Cough Syrup and Antibiotics

Yesterday I visited my primary care doctor for a very persistent, dry cough that I've had for the last week and a half. He prescribed me a couple of things with weird medical names. I had no idea what they were for so I looked them up.

Promethazine DM Syrup

Promethazine is known as an antihistamine. Histamine is a chemical that's known to cause symptoms of allergies like a runny nose or sneezing. Antihistamines don't prevent the production of histamines, they just prevent them from being able to act on the issues which cause the symptoms. This is suppose to decrease post-nasal drips (the mucus secretions that drain from the sinuses into the throat) and therefore also lesson coughing. 

The DM stands for Dextromethorphan. This is a drug that suppresses the cough reflex by affecting the signals in the brain that trigger coughs. The cough syrup that my girlfriend got me (Delsym) contains this ingredient. Delsym doesn't contain promethazine. 

Does that mean there are traces of histamine being produced in my body that is causing my runny nose? Why is it being produced? Ah! I should call my doctor.

Instructions:

Take 1 teaspoon (5ml) by mouth four times daily. 

Azithromycin

This is an antibiotic. It treats all sorts of infections such as respiratory infections, ear infections, and skin infections. 

I came down with a cold. According to this article, since cold symptoms usually last for about a week, the fact that I'm still coughing after a week is a sign that I may also have a bacterial infection. Maybe this will help.

Instructions:

Take 2 tablets by mouth the first day. Then take 1 per day for four days.

Resources:

• Pronounciations: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FDJPDl-yLa8, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cr6Y0zYXPHI
• http://www.livestrong.com/article/31268-promethazinedm-syrup-used/
• http://www.everydayhealth.com/drugs/dextromethorphan
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmD1en3nClQ
• http://www.drugs.com/dextromethorphan.html
• http://www.drugs.com/azithromycin.html

Physique Swimming: Lesson 7

We worked with Fru again today. She's a great teacher - I think she's one of the head teachers in the program just based on the way she talks to the other instructors.

We started of with ... bubbles. As always. My bubbles are a lot more controlled now when I'm swimming. I'm doing a better job pacing myself.

We worked on...

• Streamline with a kick board. I kept my arms tucked behind my ears and my head facing the floor of the pool. We did it all the way to the deep end and then back.
• Gliding in streamline position. I think she noticed that our streamlines still needed work so she just had us glide without the kicking. As far as kicking is concerned, she says she wants me to kick wider and slower. I kept running out of breath - I think I was tensing up too much again. It always happens when I don't relax. 
• Streamline into a back float. We would start off in streamline, then we would rotate our bodies slowly until we're floating on our backs. Then repeat. The purpose of this was get us accustomed to rotating our bodies underwater. 
• Sidekicks with kick board. Rather than rotating all the way, we would start off streamline, kick, kick, kick, then put one arm on our side and then rotate our head onto our arms while continuing to kick sideways. We kept doing this with both arms. 
• I stiffen the arm that's on the side way too much. She told me to just let it go and don't tense it. 
• I rotate too much sometimes end up overstretching my neck. It should be comfortable - your head should be resting on your arm. 
• Back float kicking off the wall. We held on to the side of the pool and then lifted our feet and put them against the wall while leaning our heads back into the water. Then we gently let go and extended our legs and opened our arms to the side. 
• My legs kept sinking and she told me to 1. Open them wide and 2. Squeeze my but so I don't bend (huh? tried this but didn't work). 

My biggest problem is the sidekick. I think I'll keep working on it with the board. The moment I lose the board, I feel like it's impossible for me to turn my head and still keep it above water. I'll look up some sidekick drills tomorrow. Pretty tired right now. 

An Afternoon reading about Productivity...

I stopped by Barnes and Nobles today to check out some books on productivity and organization. I've been feeling a bit overwhelmed by the number of things I want to do and it's negatively affecting my work and my relationships. I've never been very good at being organized (my desk is usually messy) and I often do not prioritize things I need to do (I've spent anywhere from hours to entire weeks doing unimportant tasks). As a result, I feel a lot of anxiety when I think about what I want to accomplish, I don't get much important work done, and that in turns fuels the anxiety and saps my energy throughout the day.

