Personal Music Updates

Updated Friday 11/1/13

This blog-entry will be updated in the future whenever there is a significant musical event featuring me.

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11/01/2013 Friday

Again using the 10/22 recording at the HomePort' studio in Woburn as a base. This time, edited it down to contain just the drumming segments (me drumming) which were not simple warmup segments. No vocals added. Total 8 minutes. This was first time on a drum-set for me, in more than 20 years:

November 1 Edit of Oct 22 Recording Me on Drums

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6:40 AM 10/31/2013

Produced 7 min mp3 of self on drums as previously linked to, but this time with addition of self on vocals added to original drums track and overall length cut to 7 minutes. This particular attempt was impaired because: I had been awake 14 hours when I started the 'singing'; I had had to, before the vocals attempt, spend the evening doing mentally tiring things for several hours like: driving; listening to all the post-Red-Sox victory TV-chat that went on uninterrupted by ads until about 2 AM (boring, but revealed a side of the Red Sox you never see); trying to figure out how to do simple things with the 'Audacity' Audio Editing software, which the documentation of course rendered much too difficult to figure out; enduring a loss of capability in 'Audacity' that was restored by simple PC restart (were I not a savvy pro the loss of capacity would have driven my nuts).

October 31st Morning Vocals + Earlier Drums, Edited

Drum Set Technique

Note: In this post I refer to the cymbal commonly known as hihat or 'hi hat' cymbal, as 'trap cymbal'. 'Trap cymbal' was my name for them as a boy, and so I still think of them that way.

The couple of chances I've had to practice on the drum set at the Homeport studio in Woburn, has resulted in me mentally breaking down the art of drumming on the drumset.

The foot is used to control the trap cymbal, and the foot is natural used to keep time to music. The trap cymbal which is  changed by the trap-cymbal foot pedal, opens up changes in cymbal-noise without having to move the drumstick to a new cymbal. Cymbal-noise is important because its reverberation is the bridge to the melodies of voice and instruments. Once the bass drum and trap-cymbal, via footpedals, and the drumstick on the trap-cymbal are established, the snare-drum aspect comes naturally and properly as exclamation-mark like, as opposed to metronomic.

My teaching when I was a boy emphasized bass-drum and snar-drum but at that time I had a drum-pad to practice the snare-drum on but no way of practicing the trap-cymbal.

I sat down and applied some of the analytical skills that have been strengthened within me due to Use of internet and PC, and thoughtful serious attention to the mental aspect of sports, has strengthened some of my abilities and skills. I applied some of such to the drumset drumming sphere of interest and came up with the following table, which contains my idea as of now re what the basic drumming patterns are:

Drum Set Patterns

Emailed college soccer teams performance history

updated 11/19/2013  

I have an email that I call the Blue email, that describes a vision I had of an angelic Christian cop whose face I could not see and who had eyes 'as a flame of fire'. I have another email I call the Red email, that contains what I call 'Telekinetic Poetic Prayers' that I wrote.

September 11 2013, I sent the 'Red' email to the Brandeis soccer team, following cc-protocol so as not to be guilty of 'spamming'. September 23 I sent the 'Blue' to the Bentley soccer team.

Feeling goaded to include teams outside of the Boston area, October 1-2, I sent the Blue to Allegheny, Mt St Vincent (NY), Swarthmore, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, Denison, and the Staten Island college soccer teams (6 teams).

October 1-2, I sent the Red to these American outside of Boston college soccer teams: Lindenwood, Rowan, Bradley, Southern Poly (GA), and Cornell (5 teams).

October 3-4, I sent the 'Blue' to local college soccer teams: Roxybury CC, Emmanuel, Tufts, U Mass-Boston, Harvard, Emerson, Lasell, & Boston College (7 teams whose performance was recorded relative to predicted).

October 3-4, I sent the 'Red' to local college soccer teams: Curry, Northeastern, Boston University, MIT, Fisher (4 teams whose performance was recorded relative to predicted).

The following decisions were made using a random number generator: Which outside-of Boston teams would be emailed; which outside of Boston teams would get the Red email; which outside of Boston teams would get the Blue email; which Boston area teams would get the Red email; which Boston area teams would get the Blue email. The random number generator produced very streaky results. With both the locals and the Americans, at at first about a half-dozen teams in a row were assigned the Blue email, then most of the remainder were assigned the Red email, based on the numbers generated.

I used the Massey CSOC soccer predictions, to determine for each game played by the emailed teams after they were emailed, how in each game they did compared to how the Massey soccer predictions predicted they would do. For example, if a team was predicted by Massey to lose in a game 3-2, and the team won 4-2, I recorded the team's performance for the game as at +3, because they were predicted to lose by one but won by two.

Looking back at the history:

Phase 1 ('Emancipation Proclamation Phase'):
September 25 - October 2
Huge Success on Boston Front

From Sept 14 to October 1, Red Brandeis did 11 goals better than expected in 5 games, an excellent +2.2/game rate. Brandeis did 4 goals better than predicted against Clark, 3 goals better than predicted against Lasell, and 4 goals better than predicted against Wentworth during this phase, truly an impressive streak.

From Sept 25 to October 2, Blue Bentley did 5 goals better than expected over 3 games, an excellent +1.7/game rate. Bentley did 3 goals better than expected against Le Moyne of Syracuse NY.

Hence, prior to the expansion which involved emailing the rest of the local Boston-area teams and the outside-of-Boston 'American' teams, Brandeis and Bentley were up 16 goals compared to what Massey had predicted for the 8 games they played in (+1.50/game).

Phase 2 ('Sputnik Phase')
October 1-6
Stalemate on Boston Front, Victory on American Front

October 1-4, I emailed the remaining Boston area teams and the American teams. I looked at how these teams performed in the first game after they got the emails, October 1-5.

During their first games (the first game played for each of the 11 American teams), the Americans did 10 goals better than expected over 11 games (+0.91/game) -- #106 ranked Bradley, a Red, did 2 goals better than expected vs #5 ranked Northwestern, upsetting Northwestern 3-2.

In their first games after being emailed (10/2 - 10/6 Sunday), the twelve newly added local teams did zero goals better than expected over 12 games (+0/game)-- Lesley, a red team, did 3 goals better than expected v Wentworth. During this time Brandeis and Bentley were up by 6  goals compared to what had been predicted for 3 games (+2.0/game)-- Red Brandeis did 3 goals better than expected against Case Western and Blue Bentley did 2  goals better than expected against Assumption.

At the end of this phase during which the twelve added locals and Americans played their first games, after games of Sunday October 6 and before October 7, the locals (including Brandeis and Bentley) were up 21 goals over 22 games compared to the scores that had been predicted by Massey (+0.95/game), and the Americans were up 3 goals over 17 games (+0.18/game) (looking only at games played after emails sent).

Phase 3 ('Chicago Fire Phase') 
October 7-11
Defeat on Boston Front; Total Collapse on American Front

The next phase was Monday October 7 to Friday October 11. During the games of these days, the local Boston area teams were DOWN 2 goals over 11 games (-0.18/game), they did 2 goals worse than the Massey predictions for what the scores of the games would be; Blue Bentley, did 5 goals worse than expected against St. Michael's.

The American outside-of-Boston-area teams did 6 goals worse than expected over 7 games (-0.86/game) -- Red Bradley slumped after upsetting #5 ranked Northwestern, and did 3 goals worse than expected v Western Illinois; Blue California Polytechnic at San Luis Obispo, did 2 goals worse than expected v Fullerton, and 2 goals worse than expected v Irvine.

After the games of October 11 and immediately prior to the games of October 12: the local Boston area teams that had been emailed, red and blue together, looking at all the games played after they were emailed, had done 19  goals better than the Massey score predictions over 33  games (+0.58/game); and the outside of Boston area American teams, looking at all the games played after they were emailed, had done 3 goals worse than the Massey score predictions over 24 games (-0.13/game);

Phase 4 ('Christopher Columbus Phase') 
October 12
Continued Defeat on Boston Front; Resurgence on the American Front 

The next phase was the games of Saturday October 12; in division 3 alone, 166 games were played on this day.
On October 12, the locals did 6  goals worse than predicted by the Massey score predictions over 13 games (-0.46/game) -- Emmanuel, a Blue team, did 2 goals worse than predicted v St. Joe's of Maine, and Emerson, another Blue team, did 2 goals worse than expected v Coast Guard. The Americans outside of the Boston area did 4 goals better than expected over 7 games (+1.75/game)-- Rowan, a Red team, did 3 goals better than expected v New Jersey City, & Swarthmore, a Blue team, did 2 goals better than expected v McDaniel College.

