Good, Bad or Ugly, I don't Know

I hate to say it, but there is a good side to doing this type of thing.  When I was in graduate school my girlfriend and I had a "little bother."  We could never reach him, and it was always difficult to plan things with he and his family because they could not "afford" a phone!!  They did however have multiple VCRs, yes it was a long time ago, and they had hundreds of movies in their house that they had purchased!!

How much did a home phone cost for local calls in the early 90s??  How much did videos cost to buy??

I am not sure that our friends from Texas have the right motives, they may, but I do know that I would like to help people that are homeless and/or unemployed find work, food, and a place to live, and am always willing to donate to that cause.  I too would like to know when I do that that these folks will not be drinking or shooting my donation.

From the album: Timeline Photos

By KFOX-TV

Texas Gov. Rick Perry and Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst endorsed a change in state law to require first-ever mandatory drug testing for welfare recipients and those receiving unemployment assistance. What do you think of this idea? Article: http://bit.ly/Zp2qIj

Boy Oh Boi-se

In two weeks it will have been exactly 3 years since I moved to Boise and for three years now, every time I speak with someone outside of three hundred miles from here there is some crack about potatoes, or desolate, middle of no where!!  Please look at a map people!!  Do a little research!!  Just go to Google and/or Google Earth!!

Top 10 cities to live, work and play, Kiplinger, Top 10 cities Top 10 turnaround towns, CNN Money, Top 10 downtowns, Livibility.

Another thought, just come visit!!

This is the first place I have ever moved just for the place.  First school, then work, then a woman, then work, then family, then coaching, but never just because I was blown away by the place, and that was just over a long weekend.  Other places I have lived (Chico) I would listen to people rave about living there and all the amazing things they could do, and all of it was 45 minutes this way, and hour and 15 that way.  I am sitting in my new office looking at the foothills that I could walk to from here, easily, and then hike, run, cross-country ski.  5 minutes down the road I know of an amazing rock face that people are on every day.  5 minutes!!  That rock face overlooks the Boise Diversion Damn the scene of my favorite picture to date.  I am 100 yards, +/- from the Green Belt where today you would be able to walk, run, ride, board, under 65 degree blue skies and it is October 29th!!

Boise, ID is a whole lot more than potatoes folks, and it is anything but desolate.  There are lots of beautiful places to live in this country, and Boise is one of the most beautiful, at least of all those where you are not entirely on your own away from all civilization.

Our Forefathers Did Not Party

OK, so stay with me for a minute.  Our forefathers created a country and a system of government that did not have parties!!  Yes this is in fact true.  So last time around, or two or three times ago we had John McCain, the young version, outspoken, brash, not a party line kind of guy, and his party basically TOLD him to step aside because he was too far to the left.  When Howard Dean ran he had the same problem with his party, that and getting over tired and not having someone from his campaign tackle him, but they both had some things in common: love for this country, very smart, very outspoken and willingness to piss off their parties for the good of the country.

At the time I told a few people, mainly to get a reaction, they should run together, and I really did not think it would have mattered who was where on the ticket.

Next!!  Condalisa Rice and Hillary Clinton!!  I do not care which is where, as a matter of fact I think that they should flip for it and then change half way, as in four years from now.

I realize this is out there and many people will not be able to get their heads around it, but right now we have a third of the country dead set, not for Mitt, but against President Obama.  We have a third of the country against Mitt Romney, and we have a third of the country not knowing what to do because they do not see a lessor in the two evils.

Simple, right in Condalisa Rice and Hillary Clinton!!  Yes I am suggesting two women run the country and realize that may make some people uncomfortable, southern men for instance, and Hillary has always scared me, and Bill I think, but what choice do we have.  They are both smart, they are both powerful, they both have endless energy, and they would bring the country back together on the same ticket!!

Your thinking about it aren't you??!!

Bleeding Heart Liberal

I do not know about the liberal part, I am fairly confident that if at any point in your life you felt the correct answer was to make a crater out of all countries that are 80 % sand or more that the liberals won't have you, but bleeding heart I have been all my life.