Being more productive is something I've thought a lot about but not something I've acted on consistently. I remember coming up with an organization system on Evernote for managing projects that helped me complete a few important goals but it eventually fell into disuse. I went into the store today looking for very action oriented and simple plan to get me back on track.

I just went into the business section and skimmed three books that looked relevant off the shelves.

Here are my notes of some key points:

The Productivity Project by Chris Bailey

• Know why you want to be more productive. What do you want? When you're able to free up more time, what do you want to spend that time doing? Helps you stick with it. 
• Focus on three things you want to get done every day (do it day before) as well as three things you want done every week. Why 3? Because that's easy to remember and doesn't overload your brain. We're good at holding groups of 3's in our heads. 
• When do you have the most energy during the day? For Chris it's about noon - 3pm and 5-8pm. Monitor your energy level. Use this time to work on your most important work. 
• There's a difference between urgent tasks and important tasks. Just because something is urgent doesn't mean it's important. Learn to say no. No will be the most effective word in your productivity toolbox. 
• Externalize your ideas about what you want to do so you don't fret over them. But don't go overboard - keep in mind that making todo-lists is not the same as doing. 
• Have a maintenance day for getting all your unsexy but must do stuff done. These have minimal life level up effects but can impact life negatively if left untend to (like cleaning your apartment). Make it easier by listening to podcasts or some shit. If you can't do it in one day, schedule time each day when you have the LEAST energy to do them. 

7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey

• Be proactive. We can't control what others (environment, people) do to us. If someone wants to walk up to you and push you, then they're going to do that. We do have control over how we respond. Being proactive is focusing on how we respond to what life gives us. The alternative? Blame and make excuses (reactive). Proactive people focus on verbs. I will. I prefer. I'm going. Not I can't. If only, blah blah blah. We all have a circle of concern and a circle of influence. Being proactive means focusing on what you can control and taking action rather than blaming. Doing so increases your circle of influence because changes take place. Act or be acted upon.
• What's your center? Are you self-centered? Family-centered? Work-centered? What is your predominant center? Being principle-centered allows you to act with greater consistency and without being swayed by circumstance / emotion. You act according to values that are independent of how you feel at any given moment. 

Organize Tomorrow Today by Dr. Jason Selk and Tom Bartow

• Product goals versus process goals. 85% of your focus should be on process goals. Focusing on the end result creates anxiety.
• Productive people get the most important work done, not just as many things done. 
• Channel capacity = the limit of how much information we can process and retain. You can't get every thing done so don't even try to. Every technique needs to account for channel capacity.
• List three goals today (preferably noon - 3pm aka middle of day) for tomorrow as well as WHEN you expect to complete it. Then of the 3, identify one MUST COMPLETE goal. Identifying goals early rather than end of the day means maximizing time for your subconscious to work on the goals. Identifying a MUST COMPLETE means focusing on the most important.
• Don't dwell on your failures. Focus on what you succeed at to sustain motivation and become solution / action driven. Focusing on failures often leads to negative self-talk that does nothing.
• Keep a success log. What 3 things did you nail today? Doesn't have to be big. What's 1 thing you could improve? What is 1 action you can take tomorrow to make that improvement?  

I've noticed a few ideas that come up over and over again in both the books I looked at today and other productivity books I've read in the past:

• Externalize your ideas about what you want to do. Make lists. This reduces anxiety, reminds you of what you need to do, and enlists the help of your subconscious.
• Make a todo list for tomorrow TODAY. Almost every author suggests doing it the day before between noon to evening. 
• Focus on 3 things. 3 is the magic number, apparently. 
• Do most important thing when you have the most energy (for most people, this is in the morning). Eat your frogs first. 
• Less is more. Don't try to do too much or you will burn out / give up / not get much done because your attention is scattered. 