Looking at the season in total for the teams that were emailed, looking at only the games played after they had been emailed, the tally after October 12 before the Oct 13 games was: Local teams up by 13 goals compared to Massey score predictions over 46 games (+0.28/game); outside of Boston area American teams up by 1 goals compared to Massey score predictions over 31 games (+0.03/game).

Phase 5 ('Saratoga Phase')
October 13-18
Victory on Both Boston & Local Fronts

The next phase was October 13-18. During this time, the locals were up by 6 goals compared to Massey predictions, over 12 games (+0.50/game)-- #123 ranked Red team Northeastern, did 3 goals better than expected v #47 ranked Delaware, upsetting Delaware 2-0; and, Fisher did 3 goals better than expected vs Randolph-Macon. During this phase, The Americans did 4 goals better than predicted by the Massey score-predictions, over 10 games (+0.40/game)-- Red team Lindenwood did 2 goals better than expected v NE Oklahoma, and Blue Team Staten Island did 2 goals better than expected v Bard.

State of Affairs, October 18, 2013
October 18
Solid Dominance on Both Local and American Fronts 

After the games of October 18, and before the many games of Saturday October 19th, the score in total for the season for the emailed teams, looking at the games they played after being emailed, was: Local Boston area teams, 19  goals better than expected over 58 (+0.33/game)  games; and, outside of Boston area teams, 5 goals better than expected over 41 games (+0.12/game). Putting the locals and the outside of Boston together, in total they were up 24 goals over 99  games, (+0.24 goals per game). I expect that soon I shall break the results down in terms of performance by 'Red' teams compared to performance by 'Blue' teams.

Phase 6 ('Haile Selassie Phase')
Saturday October 19
Defeat on Boston Front, Disaster on American Front 

Sirs, anguished by events of October 19th, I have respectfully resolved to henceforth include citation of units that performed honorably in losing efforts, as I humbly suspect that my failure to discharge said duty in fulfillment of my responsibilities as your most obedient servant, contributed to the devastating failures of October 19th.

The next phase was October 19, Saturday. The Boston-area locals were down by 1 goals compared to Massey predictions, over 10 games (-0.10/game).

Red Team Curry did 2 goals worse than predicted by Massey against Endicott;  Red team Boston University did 2 goals worse than expected against Lafayette; Blue Team U-Mass Boston did 2 goals worse than expected against Keene State; Blue team Tufts did 1 goal worse than predicted against Williams.

The day on the local front would have been disastrous were it not for: Red team Fisher doing 2 goals better than expected v ME Presque Isle, upsetting ME Presque Isle & winning 5-4; Red Team Lesley beating the spread by 1 goal v Elms College; Red team MIT doing a goal better than expected v Clark; and, #259-ranked Blue team Harvard doing 2 goals better than expected upsetting #132 ranked Brown 2-1.

On the American front, the day was a disaster as our Red & Blue teams did 8  goals worse than predicted by the Massey score-predictions, over 10  games (-0.80/game)-- Blue team Allegeheny did 5 goals worse than expected against Ohio Wesleyan (over 4 games Allegheny has now done 9 goals worse than expected); Red Team Rowan did 4 goals worse than expected against Rutgers-Newark; and, Red team Southern Poly of Marietta GA, did 3 goals worse than expected v Brewton-Parker (I respectfully submit that the Massey prediction that Southern Poly would win 5-1 is questionable).

They day would have been something worse than disastrous were it not for: Blue team Staten Island doing 2 goals better than expected v Brooklyn College; Blue team Swarthmore doing 2 goals better than expected v Dickinson; and, Red team Bradley doing 1 goal better than expected v Loyola-Chicago.

After the disastrous events of Saturday October 19, and before the games of Sunday October 20th, the score in total for the season for the emailed teams, looking at the games they played after being emailed, was: Local Boston area teams, 18  goals better than expected over 68  games (+0.26/game); and, outside of Boston area teams, 3 goals worse than expected over 51 games (-0.06/game). Putting the locals and the outside of Boston together, in total they were up 15 goals over 119 games, 0.13 goals per game.

Phase 7 ('Agincourt Phase')
October 20-25
Victory on Boston and American Fronts 

The next phase was Sunday October 20 to Friday October 25. Our locals were up by 9  goals compared to Massey predictions, over 11  games (+0.82/game).

Our Red team MIT was a phenomenal 6 goals better than expected v Framingham State; and, our Red team Fisher did 4 goals better than expected by the Massey predictions . Three of our Blue Teams all did much better than expected: U Mass-Boston did 4 goals better than expected against Mass Maritime; Lasell did 3 goals better than expected against Rivier, and Emmanuel did 3 goals better than expected vs Suffolk (Suffolk had told me that there was no access to the email addresses of its students such as its soccer players). These victories all occurred on October 23, the day after my birthday. May I very respectfully suggest, that October 23rd be renamed David Virgil's Boston Soccer Day.

The big successes of the local teams outweighed defeats on the local front during this phase. Amongst our Red teams: Brandeis did 3 goals worse than expected v Emory, Northeastern did 2 goals worse than expected v Hartford. Our Blue team Bentley did 2 goals worse than expected v S New Hampshire.

On the American front, our Red & Blue teams did 6 goals better than predicted by the Massey score-predictions, over the course of 12 games (+0.50/game). Amongst our red teams: our Bradley did 2 goals better than expected v U IL at Edwardsville, our Rowan did 2 goals better than expected  vs Keane,  our Lindenwood did 1 goal better than expected v Truman State, and our Southern Polytechnic of Marietta GA did 1 goal better than expected v Bethel of Tennessee, tying Bethel 1-1 in double-overtime. Amongst our Blue teams: our Denison did 3 goals better than expected v Oberlin, our Swarthmore did 1 goal better than expected v Washington.

The American successes outweighed the American losses. Amongst Blue teams: our Allegheny did 1 goal worse than expected v Wooster, our Cal Poly SLO did 1 goal worse than expected v U Cal Davis. None of our American Red teams did worse than expected.

After the propitious events of October 20-25, and before the 19 games our Blue and Red teams face on  Saturday October 26th, the score in total for the season for the emailed Blue & Red teams, looking at the games they played after being emailed, has been: Local Boston area teams, 27 goals better than expected over 79  games (+0.34/game); and, outside of Boston area American teams, 3 goals better than expected over 63 games (+0.05/game). Putting our Blue or Red locals and the outside of Boston American Blue or Red teams together, in total they were up 30 goals over 142 games, (+0.21 goals per game). 

Therefore at this point, we face the Armageddon of 16 games our Blue and Red teams will be involved in on Saturday October 26th, with the confidence of knowing we are over the season 30 goals ahead.

Phase 8 ('Armageddon Phase')
Saturday October 26
Victory on Boston Front Outweighs Defeat on American Front

Sir:

In compliance with the request of the Field Marshal commanding, I have the honor to submit a somewhat detailed report of the operations of our Blue & Red Teams in the games of October 26th Saturday.:

The next phase was Saturday October 26th, with our Red and Blue teams involved in 16 games. I had looked forward to the events of this day with apprehension, knowing that the previous Saturday, over the course of 20 games our teams had done 9 goals worse than expected. However as it turned out, in total our teams in total today did 1 goal better than expected, so as a result after the games of October 26, we now have done 31 goals better than expected with only 47 games remaining for our teams during the regular season. The disaster of the previous Saturday did indeed rematerialize to correspond with my nightmares on the American front; but such was outweighed by our victories on the local front. If we had done 11 goals worse than expected as we did on Saturday October 19 a week ago, we would have faced the remaining 47 games with a cushion of only 19 goals.

On the American front, our blue and red teams in total did 4 goals worse than expected over 8  games (-0.50/game). Looking at our red teams, Lindenwood did 2 goals better than expected v Upper Iowa, however Southern Poly of Marietta GA did 2 goals worse than expected v Martin Methodist, Cornell did 1 goal worse than expected v Brown,  & Bradley did 1 goal worse than expected v Drake (in this context I find it worth noting, that Lindenwood was the only team wherein the cc'd players were cc'd at  their approximate high school email addresses, because Lindenwood did not have student email addresses available).  Amongst the Blue teams, Denison did 2 goals worse than expected v Wabash.

