The Game of Thrones Doldrums

Those of you who have watched the first three episodes of Game of Thrones, Season 5, tell me: What is the most dramatic single moment so far this season? Anything to compare with Ned Stark's beheading, the birth of dragons, Joffrey's wedding? Should we set our sights lower? Anything as good as Bran being pushed from a window, Jamie losing his hand? Tyrion's trial, the fight between Oberyn and the Mountain, Lysa Arryn's death?

I think not.

Mance Rayder died -- was that this season? Tyrion was kidnapped. Jon Snow was elected Lord Commander. Daenerys had rocks thrown at her. Brienne followed Sansa. Arya threw her clothes in the ocean...

I have read more than once that this is the best season of Game of Thrones, and maybe it will be, but I don't see it so far. I have my doubts going forward too, because the show writers are dealing with a problem handed to them by George RR Martin: the books are getting less interesting as they go along.

I was introduced to Games of Thrones through the TV show, but then I read all five Song of Fire and Ice books, and I can tell you that they were a bit of a slog at times. Martin's habit of killing off several of his main characters, like Ned Stark, Catelyn Stark, and Robb Stark, or his other habit of sending them off to the edges of the world to follow their own stories, like Sansa Stark, Arya Stark, and Brandon Stark, forces him to keep introducing new characters and new story lines, and the whole thing seems to lose focus.

Without giving away any details, let me just list some major characters: Brienne, Ayra, Sansa, Jamie, Cersei, Stannis, Jon, Sam, Tyrion, Daenerys. Of those ten characters, three have dramatic moments still to come, if the show follows the books (though already there are departures), before the end of book five. There is at least one moment coming that will make for a great TV scene; I would not be surprised if it ends the season (no, not the walk of shame.)

The other seven characters? They will do stuff, go toward somewhere but not get there, or stay where they are, doing stuff. Zzzz. The stories range from mildly engaging to frustrating (do something already!) to downright tedious. We will be left hoping that their stories get more interesting in the sixth book/season, and that they somehow have an important part to play in the main story, and that there actually is a main story, because we are beginning to doubt. And while Dorne may be a fun new place, don't get your hopes up about anything much happening there. But it's pretty. You can already see that major departures from the book early this season stem from the show's creators trying to find something interesting for some of their characters to do.

The show is so well done that it will always hold my interest. That said, I just don't see how it can live up to the high moments of previous seasons, not unless they find some really compelling stories that are not in the first five books.

The Mariners

This year, the Mariners are supposed to be good, so interest in baseball around here is a little higher than usual. It's too early in the year to gather too much from how the team has played so far, which is good, because they are 3-6 after nine games. What you look for this early are indications, hints about how things might go, even if you can't really put much stock in them. For a team that is picked to win their division, all you really want is indications that they will perform as expected. So, what are the indicators so far?

Opponents

First thing to remember is that the Mariners have played the Angels, A's, and Dodgers -- their two biggest division rivals and one of the best teams in baseball. It's funny to see when a team plays a series of lousy opponents, and suddenly the manager, the players, announcers, radio hosts will start talking about how the bats are on track, the hits are falling in, the pitchers have found their groove, etc., when in fact they have just been beating lousy teams. The Mariners have played good teams; that may be all there is to the slow start.

Starting Pitching

Pitching is supposed to be the strength of this team, especially the starters. So far they have gotten five pretty lousy starts, three good ones, and one so-so. One thing you really want to watch is the two young phenoms, Paxton and Walker. Paxton has been OK, but Walker has been horrible in two starts. That's a bad sign.

Relief Pitching

Fernando Rodney, the Mariners closer, has given up 6 runs on 7 hits and four walks, in 3 and 1/3 innings. The rest of the bullpen has been fine, I guess.

Left-Handed Hitting

Neither Cano nor Seager has gotten on track yet, but Seth Smith started well, and Ackley has hit three home runs. They'll be fine.

Right-Handed Hitting

This is an important category, because the Mariners have not had much right-handed hitting for years, but this year they added Nelson Cruz, Justin Ruggiano, and Rickie Weeks. So far, the results have been decent on balance, because all of the right-handed hitters have been lousy except Cruz, who has hit six homers in the last 5 games, which makes up for a lot.

Overall

• Mariners fans are very used to high expectations followed by disappointing results, so we are well-positioned to deal with a poor start, unlike maybe Yankee or Red Sox fans.
• As the day started, the M's were 1.5 games back of the A's despite their lousy record, It could be a lot worse, like they could be Cleveland.
• The Mariners play bad teams for the next 15 games, so I expect they will suddenly start playing much better. If they don't, that would be a bad indication.
• Hisashi Iwakuma, Taijuan Walker, and Fernando Rodney need to pitch better. If they do, I think the M's will be OK.

Ten pounds

The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.

Lao Tzu

Well, if we stick with Lao Tzu's metaphor, I have walked the first 100 miles, because I have lost ten pounds in the last couple of months

Of course, the first 100 miles are probably the easiest; after that you start to get tired of all the walking. Also, I am still in familiar territory; it will take another ten pounds to get down below the range in which my weight has fluctuated for the last 15 years or so. I have a feeling this second 100 miles may be much harder.

I like the walking analogy, because losing weight is definitely not like driving 1,000 miles, or like hopping on a plane. It's a slow slog. With the amount of weight I want to lose, it's actually more like walking 10,000 miles. Did you know that you could walk to Argentina in a year and a half? I think you could. You would probably start getting discouraged somewhere in California though.

And while we are on walking, that is one thing I have added to the routine. I still don't usually walk on weekends, but I go almost every day at work. I work near the water in Seattle, so the walking is nice. I'm not very enthusiastic about most exercise, but I do like to walk.

The other main thing I have done is to start tracking what I eat. I am not very strict about it, but even keeping track of some of my meals has helped me focus on eating smaller dinners. I use an online program called MyFitnessPal that helps track calories and nutrition, plus my daily weight. When I started, I was probably averaging over 1,000 calories every night after I got home, maybe way over. Now, I keep it down to 700-800, which is OK for someone my size.

MyFitnessPal keeps track of fat calories, carbohydrates, protein, salt, and sugars. Invariably, almost literally invariably, I eat way more fat and salt than MyFitnessPal recommends -- usually something like twice the salt or more. I usually eat extra protein. And my carbs and sugar are way, way lower, than their goals, like maybe 1/4. Appropriate for a diabetic, I guess.

And about the diabetes: the biggest change I have seen so far is that my blood sugar levels have gone way down. I am taking less insulin, and I skip some days when my blood sugar is low, but my daily readings are much better than they were a few months ago. I even had one incident when my blood sugar dropped way too low -- all the way down to 42 (even my endocrinologist's eyes widened at that) -- but I made a couple of changes to keep that from happening again. Health-wise, keeping my diabetes under control is about the best thing I can do, so this has been great news.

If I lose another ten pounds, I'll write another post about it, hopefully in a couple of months. Five pounds a month. That will be enough if I can keep doing it.