Day Laborers

Had a little microeconomics session at the dinner table last night. Owen was lamenting the fact that his bank account balance was not quite at the level he would like it (a pain many of us are feeling, right?). I was lamenting that there were certain odd jobs around the house that I needed to get done, but just didn't have the time to do them. Supply, meet demand.

We went about the discussion in a very business-like manner. I explained to him the job I needed done- the "tomato garden" (in quotes because it's less of a garden and more of a compost pile because of neglect) is an absolute mess. It's overgrown with weeds, has tomatoes rotting on the vine, and because it is at the end of the driveway, it is a visible sign of my lack of commitment to it. I told him the entire garden needed to be cleaned out, however he saw fit. All I asked was that the patch of ground be clean dirt by the time he was done.

I estimated that the job would take him about an hour, and I asked him to submit a bid for the work. He asked for $7, I countered with $3, and we settled on $4. I told him that he could subcontract out some work if he wanted to, and that if he did, he would pay his subcontractors from the lump sum I paid him.

Brendan of course wanted in on some action too. We had a similar discussion about detailing my car, so while Owen is doing his job today, Brendan will be detailing the interior of my car for the same price. We'll see how all this works out, but if all parties are happy by this evening, it could be the start of a new business relationship.

Beachin' it

Just back from our first ever trip to the Outer Banks, NC. Ciaran (or as the kids like to call her, Atti's Owner) and her brother Aidan rented a house there for the week and were kind enough to invite us down to visit.

We headed south Thursday afternoon, arriving there late in the evening in with enough time for an evening dip in the pool. Started Friday with a trip to Duck Donuts (fresh hot donuts hand-dipped in toppings and full of donuty goodness) and then walked the few blocks from the house to the beach. Great waves, plenty of sun- a perfect beach day. Capped it off that night with a shellfish feast- a take-out, cook-it-yourself steamer pot of lobster, crab, mussels and clams that was fantastic. Headed back to DE on Saturday with a little sunburn, great memories, and an appetite whetted for a return trip sometime soon.

The Ballad of Lucky the Fish

I'm only about 75 pages into the 1000+ page health care bill, so it might be a while before I can post about my thoughts there. In the interim, I give you the tale of 3 fish that touched our lives and our hearts last week.

St. Joe's church carnival, last Wednesday. Three kids with a penchant for games of chance but without the skill to procure stuffed blue bears or Hannah Montana posters find their way to the Fishbowl Toss. A seemingly simple game, but plenty of players had come and gone before them with nothing more than a frown and a dollar less in their pockets. Nevertheless, the fearless 3 made their way to the table and offered the barker their fare.

First up was young Molly, who took aim with the first of her five table tennis balls and barely reached the table that held a baker's dozen of small fishbowls. The second ball was somewhat more on track, but careened to the side harmlessly. The third toss was wildly off-line, yet somehow struck the side of the backboard, caromed back toward the fishbowls, and landed squarely into the middle bowl of the second row. Winner, winner, chicken dinner.

Next up, Owen, who had no problem reaching the table but couldn't get the bounces to go his way- until the last throw. Soft toss, one bounce, nothing but bowl. Winner number 2.

Then Brendan, who after watching his siblings hit paydirt thought he was in for a fish for sure. Alas, despite his best attempts, he was unable to find the bottom of the bowl with any of his tosses, so he went away empty handed- at least for the moment.

After they finished, Molly and Owen walked over to the side of the booth to claim their prizes. The kindly folks in the booth offered to hold the fish for a while while we rode some rides, but the excitement of winning was just too much for the young champions. They each were handed a large plastic bag- the contents of which being about a quart of water and a solitary goldfish- and were delighted to have them (...for about ten minutes, at which time said bags were handed off to the closest adult).

