Taking a try at something new over the next week or two. I’m gonna stay off Twitter completely. I’m just wondering whether the time and thought I invest there is wasted.

I’m also gonna try to leave my phone in my car or out of sight more in social situations. I’ve had a lot on my mind about just how my phone (and digital communication in generally) is impairing me socially.

Last year I presented my idea for a better playoff. I’ve tweaked it a little this year to add a 14 team option instead of 16 team. Basically it’s 4 rounds, conferences champions all get automatic bids, with a couple of at-large teams.

Conference Champions

First things first, let’s look at who is getting the automatic bids into our tournament.

At Large Spots

So we’ve got 10 conference champions that leaves us 2 or 4 at large spots, depending on the playoff format.

I’m not even going to bother trying to make my own rankings here. The playoff committee goes deep enough to use their rankings to determine who makes the playoff. Adding a couple of extra teams here so you can see who just misses out on making the playoff.

1. Iowa
2. Ohio State
3. Notre Dame
4. Florida State
5. North Carolina
6. TCU

Ranking the Field

So that gives us our field of 12 to 14 teams. Mostly based on CFP rankings, and doing it myself for some of the lower seeded teams.

The Brackets

By rule they are separated from the income they make, and by system they are separated from the university education they were promised. They are neither amateurs nor professionals, and effectively moved as undeclared contraband through the United States tax system.

Fantastic stuff from Spencer Hall. Every time I hear someone talk about how expensive the new Nike gear is, I get sick to my stomach. The amount of money being generated by college football that’s being funneled to coaches, facilities, and administrators is absurd. Especially with everything we’re learning about CTE. These guys are literally putting their lives on the line for room and board. I’ll let Spencer wrap this up…

Pay them. Pay them what you owe them. Pay them because the worst American tradition is taking things that aren’t yours and calling it destiny or virtue or principle. Pay them because there is no nobility in keeping someone a dollar poorer than they have to be in exchange for honest work. Pay them because any system that deliberately makes people poorer is one of designed cruelty, even at this relatively small scale. Pay them their goddamn money.

In my previous post about my morning routine, I said my ability to stick to it when I’m not home varied. I’d like to update that and say that on my trip to Victoria for our MetaLab Summer Summit last week my routine completely fell apart.

Fortunately, I don’t think it was a failure of the routine, and more a failure of my own. I just wasn’t intentional about keeping it up and making sure it was important enough to attend to every day. I don’t think I realized just how important that structure was, because without it everything feels completely out of order and I feel so unproductive. So I’m already thinking about how I can handle it better the next time I travel, and it will mostly involve being intentional and having a plan for how to adjust my routine to the new location rather than just playing it by ear.

The next big test or change for my routine comes in about two months when Charleston comes into the world. No doubt I’m in for big changes and will have to make some more adjustments for her.

As you can tell, I’ve slowed my posting down a bit here. I’m reducing my time spent focused on writing for the time being. As I’m ramping up at MetaLab, I have less time to work on Outshape. I’m trying to focus as much time as I can on getting Outshape out the door, which leaves less time for writing.

Rest assured, I’ll still be posting infrequently and I’ve got some plans to do more microblogging here (and slow myself down when it comes to hot takes on Twitter).

The often cited rule is that the hardest part of any task is starting. When you move to another work area you do so with a plan of what you are doing. So when you arrive at that workstation you start doing that work. And you’ve now just accomplished the “hardest” part of most tasks.

I haven’t tried out any sit/stand desks, but I have gone back and forth between having a standing and a sitting desk in my office. I’ve found that having only one option is suboptimal. As Lauren and I talk about our future home, one of the things I want in my office is multiple places to work, one standing and one sitting, so I can move back and forth as needed.