On the local front, our blue and red teams in total did 5 goals better than expected over 11 games (+0.45/game). Looking at our red teams, BU did 2 goals better than expected v Loyola of MD, and MIT did 1 goal better than expected v Springfield, beating Springfield 4-3 in overtime.

Amongst the Blue teams: #316 ranked Harvard did 2 goals better than expected v #138 Princeton, upsetting Princeton 2-1 (thereby avenging Harvard having been replaced by Princeton as the #1 ranked US university); Lasell did 2 goals better than expected v St. Joseph's of Maine; and, Tufts did 1 goal better than expected v Hamilton. This outweighed Blue team Emerson doing 3 goals worse than expected v Clark.

Harvard, Lasell, and BU all did 2 goals better than expected, playing at home in the Boston area, with the weather cloudy and in the low 50s, but feeling like the mid 40s because of the 20 mph winds.

Subsequent to the 19 games of Armageddon October 26, the score in total for the season for the emailed Blue & Red teams, looking at the games they played after being emailed, has been: Local Boston area teams, 32 goals better than expected over 90 games (+0.36/game); and, outside-of-Boston-area American teams, 1 goal worse than expected over 71 games (+0.01/game). Putting our Blue or Red locals and the outside of Boston American Blue or Red teams together, in total they are now up 31 goals  over 161 games, (+0.19 goals per game), with 47 regular-season games remaining for them to face.

 Hence the emails sent to the teams, I now approximately account to constitute the equivalent of one extra player on the field for the emailed team for 48 minutes of the 90 minute game.

[Assuming off-hand that an average game is 2-2 in score, each of the 11 players on the field for a team is responsible for 2/11 + 2/11 = 0.36 goals for and against. Since 0.19, our goals up per game compared to Massey predictions average for the season divided by 0.36 = 0.53, (and since 0.53 x 90 = 47) one whole extra player on the field for 47 minutes of the 90 minute game is the estimate].

I have the honor to be, your obedient servant,:

David Virgil Hobbs,:
General, Commanding Red & Blue Teams, Local & American.:

Phase 9 ('Czolgosz Phase')
Sunday October 27 - Friday November 1
Stalemate on Local Boston Area and American Fronts

In obedience to instructions, I have the honor to submit to the Honorable Commander, the following report of the Local and American Blue and Red teams from Sunday, October 27 to Friday November 1.

The next phase was Sunday October 27th, to Friday November 1,
with our Red and Blue teams involved in 18 games (not counting games in which one of our own teams clashed with another one of our own teams, these games are not counted in our scores). The Americans did 1 goal better than expected according to the Massey predictions over the course of 8 games (+0.12/game), and the locals of the Boston Massachusetts area did 0 goals better than expected over the course of 10 games (+0.00/game). Hence overall, we were 1 goal better than expected over 18 games (+0.06/game).

On the local Boston-area front: Red team Boston University did 3 goals better than expected vs Colgate, beating Colgate 3-0; Red Team Curry did 1 goal better than expected vs Nichols, tying Nichols 0-0; Blue team Bentley did 1 goal better than expected beating St Anselm 3-1;   Blue Team Lasell did 1 goal better than expected vs Babson beating Babson 2-1 (Babson was one of the institutions that humiliated your servant by denying him access to student email addresses). It is with respect to this defeat of Babson (the 'Czolgolsz') by Lasell (executioner of 'Czolgolsz'), that this subsection is most humbly entitled.

These successes were balanced out evenly by the following local Boston area failures: Blue team Boston College did 2 goals worse than expected vs Brown losing 2-1; Blue team Bentley did 2 goals worse than expected losing to New Haven 2-1;  Red Team Brandeis did 1 goal worse than expected vs Mt Ida winning 1-0, and then did 1 goal worse than expected vs Washington of MO tying the game 0-0.

On the outside-of-Boston-area American front:  Red team Lindenwood doing a goal better than expected vs Missouri Valley, and then did 3 goals better than expected vs Southwest Baptist. These successes by Lindenwood outweighed the American failures: Blue Team Allegheny did a goal worse than expected vs Oberlin, Blue team Denison did a goal worse than expected vs Ohio Wesleyan, and Red team Rowan did a goal worse than expected vs College of NJ.

With all the teams, the players on the team were cc'd. The only team regarding which the method was to send the emails to the approx high school email addresses of the players, was Lindenwood, because Lindenwood's student email addresses were not accessible (this was time consuming, could not be done also with other teams). Since Lindenwood was emailed, Lindenwood has played in 9 games, done better than predicted in 8 games and as predicted in one game. In total Lindenwood has done 12 goals better than predicted over 9 games, (+1.33/game). 

I respectfully submit the hypothesis: the American teams are spread out, not in contact with other teams that were also e-mailed like them; the distances from town to town and home to college in America are large; cc-ing the players at their approximate high school email addresses, might psychologically counteract alienation caused by the American environment; possibly, players perform better when they are cc'd at their approx high school email addresses as opposed to at their exact college email addresses. 

Subsequent to the 18 games of October 27-November 1, the score in total for the season for the emailed Blue & Red teams, looking at the games they played after being emailed, has been: Local Boston area teams, 32 goals better than expected over 100 games (+0.32/game); and, outside-of-Boston-area American teams, 0 goals better than expected over 79 games (+0.00/game). Putting our Blue or Red locals and the outside of Boston American Blue or Red teams together, in total they are now up 32 goals  over 179 games, (+0.18 goals per game), with 29 regular-season games remaining for them to face.

The teams seem to be playing as if they know they will come out ahead compared to what has been predicted, if they just hold on and do not lose ground. Perhaps it would be advisable to send one of our many very respectable generals to lecture them regarding the following point: if they do AS predicted in the remaining games, the number of goals by which they did better than predicted PER GAME will decline; such decline continued could bring their record down to the point where the number of goals by which they have done better than predicted as measured per game, becomes STATISTICALLY INSIGNIFICANT.


Phase 10 ('Revenge of Czolgosz Phase')
Saturday November 2
Pyrrhic(?) Defeat on Local and American Fronts

Colonel:

In obedience to instructions, I have the honor to submit to the Honorable Commander, the following report of the Local and American Blue and Red teams performance Saturday November 2. In obedience to orders from the commander, our Blue and Red teams marched to their respective positions on November 2, where they were involved in thirteen games:

The Americans (teams outside the Boston area) did 4 goals worse than expected according to the Massey predictions over the course of 7 games (-0.57/game), and the locals of the Boston Massachusetts area did 3 goals worse than expected over the course of 6 games (-0.50/game). Hence overall, we were 7 goals worse than expected over 13 games (-0.54/game).

On the local Boston-area front: our Blue team Emerson did 4 goals worse than expected vs Babson, thus sealing our fate for the day. In the (immediately preceding) Phase 9 report (see above), I had noted that our blue team Lasell had done 2 goals better than expected vs Babson, and that this same Babson had humiliated your servant by denying him access to student email addresses. The irony is that today the same Babson defeated our Blue team Emerson dramatically, 6-0. If the very respectable commander decrees, I am willing to submit to my just punishment of howsoever many lashes, if my remarks are adjudged to have caused this Emerson disaster.

The Emerson setback was compounded by failures of our Red teams on the Boston front: Boston University did 2 goals worse than expected vs iconic American University, losing 3-1 in Washington DC; and, and Northeastern did 2 goals worse than expected vs College of Charleton.

Our successes, achieved by academically top-ranked universities (I might most respectfully add, the only universities your most obedient servant attended after high school) on the local front were not enough to balance our setbacks: our Red team MIT did 3 goals better than expected vs Worcester Polytechnic Institute, winning 4-0; and, our Blue team Harvard did 2 goals better than expected vs Dartmouth, winning 2-1.

On the outside-of-Boston-area American front: Blue team Allegheny as usual did at least worse than expected, doing 2 goals worse than expected v Wittenberg; Blue team Cornell did 1 goal worse than expected losing to Princeton; and our red team Bradley did 2 goals worse than expected vs Missouri State.

Our success on the American front: our #61-ranked Blue team California Polytechnic did 1 goal better than expected vs Cal-State-Sacramento. 

