MA senate elections, April 2013

Looks like there is a consensus amongst the candidates for MA senator (April 2013 election), that enhancing border security should be a priority for the USA. Many years ago, I reported re the need to be able to determine source of attack if there is an attack with smuggled WMD (Weapons of Mass Destruction). This was because the lack of border security had alerted me to the possibility that WMDs smuggled across the border into the USA, are a danger insufficiently guarded against, which may be because companies that specialize in defending against missiles and air-delivered bombs, are overly influential in Washington DC.

Generally the candidates seem to believe that the key to USA national economic salvation, is the import-replacement in the energy sector (many years ago, I wrote my first words regarding the importance of such to the national economy). But Mr. Winslow opposes what he characterizes as borrowing billions of dollars from China to subsidize windfarms.

My reaction: apparently the USA govt leaders need to improve the precision of its understanding regarding how much benefit or harm the US economy receives when imports are replaced with subsidized sources of domestic energy. There are multiplier effects when the producers of the energy spend the money they are paid.

And also, the USA govt needs to improve its understanding regarding how foreign governments subsidizing their own domestic industries, negatively effects the US economic situation.

Given that the US subsidizes domestic energy, naturally foreign companies may do likewise. Apparently, foreign nations are stiffly tariffing goods imported from the USA, while the USA is not tariffing those goods when imported from those foreign nations.

It's almost surprising that, whereas the media and the leaders have given us the impression that we have now entered the glorious new era of free trade, in fact: national governments continue to implement official measures that disadvantage imports; national governments continue to implement unofficial actions that disadvantage imports; private sectors of foreign nations implement official and unofficial actions that disadvantage imports; consumers in some nations are more prejudiced against imports than others; the 'free trade' spoken of, has been largely unilateral, meaning, the USA not disadvantaging imports into the USA, while foreign nations disadvantage imports from the USA sold in those foreign nations.

As for the borrowing Chinese billions to subsidize wind farms, my latest info tells me that of late borrowing from the Chinese has been replaced by the government borrowing newly created money from itself.

Aside from the issues raised by the politicians: if leaders cannot do something simple like bringing people clean healthy water for swimming in the pools, then how can they be expected to do more difficult things? Reportedly, recently a European swimming team refused to swim in a USA pool, because they used Chlorine in their attempt to purify the USA swimming pool water, the team would not swim until the pool switched to Ozone, the pool was able to quickly switch to Ozone, & then the Euro team swam in it. There have been reports regarding the negative health effects of Chlorine, and the superiority of Ozone when used to purify swimming pool water. Yet, although thousands of European swimming pools use water purified by the Ozone process, almost all the pools in the USA use Chlorine. If swimming becomes 10% more expensive because of the switch to Ozone, I say, it's penny-wise & pound-foolish to economize so strictly with regards to how swimming pool water is purified-- it would be wiser to economize elsewhere in the budget & enjoy the superior swimming pool water. Swimming pool water passes directly through the skin in large amounts, bypassing body-organs used to process incoming water. I quote:

Study Suggests Chlorine Could Cause Cancer...A study published in the November 2006 issue of the American Journal of Epidemiology has reported a link between exposure to chlorinated water and an increased risk of bladder cancer. According to researchers, ingestion of, and bathing, showering, and swimming in chlorinated water can all lead to increased incidence of cancer...(THMs, or trihalomethanes, are chemical by-products of chlorination.)  Researchers discovered that these chemicals invade the human body through ingestion of water, by inhalation and dermal absorption.  They ...believe that THM that is absorbed or inhaled into the body does not go through a detoxification process in the liver, which may make the chemical much more dangerous...The results of that study showed that...swimming in chlorinated pools raised the risk by 57 percent...
  -- http://www.friendsofwater.com/No_Chlorine.html

There are reports that drinking large amounts of water & eating sea salt counteract the chlorinated water effect; some say lemon juice neutralizes chlorine. There may be remedies to the Chlorine effect. Nevertheless, the end result is that the nutrients absorbed by the body are diverted to dealing with the chlorine problem, the immune system is diverted to problems created by the chlorine; human time and energy is diverted to the problem; and the risks if diluted remain also.

