Project Planning

So I've been a little down recently; nothing serious, but it's been a rough two months workwise (which, for me, means I'd be a LOT richer if I had taken an expensive 2 month vacation).  In my line of work, runs like this happen, and I expect them (at least in theory) but it doesn't mean I'm completely numb to them.  I've decided I need some projects to give me an outlet, a distraction from work.  I'm obviously in a gorgeous place, but that alone isn't enough of a distraction.  So far golf has been my biggest distraction from work, and that was the case the last two years I was in Vegas as well.  In college, sailing was a great outlet for my energy, and in high school and before I had running, tennis, soccer refereeing, baseball umpiring, sportswriting for the local paper...

You know, back in high school, I remember hearing that colleges were looking for someone who was well-balanced and was involved in lots of things.  It seems the older we get, the more life becomes focused...you give up hobbies and activities, whether voluntarily or otherwise.  It's been somewhat gradual for me: I gave up music, running and playing tennis competitively, and sportswriting in college.  I was taking classes in lots of different subjects early on, but by my senior year, my studies became more focused.  And now, it feels like I have all my eggs in one basket: sports betting (and more generally, sports analysis).  It's weird too, because I'm often overwhelmed with all the different projects I'm working on: trying to create a tennis model, refining football props, Massey-Peabody rankings, golf betting every week, a side project analyzing NCAA women's golf with Cade, college football and NFL halftime betting, and baseball (which I honestly haven't done anything on in a little while, but there's always next season looming on the horizon).  And while the mechanics of what I'm doing can be very different in each sport and each project, they are generally related.  Somehow, I simultaneously feel like I'm spread too thin in one way, yet I'm too narrowly focused in another way.

I had a few ideas today for some distractions.  The first sort of comes from something I did this weekend.  Lisa, Katherine and Jill (the roommates), and I went to a barbecue in Tafuna on Saturday night hosted by Naomi, the coach of the women's national soccer team, which Lisa trains with.  I had a great time actually and probably had a few too many Vailimas.  There were a bunch of young 20-something guys doing the grilling, which was in a homemade grill, made of cinder blocks.  I really love grilling, although my repertoire is fairly limited, and would love to grill on a regular basis out here.  I could learn to clean and gut fish, and buy the local catches at the K-S Mart.  But first I've decided I want to make my own grill/fire pit.  No Weber grill for me.  So that's project #1.

Every day, I walk down to either Sadie's or DDW Cafe where I can use the internet.  DDW was located on the east side of the island until it was destroyed by the tsunami two years ago.  Now it's in Utulei, situated on the land that previously had been the Pago Pago Yacht Club.  There are four Hobie Cats just laying by the beach.  One has a mast, but I don't see any sails and the boats look abandoned.  I asked the owner of the cafe, who said that the boats used to be privately owned, but he thinks they were abandoned.  He gave me the name of the director of parks and recreation on the island, who I'm hoping to contact to inquire about the boats.  Project #2 would be to salvage one of the boats.  I'm not the most handy guy in the world, but I think it would be a really fun project.  And I can hopefully enlist the help of Rob, the sailor who I met last week.

The last project is really just exploring the island.  It's a small island, and I've already exhausted the hiking trails, but I would love to summit Mt. Matafao, the tallest peak on the island, which does not have any trails and is quite physically imposing.  So first I need to see if it's actually going to be possible without any equipment.  The mountain is pretty far from any road, so it's going to be quite an undertaking.  I've concluded that the south ridge is probably my best bet, so I'd like to explore that side of the mountain at some point this week.

And there's golf still.  I did just shoot an 82 last week (my second lowest score ever!) and am dying to get back out there.  Hopefully, the betting turns around soon, but in the meantime, I at least have some ideas for projects to distract me.