Our #344-ranked Blue American team Denison did not do any better than expected according to the Massey predictions, vs #218-ranked Depauw in terms of number of goals differential. However, they succeeded in achieving a tie against a team ranked 126 slots higher than them. I very respectfully submit, that the statistics not taking into account such ties achieved vs higher ranked teams, when determining how well we have done compared to the Massey predictions, might conceivably somewhat possibly be a cause of excess-of-lashes that might be administered to your most respectful and obedient servant.

Subsequent to the 13 games of November 2, the score in total for the season for the emailed Blue & Red teams, looking at the games they played after being emailed, has been: Local Boston area teams, 29 goals better than expected over 106 games (+0.27/game); and, outside-of-Boston-area American teams, 4 goals worse than expected over 86 games (-0.05/game). Putting our Boston-area local teams and the outside-of-Boston-area American teams together, in total they are now up 25 goals  over 192 games, (+0.13 goals per game), with 16 regular-season games remaining for them to face.

Most every cloud has its lash-reducing or lash-eliminating silver-lining.  In order to bring us down to having done 0 goals better than expected over the course of the season, the opponents will have to do 1.56 goals better than expected per game over the remaining 16 games. Prior to the events of today November 2, our opponents had to do only 1.10 goals better than expected during the remaining games in order to bring us down to 0 goals better than expected.

Amazing new advances in mathematical science now make it possible, to adjudge what the probability is, that our lead in terms of the 25 goals we have done better than expected, is merely a result of random fluctuation. Unfortunately today's events have edged us closer to the point where the formulas will conclude that there exists a high probability that whatever lead we have, is merely a result of random fluctuations in luck.

Although it indeed appears to be the case, that the production of these reports had coincided with a decline in the performance of our Red and Blue teams, the negative consequences of ceasing to produce these reports would in my judgement outweigh whatever performance advantage would be gained as a result of the elimination of the reports.

I have the honor to be, colonel, very respectfully, your most obedient servant,
David Virgil Hobbs,
General, Commanding Red & Blue teams.


Phase 11 ('Akbar at Panipat Phase')
Sunday November 3 - Friday Nov 8
Advance on the Local Front, Stalemate on the American Front

Colonel:

In obedience to instructions, I have the honor herewith to submit to the Honorable Commander, the following report of the Local and American Blue and Red teams performance Sunday November 3 - Friday November 8.

But first may I digress to report that the games played by our Red Team  Fisher College have now been added to this history. Previously these games were not included in the history, because Fisher was ranked below #1000 and not included in the Massey reports which showed predicted scores for games. But as a result of having performed better than expected, Fisher College, like Captain Nemo's Nautilus, rose from the depths of the sea to the surface where it is reported on. In total over the course of six games, Fisher did 8 goals better than expected (+1.33/game).  

In obedience to orders from the commander, our Blue and Red teams marched to their respective positions, where they were involved in eight games:

The Americans (teams outside the Boston area) did 0 goals worse than expected according to the Massey predictions over the course of 3 games (+0.00/game), and the locals of the Boston Massachusetts area did 3 goals better than expected over the course of 5 games (+0.50/game). Hence overall, we were 3 goals better than expected over 8 games (+0.38/game).

On the local Boston-area front: our Red team Brandeis did 2 goals better than expected vs the University of Chicago; our Blue team Harvard did 2 goals better than expected vs Holy Cross; and our Blue team Boston College did 1 goal better than expected vs Virginia Tech. These successes outweighed our failure: Red team Northeastern did 2 goals worse than expected vs UNC-Wilmington.

On the outside-of-Boston-area American front: our Red Team Lindenwood University doing a goal better than expected vs Rogers State, was balanced out by our Blue team Cal Poly at San Luis Obispo, doing a goal worse than expected vs U California at Davis.   

Subsequent to the eight games of November 3-8, the score in total for the season for the emailed Blue & Red teams, looking at the games they played after being emailed, has been: Local Boston area teams, 32 goals better than expected over 111 games (+0.29/game); and, outside-of-Boston-area American teams, 4 goals worse than expected over 89 games (-0.04/game). Putting our Boston-area local teams and the outside-of-Boston-area American teams together, in total they are now up 28 goals  over 200 games, (+0.14 goals per game), with 8 regular-season games remaining for them to face.

Some of our teams have entered into previously unscheduled playoff games, the reporting of which I procrastinate for now, due to the delays in receiving data regarding the predicted scores of the games.

I have the honor to be, colonel, very respectfully, your most obedient servant,
David Virgil Hobbs,
General, Commanding Red & Blue teams.

Phase 12 ('Two Battalions Continental Marines Phase')
Saturday Nov 9
Advance on the Local Front, Stalemate on the American Front

Colonel:

In obedience to instructions, and in compliance with the request of the colonel, I have the honor herewith to submit to the Honorable Commander, the following dispatch describing the high-caliber gallantry of the performance of the recruits of the  Local and American Blue and Red teams, that ultimo could be recorded for the juggernautical campaign of Saturday November 9 instant.

In obedience to orders from the honorable commander, upon the consumption of breakfasts superior to mere salt-pork, our Blue and Red teams marched to their respective positions, where they were involved in six games:

The Americans (teams outside the Boston area) did 2 goals better than expected according to the Massey predictions over the course of 3 games (+0.67/game), and the locals of the Boston Massachusetts area did 2 goals better than expected over the course of 3 games (+0.67/game). Hence overall, we were 4 goals better than expected over 6 games (+0.67/game).

On the outside-of-Boston-area American front:  Blue team Cornell did 2 goals better than expected vs Dartmouth, beating Dartmouth 1-0; and, our Red Team Bradley, by beating Evansville 2-1, did 1 goal better than expected according to the Massey predictions.

On the local Boston-area front: our #234-ranked Blue Team Harvard continuing its impressive string of doing better than expected, did 3 goals better than expected vs #119-ranked Columbia, beating Columbia 2-0. This more than balanced out our Red Team Boston University doing a goal worse than expected in losing to Bucknell 1-0.

Subsequent to the six games of November 9, the score in total for the season for the emailed Blue & Red teams, looking at the games they played after being emailed, has been: Local Boston area teams, 34 goals better than expected over 114 games (+0.30/game); and, outside-of-Boston-area American teams, 2 goals worse than expected over 92 games (-0.02/game). Putting our Boston-area local teams and the outside-of-Boston-area American teams together, in total they are now up 32 goals  over 206 games, (+0.16 goals per game), with 2 regular-season games remaining for them to face.

The events of November 9th, constituted a valiant attempt by the Americans to climb out of the ignominy of having done worse than expected by the Massey ratings; November 9th, they reduced their deficit from 4 goals worse than expected to 1 goal worse than expected. If Cornell can do 2 goal better than expected Nov `16th vs Columbia, The Americans will have done overall as predicted by the Massey ratings, not worse.

Some of our teams have entered into previously unscheduled playoff games, the reporting of which I procrastinate for now, due to the delays in receiving data regarding the predicted scores of the games.

I have the honor to be, colonel, very respectfully, your most obedient servant,
David Virgil Hobbs,
General, Commanding Red & Blue teams.



Phase 13 (Franco Pizarro @ Cajamarca Phase)
Saturday Nov 16
Amazing Last-second Cornell Victory Rescues Americans from Ignominy

Colonel:

In obedience to instructions, and in compliance with the request of the colonel, I have the honor herewith to submit to the Honorable Commander, the following dispatch describing the concluding two games of the regular season for our American and Local Red and Blue teams.

In obedience to orders from the honorable commander, two of our Blue teams, local Harvard and American Cornell, after a breakfast devoid of embalmed beef, marched to their respective positions, where they were involved in their last two regular season games.

Our locals concluded their regular season with Blue team Harvard doing 1 goal worse than expected, being whipped by Penn 2-0 (overall, Harvard has done much better than expected this season). Thus our Local Red and Blue team concluded their regular season doing  34 goals better than expected by the Massey predictions, over the course of 114 games (+0.30/game). I for now opine that overall on average for the locals, being emailed with either the red or blue emails, gave them an advantage equivalent to having an extra man on the field for 75 of the 90 minutes of the game.

Our American teams concluded their regular season in bully stunning fashion. Going in to the final game our American teams had done 2 goals worse than expected over the course of 92 regular season games. Our Blue American team Cornell vs Columbia was the last game of the regular season for our American Red and Blue teams. We needed Cornell to do 2 goals better than expected if we were to escape the fate of ending as  ignominious Sunday-soldier scalawag yahoos, and end the season with our American teams having done zero goals worse than expected and also zero goals better than expected over the course of the regular season. We needed Cornell to do 3 goals better than expected vs Columbia if we were to end the season with out American teams having done at least 1 goal better than expected according to the Massey predictions.