If the US is controlled by chlorine producers, the solution could be to allow the chlorine producers to install and operate the ozone processes. Looking at the history of swimming pool water purification in nations that now use processes superior to chlorine could provide clues re how a transition to methods superior to chlorine can be achieved, without terrifying sinister chlorine-fanatics causing problems.

(I admit to being with regards to chlorine expertise, merely an amateur, who is influenced by persons who are not officially credentialed).

Futsal @ Oak Square YMCA 3/05/13

Here are my mostly unrefined notes for the Tuesday March 5 2013 Oak Square YMCA Soccer League Futsal Games, taken from my paper notebook. My team won the first game, 8-7, I did not note who we beat. 2nd game, North Africans beat the Wheatonites (wheatonites minus the Wheaton college players who did not show up), 10-1, I was not involved in the second game.

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Tuesday 3/5 OSY games

Game 1

me in game: us 6, them 3
me not in game: us 2, them 4
Total, us 8 them 7

good 180 degree 1-Touch pass,many shot-blocks. Good aerial 1-Touch 180 degree short pass.
  stolen ball on attempt at sharp 180 degree dribble (stolen from me I think)
  good lead centering pass.
   good simple short 1T, 2T passes.

     At beginning 1st half, (I made 3 mistakes): accidentally passed ball to middle, accidentally passed to other team, chip pass to middle too short.
  Good long RF clearance.

No goals scored by men I was guarding all scored by others. 

Julian hurt his leg.
Julian a student at 'Education First'
Manny looking good today, seemed like winning big last week over the reigning champs, was like a miracle drug for his body and mind.

Buy futsal for less than $30 to share w/ Y.

     Very long shot, 97' in distance, missed by 1', bounced outside goalie's R goal post (I took this shot near my own goal, it was remarkable in that: defenders were very close to me so I had to arch the ball up at a very high angle; the ball reached an apex of about 22'; the ball bounced just a foot outside the goalpost and went wide, but it was almost a goal in that it caught the other team off-guard)
'
     good long RF clearance
     1-T pass opening things up like Calder said (Calder earlier had told me that he had noticed how unlike the others on my team, I make one-touch passes, whereas they always stop the ball before passing. He said my 1-touch passes loosen things up for my team on offense giving an edge that is not there when the passes are not 1-touch passes. When he said this, I had not noticed that my 1-touch passes were opening up things for my team by quickening things and catching the defense more off-guard, but at this point I noticed how me making 1-touch passes was loosening things up in terms of putting time and space between players on my team and those guarding them).

Goals 3' high, 8' wide

  LF shot from 45' on target hard, but right at goalie

Game 2:

Did not play in this game. North Africans beating Wheatonites w/o wheaton (the Wheatonite team today, lacked the players from Wheaton College)

    G2 N Africans 10, Wheatonites, 1

Futsal @ Waltham YMCA 2/28/13

Here are my mostly unrefined notes for the Thursday February 28 2013 Waltham YMCA Soccer Futsal Games, taken from my paper notebooks (I suspect I took two notebooks to the games). Most of the time my team consisted of Carlos, Jose, Tall Paul, Ryan, & me; we had our ups and downs.

These notes never turned into a blog-post until now. Games were 5-minute games, with a no-hands goalie guarding a 6' x 4' goal, five on a team; we played on a full size basketball court.

I was hit by a PC virus & then I procrastinated creating a blog-post re this days' games. Then I began to feel as if the world was suffering some serious mental damage from me not putting up a blog-post about the games, as if the world had gotten addicted to such posts; I felt as if me denying the world something it was addicted to, was not relaxing or invigorating for me. Bit by bit I'll catch up. I realized that now that a month has passed since the games I am describing in this blog were played, before I start refining these notes and commenting further, I have to get basic notes on the games up first, so I can see the entire season from beginning to end before getting into detailed formal writing about the games. For example I might get confused re at what stage in the season Manny is criticizing my defensive positioning, which could be a problem because at one point he was correct but at other points during the season he was wrong.