The really funny part to me is that to this day I am both a "bleeding heart liberal," and a "right wing conservative" depending on who you ask, and yes someone related to me did give me a very square, very bleak briefcase one year for Christmas with the declaration "that since you are a Republican I thought you would like this."  I of course have also received, from someone else related to me, a briefcase befitting an English professor at Dartmouth College.  The answer is no one really knows what category to put me in, although I am fairly certain everyone has.

I have said on a number of occasions, and in a number of different formats, that my favorite commercial is the Coke commercial from the seventies where the young (hippie) girl singing the first line from "I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing," and as they widen out she is at the top of a mountain with hundreds of other people standing in the shape of a Christmas tree and they are all singing.  I do indeed want to teach the world to sing, metaphorically speaking.

Without question I would like to help everyone that needs helping, be it folks in New Orleans that will have to try and recover from yet another hurricane, or the little kids I saw on the news the other night being raised in a family where the parents are king and queen and the kids literally run the household, cooking, cleaning, lunches, you name it.  There are homeless people all over the world that if they are able to work and work can be found for them great, but what about the homeless dad that has a seven year old child that needs care 24/7/265 and therefore cannot work?  Should someone like that not be helped.  How about the millions of folks that lost their homes, and the ones that would have, if someone had not stepped in to help.  I am not an economist, and I am not even that bright, so I know that there are all sorts of sides to the housing question and an incredible impact to both sides of the issue.  If you bail people out and help them stay in their homes someone has to pay for that.  If you sit back and let people default on their homes, spend the time to go through the process, someone has to pay for that as well, and you are left with a very different housing demographic when all is said and done, is that good or bad for the country.  It seems to me that both are bad, the question is which is worse for the country as a whole??  But at the same time you are then allowing people to fail, not helping people that could be helped, and where does that leave us??

What I do know that is if I won the lottery I would build a turf stadium, not lacrosse only, but lacrosse first and then everyone else as available.  If the money was great enough it would be more like a Dick's Sporting Goods kind of place like they have in Denver.  Next, I would set up a trust that would fund Boise State Men's Lacrosse forever.  Third, I would buy a really big, safe, cool car for my friend Fred Flintstones (the names have been changed to protect the innocent).  Next would be my Mom and my sisters, the Sage, my nieces and nephews, and some friends that have always been there, and once all that was taken care of the rest would go to starting a foundation, "The Bleeding Heart Foundation," to help all those that just cannot help themselves: cancer kids, homeless moms and dads, children and women of abuse, not that men are not abused, but the defenseless and the underdogs definitely come first.

I am OK with being a bleeding heart as long as those that are in need, that have had hard lives, that God threw the 12/6 curve to, are well taken care of by those can afford to help.  California would be a rich state if they ever had a governor that would tax Hollywood, but you can't get elected to that office in that state if you even suggest it.  Meanwhile the California education system, the teachers that teach there and the students that have no say in any of it have to deal with education from kindergarten through graduate school that is 100 % dependent on how much money you have and where you live.

I am not saying help those that can help themselves but choose not to, but rather help those that need the help and have no way out.  I am also saying thank every soldier you see as you travel through the airports, level any and all countries that want to mess with us, lock up and slowly torture any and all people that would do what Sandusky did.

I believe that I have just convinced myself that I am the definition of the middle...oh well!!  Or maybe I am a magnet, different polarity on each side??!!

By the way, one funny stat for all of you to ponder, in one single poll Americans said that they thought that President Obama would be better for the "middle class" (by 8 %) while Mitt Romney would be better for the economy (by 12 %).  Let that settle for a minute and then remember back to a math class you most likely had where you studied a curve that looked something like a bell.  To address the economy you have to impact as many people under the big part of the curve as possible...the middle class lives where under that curve??

I am apparently not the only one in the country that is confused!!

Level 1

If you have never read the "5 Levels of Leadership" I highly recommend you do.  It does not matter if you are a teacher, coach, Vice President, or CEO, it is very much worth the read, and for two reasons.  First, it is very well written and in a way that makes a great deal of sense from level 1 to level 5, and second, because it will make you chuckle as you read it and think of different people you know, bosses, coaches, teachers, that are at different levels, especially level 1, "position - rights - people follow because they have to!!"

It is difficult for me as I approach my fiftieth birthday, having had all sorts of coaches, teachers, and bosses, to see people at level 1 and especially those that I have to deal with on a regular basis, to not have an immediate and visceral reaction.  To see how poorly, more often than not, these people communicate to those over whom they have "power," and how in what they communicate it is so obvious that one, they enjoy that perceived power over another individual, and two, how they so obviously misunderstand how misguided their perception is.