And as if following a movie script, great Scott!, Cornell came through by doing a jaw-dropping 3 goals better than expected vs Columbia; so that the end total for the Americans over the regular season is 1 goal better than expected over 93 games (+0.01/game).

A thousand spectators watched our gritty Blue team Cornell defeat Columbia at the Charles Berman Field in Ithaca NY, in a night-game that started at 700 PM under the lights, with the temp at 50 degrees and the wind blowing at a steady 10 mph.

With 68 minutes  remaining in our regular season for all our teams, Cornell's Vinent Brunetti scored to bring the Americans to being just one goal worse than expected for the season. With 44 minutes remaining Cornell's Ben Feldman scored to make the Americans (Cornell has been one of the eleven teams) even compared to what has been predicted for them over 93 games. And then finally, with just 22 minutes left in our regular season for all our American teams, Cornell's Sebastian Scales scored, to render the final tally for the  Americans as having done 1 goal better than expected over 93 games.  

Hence we conclude the regular season with our Red and Blue teams local and American, in total, having done 32 goals better than expected over 206 games (+0.16/game); meaning that symbolically I for now calculate, for the Local and the American Red and Blue teams combined, the average impact of being emailed on a team, as having been equal to having an extra player on the field for 40 minutes.

My Ultrafast Sprint times indoors on basketball court

CREATED 10/17; MOST RECENT UPDATE 11/30


11/30 Saturday, 650-750 PM, Waltham Y.

Ran: 3 laps in gear 1 (slowest speed), 4 laps in gear 2, 3 laps in gear 3, 3 laps in gear 4; then did five 10-meter sprints. My Times for the 10-meter sprints (stopwatch started simult w/ start of running) in seconds: timing failure; 1.85, 1.95, 1.91, 1.84 avg 1.89 (wall 20' behind finish line, 2.5 - 3 minute rests between sprints). . This compares with the 2.32, 2.44, 2.38, 2.23, avg 2.34 (wall 20' behind finish line, 2.5 - 3 minute rests between sprints) achieved on November 5. Hence the average time today was an amazing 0.45 seconds faster than the average time 25 days ago.

For 25 days (seemed like less) prior to this evening, I had avoided exercise for various reasons: fall turned to winter suddenly bringing on very cold weather; I had to endure the constant shouting of a person who I find usually tires me out to the point where for several days I feel too tired to exercise; I put time and energy into learning how to operate a complex digital camera; my level of self-discipline in terms of healthy habits  declined.

When I finally managed to drag myself off to the gym for the first time in twenty-five days this evening, I felt  I would run about ten percent slower than my best ever or my average. But surprise! I was running according to my timing, 0.45 seconds faster over 10 meters than I was twenty five days ago, running the 10 meter at what would be World Record speed regardless of age-group.

I got to thinking, maybe such is evidence that  my junior high-school coach McFarland was right when he said exercise first breaks the muscles down before it builds them up. I thought of  the surprising high number of rest days that are recommended between weightlifting sessions for a particular body-part and between HIIT training sessions. I was wondering, how many athletes never improve due to lack of rest-days, or fail to realize that they have improved because they trust how they feel on a given day as opposed to a stopwatch.

Both this evening and Nov 5 I made sure to eliminate advantage of back and forth rocking movements immediately prior to start.

Experienced pain in the soles of the feet after running 3rd lap in gear 2.

On every sprint I innovated what I call innovation N302013. Previously I had not been doing this. I expect this innovation to cut at least a tenth of a second off my times. Generally did not feel at my fastest today.

Prior to running consumed: coffee w milk organic cinnamon sticks, & high-class Demerara sugar, 3 Whole Foods brand 'Triple Ginseng' capsules, nothing else.

____________________

11/05 Tuesday, 857-950 PM.

Ran: 4 laps in gear 1 (slowest speed), 3 laps in gear 2, 2 laps in gear 3, 2 laps in gear 4; then did four 10-meter sprints. My Times for the 10-meter sprints (stopwatch started simult w/ start of running) in seconds: 2.32, 2.44, 2.38, 2.23 (wall 20' behind finish line) (2.5 - 3 minute rests between sprints). Made sure to eliminate advantage of back and forth rocking movements immediately prior to start.

Experienced pain in the soles of the feet after running 3rd lap in gear 2, which resulted in a 5 minute break after running the lap. This reinforces the suspicion I've had, which is: the body mechanics are different for different speeds and the problem has been that I have not been getting enough practice running at intermediate speeds.

On the fourth sprint timed at 2.23 seconds, I implemented what is for me an innovation: on the start, with my right shoulder and right foot ahead of my left shoulder and left foot with my body leaning forwards, the first thing I did was throw my right hand out and up. Previously I had not been doing this. I expect this innovation to cut at least a tenth of a second off my times. Generally did not feel at my fastest today.

I find myself surprised that simply throwing the front hand out and up at the beginning of a sprint from a standing start can make such a difference...all those years playing sports involving short sprints, without ever appreciating the important of such technique...well maybe I intuitively subconsciously realized and practiced the importance of such when playing the ball games...but during several days of timed sprints I had not appreciated and implemented it...weird that coaches would neglect to teach the technique of a standing start, when so much attention is paid to details of the 3-point start, and given that in games the starts are always standing starts. As if, since the 3-point start is faster (when implemented  with skill) and more difficult, then therefore the technique of the standing start is beneath scrutiny.  

____________________

10/31 Thursday, 900-950 PM.

Ran: 3 laps in gear 1 (slowest speed), 3 laps in gear 2, 3 laps in gear 3, 3 laps in gear 4; then did four 10-meter sprints. My Times for the 10-meter sprints (stopwatch started simult w/ start of running) in seconds: 2.50, 2.31 (wall 14' behind finish line_, 2.15, 2.24 (wall 20' behind finish line) (2 minute rests between sprints). Made sure to eliminate advantage of back and forth rocking movements immediately prior to start.

The rests between runs were down about 20-30% in terms of length, compared to last time out, this a result of me resting as long as felt natural, as opposed to pushing myself.

Avg with padded wall 14' behind finish line: 2.40 seconds. Avg with padded wall 20' behind finish line: 2.22 seconds. This leads me to now hypothesize that: a factor (fear of collision with padded wall) that we consciously believe we can eliminate from impairing our performance, can nevertheless subconsciously impair our performance; and, we can be unaware of how a factor we think is not impairing our performance, is indeed impairing our performance.

____________________

10/29

Ran: 5 laps in gear 1 (slowest speed), 4 laps in gear 2, 4 laps in gear 3, 4 laps in gear 4; then did four 10-meter sprints. My Times for the 10-meter sprints (stopwatch started simult w/ start of running) in seconds: 2.11, 2.02, 2.16, 2.28 (2 minute rests between sprints). Made sure to eliminate advantage of back and forth rocking movements immediately prior to start.

At the 1991 IAAF World Championships, the 10-meter times for the eight male finalists in the 100 meters, varied from 1.80 - 1.91. Comparing my times to theirs would involve factoring: delay caused by reaction time in response to starter's pistol (them); running on basketball court (me) v running on track (them); standing start (me) vs  running out of a starter's block from a crouch (them); running in indoor soccer shoes, flat soled (me) vs running using spikes (them); and, other differences.

____________________

10/25/13

Did: a lap in Gear 1; a lap in gear 2; a lap in gear 3; a lap in gear 4; and a 20 yard sprint in gear 5 (running not cycling, I call different running speeds gears). Repeated cycle.  Gear 5 sprint distance changed from 24 yds to 20 yds. I believe Suddenly slowing down over the course of just approx 15', after the 24 yd run, and then banging into the wall-padding with my body because I didnt have enough space to slow down, was making my legs and the joints in my legs sore so I decided to change to 20 yd sprint to have more space to slow down in after the sprint.

My 20 yd times (with me starting the stopwatch simult with start of me running): 3.17, and 3.29 seconds. The slower 3.29 second time, is  faster than 3.93, my fastest at 24 yds, run on 10/19.

I estimate (see tech note this entry) the 3.17 second 20 yd time to be equal to 3.57 seconds for 24 yds; I estimate the 3.29 second 20 yd time to project to 3.71 seconds for 24 yds, really fast BIG IMPROVEMENT OVER WEEK AGO. On 10/19, my avg speed for 24 yds was 3.95.