I really, really like the simplicity of the todo system outlined by Jason and Tom. There's two main components:

1. Identify 3 process goals for tomorrow between noon and dinner time. Write down a short description of each and when it needs to be complete. 
2. Of the three, mark the most important one that needs to be done. This is one you must try to complete at all costs. 
3. Evaluate your progress and stay motivated by keeping a success log. What are three things (doesn't have to be related to your goals) that you nailed today? What is one improvement you can make? What's one specific action you can take tomorrow to help make that improvement? 

This will really help me clarify what I want to do and holding myself accountable for it.

Day at the MET

I went with my friend to the Metropolitan Museum of Art (MET) today and it was really cool. We made it a goal to see as much of the museum as possible. This was my first time to the museum and I was blown away by it's size. I lost count of the number of times we got lost wandering around in that place.

The first thing we went to see was Egyptian art. My friend is half Egyptian and has been to the museum twice. Both times he spent nearly all of his time looking at Egyptian art so needless to say he was quite familiar with that section. The Egyptians made a lot of items that were for the afterlife. For example, I learned that they put their kings in something called a Sarcophagus (which just looked like a really elaborate casket made of stone) and often filled it with food so that the dead would be able to eat in the afterlife.

Marble Sarcophagus (My friend got in trouble for touching it hahaha) 

Before the body is put in a Sarcophagus they removed the organs of the dead body and put it inside Canopic Jars. The Jars were sculpted and represented Egyptians gods. Their purpose was to protect and preserve the organs so that the dead could find them when they came back to life. I thought, wow, sucks for the archaeologists who were digging these up because I doubt any of the dead actually came back to life to reclaim their guts.

Canopic Jar

Many of these after-life items were put inside tombs. One really cool we saw was the Tomb of Perneb which is pretty close to the entrance of the Egyptian art section. When we were inside I overheard a mother telling her son who was about seven or eight to stop looking at the map and look at the tomb. The kid was like "Mommy look! We're here! We're here" while poking his finger at a spot on the map. He seemed to have no interest in the actual tomb itself. I could relate.

We walked to the American Wing in the American Art section on the right side of the Museum and did a little bit of "art interpretation". Basically, we would look at a piece of art and then express the first thoughts that came to our mind about the piece. This was a lot of fun - it really allowed us to connect with the art and get in touch with how we were reacting to art. It also made the pieces much more memorable. Unlike the Egyptian sculptures, American sculptures looked much more alive and dynamic (they were often sculptures of things in the middle of an action) compared to the Egyptian sculptures which all seemed to look the same (arms folded across the chest like mummies ...).

Egyptian statues. Standing upright. 

American Art. Motion! Action!

Death and The Sculptor. My friend interpreted this as the Angel telling the sculptor to let go and surrender to death. His actions are futile.

Afterwards I complained about being hungry and we ended up getting lunch at this great italian restaurant called Grazie on 26th East 84th street. I had a brunch item called Eggs Royale and roasted vegetable soup. The Eggs Royale is basically an eggs Benedict with Salmon. It was amazing.

We went back to the MET shortly after and checked out these things in order:

Greek and Roman Art

The moment we walked into this section I was like, "wow, lots of dudes with they dicks out". Correction: they had their testicles out the dicks were broken off. Lots of busts. The sculptures were very big and the faces were very, very realistic. Mostly sculptures of Greek heroes and gods such as Hercules, Zeus, and Athena (God of Wisdom).

Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas

We were not too keen on this section. Lots of wooden carvings and totems. Oh, and this time there were definitely dudes with they dicks out. Humongous dicks that were dis-proportionally large. Don't ask why I keep focusing on the phallic parts of the art - it's their fault they made it so prominent.

Roof Garden

When I was looking at the map I saw "Roof Top Garden, Floor 5". We're close to the center of central park in Manhattan. This is a pretty tall museum. Roof top garden? The view must be incredible. Also, since it was so nice out, I knew we had to go to the garden.

It was gorgeous. I mean, neither of us had sun glasses and we were practically blinded by the sun but it was a beautiful sight. The moment we stepped out into the Garden we were facing downtown Manhattan - we saw the skyline from the north over the trees of central park. It was so beautiful! I'd love to go back there with my girlfriend sometime and take some pictures. Oh and by the way, there's also a house on the roof. 