There is a saying that "perception is reality," and I do not know who first said this, but in the case of a person at level 1, that reality tends to only be in their minds.

What is the most difficult about watching folks at level 1 is to watch those in education at this level, be it teachers, coaches, or administrators, and I have had the opportunity to see all of the above at both the high school and college level.  What makes this so difficult to deal with is the complete lack of understanding from  people at this level that they are supposed to be the educators, and it is the students that are hurt by their inabilities, or their refusal to work to move to another level.  Obviously this comes from complete ignorance of leadership form, structure, purpose, concepts, but the reasons do not matter, these are young minds, young hearts, young soles, that are in their hands and the damage that people at level can do to these young people is enormous, and can be permanent, and yet they are completely ignorant of this fact.  They appear to enjoy the power so much that all is is missed.

I am not perfect, we have previously established that FACT.  I also do at times as a coach utilize, out of necessity, the listen to me and do what I say because you have to approach to life, but obviously over w ten month period of trying to drive a group of young men towards one very specific goal there are going to be moments when this is required, but there will also be moments when  these same young men "follow you because they want to," level 2, and even when they follow you because they see what it is you are doing for the "organization," or the program, level 3, they may even at times along the way follow you for "what you have done for them," not in the specific material sense, but because they begin to see and realize just how much they have improved, grown, benefited in a way that serve them for years to come, level 4, and they may even decide to follow you "because of who you are and what you represent," level 5.  In my mind level five is when you truly put others needs before your own, and the programs needs above all else, "the needs of the few outweigh the needs of the few or the one," Spock, I love when I can quote Spock on this specific point.  Hopefully this also means you make better choices on a consistent basis that they can see and begin to understand, and that through that consistency they can see a means to an end.

I am not saying that I have personally achieved any of these levels, let alone all of them, and part of the fun is in trying to identify leaders that you can say without a shadow of a doubt have achieved every level and have been able to maintain their leadership at those levels.  I struggle to find one such person that can stand up to intense scrutiny on each of these points, obviously especially level 5, but it is fun to look, and fun to try.

To me just being aware of the levels and trying to understand them and working to achieve them even in some small way will make you a better leader, just like being completely unaware of them and their intrinsic value and purpose makes one a very dangerous "leader," and I do use the term loosely in this case.

The Other Side of the Coin

Yes there are two sides to every coin, and I was thinking early on in the Augusta discussion about the other side of the coin and then got distracted.

As I was listening to my very conservative, very republican, country club business partner last night it brought me back to a very simple reality; Augusta National is a PRIVATE club.  The nature of private does tend to mean in this country "not for general consumption," but somehow everyone, even I, wound up in the middle of discussing who Augusta National should admit to their PRIVATE club.

Again, the secret handshakes not withstanding, does anyone have the right to tell anyone else what do with their PRIVATE lives??  I realize that many people want to, abortion, alternative lifestyles, not just gay marriage, but lifestyles in general, buckling in when you drive.  These are all very different examples, and yes some of these decisions, and others, may have an impact on other people, but they are still PRIVATE decisions are they not.

The quote that I found most amazing from yesterday was when a female golf analyst for ESPN said "at least the final bastion of the male dominated  society in this country is gone."  Huh??!!  There are thousands, if not millions, of "old boys clubs," secret handshakes, and just plain old every day examples of "old school," in the worst connotation of the term, still in existence today and there will be for some time to come.  Even when I worked at "the firm," there were plenty of deals being done on Bourbon Street, in strip clubs, with lots of cash, booze, and naked women around, and not only does all of that still happen, but many of the women from the firm that made partner did so because as well as being qualified, which those that I knew definitely were, they also agreed with, supported and took part in that way of doing business.

"the last bastion of male dominated society??"  I bet Augusta wished they were that powerful.

Cond- A - Cending

Right off the bat I need to say this is not a note in anyway against Condalisa Rice as I do not know enough to be dangerous in that regard, either way.

