he’d be done, but he stuck with it for about 1.5 hours, never taking a break. I think he probably did about seven total laps, but by the end he was getting more bold. He did have a walker to push around, but he also liked to skate holding my hand.

Tyla and I would take turns doing laps by ourselves. I hadn’t skated for probably about 6 years and before that it was college, but I was surprised at how well it came back. I’m not at the same level I was way back when, but I was a lot closer than I thought I’d be.

Elijah was all smiles the whole time, and he’s already asking when we can go back and try it again.

benmartens November 9, 2017 Family

Fantasy Football – Week 9

The Seahawks had another close game, but in the end the penalties. missed field goals and broken plays because of the offensive line were too much to overcome. It has to be painful as a field goal kicker when you miss THREE field goals and your team loses by three points. Just making ONE of them could have sent them to overtime.

Our league continues to be a free-for-all. Last week, Luke had the highest team score and Andy had the lowest. This week they flipped. Tim had the second highest score in the league hinting that maybe 8th place isn’t where he will end up. With 5 games left until the playoffs are set, everyone still has a chance. Logan and Luke are still looking good with their good records and high point totals.

Deshaun Watson was the second highest scoring player in our league up until his season ending injury. Let’s take a minute to review his progress through our league:

  • Logan had him for less than 14 hours on October 4.
  • He was on Logan’s team again for one week in mid October..
  • He was on my time for a week at the end of October.

He played a total of one week in our league! I had finally made the obvious decision to start him regularly and I even picked up his favorite target (Will Fuller), and then… bam. Out for the season. I think we all deserve a face palm for missing out on all those points up until his injury.

Power rankings for week 10:

1. Logan (+1)
2. Luke (-1)
3. Austin (+1)
4. Tim (+3)

On to the weekly awards…

This Week This Season All-Time
Highest Team Score Andy had 148.65 Luke had 161.89 (Week 3) Tim 200.51 (2015)
Lowest Team Score Luke had 74.47 Dad had 61.50 (Week 1) Andy had 41.29 (2015)
Biggest Blowout Luke beat Dad by 68.53 Luke beat Jim by 74.22 (Week 3) Luke beat Andy by 113.02 (2010)
Closest Win Austin beat Ben by 16.86 Andy beat Jim by 2.96 (Week 6) Jim beat Ben by 0.12 (2012)
Highest Scoring Player Jared Goff had 36.44 as a free agent. Tom Brady had 45.72 for Luke. (Week 3) Drew Brees had 60.54 on Tim’s bench (2015)
Longest Active Winning Streak Austin has won 2 games in a row Logan had a 5 game winning streak (Week 5) Micah (2011) and Ben (2015) had an 8 game winning streak
Longest Active Losing Streak Dad has lost 2 games in a row. Tim had a 5 game losing streak. (Week 5) Kyle had a 14 game losing streak (2011)
benmartens November 8, 2017 Fantasy Sports

Reduced Writing

It’s been almost six months since I stopped holding myself to the “one post per week day” that I had been doing for 15 years. It has been working out well for me and the natural cadence has been around 3 posts per week.

I’ve been thinking about what led to the decrease in desire to write posts and a major reason finally occurred to me: Instagram. I love Instagram. It’s such a happy place and it takes very little time to catch up on what my friends are doing and what’s happening in communities that I’m interested by (woodworking, skiing, hiking, etc.) I post there quite a bit and I think those pictures have taken the place of a lot of the posts that I would have made on this site. So if I was to make each Instagram post be a post on this site, then I feel like my volume would be similar. The bonus is that if you’re interested in consuming all of it, it takes a lot less of your time to consume the Instagram posts.

In conjunction with this change, I’ve also cut way back on Facebook. I go there a couple times a week to quickly flip through the news feed that I’ve trimmed way down with the Facebook Purity plugin. In contrast to Instagram’s happy environment, a lot of Facebook content feels angry, frivolous or both. I’ve found that the best way to consume Facebook is to not follow very many people, but instead, just go visit various pages every once in a while and catch up in bulk. It reduces some of the Skinner Box response associated with checking your newsfeed every 5 minutes.