We spent about three hours at this place and there's still so much we didn't see. I highly recommend this museum! If you do go, I recommend that you:

• Eat at Grazie. They have great food. 
• Wear sneakers because you'll be doing a lot of walking. 
• Bring a small back of snacks because chances are you'll be there for a while (it's a big place).
• Bring sunscreen and sunglasses so you can enjoy the rooftop views
• Picnic stuff if you want to chill at central park afterwards or in between tours (if you have a ticket you can leave the museum and come back)
• Bring a fully charged phone because you'll probably take lots of pictures (if you use your phone to take pictures) and have to look up a lot of things (what's vicera?)

Pragmatic Programmer Philosophy: Maintaining a Knowledge Portfolio

This is last part of my series of posts on the chapter of pragmatic programmer philosophy. It's also probably the most important chapter. As a programmer, you are what you can do. If you don't continuously improve your abilities, you're not very useful.

Andy and Dave use the investment portfolio as a metaphor for your knowledge and experience as a software developer. Instead of investing in financial assets, we're investing in knowledge of tools and processes to help us be more valuable as a programmer. Just like an investment portfolio, your knowledge portfolio as a programmer has a market value. In most cases, that market value is your salary.

The principles of growing an investment portfolio are pretty well known.

• Invest regularly
• Diversify asset types and risk
• Buy low, sell high
• Review and re-balance portfolio as necessary over time 

The same principles apply for growing your knowledge portfolio. Instead of investing regularly in and diversifying financial assets, you're doing the same with programming knowledge. 

The authors offer a set of tips on how to invest regularly, which they argue is the simplest principle to apply and the most important. Investing regularly just means learning regularly. 

There are various ways of learning about tech, generally speaking:

• Books. Both technical and non-technical. Try to read a book every quarter. Go read Pragmatic Programmer!
• Local user groups or meet ups. For example, there's like a dozen AngularJS meetup groups.
• Classes. Online or offline. Sign up for a Udacity or Coursera class!
• Newsgroups / Magazines. Keep up with trends. 

And more specifically, the authors suggest:

• Learning a new programming language every year. Always used Python? Try Haskell.
• Learning a new environment every year. Always used Mac? Try Linux.

Both of those efforts will broaden your thinking in really powerful ways. 

I'll be honest, I'm not doing any of those things right now. I think one thing I'm going to start doing is learning a new programming language. I feel like I have a very strong grasp of JavaScript. I'll write a short guide on it before moving on to a different language. 

Physique Swimming: Lesson 6

We had a pretty big group today! Got moved to beginners level 2 with Fru. We worked on ...

• Exhaling. Breathing under water. Turns out, most of us were breathing out way too quickly and we were NOT taking very relaxed breaths. 
• Streamline arms. My head was not tucked in tnough, my arms were too far out front, and my wrist point TOO far down so I have trouble staying above water. 
• Backfloats. Here's the trick to head positioning: face the ceiling and DON'T move your head. Kick one feet up when your shoulders and head are in the water then kick the other feet up. Keep your belly up. Don't arch your back too much or you'll start drinking water. 
• Deep end jumping. Jump in, then breathe out while kicking vertically. 

Feedback:

• She said my kicks are small and fast. Good for racing. However, she thinks I'm kicking slightly from my knees so it's better to practice wider kicks.Weird, I feel like I'm getting contradicting feedback about my kick. Anthony thinks my kick is awesome, but she thinks I'm still kicking from my knees. 
• There should be no gap between my arm and head when I'm in streamline. Tuck that shit together.
• Make sure one hand is directly on top of the other. 
• Relax. Relax. Relax.

Jospeh says that I've improved a lot. I feel it! I'm still struggling with sidekicks and I can still feel tension here and there but I do feel like I'm making progress so that feels good. I'll keep working on my kicks and breathing in the pool this week.

Why won't you take my cookie? Cover domain and public suffixes ...

Recently at work we were have issues with cookies while trying to setting up docker for a bunch of apps. 

We had five applications running on five docker containers. 