Current recollection of the Thursday 2/28 Waltham Y Futsal games: Overall, during the 8 5-min games I must have made at least a half dozen accurate chip passes to the tall-Paul, who looks like an Italian International especially with his Italia jersey, but though he looks the part, he club-footedly mishandled them all. These chips were on average about 75' in length, with a high apex. I kept passing to him because he was wide open so often near the enemy goal. By way of contrast, my team was obsessed with passing to Ryan, who club-footedly mishandled every pass sent his way, even when Ryan was not in a good position to receive a pass.

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notebook notes From 1/23 Dtop NoteBook, p 54:

Before the game, Carlos, the volunteer who initially organized these soccer games, told me he wanted me to "get involved, be vocal, press on defense" etc.

G1 0-0 vs Reds
-1 sideline kick to Paul, low. 1 40' long high chip pass, good, pass a little off and misplayed by recipient.
- defensive left wing position
- 1 cross into middle roller good
- 1 one-touch in from 3:00 out to 6:00 roller pass almost good led man on wing
  Carlos wants me involved, talking to team-mates.

  Team = Paul, Carlos, Jose, me &...

G2 Us massacred by reds, no defense with me at left-wing position, score came to 4-0 them in 3 minutes. Our goalies terrible, defense terrible. So me put into goal where I allow zero, 3 saves, totally unlike them. Chaos re positioning, me dropping back to play defense...At close very long 80'diagonal right-footed chip pass, good. Long pass, slightly off, to Jose gott through.

G3 Moved to goalie, beat Greens 1-0. Many saves. Chip to Jose a little short, very long approx 80' pass, good. Pass intended for Jose went to Ryan's head, accidentally good. Block/drib & pass to Jose gave Jose goal, assist.

Before G4, Carlos: "if u don't hustle on defense, you're moved to goalie again".

G4 Played defense. They scored from far, near the middle, it was not my man who scored. Some long 60' passes to the left wing. They did not beat me. 1-1 vs red.

  Carlos started out, he wants me to talk when out there. But does not want me to to talk to him. "I get on his nerves".

  Jose- "no questions re rules"

G5 Grey-orange 0-0. Started @ L Defense. Got ball @ forecourt near left corner, took 1 drib, hard 40' LF shot missed low 1' outside goalie's left goalpost. Felt I had to slant shot to avoid crowd. Made long pass to RW from L Def, supposed to be a chip, was not. Hole in shoe beginning to bother me.
  Me & Carlos getting along again. He ordered me to be a defender who switches to goalie back and forth. Great full court chip pass off bouncer, 1 Touch.

  Carlos does not like to lose, especially by a high score.

The ultra-shot I made replicated the pentagon, & swastika drills [note- pentagon drill is named that, because ball is dribbled in a pentagon pattern; swastika drill is named that because ball is dribbled in swastika pattern].

Today in retrospect there were at least 2 very hard shots that missed by just a foot, these were not all recorded in detail during the games

G6 Started at defense, forced back into goal. On defense, chaos erupted, with 3 FW & 1 back. They scored  scored close middle, far from me, on goalie/defense bumbling.
     Then with me in goal, 2 on 0 them. faked run at ball, stopped, forced player wide, he shot, hit R-goalpost, the other guy got the rebound.
     Faked rush at their RW. She forced into pass out of bounds, she strained something, out of game w no contact.
     Great 18' apex 40' distance chip from rear left front court to goal, mishandled
     They want me to play goalie, because they do well w/ me in goal!

  The fake def charge right after they dribble throwing them off.



G7 us 1 them 0. Uneventful def, followed by uneventful offense.
     Hole in toe bothering me.

G8 Carlos- 'excellent' (he says now re my play), likes me as goalie/defender. Lost, on defense, they scored 2 goals. Us 0. I made fake charge at Ian, stopped, he was moving fast to begin with his momentum swerved him past me- other goal, other people's incompetence. Good RF save as goalie on blistering shot.

