New Thing #245: Zac Brown Band

I don't know why I don't like the Zac Brown Band. It's kind of like the whole country genre...it just doesn't do it for me.

I know I'm in the minority - country is tremendously popular, and growing more and more popular every day.

And I know the Zac Brown Band is very popular too - especially among women, it seems to me.

In fact, it was my wife buying their new album that got me to listen to it as this week's new music.

I played the album while I was setting up my classroom on Friday.

I gave it a chance. I listened to it twice.

And, I'll be honest - I see the appeal. I do. There were a couple of songs in there that I didn't hate...I might even admit I kind of liked them.

But any sense of enjoyment I felt listening to the music was accompanied by a sense of irritation - something about that music just bothers me.

I'm sorry. I really am taking an open-minded approach to it. That's the whole point of this year.

But I think the bottom line is that I don't really like country music.

And the Zac Brown Band didn't do anything to make me reverse my opinion.

(Not to mention the album cover art kind of scares me.)

New Thing #244: Egg-In-A-Hole

I know I've championed a good breakfast on this site before and how much I've relied on one in recent years. Most of the time that good breakfast revolves around eggs.

Usually my go-to breakfast is three sunnyside up eggs and one or two English muffins.

This summer, my daughters have started to have some eggs in the morning - usually scrambled, sometimes hard-boiled.

But last week they were excited to tell me about something new.

My oldest daughter told me about it first.

"Daddy, Mommy cut a hole in some toast and cooked that with an egg inside!" she said. "You like toast, right?"

I nodded.

"And you like eggs. You'll love this!"

I was picturing a hard-boiled egg in the middle of some bread, but my wife clarified for me what my daughter meant - it was a fried egg.

This weekend, my wife was about to make some sunnyside ups and I told her I wanted to try what she had made the girls that week. I've never had it before.

So she made what you see above. (I didn't think the one egg and toast would fill me. I'm glad I had the other two eggs too.)

My favorite part, I think, was the cut-out circle of bread. (You can see that in the top right-hand corner.)

My least favorite part was there wasn't a lot of bread to dip into the yolk, which I love to do.

I looked it up online - it's called an Egg-In-A-Hole.

It won't replace my routine breakfast...but it's a good alternative to know about.

New Thing #243: My First Vine

I've heard people say that since Instagram came out with its video feature, Vine was going to become obsolete. (This happened, incidentally, immediately after I decided to download Vine and give it a shot.)

Seems to me Vine has hung in there OK...but even if it hasn't (I guess I don't quite have my finger on that pulse) I still think it has great potential.

I like the idea of telling a story through 6 seconds of looping video.

And I guess I was just waiting for that perfect storytelling opportunity for my first Vine.

Instead...

I took a sideways videos of some turkeys walking outside my classroom window where you can barely see the turkeys.

There were three other opportunities I missed for a good Vine:

1) Remember when I saw that baby bunny? I recorded it scratching its ear (SO CUTE!) and sitting for about 3 or 4 more seconds. That was the first time I tried to save a Vine and I accidentally deleted it.

2) When I saw Matt Harvey pitch in July at Citi Field, my wife and I were seated right behind the bullpen. I was going to record him warming up - it was going to be awesome. I tested out how to do the Vine and everything. Then it started raining and we went to our seats - far away from the bullpens - to sit out the rain delay. No other Vine opportunity presented itself that night.

3) When I was at the Rays game, I was ready with the still camera for the game-winning hit in the bottom of the 9th inning and snapped a picture. But had I been thinking that would have been the best baseball Vine ever. Hit. Celebration. Crowd Noise. Loop.

Instead, I have an archive of sideways turkeys.

But that's OK. I'll be adding to that archive for sure.

It'll get better.

Provided I remember which way to hold the camera.

New Thing #242: A New Planner

There's pretty much only one thing on my mind this time of year. School.

Well, that's not entirely true.

There's college football, and pro football, and two of my daughters' birthdays, and the baseball homestretch...

But as far as what's distracting me from trying New Things at this moment - it's school.

For the first six months of '365 New Things In 2013' I managed to avoid talking too much about school.

I'm not sure how...but as we approach the last weekend in August and get ready for September, well, either the New Things well is going to run dry, or you're going to get a healthy dose of what I'm trying that's new at school.

Every new school year brings something new to the equation. This year there's a little more new than most years...but prime among them is a change in the schedule.

What this means for me - in addition to a change to my day-to-day schedule - is I need to change how I plan my day.

I inherited from my mentor teachers in my student teaching year a self-created planning sheet that I've never had to change because 1) I got a job teaching in the very classroom where I student taught, and 2) the schedule hasn't changed all that much in that time.

So for my first time as a teacher (not counting one time where I used a pre-published plan book) I have to develop my own planning sheet.

I was at a loss about how to start, then a friend of mine showed me how he used Excel for his scheduling.

He lent me his template to tweak, and said I could let him know if I had questions.

It couldn't have been any easier.

I divided up the pages into the days of the week, added the slots I needed to plan, and then I filled in the lined space with white color and added the border lines around the cells where I needed breaks. I copied the pages to make them one page, double-sided, and then I put them in my binder.

I love it.

This is one of those weird things that teachers get excited about that is probably not as interesting to other people - each year I love starting with the blank plan book and starting to fill it in with the dates for the year ahead and then each day's plan.

As for Excel - for a long time I thought it was all about changing the size of all of the cells. Turns out, it's really about manipulating the cells as they exist for the way you want to use them.

I'm taking all of this success as a sign that it will be a good school year ahead.

New Thing #241: Interviewing A Game Designer

Sometimes I'm amazed at the way people's brains work. I like to think I'm a creative thinker sometimes.

I also like to think that when I recognize that someone is looking at a situation with a totally different approach than mine, that I can appreciate that different viewpoint and that different approach.

For example, I've never looked at a solitaire game on an iPhone and thought, "Boy that looks awfully crowded, which makes sense, considering it's a game that's meant to be played on a table with cards all spread out and here it is on a 4-inch wide screen."

But that's the way Kurt Bieg thinks.

