Impactful Screens

A friend shared this article on Facebook. I think it is a great read if you've ever been curious about the impact of screens on yourself or your kids. 

Money Quote:

“Adults use screens the same way kids do -- to avoid interaction and to avoid relying on our own inner resources," says Steiner-Adair. Increasingly when parents have a few minutes to recharge they are using that time to browse Facebook, send texts, etc. “It’s so much easier than picking up a magazine or putting your feet up on the couch and having a mini moment of relaxation -- or going for a walk and getting some fresh air-- all these things that we know actually make us feel better.” Some parents may feel that browsing Instagram or scanning the news is actually a calming way to take a break, but Steiner-Adair is skeptical. “Checking your email is not relaxing,” she says. ”Holding a tiny little hand held screen is not visually relaxing.”

Read the rest of the article here.

Don't Cry Over Spilled Hot Chocolate

Last week I was adjusting my chair at the table. I was too far away and wanted to get closer to my food. I went for it, but I wasn’t successful. I nailed my left knee on the underside of the table and the impact set a few of the glasses to rocking, risking a chaotic spill. This time there was no slop on the table, but I immediately thought of another time I bumped my knee on a table. It was 1999, I was a junior in high school, and I was attending my first high school dance.

Let’s call my date Jane. That sounds great, except that’s the name of a grandma and the middle name of my sister so that makes it a poor choice really. Moving on. I was in a new town, at a new school, and at a new church. I didn’t know anyone. I think it was a Sunday night when Jane came to the door. My mom answered the door (and I just embellished that because I can’t remember who exactly answered the door…it wasn’t me). I was called to the door and there was Jane, a girl I had a bit of a crush on back in the church camp days. The crush was lingering because I was fairly excited that there was a girl at the front door asking for me and she wasn’t here to sell me girl scout cookies or magazine subscriptions so she could go to Disney World for the entire summer. No, Jane was at the door to ask me to homecoming. I convinced myself it was out of pity because she went to the same church, I was the new guy in town, and I was the pastor’s kid who didn’t have a date to the dance. I don’t know whether any of those reasons are accurate, but I have suffered through bouts of low self-esteem and during one such bout I must have settled on one of those explanations being accurate. I think I know precisely which bout that was…I was on the dance floor at homecoming with Jane and I started to move and groove and she immediately gravitated toward her friends. I didn’t know them and she seemed to enjoy dancing with them more than with me and all this conversation was happening at chest height, the music was loud, and there wasn’t a face in the room I could see clearly, just a bunch of hair hovering around my shoulders.

I am getting way ahead of myself. Earlier in the night there was, at one point, some hot chocolate to be consumed. Jane and I were with three other couples that evening. They all seemed much more serious than we were, but we knew them from church and it seemed right to tag along with them. I think this was my decision. I didn’t know anyone outside of youth group so we wound up in a churchy type of homecoming group. The group was kind of awkward, but I was the new kid, 6’8” (about), and on my first date to a high school dance…it was going to be awkward with anyone.

The cool thing to do back then if you didn’t have any money to go to a nice restaurant was to do it all for free by doing a round robin dinner. Apps here. Entrees there. Desserts over there. This way the parents are more involved in the evening and they get to pay for all the food. It’s excellent. It’s the poor man’s homecoming/prom dinner.

I am getting distracted again. We were all set up for dessert. The hot chocolate was on the table. I, being the tallest guy there, was given the seat at the head of the table. Most people had settled in, but I had to squeeze by someone and a china cabinet I was taller than. I made it to my seat, pulled it out and I was going to do something familiar to all tall people. We can’t get into small spaces like all of you average people can so we adapt. Our go to maneuver in a tight spot is sort of a controlled sideways fall/slide. Once we commit to the movement there is no backing out. That is to say, once you start falling from a height of 6’8” you are going to wind up on the ground or, in this case, the chair you were aiming for. In one fell swoop I was going to get my butt in that chair and swing my legs under the table. It was going well, it really was, until my legs flew under the table and connected with a mysterious appendage protruding down from the underside of the table. Hitting this made the whole table rock. Hot chocolate went everywhere. A few glasses tipped over. I can’t remember if it actually got on anyone, but it was all over the lacy white tablecloth. I was silent and then profusely apologetic to my date and her mother who happened to be serving us the hot chocolate.

