The smart one blogs...

It's really no secret that the smartest of the Harrison boys is Abram.

He's currently attending California Western Law School, with aspirations of eventually becoming a politician. (Maybe I need to rethink that smartest comment...) In all seriousness, he's a bright kid, and started his own blog. It will mostly be about politics, with a little bit of his life thrown in. His political stances tend to be what I would call left-leaning common sense.

If you're interested, it's at http://abe-blinkin.blogspot.com/

Friday Five

Felt like a music theme this week. Five simple questions: Favorite song, album (aka CD for those of you who are too young), artist, concert and musical.

One disclaimer on my list - these are what came to mind as I was typing. If you see me next week (or even later today) my opinion may have changed.

1. Favorite song: A Letter to Elise by The Cure - An amazingly deep, hautingly brilliant song about a breakup. Played this song so much in high school I wore out the section of the tape it was on.
2. Favorite album: Out of Time by R.E.M. - Granted, it has Shiny Happy People, but it's still some of the best work the band has ever done. It was also the beginning of the end for them.
3. Favorite artist: The Cure - Gotta be. I really didn't want to put two items from the same band up here, but I can't justify putting anyone else here. (I also considered Barenaked Ladies, Franz Ferdinand, R.E.M. and Pete Yorn.)
4. Favorite concert: Newsboys in Minneapolis - They put on a great show - just a great rock concert. I still get chills thinking about it.
5. Favorite musical: Avenue Q - It's Sesame Street for adults. If you're not easily offended, go see it if you have the chance. (If you are easily offended, don't go see it)

Karin's list:

1. Favorite Song – “Careless Whisper” by WHAM!. It’s always been a favorite of mine when I hear it on the radio, which, unfortunately, is less and less as time goes on. The lyrics don’t have any significance to me, I just like the music and overall feel of the song.
2. Favorite Album – This is a tough one for me to come up with, so I decided to look through a case of CD’s I keep in the car or at work. I must say, the CD I’ve listened to the most in recent times is Measure of a Man by Clay Aiken. I know, I know, I can hear all the groans now. ;) It’s probably not my favorite album of all time, but it will have to do for the moment.
3. Favorite Artist / Group – I can’t really say that I have one particular favorite artist or group, so I thought instead I would list a few that I like a lot: Phil Collins, Elton John, Barenaked Ladies and Cat Stevens.
4. Best concert – Barenaked Ladies. Chris and I have seen them in concert twice and they put on a great show.
5. Favorite musical – Mama Mia. We’ve seen it 3 or 4 times and it’s always a ton of fun. The way the music of ABBA is incorporated into the story is great, and it’s just a fun time.

I love roller coasters, but this one isn't always fun

Just a quick life update here...

Hurricane Humberto missed Houston. It came right up to our shore, and then took a hard right, dumping rain all over eastern Texas and Louisiana. Tropical Depression Eight (not a sexy name) is currently trying to come together as a storm/hurricane. Not sure where that will eventually end up, but if it gets close to Houston I will keep people up to date.

BTW, if you're interested, the Houston Chronicle has a great weather-geek that blogs on www.chron.com/sciguy. Very informative and easy to read. I've learned a ton about hurricanes from his blog.

The house has been an emotional roller coaster. We had a potential buyer a few weeks ago, but could not come together on price. We had an interested party a couple weeks ago, but they decided to go a different direction. We've just had a handful of showings over the last couple of days, so now our hopes are up again. We will see what happens.

And as always, if you just want to see the life updates, on the left hand side there is a list of topics. Just click on the Life link and it will filter the rest out.

Liar, liar Pats on fire

This is all based on current speculation. So insert the word "allegedly" where appropriate. If the Patriots are exonerated I will be the first person to post a retraction.

If current reports are to be believed, the New England Patriots have committed a crime that calls their entire run (and Tom Brady's career) into question.

NFL security officials detained a Patriots employ during Sunday's game with the NY Jets and confiscated a tape and video camera, under the suspicion that he was video taping the defensive signals sent in by the Jets. There is also word about potential issues with the radio signals used to send plays into the QB, but that's fodder for another post.

I am all for pushing the limit of the rules. I'm also all for attempting to steal signals. But there's a fair way to do it, and a cheating way to do it. A fair way to do it is to have someone watch with their eyes and try to discern what's happening. To use video is cheating, and is against both the spirit of and the actual written rule.

Football is more about technology than the other 2 major sports (baseball and basketball). Plenty of money is spent on the safest equipment. Pictures are taken just before and just after every snap, and delivered to the field after every drive for the players to look at. Coaches are allowed to radio the plays into the field (although this has more to do with increasing the speed of the game than anything.)

However, the one constant is when you take the field, it is up to you as a player to look across the line of scrimmage and figure out, based on your memory, what the opposition is up to.

I liken this to taking a test. As a technical trainer, I am constantly taking new certification exams, which come with a series of rules you are to follow. The one thing the rules allow is that once you walk into the exam, you are allowed your brain, a pencil and paper. You can write whatever you want on that paper, but it has to be blank when you walk in. Want to stand outside, memorize a table real quick, walk in, start the exam and write it down? That's completely legal. Again, I'm only using the information in my brain. You'll notice I don't get is someone telling me what questions I'm going to see on the exam.

Anyone who knows Karin and I knows we're Chargers fans. And if you follow the NFL in the least, you of course know that Shawne Merriman was busted for violating the substance abuse policy. Why is this act by the Patriots worse than what Merriman did?