However, having watched Sportscenter long enough this morning I came to realize that the two new member thing is not at all what anyone is saying it is, at least not that I can tell, and it reminded me a great deal of President Bill Clinton making the grand announcement when he first took office about how many of this he was going to appoint and how many of that, and I said it then and will say it now, you can't force diversity in such a planned and structured way and have it be real, and in the case of President Clinton you wind up eliminating a class or race of people from consideration regardless of qualification, which seems to me to be exactly what we are supposed to be getting away from.

Anyway, ten years, almost to the day, that a woman made very public her wanting to be at Augusta and being kept out Augusta adds two female members, very rich, very powerful, one black and one white, female members.  How nice that Augusta can get black and white to keep moving in the proper direction on the race front, they can get rich, they can get powerful, and all at the same time come across as doing such a wonderful thing, and what a great step and so on.

The folks at Augusta National are lying, as all the men in all the exclusive "boys club" do, and they are getting rewarded for it in more ways than anyone can for doing so.

Always there has to be a first step, I get that, and always someone has to push the establishment to take that step, I get that as well, but doesn't anyone else get sick of the fact that one, people can't just do what is right in the first place, and two, that even when they do they can't just say outloud " we are doing this just to keep all of you people quiet for another ten years, and we are going to get all we can out of these two before we let any others in."

I went to "prep" school, and I fought the idiots that ran the place and that went there the whole time I was there.  I tanked an interview at Dartmouth for undergrad because I did not want to do the preppy thing all over again, and because I was never any good or had any interest in secret handshakes, and I worked for the largest consulting firm in the world and fought the partners on the same BS for my eight years there until they had had enough of my telling them it was wrong to lie to people to make extra BILLIONS!!

I just wish everyone would stop the bullshit, do what is best for the planet and everyone on it all the time and allow others to do the same.

Burn Out

"Fan sues Cowboys after burning butt on bench"

It is amazing to me that we have people on this planet, let alone in this country, that will sue someone because the HOT coffee that they ordered was actually hot and they were too stupid, or too clumsy, to deal with that fact, and it is even more amazing to me that someone that is dumb enough to sit on a bench long enough to get BURNT on her butt is allowed legal representation.

I am curious if this woman was naked, or if she has some kind of nerve issues in her but, but how do sit there long enough to actually get burnt without your brain telling your ASS to move.

Worse is the fact that we live in a country that a whole bunch of folks worked, and suffered, and even slaved, literally, to build, and some of the freedoms we were afforded, and some of the rights we were afforded, can be so blatantly abused.  I do not think that everyone being entitled to their day in court meant if you are dumb enough to burn yourself on something hot and feel like blaming someone else for your stupidity.

All these people that take such advantage of all that our forefathers did for us and gave to us are what make this country so much less than it could be!! 

What Not to Do While Boarding a Plane

When boarding a plane please do not act as if you are the only person that matters, and that your carry on luggage is the prized possession of Queen Elizabeth!!  Try hard not to pull someone else's carry-on out of the overhead and throw it to the floor to make room for your own.  When a somewhat quiet, sheepish gentlemen tells you calmly that the garment bag you just threw on  the floor is his you may not want to yell at him for not speaking up and claiming it when you asked everyone who's bag it was.  When this same gentlemen inquires where you are going to now put his garment bag try hard not to snap at him and tell him that it will have just as much space as it did where it was before you ripped it out of the overhead, if that were true you would not have had to move it in the first place.  When all of this chaos is over, and YOU are satisfied that YOUR piece of luggage has been accommodated please try to resist the urge to shove another gentlemen on the back of the shoulder because you want him to get up so you may take your middle seat.

Yes, I did witness a woman doing just this, and I have grossly understated it, on my flight from Baltimore to Denver on Thursday.  No one said a great deal to her because I honestly believe that we were all in shock.  The gentlemen who was the owner of the garment bag deserves a gold star for not strangling this woman in the aisle.

Traveling is difficult enough, and especially air travel these days, without people taking their issues, inadequacies, or self-loathing out on those around them.   OK, maybe that was a bit harsh, but this woman was an absolute piece of work.

Put your feet down!! Why do people think it is ok to put their feet, shoes, all over the seats in the movie theatre??

The Right Stuff

It is late, where I am from, an very late where I am, so this will be short and to the point.

Why do people find it so hard to do the right thing??!!