It was not, at the time, a good moment to be tall. Perhaps, I could say I even hated my height at that moment. It was embarrassing. I had just made a mess and all I wanted to do was to fit in and be cool with my date. But last week when I bumped my knee on the table I smiled for two reasons. One, it made me think of the homecoming dance in 1999, a night which I hadn’t thought about in a decade. And two, there is no bump on the knee I could take which would make me curse my height now. I welcome the next bump, it will surely dust off a memory that will make me not necessarily feel happy, but just feel.

Shameless Plug

Can this be a shameless plug if I am not in the band? I don't think so. I just happen to have spent my adolescent years with one of the band members.

First, listen to Ask You In Gray.

Second, browse the rest of thesixtyone.com, a great site.

I can't get enough of AYIG. Really. Even if I didn't know one of them, I would dig this music. Electronic. Vocal. Thoughtful. Fun. A good listen.

Check them out. Join the site. Give them some hearts.

Blizzard

I really enjoy blizzards. They make me feel young. I feel a little more alive when I have to speed everywhere to keep the car from getting stuck. The snow makes you do things like walking through snowdrifts instead of taking the cleared path.

Today, all I had on the agenda was to get my haircut and I couldn't even do that. The place was closed, along with every other business in that strip mall. 

The snow looks to be 10-12 inches deep with drifts getting quite deeper than that. 

I'm new to Wisconsin, but since I've been here there has never really been any doubt about having a white Christmas.

An Easy Breakfast

I had the best breakfast this morning. It was triangular in shape, orange and was topped with whipped cream. It was a slice of pumpkin pie, cooled in the fridge overnight with a nice big glass of milk. This is my All-American breakfast. This is the breakfast of champions. In fact, it is also the lunch, dinner and dessert of champions.

With ease my mom made hundreds of delectable pumpkin pies for me while I was growing up. I soon learned that other moms could not make nearly as good a pumpkin pie as my mom did. I was scarred at a very young age when fooled on several occasions to try a pumpkin pie not handcrafted by my mom. I learned quickly. When I saw other peoples’ pumpkin pies I avoided their droopy, wet, discolored mess like the plague.

I questioned other peoples’ baking abilities throughout my childhood and I wondered while I wandered to school on cool fall mornings about my mom’s innate ability to create the best pumpkin pie on the face of the earth. Well, before I left home, she had the nerve to tell me how she did it. She would buy a can of Libby’s Pumpkin filling and follow the recipe on the can step for step.

I was shocked, but delighted in my realization that I too could make an amazing pumpkin pie. And that is what I did yesterday, following the recipe on the can. What? Did you think the recipe on the can was just a joke? Your mom probably did. Mine didn’t.

Thanks, Mom.

I decided not to.

I remember one of the last times I saw David Brown. He was outside of the gym at my high school in Fort Collins. He was walking by himself and saw me from afar.

“Hey, man.” David said, raising his hand up to give me a high five.

“What’s going on, David?” I responded and held my hand up.

He dropped his hand down right before I could give him a high five. He stumbled away chuckling.

“Asshole,” I mumbled under my breath.

That confrontation sums up how many of my friendships with that group of friends deteriorated. They thought they were so cool. I wanted to be cool too, but there was a problem. I seemed cool enough to have around, but not really part of the inner circle so I was the brunt of jokes and often a recipient of the cold shoulder.

I never really understood it, but it broke my heart. I think that same day I ran into David I went out for Chinese food with my mom to Hunan. I broke down sitting in a corner booth of the restaurant. I told her how these guys, which have been my friends for seven years, treated me like crap. I didn’t know why. They teased me all the time, never failing to mention my height, which, I am sure, just intimidated the crap out of them. They were teasing and taunting what they were jealous of, or what they didn’t understand. I suspect they might have wanted to be a little taller. I also was more mature than them. I don’t know why exactly, but I was. I was interested in things like reading and learning (extraordinarily rare activities for them). These were interests that I probably shouldn’t have held if I wanted to run with that crowd in 10th grade.

These friends were all talented in one sport or the other and they seemed to have girls figured out. They also weren’t that eager to make any new friends. They had their circle; it was complete and exclusive, so why look to befriend others? I remember the social awkwardness around them when I spoke of my friendship with Ben. Ben was off limits for them. He was a year younger, clearly not interested in sports and he was way too honest about his true interests. I would often avoid stories if they somehow involved Ben. I was afraid of being an outcast—the way they viewed Ben. I renounced my friendship with him on several occasions, or at least passed him off as an acquaintance and just a neighbor in an attempt to remain in their favor.