Back to Brendan, who initially dealt with his defeat at the fins of the fish well, but after seeing the spoils unto the victors decided that this game of chance was worth further investment. He proudly stepped up to the booth for a second go-around, offering yet another 8 bits to the fish peddler. Upon seeing the desire for victory in his eyes, she took mercy on the boy, and decided it was her and God's will that a fish be unto him, balls be damned. So after the last ball tossed landed harmlessly between two fishbowls, she proclaimed "It's good enough- you win!" Fish number 3, now proudly secured.

We walked around for a bit more, stopping to chat with several friends and acquaintances, some with fish of their own. After a bit though, a situation developed that demanded attention. It seems one of the first-to-be-acquired fish had risen to the occasion quite literally, and was now resting in a permanent state of quiescence at the top of his bag. The suggestion was made that we simply trade this fish back in to the fish peddler for one that seemed perhaps a bit more alive. A valid suggestion, to be sure, but the fish booth had been depleted of its stock. We waited patiently for reinforcements to arrive, but before they could, tragedy struck.

It was now apparent that Brendan's fish was also in full horizontal recline. Down to one fish, and with no replacement options in sight, the command decision was made to abandon the first two fish in the nearest trash receptacle and head home with the lone survivor.

After some protest by the shorter members of the family, I proclaimed that this fish belonged to no individual now, but to the family. "He shall belong to all of us, and he shall be called "Lucky", for he has survived the afflictions which have befallen his brethren".

Lucky came home and was transferred from his plastic-walled home into a luxurious 14"x16"x8" tank. He was offered the finest flakes in the house, and devoured them readily. All turned in for the night, with dreams of Lucky and prayers for his comrades.

But in the morning, before the rise of the sun (or the sons), Lucky's luck ran out. He was found motionless, floating along side a few uneaten Goldy Flakes, as peaceful as the morning itself. Molly was downstairs with me, just in time to witness Lucky make his final passage into his porcelain grave.

We still think of Lucky sometimes, and talk of the time we shared together. His tank has been cleaned and put away, waiting for perhaps a new friend to come along. There won't be another Lucky though- at least until next year's carnival.

A bitter pill

I feel obligated to post something on the current debate over health care reform, but feel uninformed enough at the time to do it. After about 45 minutes of searching online, I finally found the actual text of the bill before the House, and I plan to look it over this weekend. Should you care to do the same, you'll find it here. Hope you've got a lot of free time this weekend- the bill is 1018 pages long.

I realize that most bills are quite lengthy, and that most congresspersons don't read the bills they vote on for that reason. This one better get their full attention, because if the media is right, the content within could radically change our system.

More to come...

How to build a running playlist

Just redid my running playlist tonight- long overdue, as I've been listening to a playlist I made for the last FinkBowl and not a true running playlist. While I won't share the entire 157 songs that made the cut, I will share what I feel makes a good playlist specifically for running, with some examples of songs on my current list.

1) Length- Thanks to digital technology, gone are the days of 12-18 song mixes you burned onto a disc, or *gasp* recorded onto a cassette (that you'd have to flip half-way thru a decent run). A good list needs to not be your whole catalog but should have enough songs for variety. This way, you can familiarize yourself with the tunes without getting sick of them. I think anywhere from 100-300 would work.

2) Song tempo- Obviously a big factor. Songs that are too fast will throw off your pace, and too slow will just bore you. Sometimes you've got to pick alternate songs from your favorite artists to fit the tempo criteria ("Cracklin' Rosie" over "Sweet Caroline", Neil Diamond, "The Way You Move" over "Hey Ya", Outkast)

3) Song length- Pick shorter over longer- you want to keep moving, not get bogged down by a long guitar solo or a bunch of "wiki-wiki-wiki-wikis". ("White Lines" by Grandmaster Flash over "Jam On It", Newcleus)

4) No Radiohead- A great band, but I've yet to find a Radiohead song that's acceptable to run to.