I have been told many, many times in my life that I am "TOO" black and white.  I have amended this to being too black and white in a grey world, but there are plenty of examples where there is right and wrong and nothing in between and yet people still have trouble finding right.

If you find someone's wallet and there is one thousand dollar in it, credit cards and ID what do you do?  Return it to its owner.  OK, that one was easy!!  If you are a kid and you see a bully picking on another kid what do you do?  Come to the aid and defense of the weaker student, or get a teacher to do so.  That one is easy too!!  In the case of the older woman who was bullied, that is putting it nicely, on the school bus, stand up for her, get the bus driver to step in, or notify your teachers/principal when you get to school.  That one is obviously tougher because there is "group think," and peer pressure and so on, but still the right thing must be done.

These are fairly simple examples of every day right and wrong.  In the past few weeks I have had some more   specific examples of people not stepping up and doing what is right, moral, civil, kind, caring.  In each of these cases the appropriate action was, and still is, plainly obvious to any and all that have been queried on these matters, and yet the actions taken have been anything but appropriate.

Right, correct, kind, appropriate, is not that hard to determine more often than not.  Just step up and do what is right, not what is easy, popular, best for you personally.

"The good of the many outweighs the good of the few or the one."  It is amazing how often these words from Spock can guide us appropriately.

Idiots Abound

So there are a number of things that I have found out along the way being on college campuses of late that absolutely blow my mind and make me wonder how we seem to be getting exponentially more asinine with each generation.  The proof here should be that students will openly discuss/explain this behavior, proudly I might add, in a classroom setting.

First, "beer pong."  The name of the game should suggest this would be a game similar to ping pong but with beer involved in some way.  Refresher, ping pong is played on a table with a net, not unlike tennis, and paddles instead of rackets.  At some point along the way someone at Dartmouth College, the inspiration for the movie Animal House, I should say movie classic, decided that if you put a cup at either end of the table and fill it with beer the game could get more interesting.  Like most drinking games, beer pong was created to bring sport into the weekend festivities on  a college campus.  The rules were incredibly simple, hit the cup, in the natural course of playing ping pong and when the point is ended that player has to take a sip of beer.  Sink the ball in the cup and not only do you get a point in the game, but that player then has to chug the beer.  Ping pong is a fun game with a group of people and since the ping pong table is always in the basement of the fraternity, as is the keg (s), only made sense to combine the two activities.

Again, point of beer pong in the 80s:  have some beers with friends while playing a time honored game.

Fast forward to the beginning of the 21st century, Stanley Kubrick's century, and you will find that the tables have been taking out of the stale beer, sticky floored basements of fraternities, and have been replaced on lawns on college campuses across the country by anything college students can find, even the bathroom door, laying across two saw horses, or anything else similar.  The net is gone and the paddles are no longer used.  Also, the one cup has been replaced by 10 cups on each end, and this is no longer the same game with the same purpose.  The purpose is now to throw, or drop, the ping pong ball, nice of them to at least keep that token in the game, into one of the ten cups on the other end of the table, door, and every time you do the other team has to chug a beer, both players.  The game takes less time, and 10 time the beer is consumed as before.

Point of the game: get as drunk as possible as fast as possible in order to relieve all parties present of their inhibitions and maybe more importantly their responsibility for their own behavior.

Results, as told by students in classes I have been teaching on a college campus that remain nameless:

1. Two separate women from two different classes and two different houses on campus both told stories of falling down their stares over Halloween weekend and not remembering a thing, waking up bruised and sore and having to be told by "friends" what happened.  The stories were eerily similar and both "women" were proud to be telling these stories.
2. College students have come to believe that once a "friend," or stranger for that matter, passes out at a party, if their shoes are on then they are "fair game."  This is the one that really disturbs me.  This means that they can be, and will be more often than not, written on in permanent marker, drawn on, tied up, duct taped, stripped, moved out to the front lawn...and this is the short list.

Common human decency is gone on college campuses across the country.  I have good friends coaching in colleges from Denver to DC and back and although you would hope it would be different at the so called "better" schools, the Stanfords, the Dartmouths and so on, and unfortunately, if anything it is worse.  Apparently stupidity knows no economic barriers.  I will tell you that I have seen parents that are just as bad or worse, and so you can see where it came from, but it is still troubling.  As a coach all I can do is have the conversations, share my views, and enforce rules put in place and then hope that we can affect some change.