Carlos, Jose, Paul, Ryan, me & Kublai Khan. Intra-team and Inter-team strife and discord.
  Game 1, & Game 2, Capt Carlos put me at LW. We tied the red team 0-0 in G1. The mean reason we did not do better, is that my tam-mates passed the ball too much to Ryan, who lost control of the ball to the other team almost every time he got the ball. Game 2, we lost something like 4-0.

  Before the first game, Capt Carlos warned me, to be involved in the game, to be vocal with my team-mates, in terms of calling for the ball, & to hustle.

We lost G2, because with Carlos as no-hands goalie and Jose as defender, the defensive was weak. This defensive collapse humiliated Carlos and Jose. The man I as LW was marking had nothing to do with any of the goals scored. Yet Carlos wanted to blame me re the goals against.

We won game 3, with me in goalie. I felt as if this was because I was being blamed for our problems in G1 & G2.

Prior to Game 4, Carlos told me I was playing defense, and would have to switch to goalie if I did not 'hustle'. G 4, we tied the Reds, 1-1. The goal scored against us, was scored on a long shot from their back line by a man other than the one I was marking.

  After G4, Capt Carlos snapped at me, that he didnt want me talking to him any more, because I was getting on his nerves. I immediately simply fell silent, not responding to what he had said. Prior to this, I had told him that when at LW, I had been playing defense the way I saw wings play defense at the 2012 World Championships. He said, "that's outdoors not indoors". I corrected him, no it was indoors Futsal I had been watching. I had been telling him that our problems were not my fault, telling him what the real problems were.

     After game 4 I asked Jose if I could ask him a question about the rule re hands. He hid his face in a towel he had draped over his head and said no.

     At the point where Capt Carlos shut me up, I felt Capt Carlos had been unjustly blaming me for my team's failures. I had politely pointed out that we were making 'bad passing decisions'. I protested my innocence. I correctly stated, that we were under-performing because our team had no sense of positioning. Ryan, Paul, & Jose had all repeatedly refused to declare themselves as left or right wing or defender prior to the games. They all ran all over the court. At one point 3 of them were all standing in a row on the left edge of the court in enemy territory. They did not show any sense re how to position properly as wing or defender. How could they, when in their mind, they were all-court rovers, not wings or defenders.

     In short, I felt, based on words and facial/body language of Jose and Carlos, that at that point in time after G4, they were unjustly blaming me for all that had befallen us. I felt that: they were blaming our collective failure on my lack of hustle and lack of positional wisdom, when actually the problem had been: them passing much to much to club-footed Ryan, them considering themselves to ball-court rovers without positions, them failing as defender and goalie.

     The evening ended in a paradox in the next to last game. Carlos tackled the tall stocky white E. Asian & the E. Asian lost  the ball & fell to the ground, then the E. Asian became angry at Carlos, saying he had been fouled. Then a minute later, Jose tackled the E. Asian, & again the E. Asian became angry and lost the ball, this time he was boiling mad, threatening a fight if such ever happened again.

     It was as if the wrath of Kublai Khan had come down on the two Spanish who had been wrongfully blaming me for what others had caused by their errors. However:

     I felt Carlos & Jose had made clean tackles, & had not fouled 'Kublai Khan'. It seems to me that E. Asian players, believe that if a man w/ the ball loses the ball & falls down while colliding with a defender that means the defender has committed a foul.

     Overall, I did not get the ball much this evening. My team was not attempting to pass to me; when I was on defense, the other team shifted the action to the opposite side. Feeling unjustly blamed for my team's failures, I was not in a mood to dribble. Nevertheless, when I touched the ball, a high percentage of the time, the result was a shot or a pass that would be considered good or excellent for a pro.

By game 5, Carlos was getting along with me, again, as I obeyed him, starting as defense with Carlos in goal, & then going back to play goal, when Carlos would venture out on the offensive.

  This pattern was kept up most of the time from our 5th to our 8th game. During the 8th game, Carlos even congratulated me as 'excellent'. I knew I had been wise to have just shut up when he told me I was on his nerves and did not want to hear me.

  If what Carlos wanted was that I should play defense & him goalie with us switching in & out of goalie, I can now see how such could work well, I did such when asked. But seems people like Carlos err, in that they do things like blame the innocent so as to get the innocent to play goalie or share the goalie position.