I’m sure that the Instagram model will break at some point, but for now, feel free to follow me on my personal account @benwmartens and my woodworking account @martenswoodworks.

benmartens November 7, 2017 Commentary

Fantasy Football – Week 8

If you take away Russell Wilson’s 30 yards of rushing, the Seahawks had 3 yards of rushing on 17 attempts. The defense allowed 544 yards of offense and gave up 38 points. Wilson also had an interception. And yet, somehow the Seahawks still got the win. The offense had some great long plays and the three picks by the defense helped as well. That game was the definition of a shootout and it was fun to see them win a nerve wracking game, but the game left me with a lot of “uh oh” feelings. A lot of stuff went wrong. Hopefully it can be corrected. Seattle has a good schedule for the next few weeks so we’ll see what they can do against some weaker/average teams.

It was painful watching the Seahawks game and knowing that while I picked up Deshaun Watson, I had him on my bench. He outscored my starting QB by 33 points, but I still picked up the win. In a much more important game, Luke defeated Dad and now has sole possession of first place. Looking at total points scored this season, Luke and Logan are far ahead of the pack. Dad, Austin and I are kind of the next clump. That’s 5 teams and there are only five spots so we’ll see how it shakes out. The other three guys could still make a run for it as well. We have six games left until the playoff roster is set. Next week’s primetime matchup is Luke (#1) vs Logan (#2).

Power rankings for week 9:

1. Luke (+2)
2. Logan (-1)
3. Dad (+1)
4. Austin (-2)

On to the weekly awards…

This Week This Season All-Time
Highest Team Score Luke had 142.86 Luke had 161.89 (Week 3) Tim 200.51 (2015)
Lowest Team Score Andy had 62.06 Dad had 61.50 (Week 1) Andy had 41.29 (2015)
Biggest Blowout Luke beat Dad by 54.57 Luke beat Jim by 74.22 (Week 3) Luke beat Andy by 113.02 (2010)
Closest Win Ben beat Tim by 23.03 Andy beat Jim by 2.96 (Week 6) Jim beat Ben by 0.12 (2012)
Highest Scoring Player Russell Wilson had 43.08 for Jim. Tom Brady had 45.72 for Luke. (Week 3) Drew Brees had 60.54 on Tim’s bench (2015)
Longest Active Winning Streak Ben and Luke have 2 game winning streaks. Logan had a 5 game winning streak (Week 5) Micah (2011) and Ben (2015) had an 8 game winning streak
Longest Active Losing Streak Logan has a 3 game losing streak. Tim had a 5 game losing streak. (Week 5) Kyle had a 14 game losing streak (2011)
benmartens November 1, 2017 Fantasy Sports

500th Reformation Anniversary

Today is a church holiday called Reformation. It commemorates the work of the reformers, specifically Martin Luther, to try and bring the Catholic church back to a sound doctrinal position. He was a strong supporter of the church but did not support the places where they were deviating from scripture. His work to repair the problems in the Catholic church were ultimately unsuccessful, but the “protestants” did break off from the Catholic church to try and form churches that held to the teachings of the Bible.

As with all things human and sinful, some of those protestant groups also succumbed to falsehoods and inaccuracies over the years. It takes constant vigilance to keep the devil from eroding the basic truths of the Bible. That vigilance is what the church (or at least our church?) is really celebrating at Reformation. We’re not worshiping Martin Luther. We’re reminding ourselves to continue to test everything we are taught against the unerring Bible. We can sum it up in three phrases (often heard in Latin): sola scriptura, sola fide and sola gratia. Scripture alone reveals the saving work in Christ. Faith in that saving work of Christ is the only path to heaven. And grace, God’s undeserved love for us, is the only way we receive that saving work. If we hear teaching that involves non-Biblical “revelations from God”, requiring good works to get to heaven, or any part of the plan of salvation that requires our own input, those teachings are contrary to what God wrote for us in the Bible.

1 John 4:1-6

Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world.

You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. They are from the world and therefore speak from the viewpoint of the world, and the world listens to them. We are from God, and whoever knows God listens to us; but whoever is not from God does not listen to us. This is how we recognize the Spirit of truth and the spirit of falsehood.

