Friday Five

Well - almost time to get back on the road again. But this week has been very nice. We of course did our annual Vegas trip for New Year's (I can confirm a good time was had by all), and these past couple of days have been an attempt to lay low.

As for the five, I found a few questions worthwhile at www.friday5.org:

1. What’s something you suspect you regularly overpay for?
   Auto costs - gas and otherwise. It's something you simply must have, and there are times when you just have to bite the bullet and go for it.
2. What’s something you suspect you regularly underpay for?
   Travel expenses - specifically hotel and rental car. Hotwire is a wonderful thing.
3. What’s taking up more of your time than it should?
   Playing on the computer - surfing the Internet or playing games.
4. What’s causing you stress only because you let it?
   At the moment, not too much. But I do have a tendency to let things get to me very easily.
5. If all your karma were based on your positive and negative attitudes, would it be in good shape, in bad shape, or perfectly in balance?
   In all reality, probably in balance. I can have my fair share of mood swings. ;-)

Friday Five

This week has been very laid back for the two of us. Karin had all week off, and I, of course, have been in town. We did a very quiet little Christmas, and have just enjoyed getting away from life for a while.

I don't really do New Year's resolutions, or at least I don't stick to them, but here are 5 things I'd like to work on in 2008.

1. I'd like to drop about 20 pounds. Every time I say that, some well-meaning person will tell me I don't need to lose any weight. While I appreciate that, I'd still like to have a chin again.
2. I'd like to read a little more non-computer stuff. Be nice to get through a couple of books over the course of the year.
3. A little more time at home might be nice. Just saying. ;-)
4. Figuring out who to vote for in the primaries is probably in order.
5. There's quite a bit I'd like to get done around the house. Some new carpeting. Maybe new counter tops. Things like that.

Christmas in San Diego

For those of you who've never lived somewhere that doesn't have all four traditional seasons, Christmastime is a tad interesting. There's something very cool about wearing shorts and driving around town with the top down. Never gets old.

The tree is our first in quite a while. We've spent quite of bit of time traveling the last couple of Decembers, so a tree just wasn't practical. This year, Karin insisted we get a tree. A real one, of course. We have quite a few decorations from our families, so it's always neat having a little bit of history on our tree.

As I mentioned before, Karin and I traditionally do something just the two of us for Christmas Eve. However with the Chargers playing last night, we decided to go to the game. For those who didn't watch, the Chargers jumped out to an early lead and cruised to a very easy 23-3 victory. A great Christmas present.

Today will be spent with my brothers and a couple of very good friends, enjoying Chicken Cacciatore. Sure, not very traditional, but it will be a good time.

Wherever you are this week, I hope you have a very merry Christmas.

They don't know I'm not a terrorist

With these last three weeks excepted, I fly once a week now for work. Which means that twice a week I find myself dealing with the joy that is airport security. And unlike what seems like a majority of Americans, I don't mind it.

Now don't get me wrong - it is inconvenient. I did wind up having to change airlines one week at the last minute, which garnered me the dreaded "SSSSSSSS" on my ticket, meaning that I received extra special treatment at the security line. I also travel with a lot of electronics, meaning my bag gets extra scanning on a regular basis.

My personal favorite was the cooling pad I use for my laptop bothering the security folks. It took 5 TSA employees to look at the X-ray picture of my bag until they finally did a bag check, swabbing every last item. Because my last name is Harrison, the fan set off the bomb residue detector, meaning I got a pat-down as an added bonus.

The entire time, I was very friendly, talking with the TSA folks, and asking what I should do next time since I knew I'd be back again the following week. (Take the cooling pad out, BTW, is the correct answer.) I always give myself plenty of time, so I had no added stress at the moment.

I understand the folks at TSA are simply trying to do their job. They need to confirm that I am not a terrorist. Now, I know I'm not a terrorist, and everyone who knows me knows I'm not a terrorist. But they don't know that. They need to confirm for themselves that I'm not a terrorist.

What I don't understand is people who haven't figured this out on their own. I often hear people complain about TSA folks spending time with kids and "old ladies", pulling them aside for extra screening. The question is often asked, "Can't you tell they're not a terrorist?" Actually, no, I can't, and neither can the security personnel.

Let's remember that the second worst terrorist attack on US soil was perpetrated by a couple of middle-aged white guys. There is no definition of what a terrorist looks like. After all, up until a couple years ago, Islamic terrorists were always men - but that has long since changed, as boys and girls, men and women, have all blown themselves up in the name of jihad. The simple fact is if we stop scanning little old ladies, or people in pilot's uniforms, or anyone else who "doesn't look like a terrorist", the terrorists will then start enlisting people that fall under those categories. Everyone must be treated as a terrorist until we can confirm they're not.

The next time you find yourself getting "wanded", just remember the fine TSA person is simply trying to confirm that you are not a terrorist.

Friday Five

Home for a full week. What a great time this has been. Outside of the 4a conference calls on Tuesday and Thursday, it was a good time. I've done a whole lot of nothing, and loved every minute of it.