Bieg designed '4 Thrones', a version of solitaire I told you about yesterday, and he cites that reason above as one of the reasons he did.

Intrigued by what goes into app design and the reasons why games are created the way they are, I picked Bieg's brain a bit.

Here's that interview.

Me: I guess I'd like to start out by getting a view of who you are - how did you start Simple Machine [the company that makes the games], what else have you done - all I know is Circadia and now 4 Thrones. Which you created, right?

Kurt: Simple Machine is just me, but I do collaborate sometimes with super talented people. I started the company about 2 years ago after graduating from Parsons to make and release games. Growing up, I never thought I would be a game designer, I didn't even know that existed, it was more something I fell into. My very first game was a card game celebrating the election of Barack Obama back in 2008. That was an amazing experience. I was primarily going to make a card game to generate some revenue when some friends (Charlie and Jeff LaGreca) collaborated with me to make an Obama card game. So I spent a few days drafting ideas, then before I knew it we were standing next to the Washington Monument with a luggage bag full of card games listening to Obama talk about the "makers of things". That was a beautiful day. After that experience, I knew it was my calling. From there I learned to code so I could make my own games. I went on to craft Circadia which has been a unexpectedly successful art/rhythm game, culminating in it being selected as a Starbucks App of the Week, which, sidenote, was really really wonderful to be able to hold a physical copy of one of my games since they are digitized copies on the app store.

After Circadia I wanted to make something aimed at casual players by combining a causal gaming, like Candy Crush or Bejeweled, with a brand new cerebral game. That game is Tomb Breaker which I released in May, I worked with visual artist Vic Soto on that game. It's gorgeous and my favorite game I've made. That has gone on to be hugely successful in its own way.

Finally I recently released 4 Thrones last week, and that has been my most relaxing release yet. Usually you're on pins and needles waiting to see if Apple will feature it or if the press will cover it, but my wife has challenged me to let go of all those superficial metrics and focus on enjoying releasing games. It's been difficult because you want to check the charts, see the numbers, watch it climb, but realizing it's a great game inside, and knowing that numbers don't change that is a powerful attitude. Next, I'll be releasing a game called Even Up in a few weeks which is a super simple logic puzzle, loosely inspired by sudoku.

Me: On the topic of 4 Thrones - that's a totally original idea for you, right? I've never seen that type of solitaire game before, but what do I know. Maybe you just adapted it and turned it into an app. If it's your idea - how did you come up with it? Were you just playing cards and messing around until you found something that worked? Or did the idea come to you and then you turned it into an app?

Kurt: Yup, you're right, 4 Thrones is an entirely original game I created. I mean, solitaire has been around for a long long time, but this version is a first. Actually, the game came out of a bet with my wife, Maria. We were on vacation and I was fatigued because I spent over 9 months developing Tomb Breaker and I was telling her how difficult it is to release a game. Her counter point was that it didn't need to be difficult, that was just how I chose to make it (if you're catching on, I have married a woman of infinite wisdom). So she challenged me to make a game in 2 weeks, and if I did, she would take the jewelry she started making around to some of the boutiques in NYC, something she's been nervous to do. We shook on it, and when we returned I started to make 4 Thrones.

On my way home on the subway one day, I saw people playing solitaire on their touch devices and it looked abysmal. On the touch device it's just cramped, and dated, and uninspired. It looked like people were disarming bombs the way they were squinting and nervously tapping the screen. But that's what you would expect to happen when you take a game that you play on a table and move it to the mobile touch screen. Those things we know and love are a struggle to enjoy on the touch screen. So I decided I would make a solitaire game designed specifically for one handed mobile play that would retain the core aspects that makes traditional solitaire fun and relaxing. That's a tall order for 2 weeks, but hey, shoot for the stars.

Ritual became something I honed in on too. A lot of people play solitaire as a sort of mental ritual. While they're waiting at the dentist's office, before they go to bed, during lunch, etc. It's like this small thing people incorporate into their lives because it feels good, it's a shower for your brain and it organizes the clutter. So that was something I wanted to make sure was at the forefront. That meant making sure the game was simple, but rewarded thoughtful play. And that it retained that same classic solitaire feel of making simple decisions based on a little bit of luck and a little bit of strategy to get through the deck.

I used a standard physical deck to prototype with and I started by laying four piles since I knew that would be a perfect fit on a mobile screen. Then, I knew I wanted to keep the idea of placing larger numbers on smaller numbers, but would have to drop the alternating suits aspect of traditional solitaire (red suit on black suit, etc). It was basic, but there was definitely something there. After that, I kept feeling like the game needed a twist, something not typical of solitaire, and I thought about the Sting song "Shape of My Heart" where the chorus says, 

 

I know that the spades are the swords of a soldier I know that the clubs are weapons of war I know that diamonds mean money for this art But that's not the shape of my heart

 

So I thought about the cards as people who want these things, and that's when I considered the King only wanting spades for war, the Queen only wanting money (diamonds) or love (hearts), and the Jack taking anything because he wants to remain in the shadows. That's when I started to think of them as inspired characters from Game of Thrones (because I love that show so much) and the characters just fit, like the Jack being Little Finger, always trying to stay in the shadows, the Queen being Cersei who longs for real love, but also accepts money, and the King being Tywin Lanister, who only wants war, and is only interested in listening to anyone who can swing a sword.

That was pretty much it, I prototyped it in about a half hour while Maria and I ate pancakes on a lazy Sunday. Then the rest of the weeks I spent designing the aesthetics and coding it.

Me: Do you have a favorite of the games in 4 Thrones? Single? Endless? Kings? I like Kings, but I find if I play Kings too much and then switch to one of the other games I screw up because I leave the Kings out there when I shouldn't.