Want to learn more? Our church body, the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod, has a lot of resources available.

benmartens October 31, 2017 Commentary

Learn Quick With Mike Boyd

One of my favorite new channels on YouTube (where “new” means “I just learned about it) is Learn Quick With Mike Boyd. Mike is a Scottish YouTuber who picks a skill and videos his attempts to learn it. And when I say he learns it, I mean that he works incessantly on the new skill until he hits an impressive milestone. For example, how about riding a wheelie for 50 meters or doing a 5x5x5 Rubik’s Cube in under 10 minutes? I’m plowing through the entire catalog of his YouTube channel.

It’s infectious. Think of all the skills you’ve been impressed by but have never taken the time to learn. The really amazing part of his channel is that it generally only takes me five or six hours to pick up these incredible skills! He goes from zero to impressive in the time it takes to watch a couple movies. I think we’ve all wasted five or six hours in the last month, or maybe even the last week. I can’t help but feel motivated when I watch this stuff.

benmartens October 31, 2017 Links

New Jointer Blades

The jointer in my shop is a 6″ benchtop model that was made 10 years ago. I’m guessing that I’m the fourth person to own it and I have a suspicion that the blades have never been changed. It has been working fine for me and I didn’t know any better.

However, during the storage closet cabinet project, I ran the painted doors over the jointer to try and trim them down just a bit so they would close better. That put a HUGE dull spot/divot in my blades.

A quick visit to Amazon revealed that I could get new blades for $15. Sold!

I watched a few videos about jointer blade installation using various gizmos (or eyeballing it, etc) so I was a little nervous that I was about to embark on a soul-sucking endeavor. Thankfully it only took me an hour and I could probably do it in half that next time. I just followed the instructions in the manual and purposely didn’t use a dial indicator or any other precise measurement tool. Instead I went with the “If it looks straight, it is straight” approach. Why? Well before I took out the old blades, I checked to see how well they were adjusted. They were terrible and I had never noticed. The new blades were calibrated way better than that so I was already at a net gain for something I didn’t know I needed.

Comparing the old blades to the new blades is like comparing a butter knife to a steak knife. I should have done this long ago. The jointer feels like it has so much more power now and boards glide over the blades much easier.

benmartens October 27, 2017 Woodworking

Fantasy Football – Week 7

Why couldn’t the Seahawks have started the season this way? The defense definitely leads the way but the offense finally showed up to play, at least part way through the game.

Here’s the shocker from our league: Logan has the longest active losing streak. He’s still well out in front of everyone and his team is very strong so I don’t foresee any problems with him making the playoffs. There are now three teams tied for first (Logan, Luke and Dad.) Andy is coming up strong through the ranks with his three game winning streak. Next week’s featured matchup is Dad vs Luke. They’re both part of the three way tie for first right now.

Power rankings for week 8:

1. Logan (+2)
2. Austin
3. Luke (-2)
4. Dad (+2)

On to the weekly awards…

This Week This Season All-Time
Highest Team Score Dad had 151.58 Luke had 161.89 (Week 3) Tim 200.51 (2015)
Lowest Team Score Jim had 63.29 Dad had 61.50 (Week 1) Andy had 41.29 (2015)
Biggest Blowout Ben beat Jim by 53.40 Luke beat Jim by 74.22 (Week 3) Luke beat Andy by 113.02 (2010)
Closest Win Andy beat Tim by 9.41 Andy beat Jim by 2.96 (Week 6) Jim beat Ben by 0.12 (2012)
Highest Scoring Player Ezekiel Elliott had 40.40 for Luke. Tom Brady had 45.72 for Luke. (Week 3) Drew Brees had 60.54 on Tim’s bench (2015)
Longest Active Winning Streak Andy has a 3 game winning streak. Logan had a 5 game winning streak (Week 5) Micah (2011) and Ben (2015) had an 8 game winning streak
Longest Active Losing Streak Logan has a 2 game losing streak. Tim had a 5 game losing streak. (Week 5) Kyle had a 14 game losing streak (2011)
benmartens October 25, 2017 Fantasy Sports