5) Good starts- Songs that get going quickly work great. I consider them either 'take-off songs', that start a little slow and rev up, like "Portions for Foxes", Rilo Kiley, or "Paint it Black", Rolling Stones, or 'blast-off songs' that come hard right out of the box, like "Panama", Van Halen or "Monkey Wrench", Foo Fighters.

6) Slow but steady starts- Some songs start slow, but because they have at their base a driving beat, they build and become motivating. Pick these over similar songs that start slow and build but don't really have that driving beat. ("Where The Streets Have No Name" over "Bad", U2)

7) Good memories- As long as the tempo and length are adequate, some songs that may not exactly rock can work if they generate some emotion or memories. I've always liked "Rain on the Scarecrow", John Mellencamp and "Around the Way Girl", LL Cool J, so when they come on I get lost in 3:40 worth of memories, which gets me that much closer to the finish.

8) Bang your head- Nothing helps you bust through "the wall" better than some loud metal or hard rock. Nine Inch Nails, Metallica, Kiss, or Jane's Addiction would all be acceptable choices. Might I suggest "Jesus Christ Pose", Soundgarden? Or if you're a little more daring, try "Unsung", Helmet.

9) Classic songs- There are some songs, like Talking Heads "Once In A Lifetime"and Springsteen's "Born to Run" that belong on any running playlist by virtue of their pedigree alone.

10) New blood- Classics are fine, but find a few new songs that fit criteria #2 and 3 to keep your playlist from developing that not-so-fresh scent. Perhaps "Percussion Gun", White Rabbits, "Around the Bend", The Asteroids Galaxy Tour (which you might know as the "iPod Touch commercial song"), or "The Good Old Days", The Lodger.

There you go. Now go open up your iTunes, pick a bunch of songs that fit this list, go to the iTunes store and buy 10-20 new songs, then sync your iPod, strap on your shoes and hit the road. No more excuses.

Stuff you should hear

I never got around to doing a "Best of 2008" post back in January, probably because I was too busy playing all the new Wii games the kids got for Christmas. But if I had, I'd have submitted as my nomination for the "Best Podcast of 2008" the "Stuff You Should Know" podcast from HowStuffWorks.com. (I assume you can get the podcast from the site, but I get it and all my other podcasts directly thru iTunes.)

The podcast is a free download, a twice weekly production offering up presentations of articles that can be found on the website. The articles address questions on various topics, such as "Is spontaneous combustion real?", or "How do credit default swaps work?". The information is decent, but the hosts are not experts in any of the fields they present, so sometimes facts are a little off. And the hosts admittedly lean a little to the left, so depending on what topics they choose, the information they present can have a definite liberal bias.

What makes the podcast so great though is the rapport between the two hosts. Their style is at its worst funny and at its best hilarious. They are both smart guys, with a great fund of pop culture knowledge that they stir into their discussions. The end product is usually one with a little bit of education and a lot of humor, and at just about 25 minutes a show, the perfect length for the ride to work. Check it out- you might learn something, and you'll laugh even if you don't.

Maybe someday I'll be able to work from home

Had my first real experience with e-medicine the other day. Saw a patient on Monday who had a nasty boil on his leg that I drained. He called 2 days later, saying it looked worse. We asked him to come in right away, but he declined saying that he was at work, about 30 miles away. He instead asked if he could just send pictures, because he had a very good digital camera and wanted to just e-mail some shots to us. Given that the alternative was him likely not getting his leg looked at at all, I said, "Sure".

I'll spare you the photos, but they were of good quality and showed that his leg certainly looked worse. With that knowledge I advised him that if he couldn't come down to us, he should get himself to the nearest clinic/ER near him.

There's obviously a good big of hands-on stuff that I do, but I'd guess that the majority of the information I gather for each patient encounter is either historical or visual . I can see a day soon when most of that information is gathered without me being in the room. But as long as the FDA says I'm the one with the prescribing power, I've got job security, baby.

It must be summer

Must be summer if I'm home alone again. Kids and Erin are off for a short trip to upstate New York. They were at Niagara Falls yesterday, stopping at Corning today to tour the glass factory, then will be heading home. No definite plans for the rest of the summer, but more of these short trips are likely.