I went to the Poinsettia Bowl last night with my brothers and a friend last night - good time, even if we did get stuck on the Utah side of the field. Karin and I did her work party as well this week. All-in-all, a very good time.

As for the 5, I figured a Christmas theme would work.

1. My favorite Christmas movie is Miracle on 34th Street. The original black and white.
2. It's not Christmas to me until I see Linus's soliloquy.
3. Karin and I traditionally go out to dinner somewhere on Christmas Eve. This year will be a little more challenging with the Chargers playing on Christmas Eve.
4. My mother's Jewish, which meant we always celebrated both Hanukah and Christmas. Hanukah was my preference simply because it meant my mother made latkas. (Simply garnished with applesauce, thanks.)
5. I love this time of year for all the college bowl games. I will watch every last one of them. It's great seeing small schools go give it everything they've got.

Friday Five

Wow. What a couple of months this has been. Since moving back to San Diego, I have been in town for a collective 7 full days (12a-12a), 5 of those being Saturdays where I left the following day. I've flown around 22,000 miles in that time.

As a trainer, I tend to measure the passing of time on a class-by-class basis; time passes in 5-day blocks. So my life for the past couple of months had the following pattern:

Home on Saturday
Travel out on Sunday
Teach a class for 5 days
*rinse and repeat as needed*

(Of course, that will be the pattern for most of 2008, but that's a story for another posting.) All-in-all, though, it's been a good experience. This was the last trip for the year, except of course our annual trip to Vegas for New Year's Eve.

Earlier this week, a good friend of mine, and regular commenter on this blog, mentioned Pandora in a Facebook note. So it got me to thinking of sites that not everyone uses or knows of but should.

1. Pandora - This is a site based on the "Music Genome Project", which tries to tie different songs together based on their characteristics. The way the site works is you type in a song you like, and it will go off and find other music similar to that song. Great way to set up background music. Listening to it right now as a matter of fact.
2. Google Reader - Google makes a ton of great products, but this is one of their lesser known ones. Google Reader allows you to "subscribe" to blogs and easily read through them. There's a good number of blogs that I follow but I don't read every article. Google Reader makes it very easy to scan through a blog, read the articles you want, and have the rest automatically mark themselves as read.
3. Wikipedia - It has come to my attention that not everyone uses Wikipedia. I don't understand how people exist without it. I've always found Wikipedia to be reliable on the whole. You'll be amazed how you'll find yourself reading articles on almost anything - like what a sesame plant is.
4. Facebook - I didn't want to get hooked up on one of these personal sites. I really didn't. But what's nice about Facebook is unlike certain other competitors *ahem*MySpace*ahem*, Facebook looks good and isn't crawling with 20-somethings just looking for a fling.
5. Meebo - I have had occasion where I did not have direct access through a normal chat client. Meebo allows you to chat on any service through a web-based client. Very slick.

On the eve of what, exactly?

In a few hours from now the Mitchell Report, the report on steroid use in baseball, will be released. The impact it will have on baseball will be, umm, yeah. I'm thinking very little.

The report was commissioned by inept commissioner Bud Selig, who is currently trying to salvage his legacy by investigating steroids, much like presidents late in their second terms start getting Israel and the Palestinians to sit down and talk. While Senator Mitchell is certainly a very qualified man to conduct such an investigation, one has to wonder what MLB will do with this report.

As for the report itself, it's going to blame both MLB management and the MLBPA for the letting steroid use run rampant. Basically, it will justify anyone who wants to blame the union for resisting testing or blame management for turning a blind eye. I'm a little disappointed that this gives credence to any of those arguments, because at the end of the day it's the fault of each individual player that stuck an needle in their tukus. (Every company I contract with has rules against me showing up high. I don't need to be tested when I walk in the door on Monday to teach my class to prove I'm not doing drugs. It's this little thing called "personal responsibility".)

The report will also list players who allegedly took steroids. This means essentially nothing. There will be players that we all suspected took steroids, there will be players we never thought took steroids, and almost every one of them will deny it.

But the real question is - what about the records? What about the stats? Will any of that change? Probably not. I'm guessing there will be a lot of talk about the report. (ESPN, which is rapidly turning SportsCenter into the Nancy Grace Show, will be covering the release of the report starting at 12N Central time.)

Will Major League Baseball actually suspend any players? Probably not. Most every player was not given any form of due process, so suspending players would face stiff legal challenges. Granted, any legal proceedings could have the added side-effect of forcing players to take the stand, but I still doubt doubt it will come close to that.

Will Major League Baseball take away stats? That would be a completely unprecedented move, and one that a very weak commissioner will be unlikely to take. And even if he did, what stats do you take away? How far back do you go? What formula do you use to convert juiced stats to clean stats? Nobody knows.

So what are we left with then? Well, at the end of it all, I think we're left right back where we started. There's a ton of blame to be spread around, there's players who we all suspect did steroids, and the fans are left wondering if what we're watching at the ballpark is actually real.