I was interested in basketball and swimming, but I never made the basketball team in Fort Collins. For some reason, much smaller people than me were chosen for the squads. The selection of the basketball team in Fort Collins was very political. In a one on one game I could have trounced 90% of the guys that made the team, but I was never given the chance. I didn’t even make the first cut when I tried out my sophomore year. This changed the dynamics among me and the rest of those guys. Through the lens of an early high school kid they had it all: money, the attention of the girls, a spot on the basketball team and all the coolest kicks. What a funny list. That stuff actually determines who is popular in high school. Then, in college, not as much, but after college it regresses back to a high school measurement of popularity.

I decided there would be one last hurrah for me and basketball. I tried out for the team in my new hometown. Following weeks of shoot arounds and open gyms I was given a spot on the JV squad. This was a little humbling, but I was a junior and I still had another year to go for the Varsity squad. Boosting my spirits was the fact that the new high school’s team was better than the Fort Collins team. After a while in the program I felt like I was a good addition to the team. I never had that feeling in Fort Collins and that program was made up of a bunch of short, white boys.

The new program clearly took basketball seriously. Its squads were made up of guys that weren’t all white. I know, hard to believe. The coaches actually took anyone into consideration.

Although I was selected, I suffered under an extremely incompetent coach. He happened to be more than a foot shorter than me. By my junior year I was 6’8” and rail-thin, but I had potential that was obviously visible to the coaches that selected me for the JV team, but not visible to the JV coach himself. His coaching decisions were inexplicable, and my dad, who played ball at Portland State, quickly developed a strong dislike for this short man.

Really, why I tell this whole story, is because the ending has an ironic and redemptive twist.

In Fort Collins I was essentially kicked out of the jock group. When it was time for college I, the slightly nerdy outcast, was the one that got a scholarship to a D-I athletic program. I never saw most of those guys after I left Fort Collins, but I secretly wished I could have this conversation with them.

“Oh, hey there.”

“Hey, Bryce. How’s it going?”

“Oh, you know, just taking it easy before the season starts.”

“Season?”

“Yep. Season. I’m on the swim team at UW.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. Where are you playing ball?”

“I decided not to.”

Which in sports talk means that he wasn’t good enough. Snap. Zing. End of story.

The Little List on Marriage...

There are a lot of great things about marriage and being cut loose from parental support, you know the support I am talking about.

Disclaimer 1: Having spent less than five months in a marriage, I have a lot more to discover about it, but that can’t keep me from now offering up commentary on the experience thus far.

Disclaimer 2: I love my parents, and besides from the recent aid Kate and I received from them, we are financially independent.