Container A: authentication back-end

Container B: authentication front-end 

Container C: app front-end

Container D: app back-end

Container E: nginx

We were expecting this flow:

1. Navigate to docker.local 
2. Authentication front-end loads on client with signup page
3. Fill out signup form and submit
4. Authentication back-end creates account, returns success response and sets a session cookie on client
5. Client redirects to app front-end
6. App front-end does a GET on a protected resource in app back-end, passes session cookie along
7. App back-end authenticates with authentication back-end using session cookie from request and returns the protected resource
8. App front-end loads the resource and renders the page

We ran into problems at step #4. The session cookie was never being set. We were not using a secure cookie or a httponly cookie. Every time we submitted the form, we got a 200 response from the authentication back-end server with a Set-Cookie header that attempted to set a cookie named session_id. However, every time we logged the client cookie information after the server response, it was missing the session_id cookie. 

After reading more about cookies, we learned that the problem had to do with the value of the cookie domain attribute value (also known as the cover domain). In our case, the cookies cover domain was set to .local. The purpose of the cover domain is security - it tells the browser client whether or not to set the cookie as well as whether it should send the cookie. The basic rule of thumb is that if the client domain matches the cover domain or is a subdomain of the cover domain, the cookie will be set / sent. 

The exception to this rule are public suffixes.

For most modern browsers, any top level domain is considered a public suffix. A public suffix is a domain that anyone can register a domain with (there is an official list). For example, ".com" is considered a public suffix. You can have "bob.com" and I can have "alan.com". Since all subdomain of a public suffix have different owners, it's not safe for cookies set by "bob.com" to be passed along to "alan.com". 

Since, ".local" is a top level domain, it is considered a public suffix. Therefore, the cookie is not set! We changed it to "docker.local" and that solved our issue. 

What's the Tribeca Film Festival?

Every year I'm in New York I seem to hear about the Tribeca Film Festival. For a long time I just assumed that this was some event that was only interesting to film makers or film critics and not ordinary movie watchers like myself. I heard about it again early this year and decided to challenge that assumption by doing a bit of research into what it is and then taking part in it. Who knows? It could be fun.

My first stop was the website. It looks great but it didn't seem like it was designed with the "uninitiated" in mind. There wasn't even a button to some "about" page. So I looked at Wikipedia. 

"To enable the international film community and the general public to experience the power of film by redefining the film festival experience."

I had to really unpack that.

A festival is an organized series of events over some period of time to celebrate something. I learned that a film festival is a festival where the series of events are film screenings in multiple theaters and its celebration are the many aspects of film making and film watching. 

There are many different film festivals that take place all over the world (Sundance Film Festival, Venice Film Festival). Aside from the obvious difference of where these screenings take place and over what period of time, they can also differ based on the kinds of films they choose to screen. In some festivals, there may be a special focus on a particular genre or film maker. 

The films that are screened are independent films. That means these films are all produced outside of the major studio system. In other words, they are not created by the companies that create blockbuster movies like Spiderman or big name directors like Steven Spielberg. It's likely you've never heard of these films or film makers before if you're not part of the film making community.

The Tribeca Film Festival is held in Tribeca, NYC and the focus, like any other film festival, is on independent films (documentaries, fiction films, and short films). There is no particular film theme. In addition to the film screenings, the festival also puts on panel discussions with well known actors and actresses (this upcoming one features a panel discussion with Ethan Hawke), live music and comedy performances, interactive activities, and even major studio premieres (Star Wars: Attack of the Clones).

Questions about the upcoming TFF

When is it?

This year, the TFF runs from April 13-24.

How do you participate? 

The TFF is run as a business by a company called Tribeca Enterprises. None of these events are free. You have to get tickets for them. You can get two types of tickets: a festival pass or individual tickets. A festival pass costs between $550 - $1250. The $1250 pass pretty much gives you access to everything. Your other option is to buy individual tickets. That's a much better option if you only want to buy tickets to a few events. For example, maybe you only want to see one panel discussion and two films. That will probably be less than $100. 

Where do the events take place?

The films are all shown in select theatres in the Tribeca area. You can see the specific location on the actual event page. You can get more information here.