Kurt: Kings mode is definitely where it's at. I like that mode the most. You know, it almost didn't make it in, lol. It was super last minute. Previously it was a speed mode, where you played the single mode, but with a timer. I hated it, like ... I hated it a lot. I never actually placed a time because I couldn't even focus enough to beat deck. But then, at the end of the 2 week challenge, Apple was hacked (this was the end of July I think), and they shut every developer portal down. So I couldn't submit the game, thus I lost the 2 week challenge to Maria, lol. But over that next week while I was waiting for Apple to come back on line I played the game a lot, and on the subway ride home from my office I thought about what would happen if the Kings were the only cards that could generate points. People who know me would say that's fairly typical of me as a die-hard contrarian, make a game, then break that game by reversing a core rule. It's most likely why Kings mode is so different from the other modes. Once you play it, Kings become this whole other kind of card, you're waiting for them to show up, and then when they do, you don't ever want to get rid of them, even though they are obviously, hands down, the worst card when it comes to staying in the game.

I'm happy with that mode, it raises the game to a new level and perfectly illustrates how I make things.

That's funny that when you go back to a different mode it gets all screwy because you're so used to Kings mode, but I wanted those three modes for different types of players. My dad seems to only play Single mode, he likes that finite ending, knowing how many games he beat, how many he lost, and endless is kinda in between, people who want to get a thrill out of endurance, but without all the points and such. So hopefully players will find that there's something for everyone.

Me: I've always wondered about games like 4 Thrones - is it all luck of the 'draw'? Or is every game programmed so that you can win if you make all of the exact right moves? (The more I play 4 Thrones the more it appears to me it's random, because I've had games that I just couldn't win based on the cards that were dealt to me. Unless I am just bad at the game.)

Kurt: All the modes in 4 Thrones are random, it doesn't predesign decks to ensure it's beatable so there are certainly decks where you won't make it past the first three cards, but that's one of the draws of solitaire, you never know what you're going to get, and in a lot of ways, that's why solitaire is such a ritualized game, it mirrors real life in a lot of ways. Some days you never had a chance no matter what you do, other days you win without trying, in between, we work with the randomness and make our own ways. I like that about solitaire, and I like that people recognize that in solitaire.

 

I will give a small secret away about the next update of 4 Thrones, it will have a new puzzle mode, which is a fancy way of saying "here are decks that are solvable, try to figure them out."

 

Me: Anything else? I'll throw this out - why is the name '4 Thrones'? If you have 4 Kings on the board, even in the 'Kings' version of the game, you're pretty much screwed. What am I missing?

 

Kurt: Haha, that's cool to hear your theory on the title, the title came from the idea that the 4 piles are kingdoms, or thrones, and each card is a person who controls the throne. Each card eventually is out done by a more powerful card. Aces are the only cards that aren't "people" it represents assassination, or anarchy, in that it removes any person from power and opens the throne to anyone who wants it. It's why when you play the single/endless mode, the best card you can play on a King is an Ace, lol. Kings always lose their heads.

Me: Is 4 Thrones available now? Will this be offered as a free Starbucks app like Circadia was? (Do you even control that?)

Kurt: 4 Thrones is out now, it released last Thursday on iOS and Android. It's currently .99 on sale for 50% off to celebrate the release. Starbucks is kinda one of those "hand of god" things, but if it gets popular, I could see them wanting to share it there, that'd be cool to have two Starbucks selected games!

 

iOS: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/4-thrones/id680163617?mt=8

 

Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.simplemachine.android.fourthrones

 

Oh and some pics and more info on the making of at http://www.simplemachine.co/2013/08/the-making-of-4-thrones/

New Thing #240: 4 Thrones

Remember when I told you about 'Circadia'? One of the things I liked about it was that it seemed to do something different than all of the other games coming out as apps - at least the ones I was seeing.

Well, the maker of 'Circadia' has a new game out, called '4 Thrones'.

And this is another game that breaks the mold.

Full disclosure - the maker of '4 Thrones' likes my blog. And he sent me a code to download the new game.

I like to think I'm a man of my own free will and would still have enjoyed the game if this guy hated me to my core, but I tell you this information so that it doesn't seem like I'm hiding anything from you.

'4 Thrones' is a version of solitaire. There are three versions of the game - one is a single game mode, another is called 'Endless', where you see how far you can go before you bust out (for lack of a better term), and then there's 'Kings'. Oh, I'll be telling you more about 'Kings'.

Let me see if I can summarize the game: you have four cards showing, with the rest of the deck not showing. When you draw a card, it has to be higher than one of the showing cards. The face cards get tricky to top (perhaps obviously), but there are exceptions: you can put any lower card from any suit on top of a Jack, hearts and diamonds on top of a Queen, and spades on top of a King. (Kings are a tough card to deal with in this game.) Aces serve both as high cards that can beat a King, but they also serve as low cards you can build on top of. You can pass, but only three times. Once you run out of passes, that's what I mean by 'bust out'.

So that covers the first two game modes. Then there's 'Kings', which is different, because you accumulate points. But you can only accumulate points if a King is showing. This is difficult, because Kings are the card you don't really want. But now you want them, so you can get points. If you make it through one deck of cards your 3 passes get renewed and you keep going onto a new deck.

Saturday I was getting a haircut and there was a long wait - this game was perfect for that. (I never liked playing 'Angry Birds' or those types of games in waiting rooms. I felt like it drew too much attention. This type of game is perfect for a haircut wait.)

After the game's creator, Kurt Bieg, had contacted me it occurred to me that I had a chance to get some insight into the creation of these types of games, so I sent him some questions and he answered them. He wrote something similar to what I said above about the type of game '4 Thrones' is. Here's that, and consider it a sneak preview of New Thing #241:

"A lot of people play solitaire as a sort of mental ritual. While they're waiting at the dentist's office, before they go to bed, during lunch, etc. It's like this small thing people incorporate into their lives because it feels good, it's a shower for your brain and it organizes the clutter. So that was something I wanted to make sure was at the forefront. That meant making sure the game was simple, but rewarded thoughtful play. And that it retained that same classic solitaire feel of making simple decisions based on a little bit of luck and a little bit of strategy to get through the deck."

More on game design and inspiration coming tomorrow. If you don't understand my explanation of '4 Thrones' above, here's the bottom line: download it. It's fun.

New Thing #239: An Anagram Word Puzzle

This is a little more than a week old. In last Sunday's New York Times Magazine (we're talking August 18 here), the non-crossword puzzle (I think they call it a "Variety" puzzle) dealt with anagrams.