I now suspect that without being aware of it, on 10/19 I was slowing down slightly prior to the finish line, due to fear of having only 15' to slow down and then banging into the wall.

Also When attempting to run a lap in submax gear 4 speed in 22 seconds, I ran it in just 18.77 seconds. Which was 1.1 second faster compared to 10/17 when I ran my fastest.

----------
Tech Note:

Feeling mystified re what 24 yd time is indicated by a given 20 yd time, I investigated regarding how I would go about the extrapolation process. By combining two data sources (12th IAAF World Championships in Athletics - Berlin 2009 - Biomechanics Project – Berlin 2009 and Optimisation of performance through kinematic analysis of the different phases of the 100 metres By Krzysztof Mackala (2007), I came up with an algorithm that should work for persons who are around my speed and improving (my job would have been alot easier if when providing instantaneous velocity plotted against time in seconds, they would have included split time data for various distances for the graphed individual/group).
-----
The sketched out computer program I came up with to extrapolate 24 yd speed from 20 yd speed:

A = a typical 10.8 secs per 100 meters sprinter
M = me

10(estimated 24 yd time for A / 24 yd time for M) = mecruised

/*
10 meters per second is the top speed of the 100 meters in 10.8 seconds type of runner, 20 yds from the start they have reached this top speed. mecruised = estimated distance I can run in 1 second at top speed in meters
*/

Adjust = 3.66/mecruised
/* 3.66 meters = 4 yds */

20 yd time for me + Adjust = 24 yd time for me raw estimate

24 yd time for me raw estimate / 3.95 = mult

/*
3.95 is my last recorded 24 yd time avg for a day
*/

20 yd time for me + (mult x Adjust) = final estimate of 24 yd time
-----
----------

____________________

10/19/13

Did about 3 laps each at 5 different speeds from slow to max speed on the bball ct. Switched to lighter indoor soccer shoes.

Highlights: Attempting to run one lap in a submax speed of 22 seconds, the times were: 19.9, 20.6, 20.2; and this was with me trying to run a shade slower than my max speed. On 10/17, running as fast as possible I ran the distance in 19.9 seconds on the first attempt.

Running approx 24 yards straight no turns: 3.93, 3.92, 3.97. Compared to 10/17, felt stronger and positionally lower early in run.

____________________

10/17/13

This evening, for the purposes of refining my individual HIIT workout, I timed myself in some sprints (times in seconds) on the indoor basketball court.

Running the rectangular perimeter of the basketball court, including four 90 degree turns (approx 77 yds): 19.9, 19.02.

Running approx 24 yards straight no turns: 4.04, 3.99, 4.02.

I was wearing heavy clunky all-purpose gym shoes. I was not wearing spikes. I was on a wooden gym floor. I used a standing start. I had not done any sprint type practice for about 9 months (during the 9 months I did lots of walking). I depressed the stopwatch button at the same time that I started running (this might have shaved 0.15 seconds off the time).

I created a page containing a data table which explains how the 4.0 second 24 yards run, indicates that: Usain Bolt's speed advantage compared to me over 24 yards would be just 0.35 seconds, easily obviated by factors other than speed; the 174th fastest NCAA 100-meter man in 2012, would be able to sprint 24 yards on the basketball court about as fast as me:

Why a 4-second 24 yd run in the gym is ultra-fast 

HIIT started and personal record of sessions

This evening I started my High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) program that I invented for myself after studying the matter. The link showing the results of the first workout:

Individual HIIT Performance Record

Soccer kicks percentage accuracy personal results

Updated 11/1/13

******************

11/1/13

I felt I needed two new practice results tables to replace the old practice results table linked to in the previous 10/14 entry. The two new tables are:

Stationary Soccer Ball Kick Accuracy Results
Rolling Soccer Ball Kick Accuracy Results

I take 3 steps forward and then kick the ball. When I am kicking rollers, on the first step forwards, I dribble the ball forwards.

I've learned some things over the past couple of weeks of practicing kicking the ball at the target. I would have learned these things earlier had I not been putting my time into things more advanced than chip-passing accuracy. I now understand how getting into advanced things can lead to a surprising level of backwardness with basic things.

1) At the moment when the foot impacts the ball, the mind should be simply focused on hitting the target with the ball. Stuff like experimentation with different attitudes has its place, but at the time the foot hits the ball the mind should simply be on hitting the target with the ball.

2) When kicking a stationary ball, early in the approach to the ball, an arm should swing backwards, but this swing should be gotten over with quickly.

3) when kicking a stationary ball, the leg connected to the 'plant-foot' (the plant-foot is placed near the ball as the other foot kicks the ball) should be tense when it is planted next to the ball prior to the ball being kicked by the kicking foot.

4) when kicking a rolling ball, the ball should be rolled out out on the dribble at a moderately brisk speed, and the ball should be approached with long brisk steps prior to the kick.

My approach in steps to the ball prior to kicking it comes to me naturally, and resembles the steps approach prior to a kick utilized by field-goal kickers in American-style football (according to Field Goal Technique | The Kicker's Corner found via football field goal approach steps jab number - Google Search):

"Just like steps and stance, field goal approaches come in many shapes and sizes. The most common approach however consists of a slight jab with the plant-foot, step with kicking foot, plant with plant-foot, and then swing through the ball". 

******************

10/14/13

After eight months of not touching a soccer ball, I practiced hitting a six foot high, three foot wide rectangle whose bottom narrow edge was 8 feet above the ground with various types of kicks. I shot at the target from 24 feet away. I shot with my left and right feet, using both the approach ball from behind, and approach ball on slant approaches. I kept score from the very beginning without a warmup. Overall I hit the target 20 times out of 80 attempts, a 25% rate, with many close misses. The scored are recorded at:

Kick Accuracy Table

Hitting the target from 24' equates to a chip pass of 48' (the wall obstructs the second half of the arch of the path of the ball).

The International Futsal official court dimensions are 40 meters x 20 meters. Such is, 44 yards x 22 yards, and 132' x 66'. A max diagonal of 148' corner to corner.

The gym I play in is basically, if borders during a game = ball out of bounds, only approx 93' long and 51' wide, with a max corner to corner diagonal of 106'.

Therefore, a 48' pass is equal to: 45% of the max diagonal, the longest straight line in a gym; and, 32% of the max diagonal, the longest straight line on an official-sized international Futsal court.

And also, a 48' pass is equal to: 52% of the length of the gym; and, 36% of the length an official-sized international Futsal court.

See:

The Playing Court - US Futsal
www.futsal.com/index.php/the-playing-court-‎
International Games. Length: minimum 38 m / maximum 42 m; Width: minimum 18 m / maximum 22 m. Playing Court Markings. The playing court is marked with  ...

Magic google search based on computer generated report on keywords in this post:

court ball max diagonal corner futsal playing feet target - Google Search

HIIT Routine (Personal) as of Oct 13 2013

For the past 8 months I did no running (for three months up until a month ago I did almost daily long distance walking). I felt I needed to get to work doing conditioning, following an optimally intelligent routine.

I reviewed my past research on HIIT routines and I did some new research. I thought about my ideas regarding the defects of the common 'wisdom' and new creative improvements.

I went to the Waltham YMCA gym in the evening and spent an hour taking some measurements and doing some running experiments.

I felt a need to move on to something new & different from the past (the past featured long slow jogs and anaerobic sprint/agility drills involving no straightaways of longer than 13 yds without some kind of turn or stop). I knew the routine had to be tailored to my current level of fitness, featuring 8 months without almost zero running.

As usual I felt I had to be: different from what the world has done in the past; and, better than what the world has been in the past.

The HIIT routine I came up with today, for now, for me as I am now (laps = laps of basketball court approx 93 yds in perimeter, 30 yds in length):

Repeat 5x:  alternating cycle of 2 laps run in 66 seconds ('Easy/Brisk Short Paced Jog'); 132 secs rest.

Repeat 8x: alternating cycle of 1.5 laps run in 36 seconds ('GameKool Slow Hustle Trot'); 72 secs rest.

Repeat 20x:  alternating cycle of 3/4ths of a lap run in 14 seconds ('Sonic Speed'); 28 secs rest.

Repeat 30x: alternating cycle of 1.5 lengths of the court run in 10 seconds ('Supersonic Speed'), 20 seconds rest.

