Feeling Good Even At My Age!

Since I revived my officiating blog, I might as well revive my personal blog as well.  

My fall basketball league team struggled early but rallied to win our playoff game on Monday 52-44. I scored 12 points to tie for the scoring lead for our team.

I am writing this blog to note that my basketball playing skills have never been better.   It all started in mid-September when I played in an over 40 3 on 3 tournament.  My expectations for the tournament was to play a few games, get some exercise and have some fun.

However, the tournament far exceeded my expectations.  After losing our first game, we won our other three games to make the playoffs.  The team then cruised through the semi-finals and the finals to win the tournament title.

It was an unexpected but fun surprise.  Besides winning, I was just playing well.  I hit four game winning shots in a row (Game #2 to Game #5).  I just all over the court hitting layups, mid range jumpers and even popped in a couple of three's.

The downside to the tournament was that my shoulder bothered me afterward.  I don't know if it was from the tournament or on the computer too much afterward.  My shooting and my overall basketball playing was affected.  I was thinking too much and my shot was way off.

However, I went to see my old chiropractor who's been stretching me out a bit and working on adjustments for my neck, shoulder and body.  Slowly but surely, I have gotten back to normal.  Along the way, my basketball shooting touch has returned.  Since I've been playing and officiating, I'm in pretty good shape.  So when I play basketball, it's pretty effortless.  I can last for a while without getting tired.

So even though I am "sort of old" at my age, I feel I'm playing the best basketball of my life.  I don't know how long this will last but I want to enjoy it while I can!

Highlights from 3 on 3 Tournament

Things To Be Thankful For - 2015 Edition

It's been a year since I blogged!  Well, it's Thanksgiving evening and now's a good time to give my thanks:

1.
My "Twin" Friend:  Lots of up and downs throughout this 2015 year for both of us.  But I'm glad my "twin" is with me.  Someone who is always willing to lend and ear to listen or just talk about random things.  We really are the definition of good friends!

2.
ABC Basketball:  The older you get, the less you go out and "party".  Plus, a lot of friends get married and the time to hang out gets minimized to a few times per year.  So what do you do?  You go play in basketball leagues.  Not just any leagues though.  ABC Basketball is less about basketball and more about community.  It's a chance to "hang out" with people you know once or twice a week (depending if you play one or both leagues).  Everyone needs their social time away from regular life and I'm glad that ABC is around for me.

3.
Shopping centers and late night Target Hours:  My mom's health isn't great and there's a lot of things she is supposed to do including exercise.  It's a challenge for my dad since he works odd hours.   So most days / nights when I am not busy, I am taking my mom around for walks.   The walks are  nothing too elaborate or long.  Given her age and sensitivity to hot / cold weather, I've made several shopping centers (Serramonte and Stonestown) and the Colma Target my mom's walking spots.  Target is my favorite after 9 PM since the malls are closed by then.

I got walking patterns for the malls / Target that will generally get mom about 25 to 30 minutes of walking.  We probably need to do more but she does get tired.  I figure that just getting a little bit every day is a good cumulative thing.

4.
iMovie / Movie Cameras:  Technology is great and I've taken advantage of it.  In the past three years or so, I'm on a binge recording a good number of my basketball related activities.  Then I use iMovie to parse highlights for myself and friends.  It's a shame technology wasn't as advanced in the older days.  It would be nice to see myself when I was younger.  But I have no complaints about things now!

Things To Be Thankful For - 2014 Edition

I haven't blogged in a while but as Thanksgiving is literally minutes away, here's my list of things to be thankful for in 2014:

1.
Friends, Friends and More Friends.   I have quite a few friends from different aspects of my life and I am thankful to have all of them in my life.   I may have known them from work, other friends or other means, but it doesn't matter how I met them.  I am just glad they are part of my life.

2.
ABC Basketball League!  I could say a lot of things but the simple fact is that it's great to have a community of people in our basketball league to regularly play and hang out with.  The league is not purely about basketball anymore but a chance to catch up with people that you've met through the years.

3.
Facebook "Friends".  There are a few folks that I have met via Facebook Groups in the past year or so.  I've met one of them and there are others that I interact semi-regularly with.  While messaging on Facebook isn't quite the same as in person or over the phone, the people I know are cool and we have a lot of talk about.  Again, it's great to have another avenue to interact with other people.

Lessons In Coaching And People Management

I coached youth basketball for years and have a good feel for it.  However, all the experience coaching youth doesn't prepare you for working with adults.   I've been a captain / coach in various adult leagues for many years.  However, early on, I lacked confidence in dealing with certain players. I was great with the low key folks who just followed my directions.  But on every team, you have guys who are outspoken and want to do things their own way.  

However, in recent years, I've started to tighten up as I know what I like and don't like.  I had an interesting situation tonight where two players were getting into it.  Our team was down 22-13 as well and there was some heated discussions.  I even got into it a bit with a few people because there was just a lot going on. 

Ultimately, I made a choice to sit a couple of players down to let them cool down.  We fell behind 29-13 but somehow came back to win 54-52.  Did my choice to bench people have something to do with it?  I don't know but it was a sacrifice I made.  If we lost the game then so be it. 

Sometimes I don't think people realize that coaching a team is basically like being a manager at a job.   Basically you have to coach people to play a game and work with their "personalities".  I didn't do the best job today but I learned a lesson in how to manage situations for the future. 