Cheating is cheating, and cheating is despicable. But like any set of rules, there are some that are more damaging than others when broken. Here's the difference:

Having one player juiced up improves the performance of that one player.

If the offense knows what the defense is about to throw at them, that helps the offense to an immeasurable level. If you know the defense is about to blitz, zone blitz, or drop back into zone coverage you can call a play specifically designed to break that defense.

I'd say that's a monumental difference. A consistent game-changing difference.

Reportedly, this is not the first time the Patriots have done this; there are reports they did the same thing in Green Bay. I'd also argue that those two cases are not the only times they cheated - I can't imagine the NFL is that acute at stopping this, or the Patriots are that inept at cheating.

That brings into question every game the Patriots have played. Which ones did they cheat during? Which ones did they win simply because they knew what was coming?

Brian Belichick, Tom Brady and his five layers of protection, and the entire organization cannot be looked at with the same respect.

NFL Thoughts

For anyone who might be interested, here are the things that ran through my mind on Sunday.

• I found a new commercial to be sick of - the Radio Shack commercial where the guy chases off the sheep. It's almost as bad as the This is Our Country commercials. Almost.
• Keyshawn Johnson is an idiot. ESPN apparently has a quota of big mouth ignorant WR's they have to employ on the set of Countdown. I guess Keyshawn is taking Michael Irvin's place.
• Will someone please tell me, to the nearest pound, how much ecstasy must I do to understand that Peyton Manning's mind commercial?
• Retraining my brain for games at 12 and 3 rather than 10 and 1 will take some time.
• 14-3. 1-0. It wasn't pretty, but it was a win by the Chargers. This season may be the death of me yet.
• Reason #206 why I hate instant replay: If you're going to make plays reviewable, make them all reviewable. There was a blatant offsides that was missed during the Chargers game. Not subject to review. It's not a judgement call - it should be subject to review. Bad system.
• Randy Moss had a good Week 1. Good for him. Talk to me come Week 6 when he's given up on the season because he's whining.
• The Chargers didn't win pretty, but it was a win. The New England game looks like it will be a tough one.

Friday Five

On my flight home from Minneapolis on Sunday, I wound up getting an exit row aisle seat, one of my favorite little things in life. Which got me thinking... How about a Friday Five on life's little pleasures.. I also had Karin do up a list as well.

Me:

1. Getting that exit row aisle seat. I'm not an overly tall guy; I'm pretty average at 5'11". Airlines have set their seat configurations for people who are 4'11". Having extra legroom, especially on a longer flight makes me very happy.
2. Going out for breakfast. Give me Karin and a couple of friends, a Sunday paper (extra points for the NY Times), and good coffee and I'm a happy guy.
3. Driving with the top down. There are few things more therapeutic than putting the top down and driving home after a hard day.
4. Watching a small live band in a bar. Add in a good scotch and I will sit there for hours.
5. Trying something new. A new beer, restaurant, food, cities, whatever. I love to appreciate what life has to offer, and the only way to do that is to get out and do something new.

Karin:

1. McDonald’s Coke – I don’t know what it is, but Coke from McDonald’s tastes better than anywhere else. Just thinking about it makes me want one!
2. Going to a movie on a weekday afternoon, when everyone else is at work – I have no problem going to a movie by myself, and sometimes it’s nice to do that on a weekday when it’s quiet. And no, despite my current unemployment, I have not done that yet!
3. Going to new restaurants / places with Chris – Going out to eat, especially to new places, is something we both really enjoy. It’s fun to explore new restaurants and try new foods. You never know when you’ll come across your next favorite!
4. Pretty much anything to do with Roscoe – For all who know me, that should come as no surprise. ;) Roscoe has been such a great addition to our family. I love taking him for walks, to camp, to dog beach, etc. I also love to make him treats, trying various recipes from my doggie treat cookbooks. Roscoe is also just so darn cute, it’s fun just to watch him.
5. Getting a really great deal on something (i.e., through coupons, sales, rebates) – I love a good deal – enough said!
   

Picasa

Over the last few years, more people have begun the migration away from the classic film based camera to a digital camera. Personally, I can't imagine ever going back to a film based camera. I like to take tons of pictures, go back through and get rid of the ones that didn't come out very well, and keep the ones that did. Doing this with film becomes expensive, and probably isn't very friendly for the environment.

As a result, I have (at present) 9.7G of photos on my hard drive. I know this will expand as time goes on, and I intend to move all of our actual photos into digital form. The problem is dealing with all of these files.

The best program I have found for managing photos is Picasa. Picasa is a free (let me say that again - free) program that was written by a small company that was eventually bought out by Google.

Besides just the price point, Picasa does several things right. It's very intutive to use, allowing you to easily manage and edit your photos. In the past I have always created a new folder for set of pictures. Picasa lends itself very well for this organization, listing all folders by the date they were taken in - which is exactly what I want. (The biggest reason I don't use the Microsoft alternative is because it doesn't list my photos that way).

Picasa provides you with the ability to do simple editing, like cropping and red-eye reduction. It also allows you to easily add keywords (for easy searching) and captions (so you know what that ship was you took a photo of.)

My favorite feature by far, though, is the easy ability to upload photos. Google will give you a small amount of storage (a much larger amount is available for a nominal fee). It's easy to upload and share (or not share) pictures. Other Picasa users are also able to go to the site and download your albums, which is nice in situations where multiple people took pictures of an event and you wish to collect them all. What's also nice is it's an easy way to back up your photos, so should disaster occur (hard drive failure, fire, etc) your photos will be safe.

With the price point and features, if you don't already have something to manage your pictures, this is it.