I will tell you that the courses were actually stats courses that I have taught in multiple places and thus what is above is actually a combination of stories told in class as part of "ice breakers," and information that came out as part of group projects and presentations.  I have also been close enough to my players over the years to have seen some of this behavior while trying to remove players from these situations.

College students should have fun, enjoy the "college experience," and build lasting friendships and memories.  I just wish more of these friendships and memories didn't require an ensemble to tell the story because the individuals have trouble remembering in total.

Be Nice

"If somebody gets in your face and calls you a cocksucker, I want you to be nice. Ask him to walk. Be nice. If he won't walk, walk him. But be nice. If you can't walk him, one of the others will help you, and you'll both be nice. I want you to remember that it's a job. It's nothing personal. I want you to be nice until it's time to not be nice."


Every time I hear the phrase "be nice," or say the same to one of my players, I hear Patrick Swayze saying it over and over in the above quite from the movie Road House.


It is funny because yesterday at the back I tried to hold the door for a gentlemen that had ridden up on his bike at roughly the same time and he shook me off and looked at me like I had done something wrong.  The last time I flew I helped a short, older woman with her bags and the young woman sitting in my row acted as if I had just saved a life.


Imagine what this planet would be like if everyone on it did just one "nice" thing for someone else every single day.  Now imagine what this planet would be like if everyone did everything nice they could for everyone they came across during the course of the day.


I am not talking about anything difficult, I am talking about opening doors, picking something up for someone that they have dropped, or here is a big one, say excuse me when you walk in front of someone that is conversing with someone else in public.  There are a number of little things, call it manners, call it being polite, call it upbringing, that we all could do during the course of the day that used to be common place and need to be again if we are going to save our country and our planet!!

Common Sense Won't Kill You

OK.  It has been a while since I have had time to post, and thankfully there have been no shortage of stupid acts in that time to inspire me.  This one however takes the cake.

I have been out of town a great deal of late, so little things like going to the grocery store in the evening to pick up a few things is enjoyable.  One night last week as I came out of the store, around dusk, something in the corner of the parking lot caught my eye.  I put the grocery bags in the car and then stood there for a minute trying to figure out what it was.  As the object that caught my attention began to gain altitude I realized that this was a very small, home made, hot air balloon.  It appeared to be a linen or paper construction and what had caught my eye was the lighting of the heat source at the base of this balloon.

Now, I love balloons, and I even think fire is kind of cool, but obviously there is a time and a place.  The time is definitely not around the first day of summer as forest fires rage in Colorado and the foothills here have been described as "fuel, waiting for a spark."  The place is most definitely not in a grocery store parking lot less than half a mile from the base of said foothills.

I hope that this "air craft" landed without incident, or better yet didn't land at all and is now sending photos from space back to earth, but I somehow doubt that.

A little common sense can go a long, long way!!

Keep It To Yourself

So back to the things you see while traveling...

I was sitting in the gate area yesterday at Denver International Airport waiting for a flight to Baltimore having a discussion with a flight attendant and commenting a bit with her on the various annoyances that exist in airports when I heard an unmistakable noise to my right.  I glanced to my right to see a gentlemen, and I use the term extremely loosely, still in the familiar leaning to his right pose perched on one cheek having just let rip.  This was not in a quiet corner of the terminal, nor was it in any way an unavailable slip, but a deliberate act of an uncouth individual.

Of course later on the plane I also saw this same gentlemen board the plane by carrying his bag over his head while walking down the isle, something I have never seen someone do.  All of this was done with a general look of apathy that said it all.

This Time Will Be Different

I don't understand why it is that professional athletes don't ever learn from one another.  They are like the people that keep raising their voices when speaking to someone that does not speak their language.  It does not matter how loud speak, if the person does not speak your language they do not speak your language.

Professional athletes, most notably right now Roger Clemens and Jonathon Vilma, continue to believe that if they just keep screaming at people that they didn't do it people will eventually believe them!!??  All of the Saints Brass, and the Defensive Coordinator that not only orchestrated the bounty, but did so with multiple teams, has given  the league a complete description of the program, and now Jonathon Vilma wants the world to believe that the guy in the middle of that defense was not a part of any of it.

