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Vermicious Knids Continue to Dominate!

Sunday, May 9th, 2010

In my first year of playing Fantasy Baseball, my team has performed as expected – they’re kicking ass!  Since the start of the season, I’ve dominated my office league, with a hold on first place as high as 18 points ahead of the other teams.  I have a couple of fantasy aces on my roster – Matt Kemp (LAD – OF) and Roy Halladay (PHI – SP), especially – but most of my players are A- talent, at best.  But in 2010 (so far), they’ve been solid performers in a well-balanced team.

I’m currently 12 points ahead of the league but my lead will probably slip a little after tonight.  My batters really sucked on Sunday, with a measly 4 hits out of 30 at bats and a .133 batting average. Yeesh!

The category where I’ve struggled the most is in stolen bases.  My 2nd baseman Ian Kinsler (TEX – 2B) was on the DL for the first 6 weeks of the season, and my other big base stealers, Derek Jeter (NYY – SS) and Matt Kemp just haven’t been stealing much of anything this year.  I picked up Ryan Doumit (PIT – C) to cover for Jorge Posada (NYY – C) who’s been day-to-day with a right calf strain, but I’ll be dropping him and picking up another base stealer as soon as I’m sure Posada is healthy.

Some of the sports fanatics in my office have predicted that my fantasy dominance will end soon and that it’s still “early” in the season and anything can happen.  They may be right about that, but in the meantime, I’m enjoying my lead and will continue to try to stay one step ahead of the league.  It’s all about strategy, strategy, strategy.  And also luck.

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Countries of the World

Wednesday, April 21st, 2010

One of my April goals (other than, you know, that whole Script Frenzy thing) is to memorize the 195 countries of the world.

The last time I needed to know anything about world geography was in 6th grade (a long 13 years ago) when a significant portion of the curriculum was dedicated to memorizing the countries, continent by continent.  Remember the mnemonic My Very Excellent Mother Just Served Us Nine Pizzas as a way to memorize the planets before Pluto got kicked out?  Well, when it came to memorizing countries, I had my own self-created mnemonic devices, only they were much longer and more nonsensical.

My grown-up, just-for-fun memorization of the world’s countries is made possible not by mnemonic device, but thanks to a series of geography quizzes from Sporcle.com. The quizzes challenge you to name the countries of North America (23 total), South America (12), Europe (45), Asia (48), Africa (53), Oceania (14), and the World (195)!

Here’s the progress I’ve made in the past week:

Day
Africa
Asia
Europe
N. America
S. America
Oceania
Total
4/12
20
31
31
13
7
2
104
4/13
25
34
35
13
10
3
120
4/15
28
38
39
17
11
5
138
4/16
28
40
39
19
12
5
143
4/20
31
39
39
18
12
6
145
4/21
35
42
41
20
12
7
157

Memorizing countries is fun! And spelling them is even funner! Next up: the capitals!

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Script Frenzy: Day 4

Sunday, April 4th, 2010

13 / 100 Pages. 13% done!

I’m right on target with Script Frenzy, but from my lack of entries recently, it looks like Valderi365 will suffer as a result, much as it did in November during NaNoWriMo. Alas!

In other news, Fantasy Baseball season began today (go, YANKEES! – even though you totally lost), and that will definitely be another time suck this month. Two of my players are injured right now and that means my team roster will need some finagling. My second baseman, Ian Kinsler of the Texas Rangers is on the Disabled List due to a high ankle sprain. And one of my relief pitchers, Michael Wuertz of the Oakland Athletics is suffering from a shoulder injury.

162 games to go… by the end of the season I am going to know more about America’s favorite pastime than I had ever dreamed.

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Script Frenzy 2010!

Monday, March 29th, 2010

In the world of the Writer, National Novel Writing Month may dominate the frigid and hostile Novembers of every year, but with the blossoming of each April bloom, five months later, a new challenge is embraced: Script Frenzy.

For novelists and screenwriters alike, Script Frenzy offers one clear goal: during the 30 days of April, 100 pages of  original scripted material is to be written. The scripted material may take the form of a feature screenplay, a stage play, TV episodes, short films, a radio play, or graphic novel(s).  100 pages in 30 days is ~ 3.33 pages/day.

CUT TO:

INT: VALDERI365 BLOG – NIGHT.

A lone figure, shrouded in darkness, stands before a computer desk.  The figure holds a computer keyboard aloft, as though in offering.

VAL:
(coolly)
I accept this challenge.

With a mighty snarl, she rips the keyboard free of the computer and hurls it against the wall. The keyboard shatters into pieces, sending a river of keys raining down onto the hardwood floor.