Seems to me there are players who are too obsessed with what the final scores of games are.They want every victory to be as lopsided as possible. They hate losing. They need to blame someone other than themselves for their defeats. Whenever they lose the ball & stumble, they feel victim. to an outrageous foul, or focus on the alleged sins of others.

The fact my team's performance improves when I switch from wing to defense, does not mean I am bad at wing. The fact my team's performance improves when I switch from defense to goalie, does not mean I am bad at defense. If you punish players who play defense and goalie well, by forcing them to play defense & goalie more than they want, players will deliberately fail at defense & goalie, because they want to play offense.

     Now I'm missing by 1', used to miss by 2'

     Idea: traverse navigable walls, 45 degree wall-pass style.

     After the games I was thinking:

The tumult and the shouting dies;
the Captains and the Kings depart;
still stands thine ancient sacrifice,
a player who does things a pro would be proud of.

these notes were unusually long, must have been in note taking mood during and after games

Futsal @ Oak Square YMCA 2/26/13

Here are my mostly unrefined notes for the Tuesday February 26 2013 Oak Square YMCA Soccer League Futsal Games, taken from my paper notebooks (I suspect I took two notebooks to the games). My team beat Watertown 10-4:

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2/21 Sports NB Notes, p 19:

Shot was weak. Dribbles 3 good 1 failed. Played defensive LW.
  Blocked many shots, intercepted passes, disrupted dribbles. Wind & calves/soles situation not good, lasting only 6 mins. Spaniards hogged ball.

Good Dribs involved quick 180 degree turns with soles of feet, which got me loose to be able to pass off advantageously.

Ball came to me on LW.

Incomplete nutrients cocktail. Old veg juice subbed for carrot juice, no cod liver oil.

Calder says Plantiar Fasciitis
The 1 or 2 organic tobacco cigs/day killing me?
Lost ball dribble: on LW, ball in from 5:00

Fatigue/cramps in soles/calves causes problems

Ball on my RF, nobody open in middle, RF dribbled ball in same direction defender moving, foolish!

4  good dribbles 1 bad in 19 minutes for me.

Slick dribble: cut inside with RF, stop ball with sole RF, defender went sailing by.
  Manny, Leo, Julian, Mateo, Greg, Dimitri, me (7).
- 1 Assist = blocked shot, ball to team-mate,
we won 10-4, 3-0 me in, 7-4 me out. Played defensive LW defense same style should have dribbled but felt tired.

After game, Run pattern: Jog and FT to FT sprint both sides; 75% JOG, 90% SPRINT. Start: 908:30 - 949:16, 36 laps OSY Bball court. 41:46 = 36L.
  on both long sides FT to FT + 2 yds was run all else jogged. There was no soles/calves pain from this, and not winded. Effort was fast runs, slow jog, 75% max effort during jogs, 90% max during sprints. Ft - FT + 6' sprinted on both long sides.

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1/26 Dtop notes, p 27:

G1 Wheatonites 6 N. Africans 8
G2 Us 10  Watertown 4 (we scored 3 quickly in last few minutes)

BC grad Manny.
  
2 bad passes, 1 enemy called for ball
  long passes, dribble & shoot, blocked shots

Manny from Colombia Demetri me and 5 Spanish types

10 mins 1st half. 15 mins 2nd. Pain in calves not there today, moderate pain in soles of feet ( less than usual)

  BC grad Manny complains about lack of hustle, blames me for everything, has double standard, thinks I dont position myself properly on defense.
  G2: 10-4 we won.
Last Tuesday, was the same way.
heel pass accurate 25'
                  55' one T chip accurate
                  55' one T off bouncer, accurate.
  Dribble: feint left, cut right, move up, pass R, pass in = shot
  Dribble, cut right, Then passed to enemy he called for ball.

  2-0 them me on L wing, me out (13 min) their favor. 10-2 us w/ me on defense (22 min).

Defense blocked shots, forced shots wide-

Manny's erroneous defensive philosophy (I think later I came to conclude he was right)

Some normalish roller passes