My Plans

I plan on checking out 2-3 events at this years festival with my girlfriend this year. I'll probably look at one or two films and maybe a couple of non-film watching activities. The festival officially begins tomorrow so I better start looking! I hope the tickets don't get sold out.

Physique Swimming: Lesson 5

I worked with Anthony again today!

Skills

Fetal position float

• This is the same exercise we did last week. You inhale, then you enter the water slowly into a fetal position. Exhale the whole time and if you're sinking just allow yourself to sink until you're almost out of air.

Backstroke kick

• Keep your neck back and stomach up. Kick and remember not to bend your knees. We did this with a kick board.

Streamline with one arm stroke

• Using a kickboard, we do streamline and then perform a stroke with one arm. Then we take a breath by tilting our head up and then perform the other stroke with the other hand. 
• The issue I had with this is I felt like I wasn't going in a straightline. I felt very unbalanced. Also, I felt like I was taking smaller and smaller breaths each time. 

Anthony recommended that I work on two things:

• To maintain balance, pull your arm towards your chest but don't let it cross the mid-line (go diagonal) or else you'll start moving in a zig-zag (could be what I was doing). 
• Remember to exhale and then when your head is out to take a big breath. Don't hold your breath and remember to take as big of an exhale you can. 

Other than those things, he said that my kicks look great (I was doing a good job not bending my knees and kicking from the hip). Next week, he said I'll be ready for beginners level 2!

Next steps:

• Use a pullbuoy to practice your strokes (http://www.swimsmooth.com/catch.html)
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTQpF_mmg44
• Early vertical forearm. Imagine your arms pushing against a block that's sitting at eye level!
• Relaxation exercises. I still feel a bit of tension when I'm in the water. I need to stop holding my breath!

Physique Swimming: Lesson 4

We first started with bubbles, Joseph has us do streamline and then we got split into two groups: beginners 1 and beginners 2. I stayed in beginner 1 with and got a new instructor, Anthony.

My biggest pain point: staying buoyant

We worked on floating.

• Fetal position, rest until still. rotate to right using left arm. Rotate toe left. Go right then stop and go other direction. 
• Rest and then slowly open body to find natural buoyancy
• My legs sink because ... too much muscle mass in the legs

I was actually able to float! Even though my legs were going down. I just had to relax, keep my belly up (engage the core) and remember to breath but don't breathe everything out. 

We then did streamline on our backs. I drank water the first two times.

• Keep your arm above water. I had it too much in the water and this created an arch that pushed my head too far into the water. 

We then did an exercise that my girlfriend taught me. One hand on board, swim. Pull with one arm. Breath. Pull with other arm. Breath (head tilt up). I did it pretty well the first time but it got harder and harder over time because:

1) I was pushing my arms DOWN which caused my legs to sink

2) I was running out of air completely so started to sink

3) My sinking legs caused me to tilt my head higher to get water. Tilting higher caused body to sink even more. Vicious cycle.

Both of my instructors said that I'm still muscling my way through the water. I'm working too hard. Need to work with the water / buoyancy. 

I need to work on:

Staying Afloat

• Breath naturally. Don't exhale completely.

Kicking

• Perform ankle stretches with Yoga Block (2 sets of 15 seconds at night and 2 sets in morning)
• Visualize quarter in butt (kick from hips)
• "A good way to think about kicking from your hips is to squeeze your bum when you kick. It's a bit crude, but imagine you have a large coin between your butt cheeks and you're trying to hold it there whilst you swim. Keep your knees relaxed and drive the kick from the hips."
• toes. Use fins and remember to keep them pointed. 
• Kick off the wall drill. Torpedo off and go as far as possible with hands out.
• More information: http://www.swimsmooth.com/kick.html

Getting more relaxed through Breathing:

• Not relaxed. Practice sink downs (http://www.swimsmooth.com/exhalation.html).
• Exhale immediately
• Exhale completely and pay attention to your threshold. 

Physique Swimming: Lesson 2

Today we ...


We started by blowing bubbles. Then we moved on to everyone doing a single glide as far as possible using one breath. Then we swam streamline with a single breath to the deep end.

On Kicking

He said the only issue with my kicking is that they were too wide and too slow. Better faster and closer together than slow and far apart.