1. A big shock when you get cut loose is realizing how expensive living in this world is. There is health insurance, car insurance, utility bills, rent, gas, food, and any other additional bills like cable, cellular, or internet to pay for. Once over the initial shock of all that stuff (I am over that shock), it sort of feels good because I know where every single penny of ours is going. Since I am the one that doesn’t work 60 hours a week around this joint, I do all the bill-paying, a healthy chunk of the grocery shopping, and a majority of the financial monitoring. It is sometimes very stressful to see how expensive just living can be, but being cut loose and realizing that you can survive just fine away from home is a good feeling.
2. Grocery shopping. Often it is an annoying errand, but I get in there with that shopping cart and there is no one keeping me from buying anything. That’s a beautiful thing. If anything looks good, I can put it in my shopping cart.
3. That leads us directly to coupons. Before, well before I didn’t have to grocery shop, and I didn’t have to buy my own food. So, when I see a coupon for a dollar off any General Mills cereal in the Sunday paper I cut it out, and I use it on some cereal that I haven’t had in 15 years, like Apple Jacks. I think the stuff is going to be great, like it’s going to take me back like a real comfort food, but it’s not that good. I don’t care really, it’s edible, and I got a dollar off the Pick N Save’s asking price.
4. When you are married you really share interests in a much different way than ever before. Example, I always knew Kate was an NPR listener, but it wasn’t until recently that I started listening too. She has sort of got me hooked. I even found it yesterday on this gimpy radio we have in the shower. I don’t listen all the time, I still like cruising in the Maxima to my own tunes, but every once in a while I make the switch to NPR and hear interesting things like the world’s fastest speaker. He can recite 655 words in a minute. Serious, he was on today. Freak.
5. If I feel like walking around the house naked, I do it. I just have to pay attention to the trains though. I’m pretty sure an Amtrak saw my backside just about an hour ago. I’ve mooned them before on purpose, but today’s exposure wasn’t planned.
6. Simple things like making the bed take on a whole new meaning. If it was just me here, I would still make the bed everyday, but I wouldn’t make it the way I do for Kate. I flatten the sheets. They are wrinkle free. I tuck the corners in nicely. I tuck the sheet in tight all the way up to the head of the bed. I fluff the pillows. I turn the bed down. And, after I wash the sheets, I spend a good ten minutes making the bed just right so I can see and hear Kate squeal into the bed out of pure enjoyment. She loves a well made bed.
7. Cooking with your spouse is awesome, especially when your spouse can cook as well as Kate. This is another thing she has gotten me more interested in. I love preparing any dish from scratch, especially when I am surprising Kate. There is something so natural and primitive about real, healthy cooking. You know … the washing, the cutting, the innovation, and the final creation. I feel like I have built something after I cook. It gives me a real sense of accomplishment, and, it always tastes that much better if you make the dish yourself.
8. I always hear new parents tell me that having a kid is so humbling. “You never realize how much you lived for yourself until you have a kid. All of a sudden it’s all about them and not about me anymore.” Getting married has given me that kind of feeling, not on the level that having a kid would, but marriage has certainly humbled me in that way. And we all know how much some good HT can be. (That is Humility Training for all of you too young to have taken part in HT sessions at core group meetings at Doug Johnson’s house.)

100 things - 76-100

76. I want Kate to own her dream car someday. I don’t care what it is. I hope she gets it.

77. I think I weigh 230 pounds. I haven’t checked in a while.

78. I weigh 16.4 stone. A stone is equal to 14 pounds.

79. I don’t drink coffee. I find it rather putrid.

80. I have always wanted to take a crack at a triathlon.

81. I don’t think I can because I don’t have a road bike.

82. I think I might be okay at them.

83. I consider myself a decent swimmer. I don’t think I am half-bad at running.

84. I have on my computer the top 20 quotes from the 2002-2003 Arizona training trip. The quotes are priceless. Most of them are extremely crude. It’s locker room humor, college locker room humor. You get the picture. A lot of my favorites came out of the mouth of Guy Ferber. I quote him here. Just for clarification, this isn’t a conversation. The quotes are independent of one another.

“I can spread my legs all the way and Adam still fits.”

“Come on, Josh. Tell me how healthy it is…it turns me on.”

“My relay change-overs are as fast as a light.”

“I am so glad we have a washdisher.”

Guy to Adam: “Did I touch you again last night?”

85. The first screen name I gave myself was Toby1601. Someone said I looked like a Toby. I was 16. I was to graduate in 2001.

86. I met Kate for the first time twice. We started dating in May of 2003 shortly after long IM chats. When me met face to face the second time it went something like this, “Hey, are you KatieFsh?”

“Yeah. Are you CowboyBryce?” She said.

“Yes, I am, darling. Nice to meet you.” I said.

87. The first time we met was at a swim meet in November of 2002. I was enamored with another girl then, a total waste of my time, and hers, but she was friends with Kate. She introduced us. I was oblivious of Kate then. When I try to recall those introductions I remember meeting a pretty blond with a good smile. She did leave an impression.

88. I would love to witness that encounter again. It would be awesome to see me lumbering into the room, trying to look cool and fast (even though I had been out of the water for twenty minutes). What a thrill it would be to tell this guy that he just shook hands with his future wife, to tell him what was to become of them in the next five years. How cool is that? I can think about that all day long and smile.

89. Kate and I were driving back from Chicago in August of 2004 when we stopped by Grand Island, Nebraska, and took this picture of my roommate on a billboard. Pretty sweet.

90. When I move back to London, with Kate this time, I’m going to stand here for another sunset.

91. When I move back to Colorado, with Kate this time, I’m going to stand here for another sunset.

92. I don’t think Starbucks is a corporation to hate or fear just because it is a corporation. I hate it when I know people are hating on Starbucks just for that reason.