(I always love when there's a puzzle like this in the magazine. I do the crossword every week and that never gets old, but usually the Variety puzzle is their 'Diagramless' or their 'Acrostic' and I just don't enjoy those.)

I didn't do great with the anagrams- but I did give it a shot.

First of all, this type of puzzle is right up my alley. I love playing around with words and unscrambling anagrams.

Turns out, though, I'm not as good at it as I figured I'd be.

The puzzle is called 'Set Pieces', by Mike Shenk. It calles for you to unscramble an anagram to come up with a category and then another word that falls into that category. Their example was PATSY CLINE can be unscrambled to give you CITY and then NAPLES. (I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have gotten that one.)

They helped out by putting the yet-to-be-unscrambled categories in alphabetical order, which was pretty much my saving grace. (Well, so was the fact that they told you how many letters were in each answer.) At the National Puzzlers' League convention in July, the winner completed the puzzle in 10 minutes, 16 seconds. The average score of the 160 puzzlers at that convention was 19 answers in the 30 minute time slot.

I timed myself. In 30 minutes I was able to answer 10. (And I may or may not have gotten a couple wrong. [May.])

I bet, though, I could create 19 of these in 30 minutes. I think my brain works better that way.

I'll tell you what, though: I can't wait until the next one of these pops up.

New Thing #238: Music Videos

I remember the good old days, when MTV and VH1 actually played music videos. Well, that's what you're supposed to say, anyway, when you're about my age and you talk about music videos.

Truth be told, I didn't watch very much of those channels back then anyway.

The only videos I cared about were Billy Joel's, and I had most of those on VHS tape.

Nowadays, MTV and VH1 might not play a bunch of videos anymore, but their affiliated channels certainly do (MTV U, VH1 of many different varieties)..and then there's the other music stations.

But I don't usually watch those channels - because you can find any music video you want at any time on the internet.

I know I'm not breaking huge news here. I'm sure many of you have been watching music videos on the internet for years.

But I haven't. Other than the videos my brother posts every now and again with his music or that of his friends, I just don't watch many music videos.

And as a result, in doing my Music Monday posts each week, I've probably watched more music videos in these past eight months than I have in the past eight years.

And I've enjoyed them. From the flash mob bit (and the story behind it) in Sara Bareilles' Brave to that thing Anna Kendrick does with her hands in Cups to the weird video for Little Talks by Of Monsters and Men, I've liked seeing what people are doing in their music videos now.

I've liked, too, when I'm on YouTube and I come across an old video and I watch that and it leads me to another music video that I've never seen before. Because there are a lot of those - both then and now - that I've missed.

But as far as videos from this year go, it's a callback to another Music Monday from very early in the year that takes the cake.

I still like Mumford and Sons - I still listen to their albums quite often. That said, I've never seen them play live enough to get an idea of just how much of a parody their video for Hopeless Wanderer is. But I think it's a riot that they've allowed this parody of themselves, and I still get a huge kick out of the video.

And I'm not sure that if it came out in any other year that I would have watched it. So for that, I'm glad. Here's what I'm talking about:

New Thing #237: Chick-fil-A

We're going to have to put the politics aside for this one. I went to Chick-fil-A while I was in Florida.

My friend Kevin told me I absolutely had to try their chicken sandwich.

OK...maybe one political comment: I do not agree with the company's political views.

But, man do they make a good chicken sandwich.

The place was packed.

Kevin and I planned on going in and eating there, but with the line nearly out the door we got back in the car and went through the drive-through.

That meant hungry old me had to sit in the passenger seat with a couple of chicken sandwiches and a bunch of fries in my lap as we drove.

I should mention this all took place while we were in Gainesville - and we did this before we hit the football stadium.

Our plan was to take the food into the empty bleachers and sit and eat.

Turned out, when we got to the stadium, there was a closed football practice going on. I forgot to mention that in the post about Gainesville. So we had an hour or so to kill, which we began by sitting on a nearby picnic table, eating chicken sandwiches.

My wife tells me, as I write this, that she's surprised I've never had Chick-fil-A before. She tells me there's one in the Burlington Mall food court. I don't spend much time there, so I didn't realize there was a location so close.

Still, I will not patronize them again, even if they open a location even closer.

I'm going to hop on my political high horse.

Boycott begins.......now.

New Thing #236: Video Roulette

I don't spend a whole lot of time at casinos. But every once in a while I'll scratch that itch, realize it's not as easy as I think it is, and I'll go home poorer and think, "I'll get 'em next time."

And next time won't happen for a long while.

If you'd asked me if going to a casino would have ended up on the agenda for my trip to Florida, I would have told you that was very doubtful.

But I wouldn't have ruled it out completely - you know, things happen.

And as it turned out, there was a casino and Hard Rock Cafe on some Seminole land in Tampa.

And Kevin and I decided to check it out.

The casino was mostly slot machines. There were very few tables. And my favorite game - roulette - was only available in the video format you see above.

I didn't know whether or not to take the plunge..then I figured, New Thing. So we sat at the video roulette table.

You sit at a console like this:

And in the middle of the various consoles is the wheel, automated and under glass. And above the wheel is the board that shows you the current number as well as the last few that came out.

As sometimes happens, I started off kind of hot by just playing the outside - picking red or black, and the occasional "first 12" or "bottom of the board" or whatever.

But then I start thinking it's easy, and I start to lose money. Fast.

It happened quickly for Kevin and I. (Speaking of quickly - the amount of time you have to place your bets is timed, and it's not all that much. Like 30 seconds or so - much faster than when there's a human spinning the wheel. So when I say it happened quickly - it happened quickly.)

Usually I have some stock numbers I pick when I play the inside - 8 is a big one because it's part of my anniversary, my wife's birthday, and, of course, it's Gary Carter's number. Rarely, though, do I hit on the inside numbers.

When things started to fade I returned to the outside. A string of black numbers had come up. Obviously (I'm such a sucker) the next one was going to be red. I put my remaining chips on red, chasing my losses.

Not only was my final play of the day a black number - it was an 8. It was like the universe telling me, "Not today champ." (And probably not ever.)

