Matt Holthe's Fleeting Thoughts

It's only September. Today the high temperature was just over 90. But we're done camping for the year. Last weekend was our last trip. We have a trip scheduled in early October, but it would end up being more trouble than its worth to bring the camper on that trip. And we have plans the rest of the weekends in October and even plans in November already. So another camping trip this year is not going to be possible. We had a decent year for camping. We didn't take the camper out for a long trip like I had wanted, but we did several weekend trips. The longer the trip, the better, as far as I'm concerned. There is a lot of work prior to hitting the road (loading things up, packing, etc), a decent amount of work unloading and setting up when you get there, and a ton of work when you leave and return home. So the longer that last day can be pushed out, the better. We're thinking about an extended trip next year, and hopefully we can do more than 1 extended trip to ma...

Last Saturday I took my daughter to her first football game. She's 9 years old. She still has a lot to learn about football. And sitting through a 3+ hour game in heat was too much to expect. We only lasted the first half. Problem was, Illinois (the team we were rooting for) was down 17-3 at halftime. In the second half (which we missed), Illinois made a comeback and ended up winning 31-24. It would have been nice to see the second half of the game. Maybe once she gets a little older.

I saw someone post about starting their blog 15 years ago. It got me thinking. I started this blog in February of 2009 before my daughter was born. But that wasn't my first steps into writing stuff online. Prior to this blog, I created a blog in 2006 specifically for March Madness in Las Vegas trips. (Now, there's a Facebook group dedicated to that and that blog is quite out of date). And going back even further, I started my hints and tips web site in 1999. I don't publish new tips very often in there, but every once in a while (once or twice a year) I'll add something to it. And it keeps getting reads and most of the information is still relevant. (The Notes R4 and R5 Easter eggs are probably not so relevant any more....) Somewhere around the same time that I started my hints and tips web site is when I started writing articles for trade magazines and speaking at conferences. Those things are long since gone, although I occasionally do still speak at a conference....

Last weekend we went camping for the third time this year. It was a 2 night trip again. Taking out the camper for a single night would be so not worth it. It's even a lot of work for 2 nights, but that's better. We went to the same place we did for the first trip this year. But on this trip it rained a bit - Saturday morning is stormed, and then Saturday night it rained. Raining on a camping trip is never fun, but at least with a camper (compared to a tent), it's manageable. We just stayed inside and played games. There is enough room for the 3 of us, plus we had my brother and his wife over for a while. And we were just fine in the rain for Saturday evening. We also had my daughter bring a friend for the first night. That actually went all right - better than I expected. We didn't get a lot of sleep Friday night (which was anticipated), but they played and swam together and rode their bikes around the campground and had a good time. Even though summer is starting...

Starting July 1st, Google is going to "punish" companies/web sites that aren't using SSL for traffic. So, even though I have a site (www.breakingpar.com) that simply gives information and doesn't ask for any log in or anything, I'm somewhat required to start using SSL. Luckily, there are nice people on the internet that allow you to get SSL certificates for free instead of paying the huge fees for something I really don't need. It's a little bit of a pain to set up and maintain (they expire every 60 days), but that's way better than paying a bunch of money every couple of years. Hopefully those certificates remain free in the future. After a couple of pain points, including realizing that I actually have 2 firewalls (I opened up port 443 on my router, but Windows Firewall was blocking it), I have now set up SSL on my web site. And I configured reminders for every 7 weeks (49 days) to renew those certificates. I have redirected all traffic on my web...

Tiger Woods missed the cut at the US Open this past weekend. It was his 72nd major as a professional. In the past there was the foregone conclusion that Tiger would break Jack Nicklaus' record of 18 professional major victories, so I started keeping track of where each player was at the same number of majors played. Here's the comparison through 72 majors: Tiger: 14 wins, 6 2nd places, 24 total top 3's (14+6+4 others), 31 total top 5's, and 38 total top 10's. Jack: 15 wins, 15 2nd places, 39 total top 3's, 46 total top 5's, and 55 total top 10's. That's the thing that always amazed me about Jack - even when he didn't win, he was up there. He had as many top 3 finishes in majors as Tiger has top 10 finishes (1 more, in fact) through the same number of events. Although Tiger is only 1 behind the pace on wins, he's going to have some catching up to do. In majors 73 through 83 for Jack (1980 Masters through 1982 British Open), Jack had two...

For Memorial Day weekend, we took the camper out for a couple nights to Double J campground in Springfield, IL. The campground was pretty decent. The sites were somewhat close together, although from what I know it wasn't as close as other places. There was a swimming pool, a mini golf course (that was all asphalt - not all that impressive), a playground, an area that had foosball, air hockey, and ping pong, and other kids activities. Overall, it was a pretty nice place. A little higher price than other places I've looked at ($50 per night). Our daughter did discover one of the joys of camping - she made a friend. The friend was a couple years older than our daughter, but they really hit it off and did a ton of stuff together - playing at the playground, swimming, and so on.