93. This was the first house I lived in. Canoga Park, CA.

94. The last time I probably had a little too much to drink was the night of my bachelor party. You just have to watch out. You never know what the Man Tube of Power will do to you.

95. I probably will take a job at Borders on Friday.

96. The next time I see my sister she will be a mom.

97. I used to look forward to Sports Illustrated swimsuit issues.

98. I think the Iraq War has made the world a more dangerous place for Americans and westerners.

99. We are going out to eat with Kate’s co-workers tonight. They are coming over for dessert afterwards.

100. Kate and I baked a cake last night.

100 things - 51-75

One-hundred things. That’s a lot of things. It is much harder than expected to come up with 100 things about myself. But I push on now, with only fifty things left.

51. I am convinced the next computer I get will be an Apple laptop. This purchase won’t take place for a while, but I am very excited about it.

52. I mentioned a regret in the last 25 things I posted. I want to make clear that I don’t regret that many things. Regretting is a big trap. I try, rather, to note my mistakes, tweak my approach/way of thinking, and forget about it. It is easier said than done, but nonetheless, that’s my plan.

53. I used to be obsessed with the WCW and the WWF. In a way I still am. I mean, I don’t watch it anymore. I couldn’t name most of the wrestlers on the TV shows, but a part of it will remain boyishly magical and curious to me.

54. For the most part, I do the grocery shopping around here.

55. I was offered a job at Borders yesterday.

56. I think “The Final Countdown” by Europe is a seriously good song to rock out to. I jammed to it today while putting away groceries.

57. On the first anniversary of the September 11 attacks I wrote this in a journal, “It has been one year since the attacks and I feel like America hasn’t forgotten. I also feel that there is much more violence on the horizon that is inevitable.” Hmm. I was right about the violence, but I would have to disagree with the inevitable part. That’s why Iraq sucks so much. It was avoidable.

58. I am tempted to write a blog about how much the VMAs sucked and how out of touch MTV really is with good music. I won’t do that. I will just let you know that the show sucked. Chris Brown can dance…that was a highlight, everything else was forgettable

59. According to my mom, in a recent email she sent me, my wedding thank-you letters have become legendary. They are, apparently, quite the hit with those that have been lucky enough to get them by now. I remember writing to one family and saying thanks for the toaster they gave us and how it “pairs nicely with slices of bread”.

60. I like the idea of a timeline in Iraq. There are deadlines for success that need to be set at this point.

61. I am currently reading Diana – Her True Story, a book by Andrew Morton.

62. My dream automobile used to be a Dodge Ram V-10 truck, a.k.a. the Testosterone Truck.

63. The Dodge truck hasn’t been my dream automobile for a long time now.

64. My dream vehicle is that big, great looking, all electric-powered SUV with plenty of room for people, junk, my legs, and my head. This car hasn’t been designed yet.

65. I haven’t had Chipotle since I have been in Wisconsin.

66. I used to be called “Butterfingers” in elementary because it was believed I couldn’t catch.

67. For the record, of the people that called me that name, none went on to D-I athletics.

68. Butterfingers did.

69. I am 6’9”. Many of you know this, but my height isn’t the thing I am sharing here, it’s just background information. Something people have always liked to tell me after I tell them I swam in college is this, “Yeah, you just fall into the water and you’re already across the pool.” No matter who they are I immediately call them a dumbshit in my head.

70. I don’t feel bad about doing that. Actually, when you see me smirk and nod right after they say this, is when I am doing that which I mentioned in #69 of 100 things.

71. “The Untimely Death of Brad” by Five Iron Frenzy is a great song. “It’s on the internet, so then, it must be true. The untimely death of Brad, how sad it must have been. If you see him anywhere, remember to console him.”

72. The first time I heard an acquaintance talking about sex like he had actually had it was in the 11^th grade. We were in the locker room after a basketball game.

73. I have one dollar in my wallet.

74. The restaurant I miss the most: The Rio Grande.

75. I have a hand held electronic dictionary by my computer at all times. I love it.

26 through 50

26. I don’t like Catcher in the Rye. In fact, I dislike it very much.

27. I have little or no faith in the 2008 presidential candidates.

28. I choked on a hotdog at a friend’s house sometime when I lived in New Jersey.

29. I feel pretty confident I could beat the crap out of at least 90% of all the people I see on a daily basis. Of course, only one at a time and only if there was a legitimate reason.