Must be summer if the Mets are swooning again. Went to the game on Sunday in Philly. Took the boys, which was fun, but was treated to a miserable offensive performance by the Flushing nine. Looking more and more like it's time to rebuild and start anew.

Must be summer if things are slow around the office. Not too busy these past few days, which in some way is good because it allows me to catch up on the pile of paperwork on my desk (not to mention the neglected blog you're reading now). But for any small business, too many "not too busy" days in a row make you a little concerned for the bottom line. Fortunately it seems swine flu may be back again in the fall- job security, baby!

Human Nature

It takes the death of the King of Pop to bring me back to this blog after more than 2 weeks away. I'm finding through e-mails, IM's, and media coverage that everyone's got an opinion on the death of Jacko. (Even PTI devoted a short segment to his passing last Friday.) Not surprising at all, given the fame and infamy that defined his life. So I couldn't let the opportunity pass without throwing my two cents and silver glove into the ring.

I've always liked MJ. Never a huge fan, but appreciated his music and marveled at his talent. I listened to "Thriller" while I was cutting the grass this past Saturday AM, trying to identify what it was that drew so many people in. What struck me as the most identifiable reason was the passion in his voice. The songs are good, the lyrics are well written, but it's the passion in his voice that seems to set MJ apart from everyone else. Listening to the album, there's no doubt that Billie Jean is certainly not his lover. (And there was certainly never any doubt that the kid was not his son ;) ) Thinking further, it becomes easy then to see that same passion in his dancing, and also easy to see how his misguided passion completely screwed up his personal life.

I think it can be argued that Michael Jackson is the most famous person since Jesus. More than Elvis, more than the Beatles, more than Princess Diana. Michael transcended music- he crossed age barriers, race barriers, cultural barriers. For that reason, to the chagrin of many, his death will be a huge story for the media (and bloggers) for quite a while.

At your service

Earlier this school year, I tried to help Owen improve his penmanship by offering him a challenge. He was getting B's in penmanship, but only because he would rush his work. Whenever he took his time, his printing and handwriting were fine. So I offered to him that if he finished the year with an A in penmanship, I would be his servant for the weekend.

After B's in both the first and second trimester, it wasn't looking good. But he persevered, worked harder at it, and with the help of some mystery "bonus points" (I know for a fact his teacher knew of the challenge), he got an A in the last trimester and somehow managed an A average for the year.

So, of course, he called me as soon as he got out of school this morning (half-day for their last day), advising him that my servitude was about to be called upon. Since I'm on call this weekend, I told him it was in his best interest to wait a few weeks to call in his winnings, so we'll do it sometime soon.

He's proud, I'm proud, and the way I see it, it saved me from paying for grades. Only problem is, Brendan's now trying to come up with some scheme to indenture me. Maybe I'll offer him Molly.

EXTRA!! EXTRA!! Green Lantern Dispatches of Lex Luthor, No Comment Yet from Superman

Just watched some tennis commentators talking about how excited Roger Federer must be now that Rafael Nadal has been ousted from the French Open. Federer, despite his recent success, has never won the French and has lost to Nadal in the finals there the last 3 years.

It made me wonder how much athletes who have a particular nemesis in an individual or a team find their victories bittersweet if they haven't had to defeat their nemesis to get there. This first came to me about 10 years ago. The Mets, who had been the whipping boys of the Braves for most of the 90's, finally made it to the post-season in 1999 but were beaten a step before the World Series by the Braves. The next season, the Mets and Braves both made the playoffs again, but the Braves lost in the first round. The Mets won their series, and subsequently advanced to the World Series, but it seemed "cheaper" in a way because they didn't have to go through the Braves to get there. (Yankee fans need not comment on the final round of the playoffs that year.)