HIIT interval durations and intensities

Getting ready to commit myself to daily physical conditioning after a vacation of a few weeks from such, I reviewed what I had read about High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT), read some more about it, and put the results into a table:

HIIT Work/Recovery Cycle Patterns

In a 2008 paper, Mark J. Smith Phd, praised HIIT training as more effective and also less time-consuming compared to moderate-intensity continiuous training:

"... sprint interval training (SIT) is also referred to as high intensity interval training or HIIT. It is of major importance that health care professionals...get thoroughly educated about the superior health and fitness benefits of SIT, or “burst” training, as compared to low to moderate intensity continuous training (LMICT)...most people still believe that to develop a healthy heart and to lose weight, the best mode of exercise is long and continuous “cardio” exercise, which, inherently, requires a significant investment of time...lack of time is the number one excuse given for not complying with an exercise program..."

High Intensity Interval Training or HIIT consists of patterns involving alternations between short period of extreme and effort, and short periods of rest or low-effort activity. Many different recipes are prescribed, which differ in terms of; the amount of time occupied by high-intensity intervals, the time-length of low-intensity intervals, the intensity of effort during high-intensity intervals, and the intensity of effort during low-intensity intervals.

So far, I've found only one webpage that sets forth a formula for determining length and intensity of the various intervals, based upon individual characteristics of the person doing the interval training:

"...your high intensity intervals should be performed at an intensity of roughly 90% of VO2max (this correlates to approximately 95% of maximum heart rate)...The length of each high intensity period should be roughly 75% of the maximum amount of time that you could last at this intensity before fatiguing... If, for example, you can last for 200 seconds ... before fatiguing during this trial period, then your actual high intensity intervals should be set to last for 150 seconds each...If you are a beginner, set your rest to high intensity interval time ratio at 2:1 (i.e. your rest interval duration should be twice that of your high intensity interval). If you are well trained then you will ideally have interval time ratios of 1:1 or even 1:2...During your rest intervals, you should carry on your exercise activity while reducing your intensity level to approximately 70% of maximum heart rate...Set the total number of intervals performed over the entire workout so that the total time spent at high intensity equals between 20 to 30 minutes...Start and end your training sessions with a rest interval...Since these types of training sessions are fairly demanding, you should perform them no more than 2 or 3 times per week..."

Of hundreds of web-pages I looked at so far studying HIIT, the source of the quotation above, is the only one, that gives a formula whereby the duration of the high-intensity and low-intensity intervals, is based upon a characteristic that can be quantifiably measured in the individual doing the exercise.

All the other web-pages: speak simply in broad generalizations, such as, this for 'beginners', that for 'intermediate', this for 'advanced'.

In general I found the following ranges in terms of duration and intensity of high-intensity and low-intensity intervals proclaimed: duration of high-intensity intervals, 10 - 240 seconds; intensity of high-intensity intervals, 85%+ of max effort; duration of low-intensity intervals,  4x to 0.5x duration of high-intensity intervals; intensity of low-intensity intervals, rest to 70% max effort.

Songwriting Attempt

I thought the poetry I had written at 12-16 syllables per line, involved lines that were too long to be put to music for singing. After looking at some of my favorite song lyrics, I decided to try to write a song at 6-10 syllables a line, and came up with a song with 6-8 syllables a line:

Lost Heroes

Joining the guitar and singing

A hushed melody of drumming

Signs of Joseph's Lost Tribe

Visible in Gentiles

Sports heroes of the Gentiles

Rise from the countryside

Conquering the nation

Famous in Stadiums

This song needs a melody and a rhythm, and a singer. Probably someone other than myself should be the singer. Maybe the next attempt should involve 4-6 syllable lines.

$50 Olympus Recorder + Free Audacity Editor = Online Audio

Yesterday and today, I attained to basic competence in using the Olympus VN 702PC Digital Voice Recorder to record my voice, and the PC to edit the recording and make it available online.

I Got the VN 702PC for $49.99 from Staples.

I typed up basic instructions for myself for using it, which I distilled from the users manual.

My instructions:

Turn on: slide switch on left edge of recorder,
downwards.

Turn off: slide same switch downwards, hold for 0.5 seconds.

Choose folder. hit 'folder index' button to choose either folder A, B, C, D or E, as folder for next recording.

Record: point top of recorder (microphone) at sound source. Press record button. Press record button to pause. press record button again to restart. Press stop button to stop.

Save recording: the recordings are automatically saved with the title of the recording being the time at which the recording was made. For example: 10.11 '13 01:47 PM.

Playback: In stop mode, hit double left-arrow to go to first file in folder, or double-right arrow to display most recently recorded file listed. then hit OK button to play the file. Go through various files in folder using double-left arrows and double-right arrows.

Playback caution: pressing + or - while in playback mode, will change the speed at which the recording is played back.

Set record level. Hit menu button. Hit - button to move down to record level menu. Hit double arrow right button to move to 'record level' submenu. Hit double arrow right button again to move 'record level' choices. Choose either high (high microphone sensitivity for low volume sound sources) or low (low mic sensitivity for high volume sound sources). Hit OK to exit upon making choice. I set this to high, the default.

Set record mode. Same general method as 'set record level'. I set this to mp3, 192 kbps.

set low cut filter. default = off. turning this on, results in recording of low-frequency sounds being minimized so that voices are recorded more clearly.

set variable control voice actuator (VCVA). Default=off. I set this to 'on'. This level, I set to 6, so that the sound of the tv will not get the recorder going, but the sound of my voice will get it going.

Recording scene: set to 'user setting', which is the settings I input.

PC connectivity: use the short wire with the usb input and output jacks to connect the voice recorder to a usb port on the pc. Open my computer to locate the drive and folder containing the mp3s. Create a shortcut to said folder. Put shortcut in quicklaunch bar.

My Notes re alleged 'Corporate Stupidities' my mind at first considered the users manual to be guilty of:

note 1: the manual says to first select the folder containing the file, by pressing the folder/index button, when in stop mode. Problem with this, it advances the folder being looked at by the machine, so for example will advance from folder A to folder B. Then it will tell you that no file has been recorded, because you have advanced the folder the machine is looking at.

note 2: it provides you with various settings for 'recording scene', which automatically set various 'recording-related menu settings' to various settings. But it does not tell you, how the recording-related menu settings are set for the different recording scenes.

note 3: In the upper left corner, is the location for the letter which tells you which folder you are in. Since the display screen is below the outer protective screen, this crucial indicator is often in shadow and hard to read.

Audacity Audio Editor 

Next I Used the free Audacity Audio Editor (with lame1 add-on for mp3s) to Edit the mp3 Clip Created by the Olympus VN 702PC Digital Voice Recorder. I copied a mp3 file uploaded from the digital voice recorder. I opened it with the editor, made some changes, exported it with a new name, closed the file without saving any changes to it; I repeated said cycle with file after file till I felt as if I had made a competent interesting series of changes to the file.

Final Product:

First Recording Using new Portable Digital Voice Recorder:

Click Here to Hear the MP3

Drum Set: I do a great job of playing one

Yesterday Tuesday evening around 6 pm, I was in a big shed on a property in the Shaker Hill neighborhood of Woburn MA. The shed had a 7-piece drum set, lots of musical instruments, audio equipment, sofas, chairs carpets tables in it.

The place I was in was about: a couple miles south of exit 33 on the Yankee division highway, which is about a mile east of the Burlington Mall; a half-mile west of the Woburn Country Club, a mile northwest of the Woburn Whole Foods, a mile south of the Joyce middle school, a couple of miles southwest of Woburn High School. It's about 100 yards east of Reeves Middle School, and 50 yards east of Gillis Field.

For the first time ever, I had a chance to play the drums for more than five minutes with people who played guitar seriously and competently.

 When I was ten years old for a year in India I took tabla lessons and lessons in traditional-style Indian singing; every day I in the morning before school, there was practice and instruction in tabla, singing, and tanpura.

When I was in middle school I played the drums and the Timpani in the University of Chicago Lab Schools Orchestra. And many times, I endured the wind and the cold, and got on the IC train for the six mile ride to downtown Chicago, and plunged into the sea of gigantic gray buildings, for the walk to the American Conservatory of Music at 410 S. Michigan Ave., to be tutored one on one in how to play the drum set, by James Dutton; and then, the walk and the train ride back (2120 S. Michigan Avenue by the Rolling Stones, a 1964  instrumental, is one of my favorite Stones songs). But all I had to practice with it home was a little rubber pad and I was not in a band.