30. When my parents told me we were moving to Longmont I threw a fit.

31. I just don’t get it. Most overrated movie ever: Citizen Kane.

32. I went on a recruiting trip to West Virginia.

33. I also went on a recruiting trip to Cal. State – Bakersfield.

34. George Washington University offered me 40%. That was awfully kind of them, but going there still would have been at least $20,000 a year.

35. When Wyoming finally called me they thought I had just finished my junior year in high school. I had just graduated high school.

36. I tried out for basketball at Fort Collins High School.

37. I didn’t make it.

38. I played my junior year at Longmont on the JV team.

39. When living in Fort Collins I loved throwing crab apples at passing cars and school buses with Trey.

40. I voted for Bush in 2004.

41. I regret it, but the alternative choice wasn’t going to solve the problem either.

42. I voted all Democrat in the 2006 Midterm. Not because I loved them all, but thought it was high time to give someone else a crack at it. They haven’t done a good job.

43. I don’t believe in a global war on terror.

44. On occasion, I enjoy vacuuming.

45. Another one I just don’t get. Guinness is wrong, the beer that is.

46. The first time I ever saw a picture of a naked lady was in the 5^th or 6^th grade. One boy, I can’t remember who exactly, got a hold of some magazine and brought it to school. We gathered around on the ground during recess to look at the woman in the picture like she was some alien. It was all very exciting and hush-hush at the time.

47. I can tell the make and model of most cars from over a hundred yards away.

48. I don’t know my Presidents. I seem to have forgotten most of them with old age.

49. In elementary I was lights out fast compared to everyone else because my legs were so damn long. They still are. But anyway, a chunk of the boys caught me and passed me when we came out of our prepubescent years.

50. I have never had an MP3 player.

100 Things - The First 25

I have always liked lists, numbered lists specifically. In my brief past I have also enjoyed filling out surveys with questions like “What is your favorite book?” “Do you believe in God?” “Do you smoke after sex?” I find enjoyment in reading surveys filled out by acquaintances and friends, although, admittedly, not as much as I enjoy filling them out.

1. People tell me I look like Nicholas Cage or Clive Owen. I don’t see it. I think I look like Bryce Perica.
2. The first place I drove after getting my license was Taco Bell. Trey and I hopped in the Man Van and put some tunes on. We were in heaven.
3. Excluding living in a dorm room, I have inhabited eight houses or apartments. Six with my family. One in college. One with Kate. One in L.A. and New Jersey. Three in Fort Collins. One in Longmont and Laramie. One in Wisconsin.
4. I love New Belgium products. They cannot be found in Wisconsin.
5. I didn’t kiss that many girls growing up.
6. I can’t remember the name of my first kiss. I know it was sometime in Junior High.
   
7. California used to be my top choice for places I wanted to live.
8. I have puked only once from working out.
9. I am good at saying “No.”
10. Star Wars movies will always be my favorites.
11. I prefer the original trilogy to the prequels, but I still enjoy the prequels.
12. My favorite childhood toy was my trampoline.
13. It wasn’t until my junior year in high school that I went to school with someone as tall as me.
14. I constantly check myself for arrogance. I guess this means I have never wanted to carry with me an air of superiority for any reason, including my parents’ background, the size of my house, the cars we drive, the clothes I wear, the gadgets I have, the college I went to, the initials after my name, or the God I worship.
15. Although I constantly check myself for arrogance, that doesn’t mean I never am that way. I know I have been arrogant before, but I try to keep those moments at bay.
16. I know when I am not being cocky. When those moments coincide with other people being cocky my blood boils.
17. With respect to guns and the murder rate, I want the US to be more like Canada.
18. Even better, in that same respect, I want the US to be more like the UK.
19. I first thought I was going to be a computer science major in college.
20. I think we’ll move right back to Colorado next summer.
21. It is also too early to say.
22. My family won Family Feud. I wasn’t born yet.
23. As often as I could when growing up I sneaked glances at the pages of Victoria’s Secret catalogs.
24. I once swam 75 yards without breathing.
25. I pulled an unconscious swimmer off the bottom of a pool after he tried going for 100 yards.