Funny How Things Work Out

I don't talk much about work on my blog but I'll make a small exception this time.  I'm not really complaining or commenting on the work itself, but just how my career progression has gone in the past few years.  

In mid-2006, after about seven years at a large telecommunications company, I left to take a job at a smaller company.   The official job title I took in 2006 was "Product Support Specialist" which is a fancy title for technical support.  I had done customer support for five out of my seven years at my previous company so doing product / customer support wasn't anything new to me.  

However, I had taken the job to take on some new challenges as a smaller company gives you those opportunities.  Over time, I ended up doing some different things including pre-sales technical support, QA Testing, and manual writing.    

As things progressed into 2007, the smaller company earned some venture capitalist (VC) funding.   With that, the VC's decided to bring in experienced management to help the company grow to the next level.   With that, I got a new manager and subsequently new job titles.  My new manager had studied the work that I did and thought it was reflected Sales support (even if customer / technical support was still an important part of the job).  My manager decided to bless me with a new job title which was "Inside Sales Engineer".   I didn't realize how important the job title would be until later. 

Unfortunately, in mid 2008, I was laid off from the smaller company.   This would be my first ever layoff and I admit it was a bit of a surprise.  However, I took things in stride and just began the process of looking for a new job. 

About a month later, I got a call from a recruiter for a "Sales Engineer".  I guess having my job title as a "Inside Sales Engineer" helped him find me.  Thanks to that recruiter, I landed the job of Sales Engineer at my current company.  

To wrap this post, it had been a small goal of mine to achieve the title of "Senior Sales Engineer" at my current company eventually.  Being a Senior Sales Engineer has different expectations and responsibilities and so I knew it wasn't going to be anytime soon.  

In a bit of a repeat from 2006, the management staff of our Sales Engineering team determined that all of the Sales Engineers on our team were already performing work at the level of "Senior Sales Engineers".   Thus the management decided that all of the Sales Engineers would be granted the title of "Senior Sales Engineer".   The folks that were already "Senior Sales Engineers" would be given a new title of "Principal Sales Engineer".   So while all of us will still be performing our same duties, we have been gifted some new titles.  

So while this isn't technically a promotion, I do appreciate having the title.  It was something that I wanted to achieve from a personal perspective.  Even thought the title will be official at some point, I won't stop trying to improve and will continue to push toward the next level of my position in the future.    However, it's funny how things sometimes work out when you least expect it.  

 

An Unlikely Contributor

Last week, my Wednesday Night basketball league wrapped up it's season with the consolation and then championship games.  Fortunately, my team was one of the teams that was playing in the championship game.

My team came out of the gate a little slow but made a big third quarter run and we eventually won 72-63.  It was a sweet moment for the team and for me personally.

After a frustrating fall season where I missed most of the season due to injury, I was able to contribute 9 points (4-7 FG, 1-2 FT) 4 rebounds, and 1 assist in the championship game win.  The points were crucial in keeping my team in the game in the second quarter when we were slumping a bit.

Considering I had not played for over 2 months, the fact that I was shooting well was great!  I had not counted on playing at all this season.  However, my injury had healed enough that I felt good enough to return to brief action the week before and contribute more fully last week.

The championship title was the 5th for me in this particular league and 3rd overall this year.  So while the injury was frustrating, the ending was beautiful and adds another story I can talk about in the years to come!

Thanksgiving 2013

Many years ago, I started a tradition of "giving thanks" by writing an email to various friends.  With the growth of the Internet, I've taken to posting my thanks on my blog.  So for 2013, here are some things to be thankful for:

1.
Mom and Dad.  There are things going on that my mom has to deal with.  It hasn't been easy for my Dad and I but I am fortunate they are both doing ok for the most part.  We go through ups and downs with our parents but at the end, you still love them because they raised you.

2.
My "Twin Friend"(They know who they are).   My twin and I talk to each other a lot.   Some times we just talk briefly due to time and other things.  Some days are serious and some days are not.  The main thing is we talk to see how the other person is and provide some friendly company to the other.  In this day and age of texting and social media, it's easy to feel disconnected.  My friend and I are far from that.

3.
My "Old College Friend".  Even though things have been busy on my friend's end lately (having a baby does that), we chat via email and text.  When we do see each other, we pick up like nothing's changed.  Just a sign of a great friend when we can do that.

4.
Canon Rebel XSI / EOS 70D / Point and Shoot / iPhone 4 - I've always taken a lot of photographs in the past.  It's been in the past few years that I started learning the art / technique of manual photography.  It took some time, but I am finally grasping a few things.  But even though I am learning a different way of photography, I still do "regular" auto photography as well.  Thanks to my old XSI for being the first DSLR I had.  Even though it's old, I still use it for the majority of my shots.  My new 70D (plus lens) is used for basketball shots at the moment.  My iPhone and Canon Point and Shoot still serve a purpose for quick shots when I don't want to lug my DSLR's around.

5.
My old guy friends (aka "Downtown Work Guys") - I've known all of these guy friends for years.  Interestingly enough we all work downtown now and we have lunch every now and then.

6.
ABC Basketball League - I've been injured for much of the fall basketball season so i haven't played and haven't been as present during the fall.  However, the league is still a great place to drop by and catch up with people.  It's a basketball league but also a social center for many people from different places.  A very unique league that I am glad to be associated with.

I'm sure there are a lot of other things, but let's stop here for now.  Happy Thanksgiving everyone!