This obsession with immediate happiness—which isn’t happiness at all, but some amalgam of selfishness, laziness, and comfort—is at the root of the modern marriage crisis. Marriage is treated as a loose association between two people to maximize happiness. It is characterized by emotionalism, the concept of the One, and the worship of the fairytale ending. Marriage is not sacramental or sacred, it is not set apart, it is merely another potential means to self-satisfaction. This view has contributed to higher divorce rates, lower marriage rates, and, according to my Facebook feed, a whole host of bastard children being robbed of the love, stability, and order of a two-parent home.

Great piece by J.D. Bentley on the value of suffering. I’m glad I had an idea about it heading into marriage, but I’ve learned more and more about it every day. There are days where Lauren and I are so different that it just doesn’t make sense that we chose each other. But we did. And we love each other. And we value the committment we made, even when that committment is hard as shit. There’s no doubt being parents will add a whole new world of challenges. But we’re committed to being martyrs every day for each other and for Charleston (though we will no doubt fail at it many times per day).

One of my favorite websites right now is My Morning Routine, where they ask people questions about, shockingly, their morning routine. I’ve always loved mornings. They are my favorite part of the day. I’ve recently gotten into a much better routine, so I thought I’d share it here using the questions from MMR.

What is your morning routine?

I pop up every morning between 6:30 and 7 AM. I’ve been progressively trying to get up a little bit earlier. I leave my phone (and alarm) a few steps away from my bed so I have to actually get up to turn it off. If I didn’t do that I would stay in bed for hours.

I slink out of the bedroom and open up the door to my office to let the cats out. They sleep in there because they are two crazy little monsters who will wreak noisy havoc all night.

My first task of the morning is to get some coffee. To be clear, I’m not one of those people who is like OMG I MUST HAVE COFFEE OR I CANNOT FUNCTION. I function fine without it, but I love drinking a cup in the morning. It’s much more about the joy of making and drinking it than the caffeine. Since it’s summer, we try to keep a pitcher of cold brew in the fridge at all times for iced coffee. Otherwise I’ll fire up the kettle for one of the many hot water coffee devices we have. While I’ll drink just about any coffee, it’s always better from Blue Bottle.

Once I’ve got my coffee I do some reading. Email, RSS feeds, Instapaper, magazines, or books. Could be any or all of these. I’m currently reading Marcus Aurelius' Meditations and a book on teaching kids to be better eaters.

After that my schedule varies by day of the week. On Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, I do some work on my iOS game, Outshape. On Tuesday and Thursday, I try to write something to get it up on my blog. I’d really prefer to write every day, but if I want to get Outshape released soon I have to put the time in.

After a little over an hour of writing or working, it’s time to get out and run. I’m trying to get myself back into decent shape, so I’m running a mile every day. I’m just trying to get that mile time somewhere I’m satisfied with before I start upping my distance.

After my run I take a quick cool shower, find some breakfast, and feed the cats. At this point my morning is pretty much done and it’s time to get up into my office to work.

How long have you stuck with this routine so far?

In it’s current iteration, I’ve been using this routine for about a month. Most of the elements existed beforehand, but they were compressed into a shorter time. I would just wake up when I felt like it. But that was before I started work at MetaLab. Now I don’t have all day to do the work that’s just for me.

What time do you go to sleep?

Usually somewhere between 10:30 and 11:30, depending on when Lauren and I eat dinner and what has captivated us on Netflix.

Do you do anything before going to bed to make your morning easier?

The aforementioned leaving the phone across the room is a big thing for me. I will shut that alarm off and go back to sleep if I’m not forced to physically get out of bed.

Early on in my routine I would put a little more work into explicitly planning my next morning and day. I’ve gotten into the groove now and don’t do this quite so strictly.

I also like to clean up the kitchen a bit in the evenings when possible. My morning is a lot more pleasant when there isn’t a mess I’m confronted with. But sometimes we eat late and we’re just too tired to deal with it in the evening.

Do you use an alarm to wake you up in the morning, and if so do you ever hit the snooze button?

Yep I use the standard alarm on my phone. Since I have to get out of bed, it’s very rare that I hit the snooze button. I won’t say it never happens, but I love mornings too much once I’m up.

