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Last year around this time, I met up with some college buddies of mine for a week in Breckenridge. I was psyched, as this was going to be my first time snowboarding on the fabled slopes of Colorado.

I ended up having an absolutely shitty time despite the fantastic snow conditions due to Acute Mountain Sickness, more commonly known as altitude sickness. I got this pounding headache that was bad enough to wake me up in the middle of the night, as well as severe nausea. I could have handled the symptoms for a night or two, but they never went away the entire time I was there.

It definitely didn’t help that I flew in from sea level, then took a shuttle directly from Denver International to 9,000 ft. The fact that I arrived at Breckenridge around 1 am and promptly started drinking and smoking until the early morning also played a role. Still, I’m anxious to avoid a repeat of this debacle.

Come February, I’ll be spending a month or more in Tibet. Its capital city boasts over 12,000 ft of elevation. I’ve got prescription medication that should treat AWS, but I’ve got a nagging suspicion it might not suffice.

I’ve done a bit of research and it turns out that when most people exert themselves, they alter the rate at which they breathe, rather than the depth of each breath. Considering the average lung utilization is 10-15%, there’s certainly room for improvement. Based on these findings, I’ve started a new training program, designed to increase lung capacity/oxygen absorption.

I’ve been running ~1.5 miles every day, but carefully monitoring my breathing the entire way. This usually is a cakewalk for me, but its a completely different story when I’m forcing 3 counts of exhalation to only 2 counts of inhalation. I’m always wheezing and light-headed by the time I’m done.

Here’s to hoping this pain will pave the way to gains while I’m trekking in the Himalayas.

Most weekday evenings, you can find me playing pick up soccer at Cal Anderson Field. There’s a great group of guys that play there on a regular basis. In general, its rare that there won’t be at least half a dozen other guys to scrimmage with.

The exception to this rule is when the weather gets shitty. Unfortunately, this winter, the weather in Seattle has been very shitty. Wind storms, torrential rains and even the occasional hail have all conspired to ruin my evening pick up matches. The tricky challenge that I find myself facing is, when is the weather bad enough that nobody (or not enough people) will show up?

My tolerance for inclement weather has increased significantly in the past few years, so I’m perfectly comfortable playing through anything less than thunder and lightning. However, there have been far too many times when I’ve shown up to the soccer field and waited out in the rain for half an hour before realizing nobody else was coming.

So, I’m proposing a feature idea for those sites that facilitate pick up soccer.

Socster does an adequate job. While I was down in Berkeley visiting a friend, I was able to find a game near his house easily enough. However, there’s one killer feature that is blatantly missing - mobile integration. By the time I start worrying about whether guys are going to show up, I’m standing on the field and definitely don’t have PC access.

Based on the demographic that tends to show up to these games - high school athletes on an allowance, college students up to their ears in debt and internationals on an immigrant’s budget - its unlikely the majority will have a data plan, so a WAP site is out of the question.. This leaves us with an SMS approach.

Each major playfield in a given region should be assigned a short code. You can then send a text message indicating which field you’re playing on. I would expect this feature to be used most often when players are actually at the field already, so there’s no need to specify a time. However, if you want to notify people in advance, there should be an option to input a time.

The other critical text message which should be supported is the query. I’d love to be able to send a text message with the field short code, followed by a question mark, and receive a message back outlining the number of guys who will be showing up to that field at what times during that day.

If you think this proposal has merit, feel free to make some noise about it.

I realized the other night that I’m a gamer, through and through.

The significant portion of my past times revolves around games - sports, video games, board games. I’ve recently become obsessed with pickup soccer games, Gears of War and Settlers of Catan.

I saw a show the other night which claimed that games are appealing because, unlike real life, they have clearly defined rules. People enjoy games because it puts them in a restricted environment that they can easily grasp and maintain control over.

I find that hard to believe, because in many of the most enjoyable games that I’ve played, the best aspects of the games were where the rules were loose, or there were no rules. Take Settlers, for instance. Some of the greatness of the game stems from the fact that players are free to negotiate trading terms with each other. Its just so much fun to develop creative deals that helps you and hurts your opponent in extremely devious ways.

The same goes for soccer. Sure, there’s supposedly a penalty system that constrains the game. But if anyone has watched UEFA, you’ll know that the penalty system only matters if you get caught. Every game has its fair share of shoving, pushing, shirt pulling, shit talking. Zizou nearly got away with the infamous headbutt - the refs didn’t even realize what had happened until they saw a replay of it on the jumbotron.

Point is, the notion that games have strict rules is a fallacy. So why do people enjoy games so much then?

I would argue that its not about the means, but the end. The fact that there even is an end is why games are so appealing. In real life, you might have a short term goal. But inevitably, once you’ve achieved your objective, it gives rise to a dozen new ones. Or there’s something else completely out of left field for you to tackle. In the work place, is your job ever truly done? What about renovating a house?

Any game has a clear end to the struggle. Win or lose, at some point the game is over and there’s a chance to start fresh again with a new game. If only we could say the same about life.