Kevin was not much luckier.

All told, we drove about 40 minutes to the casino to spend only about 40 minutes wasting some money. Then it was 40 minutes back.

But the more I thought about it - the casino might have actually saved me money. I only brought a limited amount with me - who knows what we would have done otherwise. I might have spent more doing something else.

You might see this as a disappointment.

Sure, we would much rather have won some money. But we were back in St. Petersburg by lunchtime. It worked out rather well.

New Thing #235: Gainesville

If you're keeping score at home (and I know you are) you know I mentioned Tampa, St. Petersburg, and Jacksonville this week. "When," you're probably asking yourself, "will John tell us about Gainesville?"

Well, today's the day.

But before I launch into my Gainesville experience, I need to give you a little history.

Because my time in Gainesville was literally a dream come true.

I have no idea why, but I have recurring dreams about two sports-related places: the football field at the University of Florida and Mile High Stadium. (Maybe it's Invesco Field at Mile High - I can't remember if the dreams go back as far as the Broncos' original stadium.)

In the Florida one I walk out from a corner end zone and look up at the sea of seats. In the Broncos dream I'm sitting way up in the stadium - like, second-to-last-row-type seats, and I'm with some family members.

So when I knew I was visiting Gainesville, I knew I'd want to swing by the football stadium. My friend Kevin was way ahead of me - we'd be visiting the stadium, he said, because that's about all there is to do in Gainesville.

When we walked to the stadium I was disappointed because the outside looks nothing like my dream - it's kind of like a brick outer facade. That's what you see above. Then we walked in.

We emerged at one of the corners and walked down towards the field. It was kind of surreal because other than a different type of seating it was very, very similar to my dream. It also didn't stretch as high into the sky as my dream. But I certainly felt familiar with the place.

I think two things about this whole weird experience. I would like to think I have some kind of second sight (is that what it is? ESP? Or just being weird?), but I think:

1) Both the University of Florida and the Denver Broncos are orange and blue, just like the New York Mets. So maybe that aspect about them and their respective stadia (plural for stadiums?) stand out to me and work their way into my subconscious.

or

2) Later that afternoon, reverting back to our college days as we do often when we're together, Kevin and I sat down to play some video games. Our choice was the version of NCAA Football that he had. As soon as the game started loading up, it occurred to me that I probably dreamt about Florida Field so much because I played this game so much years ago and it was drilled into my head. The more I think about it the more sure I am that this is the case.

Beyond the field, Kevin was right. There wasn't a ton in Gainesville. But next to the field were the football offices, and on the ground floor of that building is a great little museum - not even a museum. A display center. In glass cases are Florida's three national championship trophies, displays of national championship teams and award-winning players, and the three Heisman Trophies won by Florida players. (The Heisman Trophy is much, much larger than it looks on TV.) This was very cool.

We also poked our head into the track/swimming/basketball facility, which was neat. And we stopped by the bookstore and I bought some University of Florida souvenirs for my girls.

But none of that quite reached highlight status of the trip for me.

After all, I've never dreamed of stepping foot in those places.

New Thing #234: Buffalo Wild Wings

I probably gave you the impression a couple of days ago that Jacksonville was a mere necessity on my trip through Florida - the city from which I flew home and nothing else. Well, that's mostly true.

But we did do one New Thing in Jacksonville before heading to their beautiful airport.

For the first time in my life I went to a Buffalo Wild Wings.

I'm sure you're aware, if you've ever watched a sporting event - or television of any kind, really - of Buffalo Wild Wings. Their commercials are all over the place.

But there are none near me, so I've never been. (Surprisingly, there are at least 4 in Massachusetts. I just did a search on their website - it's one of those 'within ___ miles of [zip code]' searches, and there are 4 within 50 miles of my home. 3 within 30. There doesn't seem to be a list of locations anywhere on the site. I'm shocked there are 4 in Massachusetts - I didn't even think there were any in this region. Which always surprised me because of how many commercials are on. But I guess now all the ads make sense...even though I've never been, I certainly knew the brand.)

The only bad thing about the timing of our visit was that it was last Saturday afternoon, and there were hardly any sporting events on. There was the Little League World Series when we were there, and the Arena Bowl. I kind of wanted to get the full experience by watching some games while we were there...but I could also see it being one of those totally overwhelming game-watching experiences because of the quantity of TVs. (There was a fantasy football draft happening in the bar area while we were there. And Buffalo Wild Wings seems to cater to the fantasy football crowd - they are celebrating 'draft weekend' this coming weekend and inviting fantasy leagues to have their drafts there by reserving tables and such. Me from 10 years ago thinks all of this is very, very cool.) There were also a couple of trivia games on a few of the TVs. That seemed to have potential, though I didn't play.

Of course I had the wings. I went with the boneless option per my friend Kevin's suggestion, and I had a teriyaki sauce. It was delicious.

The service was great too. Very accommodating staff. (Interesting thing about Florida - they always ask if you want checks together or separate. In most other places I've been that feels like a burden. Every place we went to in Florida they offered to split the check. Buffalo Wild Wings even went a step further and rang up our order itemized so we could see exactly what we owed - so we paid a total bill but we could see it broken down by what we ordered.)

Overall a great experience...worth the drive if I was so inclined to visit one of the Massachusetts locations. But I don't know if I'm so inclined. (There are 8 locations within 20 miles of my parents' house in New York....)

The only other drawback of no games on TV while we were there - I couldn't employ the bartender to press the secret button that results in the delay of game so we could stay out longer.

I always wondered if that was a real thing.

New Thing #233: Tropicana Field

I love ballparks. Most of you know this about me...but I'm sure there are people who will read this who don't know my history. (This a good place to start for most of my writing about ballparks I've visited. That page links to the parks I've visited and wrote about between 2004 and 2010. I can track down others if you're interested.)

The most recent new ballpark experience is the one I thought I would be least interested in seeing: Tropicana Field.

And I have to admit - I was pleasantly surprised.