Skills

Sidekick

We first did single arm pull with water dumbbells and then we came back and did side kicks with the dumbbells. I had a really hard time balancing. He said I wasn't relaxed, that my kicking was not balanced (did not kick towards back), my head wasn't resting, and my other arm was too far on my back so it was tipping me on my back.

I also asked another dude if it's true that I can't float. He said that it was just more difficult because I have to learn a diff technique like arching my back more.  In other words, I may need to adjust my technique but it's not hopeless for me.

Freestyle

This is the combination of streamlining and breathing with a sidekick. You begin swimming in streamline with your legs kicking, then you rotate your body into a sidekick in order to breath and then back into streamline.

Lessons Learned

* I've been getting some help from my girlfriend and she's been hugely helpful. She says that my arms should be slicing the water. No dead fish action b.c that creates drag. Your elbows should go up high and then your hand and form arms should be aligned going straight into the water.
* I swim like I'm holding a quarter b/w my butt-crack. I should relax my hip flexors.
* Start rolling the second you start pulling and don't be afraid to stay there for a bit for air.

Resources

• Freestyle hip flutter
• Sidekicking

Physique Swimming: Lesson 1

I had my first swim lesson with Joseph at Physique Swimming. It was a group of four. Me and three girls. We started off by standing near the shallow end of the pool (3 feet deep) and he had us swim as far as we could. The girls all looked a little hesitant because none of them actually knew how to swim. I immediately started making my way to the other end (in ugly fashion) and they all looked at me with mouths gaping like what are you doing here dude. I told them that I'm not much more advanced than they are because my form is awful and I can't swim very far at all before I start to drop / sink like a stone.

Skills

Bubbles

You just take a normal breath and then put your head under the water and immediately starting exhaling throw your mouth. Pretend like you're just doing a normal exhalation - only this is underwater.

Streamline

This is where we put our backs to the wall with one foot bent and pressed against the wall. We raised our arms high and behind our heads with one hand over the other. Like you're hanging from a bar. Then we put our heads into the water and then kicked of the wall and exhaled for as long as we could while kicking.

This was when I first discovered that me and another girl possessed a unique kind of kick known as the bicycle kick. we were both bending our knees too much and flexed rather than pointed our feet. I stopped doing the bicycle kick immediately. The key is to initiate the kick from the hips rather than the ankles. When I resurfaced, they were all giggling because apparently I splashed water all over everyone as I went. He told me I had a very powerful kick and I needed to take it down a notch.

I did this like 4 times and my kick was still too strong. He said it was a sign that my legs were too stiff. I needed to let them bend but only slightly. I also had to make sure my feet didn't come out of the water completely - only my ankles should. There shouldn't be too much splashing.

We did a few variations of this. The next one was with a board. We held on to a board and then kicked while trying to keep the board up. I had trouble keeping it up and he said it was because I wasn't reaching with my arms.

We then did it with the board but with our heads down, almost tucking into our chin. This really helped me with my kick because when I had my head out it was too far out and I had a lot of trouble kicking from the hip. Then we did it without the board and kicked as far as possible. Finally, we went to the center and did our best to streamline towards the deep end (6 feet).

Streamline has to do with how your arms are folded.

Lessons learned:

• Exhale until you're almost out of breath but not completely out when doing bubbles. Just like normal breathing.
• Initiate the kick from your hips. Don't do it too hard - try not to kick your feet outside of the water completely only the ankles should break the surface. 
• Point your toes!
• Keep your head down, hands behind the head, and tucked behind your ears while streamlining. This helps your legs go up. 
• My girlfriend is a fantastic swimmer and advised me to keep my legs above the surface and paddle my feet like flippers.

Resources:

• How to Streamline

What's March Madness?

March Madness is the moniker for the NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association) National Division 1 basketball tournament that runs from the second week of March to the first week of April. 68 teams for men and 64 teams are invited to participate in the tournament.

I was always way more interested in playing basketball than watching others play basketball. But it's such a common topic of conversation this month that I figured it wouldn't hurt to read a little about it so I'm better informed about how this event works. Understanding how the tournament works requires a basic understanding of how sports teams are organized within the NCAA.