How soon after waking up do you have breakfast, and what do you typically have?

Generally it’s a couple of hours. A fun fact about me is I don’t have a functioning thyroid gland. So every morning I have to take synthroid. A side effect of that is I’m not particularly hungry until I’ve taken it, and I’m not hungry until at least an hour after I’ve taken it.

What I eat for breakfast is one aspect of my morning I’m not particularly thrilled with. It’s usually either cereal or oatmeal (old fashioned oats, none of that instant crap). Occasionally I’ll have greek yogurt with granola and honey. I’d really like to get more protein but I’m not a huge fan of eggs nor do I like taking a ton of time to make breakfast. I’m thinking about trying out Soylent for my breakfasts.

Do you have a morning workout routine?

Just my morning run! I’d like to find a gym with a good basketball court, but they’re surprisingly hard to find. I want a nice court to go shoot in the morning, but most gyms just don’t have the space.

Do you have a morning meditation routine, and if so what kind of meditation do you practise?

This is the other big aspect of my morning I’d like to improve. I’d like to spend more time reading the bible and in prayer in the morning. Too often it’s the thing that gets pushed aside for all of the other “more productive” stuff.

Do you answer email first thing in the morning, or leave it until later in the day?

I get very little email that needs answering. But I try to wait as long as possible before looking at it. I don’t get anything urgent and it can be dealt with later in the day when I have less energy.

Do you use any apps or products to enhance your sleep or morning routine?

Nothing major. I would say f.lux is the biggest help. I keep my habits in Omnifocus to make sure I’m knocking them out and reviewing them occasionally.

What and when is your first drink in the morning?

Almost always a coffee. Could be iced, or from the aeropress, french press, or chemex. We have an espresso machine, but it’s been struggling lately. One of my hopes for the next year is to upgrade it, because I love a cappuccino or latte in the morning.

Do you also follow this routine on weekends, or do you change some steps?

I follow it, but a little more loosely. I tend to sleep a little longer and I don’t run every day on the weekend. As far as reading, writing, and development goes, I tend to just let my mood lead me. I’ll work on (or not work on) whatever I feel like in the moment.

On days you’re not settled in your home, are you able to adapt your routine to fit in with a different environment?

It sort of depends on the environment. Some changes are more friendly to the routine than others. I at least try to get myself up early and do some reading and writing when I can. I really struggle to get exercise when I’m in a different environment.

What do you do if you fail to follow your morning routine, and how does this influence the rest of your day?

It’s a little stressful. I feel a bit like I’m not as productive. But I try to just find some time in the day to do the important things; running, reading, and writing.

Finally, the baby came out and made his first cry. And they brought me over to him, and he was covered in blood and amniotic fluid and had vernix in the creases of his skin, but he looked fucking GREAT. His weight was good. His brain was good. His everything was good. All the selfish, terrible thoughts were sandblasted away. No regrets. Then I looked back to my wife, and she was still alive, beautiful as ever. And I burst into tears. I was wearing a surgical mask during the delivery but it got so gummed up with tears and snot that I was basically wearing a used Kleenex. And I called my mom and my wife’s mom and I said, “THEY’RE ALIVE!” because that was all that mattered. He was alive. She was alive. You can deal with anything in this life, so long as you’re not dead.

Fantastic recounting of the birth of his son, who came seven weeks early. It’s terrifying to think about Lauren having to give birth in just a few weeks, but that’s exactly what this was like. So glad he was okay.

Fantastic piece from J.D. Bentley on exactly what being a conservative means to him. I particularly love this quote from Yuval Levin:

Conservatives tend to see the human person as an incorrigible mass of contradictions: a fallen and imperfect being created in a divine image, a creature possessed of fundamental dignity and inalienable rights but prone to excess and to sin and ever in need of self-restraint and moral formation.

You can really start from there when you’re trying to understand how conservatives approach the world.