The first thing we did when we got into Tropicana Field was check out the Ted Williams Museum and Hitters Hall of Fame. You may remember this place from when Williams died back in 2002 - that's where much of the local Boston reports were centered. It was located in Hernando, Florida, which is really in the middle of nowhere. I guess it moved to Tropicana Field (I had no idea until we walked into it), and man is it worth a visit. Great displays about Williams, and a good selection of other hitters and team items are on display. The only fault I found was this plaque featuring Rays' managers, with Joe Maddon's name misspelled. Seems like the type of thing you should get right.

Seriously, I could write a whole other post about this museum, I was so impressed by it.

We went to two games at Tropicana Field - both against the Mariners. The Rays won the first after coming from behind, scoring a run in the bottom of the 9th to win (that's what you see above), and they won the second 7-1. We had great seats, which we got walking up to the ticket window (we never saw a line) and paid just $40 for.

It makes me simultaneously sad and happy. I loved kind of having a ballpark all to ourselves, walking around wherever we wanted because there were no crowds, but at the same time the Rays are a good team and it's a shame that no one is coming out to their games.

By the second game, we had kind of exhausted most of the things there were to do at the park. But out in center field there are a couple of attractions that we took in. First of all, we watched the first couple of innings of the second game from a barbecue restaurant that is in straightaway center field - Everglades BBQ Company - which was probably a better bargain than the concession stands. I liked it, though the green tinted windows were a little too green.

Then on the way down, there was no crowd at the rays tank, which houses what are probably the best-fed rays in the world. You can reach in and touch the rays, and even feed them. We did not feed them....but we did touch them. (Yes, I did. It was kind of a weird sensation. I didn't love it.)

This was the first time I'd ever been in a baseball game in a full-on dome. I've been to retractable roofs (Houston, Seattle, Arizona) and a football game with a roof (Indianapolis), but never a baseball game inside. (Even in Arizona, where the roof didn't open when we were there, it felt a little more open.)

The dome at the Trop made this field feel very close. But the lack of fans in the seats opened things up again. I think this: That place could get loud. It could be a tremendous home field advantage. The fans that show up are passionate, they ring their cowbells - it got kind of loud with very small crowds when we were there - and the ballpark isn't bad. It's clearly not drawing crowds...but if the Rays can figure out how to get fans in there, it could be a place that opposing teams won't want to go.

I liked the '162 Landing' down the left field line, where Evan Longoria's homer landed in 2011 when the Rays clinched their playoff spot on the last day of the season. I liked the in-game entertainment. I liked the scoreboards and videoboards and in-game stats.

Oh yeah - and the baseball the Rays played was pretty good too. I leave you with this - the moment Jason Bourgeois made contact with the fly ball to right that brought home the game-winning run Wednesday night, setting off the celebration picture you see above:

Let me know if you can find the ball - I think it may just be out of the picture to the right, but I'm hoping it's in the frame.

And for goodness' sake - if you're in the Tampa area and the Rays are at home...check out a game. It's a good time.

New Thing #232: Tampa/St. Pete

I spent most of last week in Florida. I flew into Tampa, stayed in St. Petersburg, spent a day-and-a-half in Gainesville, and flew out of Jacksonville.

Or, as my brother put it, I took a trip that he would take.

He's exactly right, though I can't explain why that makes sense.

Usually, though, he's playing a guitar in all of those cities.

I did not...but I did check out some ballparks.

Ballparks are a little obsession of mine. More on that later this week.

The purpose of this trip was to visit a friend. (I've mentioned him before I think. His name is Kevin.) Kevin lived in North Carolina for 12 years and every year I thought about getting down there and I never did. So when he moved to the University of Florida, I made sure I set some time aside to get down there. Thanks to my wife, I was able to work in a Wednesday through Saturday trip while she stayed home with the kids.

Gainesville will be getting its own post this week. So will the Rays games, as will some other New Things we tried out down in Florida. I'll keep this post pretty general.

When some of you head down to Tampa, you might make sure you hit a beach. Or get out on the water. That's not quite how we roll.

Our primary purpose meeting in Tampa was to go to a Rays game. (Or two.) And while we were in the area we made sure to check out Raymond James Stadium (where the Buccaneers play - pictured above) and Steinbrenner Field (where a Yankees minor league team plays...and I think where they have their spring training games - pictured below right). (Yes, those are pictures I took from a moving car...something I usually don't get a chance to do because I'm usually driving and barking orders to my wife about which pictures to take out of the window. I thought I did pretty good.)

We didn't go into these parks - or walk up to them, I should say - because we couldn't find a good place to pull over and access them. But I'm glad we saw them.

We found a nice little hangout area in St. Pete - I think it was Central Avenue - not far from the University of South Florida campus. We went to a couple of restaurants in the area. We particularly enjoyed The Midway and their delicious popcorn.

All of our driving helped me get a little more familiar with Florida geography. That's kind of a big state. The St. Petersburg-Gainesville-Jacksonville loop is not an easy drive. They're pretty big cities...with not a whole lot between them.

I know what you're wondering - no, we did not see the stadium where the Jaguars play. (Is this weird? The Buccaneers played in New England when we were in Gainesville, and the Jaguars played the Jets in New Jersey when we were in Jacksonville. Those are the two places I am most likely to see a game, when I was in the cities of the opponents. Chew on it. Let me know.) What I did see was the Jacksonville airport, which was beautiful. Kevin decided it must have been a stipulation of their 2005 Super Bowl. Nicest airport I've ever been in, I think.

So that's where I spent the end of last week. I'll be telling you about it most of this week, because there were a lot of New Things.

Of course, that will include the ballpark where we actually went inside.

New Thing #231: DJ Kitty

My only regret from the time I spent in Florida last week is that I did not get a video recording of what I'm going to tell you about today. I was hoping I'd come back from my trip with some kind of local new music experience.

I did...but this isn't exactly what I had in mind.

Allow me to introduce you to DJ Kitty.

Maybe it's for the best I don't have a video of it - it's truly best if you experience it in person. (And for that, I'm sure Rays management would be appreciative. There aren't many people experiencing Rays games in person. More on that later in the week.)