Last weekend was our first camping trip of 2018. It was the second time out with the new travel trailer we bought towards the end of the summer in 2017. I had to do all the de-winterizing and sanitizing of the water system prior to the trip. The camper takes a lot of time, but it's also a lot of fun to go camping. I have seen people say that owning a camper is a money pit, and they are 100% true. I keep finding things that I "need" for the camper. As an example, a step stool for my wife and daughter. We have 3 short step stools at home, but it's a pain to remember to pack those for every trip. So I bought one to keep in the camper. There are tons of examples like this - things that you just keep in the camper and so you have to buy special to have one to keep in the camper. And during the trip last week, I was realizing just how little storage space we have in the camper. We knew it was going to be tight when we bought it, but just spending more time in there it b...

A couple nights ago Villanova beat Michigan for their second championship in 3 years. They were dominating this tournament - winning margins were 26, 23, 12, 12, 16, and 17. The Big Ten yet again failed to win a championship. Since 2000 when Michigan State won, the Big Ten conference has now lost the national championship game 7 times and has 6 other Final Four appearances. (Wisconsin also appeared in the year 2000, so 7 including that year). Starting with the year 2000, here are all the conferences that have appeared in a final four: Conference National Championships Runner-Ups Lost in Semifinals Total Final Four Appearances ACC 7 2 5 14 American 1 0 0 1 Big 12 1 2 6 9 Big East 6 (*) 0 6 (*) 12 Big Ten 1 7 7 15 Colonial 0 0 2 2 C-USA 0 1 (*) 2 3 Horizon 0 2 0 2 MVC 0 0 2 2 Pac-10/Pac-12 0 2 3 5 SEC 3 2 5 10 West Coast 0 1 0 1 (*) = Memphis from 2008 had to vacate their national championship appearance, and Louisville from the Big East had to vacate their 2012 f...

I thought I'd post the future NCAA tournament dates so I have them when I need them. Year Championship/Final Four Dates Championship/Final Four Location Sweet 16/Elite 8 Dates Sweet 16/Elite 8 Locations Rounds of 16/32 Dates Rounds of 16/32 Locations 2019 April 6,8 Minneapolis, MN March 28,29,30,31 Louisville, KY Anaheim, CA Washington, D.C. Kansas City, MO March 21,22,23,24 Salt Lake City, UT Des Moines, IA Jacksonville, FL Tulsa, OK Columbus, OH Columbia, SC Seattle, WA 2020 April 4,6 Atlanta, GA March 26,27,28,29 Indianapolis, IN Los Angeles, CA Houston, TX New York, NY March 19,20,21,22 Albany, NY Spokane, WA St. Louis, MO Tampa, FL Greensboro, NC Omaha, NE Sacramento, CA Cleveland, OH 2021 April 3,5 Indianapolis, IN March 25,26,27,28 Minneapolis, MN Denver, CO Memphis, TN Brooklyn, NY March 18,19,20,21 Providence, RI Boise, ID Detroit, MI Dallas, TX Wichita, KS Lexington, KY Raleigh, NC San Jose, CA 2022 Ap...

The first weekend of the NCAA tournament is over, and there was quite a bit of carnage. For the first time ever, a 16 seed beat a 1 seed as UMBC defeated Virginia 74-54. I figured that a 16 seed would win eventually, but I figured it would be a close game and come down to the last possession. UMBC won by 20. Incredible. Virgina was a 20.5 point favorite in that game, which is the second-biggest favorite to lose an NCAA game since the field expanded to 64+ teams in 1985. (Missouri lost as a 21.5 point favorite in 2012). On Sunday of the round of 32, another 1 seed in Xavier lost. This means that for the first time since 2004 there are 2 top seeds that didn't make the sweet 16. Not only are 2 top seeds out, but Cincinnati and North Carolina (both #2 seeds) also lost in the round of 32. So the top 2 seeds in both the South and West regions are out. From a betting standpoint, favorites were 16-15-1 ATS in the round of 64, with 8 losses straight-up. That's fairly typical of that...

This past weekend I went to see (almost all of) the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament in St Louis. We came in on Thursday for two games and saw a very impressive 22 point, 19 rebound performance by Alize Johnson of Missouri State. Friday was a long day with 4 games, but they were all close games. The first two games were decided by 4 points and 2 points, with the second one being decided on a basket with 1.2 seconds to go in the game. The two evening games were decided by 7 points and 4 points. Saturday's semifinal games were decided by 8 points each, but the second game went to overtime before Illinois State pulled away from Southern Illinois. I wasn't able to stay for the championship game on Sunday, but I didn't miss much as Loyola Chicago beat Illinois State by 16 points. All in all, it was a fun weekend and really interesting to see a lot of tournament games in a short amount of time.