Then: during high-school, during college, and after college, overall, I only played the drums about a half dozen times. Whenever people got together feeling musically creative, no set of drums was available. Or when there was a set of drums available, it did not belong to me, and someone considered himself to be the drummer of the group not me. I was drawn away from drumming as I became immersed in journalism, soccer, studies.

Just as ball-hogs have impaired the development of my soccer career, so also drum-hogs have impaired the development of my musical career.

Then yesterday, I had the chance to play the drum set for about the seventh time since high school days. Everybody including myself thought I was great, talented, special, very good, excellent etc., taking into account what happens when you practice for less than an hour a year.

First, I played a beat I learned at the Conservatory: the instrument hit most often is the trap-cymbal. the fourth of each trap cymbal it, you hit the snare simult. The first of every 4 trap-cymbal hit cycle, you hit the bass drum with the foot peddle. Sometimes I deviated from the beat with cymbal hits Y drumbeats. Then I played another beat that I learned at the conservatory that is the same as the first one except the snare hit alternates between on the 4th hit of the 4-hit trap-cymbal cycle and on the 2rd hit onf the 4-hit trap cymbal cycle.

Maria thought this was 'very good'. Steve said I was playing 'funk'. I was having a hard time with the simple athletic physical coordination needed to mantain the beat, I remembered how as a boy when I used to practice drums I was much better in terms of such coordination. I knew I would have done better if I had adjusted the drum set's heights and positions so as to individually suit me. Third I played a beat similar to the first two which just sort of came to me spontaneously. I knew I would do better on such beats if I had time to study and practice them before hitting the drum set.

Then after a while Roger played the guitar while I played the drums. I surprised myself by competently doing something I had never done before: using the cymbals and drums as not just rhythmic instruments, but instruments of melody also. Part of this was hitting various parts of the cymbals, depending upon which kind of melodic note I wanted to generate. It was my first attempt ever at accompanying a guitar with melodic drum-set generated rhythm, I felt it was a great success; I hit the drums and the cymbals quietly usually, to reduce the noise and not dominate the guitar.

Then I finally managed to cajole Steve into playing a song on guitar and singing while I accompanied on the drums. He played and sang, "No Expectations" (Beggar's Banquet album, 1968) by the Rolling Stones. Again I surprised myself by accomplishing what I had accomplished accompanying Roger, this time with Steve, using the same methods as I developed with Roger. I noted how the drawn out reverbing sound of the cymbal hits, were crucial to the melody and the rhythm. I felt as if I was an example of a drummer who could in a positive sense, surprisingly enough, improve, transform, lead, and dominate even melodic music.

The original version of 'No Expectations' featured: Jagger on vocals; Wyman, bass-guitar; Richards, acoustic rhythm guitar; and Watts providing the rhythm on Claves. Claves are important in Cuban music, such as the son and guaguancó.  They involve repeating rhythmic patterns  found in African music and Brazilian music. The Beatles' recording "And I Love Her," featured Claves.

Shank said that he could tell everyone was very impressed by me and thought I was talented. Shank said he could tell I was talented and special. Steve and Roger did not deny that I did great when I sincerely 'bragged' that I had done 'great', especially given the lack of practice. Steve compared me to Chic Corea (who is a keyboardist, not a drummer). Maria said she could hear the Indian influence in my drumming.

Hyper-tribalist Elements Amongst the Jewish Ethnic Group

There is evidence that significant elements amongst the people who are identified by others, and self-identify as 'Jews/Hebrews/Israelites', have been, for thousands of years, illogically hyper-tribalistic (this is not to deny the same thing could be said for peoples other than 'Jews'). The irrationality lies in the fact that these elements combine a deep sense of tribal self-devotion based upon genetic ties to revered ancestors, with a contempt for 'outsiders', despite evidence that shows beyond a reasonable doubt, that more of the 'blood' of the revered ancestors is to be found amongst the outsiders, compared to such 'blood' found amongst the Jews.

This evidence derives from sources such as: historical facts, statements made by Jews from the ancient past up to the modern day; statements made by Gentiles throughout history; statements made by Jewish prophets; modern genetic analyses.

Imagine the Jewish people of ancient times, for purposes of mathematical reasoning, as a group composed of 1000 persons.

Approx 730 BC, the Assyrians captured and deported to Assyria, around 70% of the population of Israel, all the tribes except Judah and Benjamin (the 70% figure is based on the census conducted by Moses described in the Book of Numbers, which recorded the population of each tribe). Therefore as a result of this deportation, 700 of the mathematically symbolic original 1000 disappeared into the outside world, and became a part of Gentile culture.

Around 600 BC, The prophet Ezekiel (622-570 BC) said: 'Again the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man, cause Jerusalem to know her abominations, And say, Thus saith the Lord God unto Jerusalem; Thy birth and thy nativity is of the land of Canaan; thy father was an Amorite, and thy mother an Hittite' (Ezekiel 16:1-3).

Therefore, around 600 BC, the Israelites were described as being neither paternally or maternally of Israelite descent. Assuming that at this point the Israelites had become half-gentile, one could also assume that half of the 300 remaining of the original 1000, had by this time so to speak genetically assimilated into the Gentile population, leaving of the original 1000, 150 who continued to be Israelites.

Beyond this, many Israelites were taken captive by empires that came after the Assyrian, Babylonian, and Persian empires, who invaded ancient Israel. For now, we could guess that of the 150 remaining of the original 1000, 30 of them ended up assimilated into the surrounding Gentile population by way of captivity. That leaves of the original 1000, 120.

Beyond this, Israelites assimilated into the Gentile population by way of conversion to Christianity. Assuming 20% of the Israelites followed this course, that leaves 96 of the original symbolic 1000 as Israelite.

Beyond this, there were Israelites who voluntarily assimilated into the outside gentile world without converting to Christianity. Assuming 20% followed this course, the remnant of the original 1000 dwindles from 96 to 77.

Hence, of the original demographically symbolic 1000 ancient Israelites, you end up with 923 assimilated into the Gentile population, 92%; meaning, that roughly speaking, of the original bucket of the esteemed pure ancient Israelite blood, 92% of it ended up mixed into the Gentile populations, and 8% of it ended up remaining in the Israelite population.

How then can the hyper-tribalistic elements amongst the Jews, have such contempt for the gentiles, when their contempt is based upon the alleged genetic gulf between Jew and gentile?

Jacob when blessing his sons each of whom became patriarch of one of the tribes of Israel, said regarding Napthali, "Napthali is a doe set free that bears beautiful fawns". Naphtali was deported by the Assyrians, to become one the lost tribes; the descendants of Napthali are now counted amongst the Gentiles.

Jacob said regarding Asher, " he will provide delicacies fit for a king". Asher was deported by the Assyrians, to become one the lost tribes; the descendants of Asher are now counted amongst the Gentiles.

Jacob said regarding Joseph, "Joseph is a fruitful vine...With bitterness archers attacked him...But his bow remained steady...because of the Almighty, who blesses Joseph with blessings of the skies above, blessings of the deep springs below...blessings of the ancient mountains...Let all these blessings rest on the head of Joseph, on the brow of the prince among his brothers. ". The tribe of Joseph was deported by the Assyrians, to become one the lost tribes; the descendants of Joseph are now counted amongst the Gentiles.

By way of contrast, Jacob said regarding Benjamin, "Benjamin is a ravenous wolf; in the morning he devours the prey,in the evening he divides the plunder." The tribe of Benjamin, in the south of ancient Israel, was not deported by the Assyrians, to become one the lost tribes, now counted amongst the gentiles..
 
And, Jacob said regarding Simeon & Levi, "Simeon and Levi are brothers— their swords are weapons of violence. Let me not enter their council, let me not join their assembly, for they have killed men in their anger and hamstrung oxen as they pleased. Cursed be their anger, so fierce, and their fury, so cruel!" The tribe of Simeon, in the south of ancient Israel, was not deported by the Assyrians to become one of the lost tribes, now counted as amongst the gentiles.

According to Rawlinson, the Cimmerians and the Sacae were the descendants of the ten lost tribes of Israel. The Cimmerians and the Sacae were highly mobile tribes that often migrated long distances. Many peoples in the world have historically considered themselves to be descended from the Sacae  and the Cimmerians.