You think Federer is happy Nadal is out, or will he always be questioned if he does win because "he didn't have to play Nadal"?

Just call me "The Snake Whisperer"

Was out cutting the grass today and out of the corner of my eye saw a rather large black snake sneaking along the base of the house into the front flower bed. About an hour later, I had finished mowing and was trimming along the back of the house and came upon the same snake, stretched out right in front of me, just sunning himself.

After a brief thought of just chasing him away, I decided that no matter how docile this guy might have been, he needed to go. So I went back to the shed, grabbed the hoe, and went back for him. He was no longer in the spot he was, but I figured he hadn't gone far. Found him just a few feet away, coiled up under the steps to the back door.

Our hoe has two sides- a standard blade side, and an opposite side with two prongs (kinda looks like a claw hammer). I reached under the steps with the hoe, pulled him out with the pronged end, then went to work with the blade side. He never stood a chance.

Pretty freaky, because even after I gave him that beat-down, he was still writhing somewhat. So I got the garden shovel, took it to his neck and rendered him headless, to which he responded by still writhing. He did stop moving enough for me to stretch him out- I paced him out at just over 4 feet long, and by his looks (and how much shovel it took to get all French Revolution on his neck), I figure he was a good inch and a half in diameter.

My brief internet research tells me he was likely a black rat snake, harmless and possibly helpful, as he was probably feasting on the field mice that live in our yard. While that gave me some regret, since mice are more of a nuisance than he would have been, I think the kids would be more OK with seeing a mouse in the basement than a snake in their playhouse longer than they are tall.

Blog fodder

The cruel irony about having plenty to blog about is that it often means there's no time to do the blogging. Marathon training has picked up lately (although you'd never know it from the official finkathon blog, which has suffered the same neglect as this one has), and am still in the throes of getting this new business off the ground. This week's tasks- getting the bank to lend me some money, getting worker's comp insurance and a business license, and figuring out how I'm going to do payroll.

Lots of resources available online for small businesses, and despite never having done this before, I think I'll be able to do most of the management myself. Love to hear any tips you might have, especially things you wish you knew at the beginning.

To infinity...and beyond!

I remember STS-1 well- watched it live in my 4th grade classroom and have been fascinated ever since. Haven't seen a live launch in many years, but thanks to this series of interconnected tubes, I can watch them whenever I want. No matter how many times you see it, it never gets old.

Here's STS-125 heading out on its way to repair Hubble. (From about 2pm yesterday)

Yes, I still work here

Lest you think that my new "venture" has caused me to abandon this blog, I feel the need to at least post something to show you I still care about you.

For those who asked, the venture I referenced a few weeks ago is just a little side project from my current practice which will involve some nursing home care. I'll be hiring someone to help me with it, which necessitates the independent corporation. The legwork setting up the business side of things is nothing compared to the bureaucracy of enrolling in Medicare. Let's just say if you've ever wondered why things in Washington are seemingly impossible to change, it's probably because no one has figured out which of the nine gazillion government forms they need to do it.

On a brighter note, had a wonderful first communion celebration for Brendan this past weekend. Had everyone from the official finkipedia family (national division) present, and despite the rain had a great time.

Venture adventure

Not much posting going on, as I've been occupied with a new side project I'm taking on. As part of this new venture, I'm setting up a corporation and am actually enjoying the process of getting things off the ground. (While technically I'm already a small business owner, buying into a corporation is just not the same as starting from scratch).

Filed with the state for my certificate of formation, and now have my official IRS tax ID number. Next step- licenses and a bank account. Hope to be operational by June, and soon thereafter taking advantage of all the benefits both personally and professionally that come from running my own show. Maybe I'll petition the Board of Directors (me) to hold the first shareholder's meeting (singular possessive) off-site- perhaps at Citi Field?