Every year near the end of the year I take a look at my travel stats for the year. I don't anticipate another trip this year, so I can wrap up the numbers. I now have stats on the last 11 years, going back to 2007. The first 7 years and last 4 years look quite different. From 2007 through 2013, I averaged flying 51,166 miles per year and spending 24.3% of the nights (including weekends) away from home. I averaged 25.8% of business nights (nights before working the next day) away from home. Starting in 2014, things changed drastically. Over the last 4 years, I have averaged 7,055 flight miles per year, 8.1% of total nights away from home and only 3.1% of business nights away from home. I've averaged 7 nights per year staying in a hotel room on business trips. This year I had 2 personal airline trips and 2 business airline trips. The number of vacations really hasn't changed over the course of my travels - I averaged 21.2 nights away from home on personal vacations from 2...

Finished the first of three scheduled camping trips this year last weekend. It was amazingly humid for early June. We arrived early and did some lake swimming (the water was COLD) and then a little bit of fishing. But after just a few minutes fishing my daughter and I were getting too hot, so we went to the camp site. Luckily, we were able to get on the camp site early and get our tent set up. My daughter took a little nap while I just laid down and did nothing for a while. The rest of the evening and night was a typical camping trip. Luckily, it didn't rain, although it did get too cloudy for us to use the telescope. Everything went well for the first trip of the year. We have one scheduled in July and another in August.

The NCAA championship was played a couple days ago on Monday April 3rd. North Carolina beat Gonzaga in a back and forth game. There were a ton of foul calls in the game, so there wasn't a real flow to the game, especially in the second half. It wasn't a very well-played game overall. I honestly don't know if the best team won the game because neither team looked very good and the refs didn't give either team much of a chance to look good. Overall, I was a bit disappointed in the NCAA tournament this year. Not very many upsets in the early rounds and the most exciting games were in the middle rounds when you want those either in the early rounds or the finals (or both).

This Saturday is the NCAA Final Four. This year is a bit strange in that there is North Carolina (20th Final Four), Oregon (2nd Final Four, but first since the very first one in 1939), Gonzaga (first Final Four), and South Carolina (first Final Four). There's a lot of experience with North Carolina - they were in the national championship game last year, the coach has been to the Final Four multiple times, and so on. There's no experience with the other 3 teams. We'll see if that experience helps at all by the time Monday evening rolls around. Gonzaga plays South Carolina in the first game (Gonzaga is a 6.5 point favorite) and North Carolina (-4.5) plays Oregon in the second game.

The travel for my job has significantly slowed down the last couple of years. More and more customers are fine with doing things remotely. It's nice being able to stay at home, but it also means I miss out on the frequent flier and hotel perks that I used to have. When I do have to travel, it's much more difficult anymore. In 2016, I spent 27 nights away from home, but only 4 of those nights were because of business trips. I flew 3,574 miles and visited 5 airports (BMI, ORD, LGA, ATL, MCO). I spent time in 9 states (IL, NY, GA, FL, WI, IA, NE, SD, MN).

The first weekend of the NCAA tournament has ended and there are 16 teams still playing. Of those 16, there is only 1 from the ACC, which many people said was the best conference in the nation this year. There are 3 each from the SEC and the Big Ten, which many people said were the worse of the major conferences. There are also 3 from the Pac-12, which was very top heavy, and the Big 12. Of the final 3 teams, 2 are from the Big East and the only mid-major team is Gonzaga, which is a big-time program in the West Coast Conference.

We're getting to the conference tournaments in NCAA basketball. 12 conferences have completed their regular seasons and are ready to start the tournaments. There are still 20 conferences that will finish their regular seasons this upcoming week. This is a really exciting time for college basketball fans. The teams that won the regular season championship are not guaranteed anything except an NIT birth. They have to win their conference tournament to get into the NCAA tournament. Even the Ivy League, which hasn't had a conference tournament in the past, has one this year. There is room for at-large births, but many teams know they either won't make it as an at-large team or they don't want to leave it up to a committee to decide their NCAA tournament readiness.

It's been an amazing year (not calendar year, stay with me) in sports. Going back to the 2016 NCAA Men's basketball championship - a buzzer-beater for Villanova to win. Then in the NBA Cleveland rallies from down 3-1 in the series to win. Then in Major League Baseball the Cubs come back from 3-1 in the series to win, with the 7th game going into extra innings. The NCAA Football championship was won by Clemson with 1 second to go in the game. Finally, Super Bowl 51 was last night and New England rallied from 25 points down to force the first overtime in Super Bowl history and New England took the OT kickoff and marched down the field for a touchdown to win.