NCAA

The NCAA is a non-profit institution that oversees the rules and regulations of collegiate level sports. There are about 1,300 members in the NCAA (most of whom are four year and second year colleges).

Division & Conferences

Schools that are part of the NCAA fall into one of three major divisions: Division 1, Division 2, and Division 3. Basically, Division 1 are the major sports schools like North Carolina or Michigan State and only D1 schools are eligible to participate in the national tournament. Sorry, D2 and D3. D1 and D2 members differ from D3 in a few key ways. D3 schools cannot offer sports scholarships to athletes, they tend to be much smaller schools, and they have fewer (usually less than 5) sports teams. 

Within the category of D1 schools in the NCAA, the members are also associated by region. There are 32 official NCAA conferences that each correspond to a group of schools in a particular region. For example, the Big East which includes schools like Villanova and St. Johns. Every conference has a conference tournament that takes place before March Madness.

Before March

Qualification

We know that there are 68 teams for men's are invited to participate. Well, what are those teams? How exactly do they qualify? Two ways.

1. Automatic bids

Before the national championship, there are conference tournaments. The champion of each conference automatically qualify for the national championship. Since there are 32 conferences, there are 32 teams that are automatically offered a spot in the tournament.

2. At large bids

After the 32 teams qualify, there are still 36 spots left! Those 36 teams are picked by a group of conference commissioners and university sports directors that make up the Selection Committee. They all get together in a hotel about a week before the first round of the tournament to vote on who gets those spots.

Once the final list of teams is complete, it's revealed by the committee on Selection Day (Sunday).

Match-ups

Seeding & Brackets

Now that the teams are finalized, who is playing against who? The match ups is also known as brackets. The first series of match ups is known as the first bracket - the winners of this first series of matches will then determine the next bracket.

Before the first brackets can be formed, the 68 teams are divided into four geographical regions (West, East, South, Midwest) and the selection committee then "seeds" (ranks) the teams in each region from 1-16. The number one seed is considered the best team in a region.

Once the regional seeds are determined, the regional brackets are formed based on a simple rule: match the top available seed with the lowest available seed. This creates the following match ups for each region:

1 - 16

2 - 15

3 - 14

4 - 13

5 - 12

...

Since there are four regions, each with 16 seeds, that's only 64 teams. In the men's NCAA tournament, there are 68 teams. That doesn't quite add up - so what's up with that? Well, there's actually an initial round of elimination known as the First Four. It refers to the first four games that take place between Selection Day and the first round of the tournament.

8 teams participate in the First Four. They're the four lowest ranked teams selected by automatic bids and the four lowest ranked teams selected by at large bids. After the First Four, there will be exactly 64 teams evenly distributed in the four regions.

You're probably wondering: why not just limit the number of teams to 64 to avoid this complication? No idea.

Location, location, location

Pods and Venues

Now that we have our match ups, where will they play? The logistics of where the games will take place is based on the Pod System which sets the rules for where the games take place during the regional tournaments in order to minimize travel for the athletes.

• A pod is a group of teams assigned to play at a site / venue
• Each region has 4 pod
• Each pod is assigned four teams 

The venues for the Final Four and Championship games are selected through a different process. Those big games take place in major stadiums such as the Madison Square Garden. The final four game last night (Syracuse vs NC) took place at the Texas NRG Stadium.

Tournament

Okay, so we've seeded the teams, planted them into brackets, and assigned them to play at different sites, and determined the venues for the last two rounds of the tournament.

Let the tournament begin!

Regional Competition

First Round, Second Rounds, Regional Semifinals, and Finals

The first round eliminates 8 teams from a total of 16 in each region. The second round leaves 4 teams. The final two regional rounds determines the team in each region that moves on to the Final Four.

National Competition

Final Four, Championship Game

The Final Four is the semi-finals since the winners of the final four will compete for the championship title.

Game Rules

If you've watched NBA games, you probably know that the games are made up of four quarters of playtime. Each quarter is 12 minutes. In the NCAA, there are only two half's. Each half is 20 minutes.