Resurrection

Many have said the two things you can't talk about at work are politics and religion- that's what blogs are for. Touched on politics last fall, but I haven't really approached the third rail of religion yet, though not for lack of desire. In fact, I once thought about starting an entirely separate blog for matters of religion to allow for longer and deeper discussion. For now though we'll start here, and with no smaller matter than the entire foundation of the Christian faith.

I listened intently to yesterday's sermon in which the priest focused on the importance of the empty tomb. His point was that Christianity centers on the belief in the unseen, that Peter and the "other disciple" (John) left the empty tomb believing in the resurrection, though they hadn't seen anything. They went back and reported in, telling the others that Jesus had risen. Only Thomas doubted, and needed to see the risen Christ to believe. Jesus of course would soon show himself to Thomas and the others, but would then declare that with regards to the resurrection, "blessed are those who do not see, but still believe".

But what if the resurrection was more of a spiritual event than a physical one? What if it was more allegory than literal fact? Is it possible that those first two disciples came back from that empty tomb, professing their belief with such conviction that a miracle was born? What if it was not the return of Christ to a human body that was the true resurrection miracle, but rather the ability of those two disciples to believe that He would live on forever?

For Christians, a resurrected Christ is necessary to show God's ability to conquer death and to bring to believers the gift of eternal life. If the resurrection is not corporeal, than how could that need be filled? The answer is in the empty tomb. For Peter and John, the resurrection was not a vision of Christ. It was the absence of his dead body that caused them to believe. Once they believed that death had been conquered, the resurrection was real regardless of what happened to Christ's body. It is easy to question that if Christ did not return to his earthly body, then how did the tomb become empty in the first place, and how did Christ appear to the apostles later? That is not the point. How the body left the tomb does not matter, nor does his appearance later matter. Whether Christ rejoined his body at all does not matter. What matters is that we believe that after he died, Christ returned from death to live on first in John (because he got there first, of course), then in Peter, then the rest of us.

The sermon I remember more than any other was one I heard probably 25 years ago. It was given by a deacon about the gospel of loaves and the fishes. He suggested that perhaps the miracle that day wasn't Jesus creating food for 5,000 from thin air, but rather was Jesus convincing everyone other than the kid with the fish and bread to share the food they had brought with them. People in attendance, reluctant to share their food, were touched by Christ and produced enough food to feed everyone, with plenty to spare. Bible literalists would consider any possibility other than Jesus creating food to be blasphemy, but this exegesis struck a deep chord within me. It was a way to explain a miracle while still considering it a miracle.

If Christ can live on in each of us, than he has in fact conquered death. If we believe that Christ has conquered death, than we believe that we too can live forever. And if those beliefs are held in good faith, then isn't that what the resurrection is for?

Change you can believe in

So it wasn't entirely an April Fool's joke. Most of it was true. I used to be a horrible typist, and truly couldn't find a shift key. Didn't matter much to a science geek who had few term papers to write, but with the advent of the internet, typing was forced upon me pretty quickly. So, I could either type slowly, or just forego capital letters in the interest of speed. I opted for the latter.

Didn't take too long to get skillz, but I kinda liked the lower case thing. Became a style, an M.O. But for a while now I've been growing a little tired of it. Looking back on this blog in particular, I do feel that an all lowercase font does make the entries a little more difficult to read. (I know, the background and layout need some big time work too, but that's gonna take some HTML skillz that I haven't got yet.) So, it's time to grow up.

You may see e-mails from me in all lowercase, and for effect I won't rule out a lowercase entry here from time to time, but from now on, it's a more traditional style here at finkipedia. Except for the name.

GOOD TIME FOR A CHANGE

WHEN I FIRST STARTED USING E-MAIL YEARS AGO, I WAS A HORRIBLE TYPIST AND COULDN'T FIND THE SHIFT KEY. THUS, I'D TYPE ONLY IN LOWER CASE. WHAT BEGAN OUT OF INEPTITUDE MORPHED INTO A STYLE, AND IT'S BEEN HARD TO GO BACK.