SFX: The music swells.

VAL:
It will be an exciting April.  Exciting indeed.

FADE TO BLACK.

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Fantasy Baseball: 2010

Friday, March 26th, 2010

Lately, I’ve been struggling to find time for Valderi365, and one of the distractions this week is – of all things – fantasy baseball.

Nine of my coworkers and I have gotten together to form an office league on Yahoo Sports, and the drafting took place on Wednesday. I know very little to nothing about professional baseball, so to prepare I did some research on ESPN’s top 200 MLB athletes, the scoring categories for batters (R, HR, RBI, SB, AVG) and pitchers (W, SV, K, ERA, WHIP), and tips for drafting – get a good starting pitcher and a good closer, draft shallow talent fields (2nd base, catcher, short stop) early, etc.

I drafted 7th out of 10 and whatever strategy I had managed to hobble together mostly fell apart as the coworkers who drafted ahead of me consistently snagged all the players I was going for. The team I ended up with is (I think?) respectable. All categories are scored 1:1, so rather than dominating with one category at the expense of another, I tried to spread out the talent, favoring the pitchers a little since most of the best batters got snagged before I had a real shot at them. My fantasy team’s scores are based on the real-life 162 MLB games that the athletes will play in each position.

It sounds like I almost know what I’m talking about, but really, it’s all guesswork. I’ll be rooting for the following players to do their best and to STAY OFF THE INJURED LIST!

VERMICIOUS KNIDS
POSITION ATHLETE TEAM
Catcher Jorge Posada New York Yankees
1st Base Kendry Morales Los Angeles Angels
2nd Base Ian Kinsler Texas Rangers
3rd Base Ryan Zimmerman Washington Nationals
Short Stop Derek Jeter New York Yankees
Outfield Matt Kemp Los Angeles Dodgers
Outfield Andre Ethier Los Angeles Dodgers
Outfield Adam Dunn Washington Nationals
Utility Billy Butler Kansas City Royals
Utility Dan Uggla Florida Marlins
Bench Chris Coghlan Florida Marlins
Bench Mark DeRosa San Francisco Giants
Bench Stephen Drew Arizona Diamondbacks
Starting Pitcher Roy Halladay Philadelphia Phillies
Starting Pitcher Yovani Gallardo Milwaukee Brewers
Relief Pitcher Jonathan Papelbon Boston Red Socks
Relief Pitcher Heath Bell San Diego Padres
Pitcher Carlos Mármol Chicago Cubs
Pitcher Scott Baker Minnesota Twins
Pitcher John Danks Chicago White Sox
Pitcher Edwin Jackson Arizona Diamondbacks
Bench Rick Porcello Detroit Tigers
Bench Michael Wuertz Oakland Athletics

Funny thing is my boyfriend asked for help in drafting his own fantasy team last night through a league he joined on ESPN. Of the two of us, I never thought I’d be the one with the most knowledge in this particular realm of professional sports! What’s interesting is that we both drafted 7th of 10 with more-or-less the same strategy (read: mine), but our teams are wildly different – very little cross-over here!

And unlike some New Yorkers, we had no problem drafting a few Yankees to our teams.

JUICE INJECTORS
POSITION ATHLETE TEAM
Catcher Victor Martinez Boston Red Socks
1st Base Adam Dunn Washington Nationals
2nd Base Chase Utley Philadelphia Phillies
3rd Base Chrone Figgins Seattle Mariners
Short Stop Jimmy Rollins Philadelphia Phillies
Utility Asdrubal Cabrera Cleveland Indians
Utility Adrian Beltre Boston Red Socks
Center Field Andrew McCutchen Pittsburgh Pirates
Outfield Ichiro Suzuki Seattle Mariners
Outfield Shin-Soo Choo Cleveland Indians
Designated Hitter David Ortiz Boston Red Socks
Bench Ryan Doumit Pittsuburgh Pirates
Bench Jay Bruce Cincinnati Reds
Starting Pitcher Felix Hernandez Seattle Mariners
Starting Pitcher Javier Vazquez New York Yankees
Starting Pitcher Scott Baker Minnesota Twins
Starting Pitcher Phil Hughes New York Yankees
Relief Pitcher Jonathan Broxton Los Angeles Dodgers
Relief Pitcher Andrew Bailey Oakland Athletics
Relief Pitcher Chad Qualls Arizona Diamondbacks
Relief Pitcher Kerry Wood Cleveland Indians
Bench Gil Meche Kansas City Royals

Gil Meche is not one of the top MLB players (he ranks somewhere around #500), but as a cousin, he was drafted out of family obligation. Not that we aren’t rooting for him to be awesome!

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