I am not saying that I think the commissioner of any sport should have both the first and last word on anything, and I am definitely not a fan of this commissioner's attempt to take the intensity out of football, but when you are wrong you are wrong, and Jonathon Vilma is wrong.

I have to believe that if Roger Clemens knew when he first denied using steroids, or second, or third, that he was going to end up going to trial and that he might go to jail, that he might have considered either telling the truth to congress, or at least not saying anything, but now the whole is just too deep.

Athletes need to learn from those that came before them, drugs, alcohol, women (other than their wives), and performance enhancing whatever.  I just don't know why these guys never seem to learn from others mistakes...then again I never did either.

A Real Turn-Off

I was in a meeting this morning with roughly 50 people.  The meeting was being conducted by the person that runs the entire facility where I am.  Being the "outsider" I sat in the back and in the row in front of me was a gentlemen that I have come to know a bit from a work perspective and thus what I am describing here now does not surprise me much, but it still really, really bugs me.

The meeting starts, and about ten minutes in a very loud, very obnoxious cell phone ringtone goes off and it is this gentlemen's phone.  The respectful thing to do would be silence it and put it back in your pocket, right?  OK.  How about let it ring and then turn the ringer off?  A third option you say, answer the phone and have a conversation!!  This actually happened three times.

Now, I am on my phone a great deal, have to be given my job and my hobby, and I even answer the phone sometimes when some people would think it rude I am sure, but I am certain that I always silence my phone when going into meetings, or leave it in my office.  I am also certain that I do the same when going to movies, shows and wherever else it would be rude, or inappropriate, to have the phone on.

Please just turn your phones off, or silence them, and realize that absolutely no one is that important!!

Smoke This

I understand that people smoke, I really do.  I have been fortunate enough to visit Europe and the whole place is basically on fire.  I was also very fortunate to see Roma play Firenza in a match in the Olympic Stadium in Rome and from the upper seats you truly had trouble seeing the field and the play through the smoke ring around the stadium from the 110,000 people smoking, but these are situations I chose to be in.

I would prefer to not smoke the cigarette of the person driving the car in front of me because that person wants to smoke, either because it is cool, or because they have an oral fixation, or because this is a substitute for food, but does not want the smoke in HIS or HER car.

If you are going to smoke while driving please close your windows and fill up your own car with smoke, not our streets and our country.  If you are going to smoke while driving please put the cigarette out in the palm of your hand and then put it in your pocket, do not just throw it out the window while still burning.

I cannot tell you the number of times, and I know I am not alone, where the light you are sitting at is long enough that by the time it turns green I feel as though I have just had a cigarette, without the sex, and then smell of smoke when I get where I am going.

Lead, Follow, or GET OUT OF THE WAY

At one point last week while headed back to the hotel after work while sitting at a stoplight I heard the somewhat distant sound of sirens and the horn of a firetruck.  Both sounds got closer very quickly soon followed by the flicker of distant, but approaching, flashing colored lights.  I was third in line in my lane and was one lane in from the right on a four lane one way straight in downtown Baltimore.  From the title of this post you can probably figure out what those around me did...

NOTHING!!

I realize this should be obvious to everyone on the planet, but I can tell you that this was far than obvious to dozens of Baltimore drivers, when an emergency vehicle comes up from behind you, sirens and horns blasting, lights flashing, GET OUT OF THE WAY!!

Again, I realize this should be obvious, but I have first hand knowledge that it is not.  To be really clear, if you are first at the light, and you are in the right hand lane, you should probably be first to move, forward and to your right would be good.  From there it is essentially follow the leader.  Obviously doing this with your eyes open is always good so you can avoid traffic in the intersection, but temporary paralysis does not help anyone.

I should also mention that this one way street parallels the harbor front and intersect another one way street at this intersection, so there is essentially no cross traffic at all to consider in this particular case.

Amazing!!

We Are Not Alone

Back to the air I went this weekend and on the return trip the following idiocy by a sloppy, ill-mannered flight attendant amazed me:

1. Sitting, slumping, in one of the wheelchairs by the entrance to the gate
2. Yelling at the gate agent and the flight attendant working the flight while boarding
3. Complaining loudly to a passenger about how poorly SHE had been treated by the same gate agent
4. Bragging about having 7 kids from numerous husbands starting at the age of 19

I truly do not expect people to be perfect, but it would be nice if once in a while they had some idea how to act in public, and towards others.