I'm not sure I knew this phenomenon was happening. From the videos that are available online (click here so you can at least get a taste of DJ Kitty), I'm assuming it dates back at least three years. Maybe a game I was watching showed it and I didn't know what it was out of context...but this is one of those fun ballpark things that I feel people should know about.

I went to two Rays games, and DJ Kitty popped onto the scoreboard in, I think, the middle of the 8th inning in both games. The crowd, obviously, loves it.

I don't remember which song comes on with the video - it could very well be the one in the video I linked to above - but the song doesn't matter because of the video of the cat and the crowd shots and dance club shots shown over the music. (My favorite is when DJ Kitty raises its hands in the air and moves back and forth.) I get the impression they show DJ Kitty with different songs in different years.

(The other funny thing the Rays do which is music-related is when there's a conference on the mound for the other team they play some cheesy music video - at our two games it was a David Hasselhoff number and a Mr. T song and they pull back to show the music in a thought bubble and then they attach the thought bubble to the conference on the mound. It's amusing.)

(And while I'm parenthetically throwing out Rays trade secrets - they're trade secrets because no one goes to the games and therefore no one knows about them - when the Rays win they play another video clip after the last out that the fans love. It's a good time down there in St. Petersburg.)

DJ Kitty is the best one, though. And the Rays know this - they have DJ Kitty souvenirs on sale. I considered getting one.

I really liked DJ Kitty. And that's coming from someone who does not like cats.

Here's what it looks like from inside the stadium:

New Thing #230: Fried Green Tomatoes

If you're like me, when you hear the term 'fried green tomatoes', you think of a movie starring Jessica Tandy and Mary Stuart Masterson. If you're like me, you've never seen that movie.

And if you're like me, you've never eaten fried green tomatoes.

Until last week.

This is another of my wife's new twists in the kitchen.

We got some green tomatoes in our farm share box, and she figured, "Why not fry them up?"

There is a definitive taste to the green tomatoes - I suppose it's a tartness, but I'm not sure that description accurately captures the taste. The fried aspect of it, obviously, helps dilute that tartness some.

It's interesting, though - it's kind of like apples. Red apples, like red tomatoes, are kind of just the default taste of those respective foods. Then the green ones have a bit more tartness to them.

Unlike with apples, though, where I usually prefer a Granny Smith to a red - though the sample size is small with green tomatoes, I'm a bigger fan of red than green.

Then again, I've only had fried with the green variety.

Maybe next time we should fry up some red tomatoes.

That will really put them over the top.

New Thing #229: Home Gym

I don't want to beat a dead horse (who would? what kind of sicko beats a dead horse? a dead anything, come to think of it?), but I haven't belonged to a gym this year. As a result, I've needed to show some discipline inside the house in order to get workouts in.

Now, understand - home is the place I stayed when I didn't want to go to the gym when we belonged to the gym.

So you see the problem here.

But I bought a couple of elements to add to what I already had here and I think I've done a pretty good job of maintaining a workout schedule, gym or no gym.

The picture above gives you an indication of what I'm working with.

I've told you about the kettlebell, and I've had those dumbbells for years. Not pictured, there's an ab roller and a big bouncy ball that my wife has had for years that I use occasionally as well.

But this is about the new stuff.

And after I got some sports store gift cards for my birthday, I added the medicine ball, the jump rope, and that yellow resistance cord to my collection.

I use the medicine ball for work on my abs. I don't have a full understanding of how to use a medicine ball, but I have a much better idea about it than I did with the kettlebell. I've only scratched the surface of the resistance cord, I'm sure. I use it for my arms, mostly, but I'm sure I can do some leg stuff with it as well.

I haven't had much opportunity to use the jump rope yet, since it's a strictly outdoor piece of equipment and the other stuff is for the indoors, but I like having it. Someday I'll bring it with me on a bike ride, find a quiet place where no one is around to laugh at my jump roping ineptitude, and work on my jump roping.

Storage is a problem right now - I don't have a designated spot for the workout equipment. Right now I leave everything pretty much out in the open in the same area as a lot of my daughters' toys. In practice, this is not ideal, because I realize there could be a trip and fall and knocking a head into a kettlebell situation happening...but psychologically, the equipment is right in front of the TV, so if I'm sitting watching TV and doing nothing else, I can lift some weights at the same time.

And my daughters have so far proven responsible around everything. But if I'm not using things for a while I'll move them out of the way.

I always thought having a home gym meant I would have the luxury of a spare room where I had some benches and some serious workout equipment - like what you see at the gym but in your own home.

Turns out, a bunch of small workout equipment in the same room as your kids' toys can do the trick just as well.

New Thing #228: Gillette Fusion

I guess I really liked the razor I had used for the past I-don't-know-how-many years. I never once stopped to think about what was happening - I just shaved and moved on with my day.

But old age had taken its toll on the razor and I threw it out recently, replacing it with a Gillette Fusion razor.

And I'm not sure my face is taking too well to the change.

I used to have the Mach3. (And I think I spent time with the Sensor Excel, too...but as I've mentioned - I give very little thought to razors and my shaves.)

I didn't replace the cartridges all that often, but I never felt I wasn't getting a great shave. If the shave started to feel uncomfortable, that was my cue to change the cartridge.

I'm not sure what the deal is with the Fusion razor, but it feels sharper against my face during a shave...and it feels like it needs a new cartridge a lot sooner than the Mach3 ever did.

I can't remember the first circumstance under which I changed the razor. I know it wasn't an intentional new thing - I think I just told my wife I could use a new razor and she picked this one out and that was it. (I didn't mind it at first because - Mets colors! - it's blue and orange.)

Then, when we went down to the Cape for the wedding a couple of weeks ago, I forgot to bring any shaving equipment. So I went to CVS and recognized the Fusion (blue and orange!) and picked that one up.

I'm not unhappy with the final product - I'm getting a clean shave.

But it doesn't feel so great while it's happening.

So the next time I'm ready for a new razor - maybe as soon as the beginning of school - I won't be getting new Fusion cartridges.

I think I'll be going back to my Mach3 razor.