Love Like You've Never Loved Before

Was traveling on Friday and at the gate in Baltimore there was a couple sitting near me that were the embodiment of the bride and groom that sit atop most wedding cakes.  The bride was perfect from head to toe, gorgeous dress, perfect matching shoes, amazing smile, silky dark hair.  The groom, tall, dark, and equal to his mate, a rarity to see by the way in travels.

As I went to pick up my stuff to board the plane I noticed that the two nearly perfect humans. outwardly at least, young married couple, were both playing the same video game on their identical smart phones.  I said "are you playing against each other?"  The response, in perfect unison of course, "no."

I realize that I know nothing about how to a relationship work, and so I concede that ignoring each other playing video games on your phones while waiting to travel some where together might very well be  a the key to successful marriage, but I highly doubt it.

Put your phones, iPads, iPods and whatnot down and please, please at least speak to each other.

The Greater Good

So I was having a chat with a friend on Friday who made the statement "there is no such thing as the greater good."  He made this statement as part of an explanation about how there is no way for government to truly decide what is best for the greater good, one because it does not exist and two, because he does not believe that government knows what is best.

Yes there is something called the greater good and we all should be doing everything we can for the greater good, and yes, the rest people in office can definitely look out for the little guy.  The majority of our country needs some help, whether it be with health insurance, or affordable medical care, schooling, the ability to own a home, care for their families, or just put gas in the car.

"The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few or the one!!"

Taking Chance

If I am going to rail against all those on the planet that believe they are the only ones here, or at least the only ones that matter, I have to be honest about myself as well.

I have seen Taking Chance twice now while living out of hotel in Baltimore, and if you haven't seen it it is well worth watching, if not a must see.  What this movie makes you realize is just how much our military men and women have done for us, and just how much respect there is among the military and for the military.

This is what Taking Chance made me realize about myself, I truly have not done enough, if anything, truly meaningful in my lifetime.  I don't know how many people have, but when you look at people that have made the ultimate sacrifice in war, in defending our country, in protecting our cities, running into burning buildings and saving lives, I have to ask myself what I have done that truly matters, and what could I do at this point to change that?

Neither answer is good enough.

Be Good

It really is not difficult to be a good friend, at  least not with the big, obvious stuff, but it is sometimes hard to tell that when out in the world.

Last night, as I returned back to my hotel in downtown Baltimore, I came upon a pack, or maybe a gaggle, of people. They were loud, there were quite a few attractive women in the group that may have caught my attention from a distance, and a bunch of men in suits and/or tuxes.  The biggest dude in the bunch was also the loudest, and the drunkest.  This was post reception and pre-bar and the big guy was professing as loud as any human could that he was correct about the location of this particular bar and everybody else was wrong.

As I crossed the street and walked up towards the group, and the entrance to the hotel, the lug dashed, well lumbered or stumbled would be more appropriate, straight across the street I just crossed, against the light, and across five lanes of traffic!!  The group's reaction, man he is crazy drunk, he is going to get himself killed...and then they began walking in a group the other way towards the bar!!

How does anyone let another person go off and put themselves in harms way, let alone a friend or family member??  My immediate reaction was to go after him, which I did, and we are sure to be lifelong friends, maybe not since he did not know his own name last night, but how could an entire group of human beings watch that happen and let that happen to someone they knew??!!

It just not that hard to be basically a good person, not significantly, but just basically.

Flush PLEASE

How hard is it to flush a toilet??  As Nike says, "Just Do It!!"

Traffic Engineering 101 - Literally

This is complicated so stay with me, right lane is always the "travel" lane, the left lane is the "passing" lane, any lanes in between are also "travel" lanes.  It is never OK to be in the left hand lane for any significant length of time, unless of course you really feel you deserve your own parade!!

Justice

I do not think that if you spy on someone, videotape them, share that graphic video of them with the world because you feel like it and the outcome is that person committing suicide that 30 days in jail is anywhere even close to justice!!

Don't Text and Drive!!

Posting from mobile device reminds me that texting while driving should be punishable by death. Especially for twenty something girls driving 70 mph or faster!!