New Thing #227: Rooting For The Pirates

I used to hate the Pittsburgh Pirates. Time was, before the addition of the central divisions and realignment, that the Mets and Pirates were divisional rivals.

Familiarity bred contempt.

1990 was particularly tough, with the Pirates beating out the Mets for the division and ushering in some tough times for my team. (Though not as tough as the times the Pirates were about to experience. More on that later.)

I'm pretty sure it was 1990 when my dad taught me the theory that I should root for the Pirates to just go on and win it all...so that the Mets would be beaten out by the best. (My stubborn 12-year-old self would never admit the Pirates were 'the best'...or at least better than the Mets.)

But the Pirates hit some hard times...and now, I find myself rooting for the team I used to hate.

After three straight division titles (1990, 1991, and 1992...the latter two of which brought them to within a game of the World Series), the Pirates embarked on 20 straight losing seasons.

It's the longest such stretch of futility in professional sports.

In the meantime, they built a beautiful new ballpark which only the past couple of seasons has seen exciting baseball...though we got an indication of what it can look like for a big event when it hosted the All Star Game seven years ago.

I think there are a few  things that make the Pirates appealing to me:

• That ballpark. I love PNC Park. Those bridges in the background, the layout of the ballpark...I love it. I think it's my favorite new park - the sight lines play a big part in that. I am dying to see some playoff games with that ballpark all decked out for the post-season and packed to capacity. And I'm really excited to get back there in person...though I'm not so eager about driving back to Pittsburgh. (That picture up top is a picture of a picture I took there back in 2005. I did not take great pictures capturing the beauty of the park when I was there. I need to get back just for the sake of better pictures.)
• The color yellow. Really, it's no small thing. I've always liked the Pirates' color scheme (though not always their uniforms) - yellow and black. And the aforementioned bridges - they're my favorite color yellow. I find the Pirates visually appealing.
• It's fun to root for an underdog. I got a taste of it last year when the Pirates were strong into July, before they fell apart and ended up below .500 once more. This year they're definitely going to end their losing-seasons streak, and it's almost certain they'll make the playoffs. It's fun to see this type of turnaround for a team. (Then go back to not liking them.)
• Lastly, the Pirates are a good team to watch. Andrew McCutchen is a solid player, but also according to all accounts, an even better person. So I like rooting for him. They're a young team with strong pitching...they're exciting to watch. They're the type of team I like to root for, and I'm kind of mad at myself for not picking them to be this good - they have the type of recipe I look for when I pick playoff teams at the beginning of the year, like Washington a year ago and the Giants a few of years ago. (Baseball editorial - I was all in on Washington - a division rival - last year, and they definitely angered the baseball gods by shelving their ace with the thought that they'll get back to that spot with him. I still like Strasburg, and I will enjoy watching Bryce Harper for the next 20 years or so, but I'll never root for the Washington Nationals again.)

Even better for me - that recipe the Pirates have this year and the Nationals did a year ago and the Giants did three years ago? It's the exact kind of team the Mets will be a year from now.

Then I won't have to root for the Pirates as the playoffs approach.

My team might be making its own post-season run.

New Thing #226: Mazda CX-5

Honest to goodness, I didn't even intend to tell you about buying out the lease on the Venza because, even though it was definitely a New Thing in 2013, it is booooring. Too much paperwork and such a headache I didn't want to tell the story.

But when I got the new license plates, well, it was a must.

The other reason it's not all that exciting, though, is that shortly after we turned the Venza lease into an ownership, something much more exciting happened: My wife got a new car.

It's a Mazda CX-5.

The great thing about the new car is we will never forget the day my wife brought it home - it was the same day our nephew was born. (I got a lot of mileage - no pun intended [ok, pun intended] - out of that fun fact.)

I didn't write about it right away because I needed some time to get a feel for the car, and to drive it a bit.

It's nothing special to drive - it's nice. I like driving new cars. The Venza is far from old and decrepit, but little things are starting to sneak in, like a little bit of a tail on the steering wheel so that there's a drift if you don't touch it. You know what I mean? It slightly drifts either left or right. Not a lot, but enough to notice. With the new car you can not touch the steering wheel and go straight all day. I like that. Also, it's the same size as my wife's old car. After three years I'm still having trouble adjusting to the longer front of the Venza, especially on turns and pulling into parking lot spaces. The Mazda is easy.

My wife, since she went from buying a car to buying a car with no lease in between, kept her old plates. So there's nothing exciting to report there. (Although I don't think I told you that I probably won't return the old plates I had. I now am in possession of five sets of license plates - my old cool one, the new old boring one, the ones on my car and my wife's car, and then a license plate with the number 7778 on it - that's my birthday. A family whose kids I taught had that license plate - and when I saw them in the parking lot once I told them that I loved the plate number. They remembered, and when they had to turn in their plates, they gave them to me. So now maybe I'll keep spare plates in my trunk and when I commit crimes and need to change the look of my car I can swap them out, The Americans - style. [Just kidding, law enforcers. Just kidding. They're in my garage.] It is legal in Massachusetts, for those wondering, to keep your plates, though you can turn them in if you'd like. You just have to cancel them on-line.)

(Also, parenthetically, maybe you're wondering what constitutes a cool license plate. The birthday example above is a good one. Repeating numbers are always good. And last week I drove behind a car with a GC8 as the last three characters. I love that - "Gary Carter 8".)

Back to the new Mazda: My kids have a lot about it they're excited about. My oldest daughter, after crying when my wife got rid of the old Rav-4, has come around, and all three love that Pandora can play on the car's sound system. So they can listen to their kid's music, and that's all they need.

One of the requirements of this car for my wife and I was that three car seats had to fit across the back seat. (The Rav couldn't fit three. Oh - that's another thing the kids like. They liked saying 'Rav, like ravioli.' They've discovered 'Mazda sounds like pasta!') So we no longer have to maneuver our schedules based on which car is bringing around which kids - it's quite freeing.

And, this is no small point - as disappointed and frustrated as we were in our Toyota company with the complications from buying out the lease, my wife loved her experience at Wellesley Mazda. If you're interested in a Mazda, let us know - she has some contact information she can give you. It was that good.