BUT WHEN I RE-READ THIS BLOG, I FIND THAT READING LOWER CASE CAN BE A BIT DISTRACTING AT TIMES. SO I'VE DECIDED TO CHANGE THE FORMAT A LITTLE, AND SWITCH TO AN ALL UPPER CASE FORMAT FOR A WHILE.

FEEL FREE TO POST YOUR COMMENTS AS YOU'D LIKE, BUT AN ALL-CAPS COMMENT SECTION WOULD JIVE NICELY WITH THE TEXT ABOVE.

caring is creepy

is there a time limit for leaving a dead person's voice on an answering machine message? i realize that for some people, it may be the only recording they have of their loved one's voice, but after a certain period of time after a death, it becomes a little odd hearing a voice from someone you know can't really call you back.

i'm sure there are situations too that because people don't really call their own homes, they may not even realize that their loved one's voice is on their machine. do you tell them? if so, how?

it's not anywhere near the top of the things-to-do-when-someone-dies list, but i'd propose that if the deceased is the voice on your answering machine, changing the message within a week would be appropriate. having a message still there after six months (as i experienced this morning) is a bit out there. you think i should submit this to miss manners or dear abby?

the holy grail

i've said for years that the biggest breakthrough in medicine we may see in the next generation is synthetic blood. that's based solely on my opinion, as many would argue that potential advances in gene therapy, fetal surgery, robotics, neuroscience or stem cell therapy would qualify as even greater successes. but i feel that the development of synthetic blood would revolutionize surgical and trauma care, not to mention the benefits for cancer, cardiovascular and critical care in general. a theoretical limitless supply of blood would eliminate the need for blood banks and donor programs and eliminate the risk of transmitted diseases through transfusion.

for years, attempts at developing a synthetic analog to red blood cells have failed. no chemical substance has ever been remotely effective at replicating the red blood cell's ability to transmit oxygen throughout the body. until one is discovered, the only way to expand the world's supply of blood would be to create more blood somehow.

i read today that because of stem cell research, we are on the doorstep of this breakthrough. i've posted previously about the ethical morass that is stem cell research, but there is no denying its potential for revolutionary discoveries such as this. we'll save countless lives with this new therapy, but will we be better off? that's more philosophical than medical.

best weekend of the year

parked in front of the couch per my usual routine for the first day of the NCAA basketball tourney. like last year, had another shamrock shake courtesy of erin. this year the technology of the finkstead has been upgraded, so all the games are in HD and the wifi will allow for a running update here throughout the day.

i'll keep you posted on how my bracket fares, as well as what brilliant insights the CBS commentators impart.



3pm: purdue/northern iowa- miserable game to watch. purdue is horrible, but NIU is worse. 3 for 3 on the early games- memphis, texas A&M and LSU

3:07pm uconn/chattanooga- what an ankle-breaker move by the chattanooga kid on the opening trip down the floor. if they could possibly get thabeet in foul trouble, this could be interesting

3:36pm back to back to back 3's for uconn, went from 19-15 to 28-15. game over. so much for the mocs

4:34pm still unscathed, thanks to purdue. unc and uconn are locked in, just hoping cal holds on over md to keep me perfect on the day. spaghetti jimmy wins!

6:37pm local and national news break for the games, so it's over to discovery channel for a little "cash cab"- great concept, great show. as for the bracket, i was cursed by spaghetti jimmy- maryland went on a run starting at about 4:35 and blew out cali. finished 6 for 7 in the early games, with mississippi state (my pick for a sweet 16 cinderella) not looking so hot against u-dub in game #8.

8:09pm 'nova/american- best game of the day so far. 41-31 american at the half. 'nova getting no love from the home crowd. oh, and dick enberg has on more makeup than joan rivers did on larry king last night.

9:27pm 'nova finally gets the crowd behind them, finally uses their size and goes inside, and punishes american in the second half. fun game for a while, though. maybe akron will sneak by gonzaga and be the cinderella of the day.

9:59pm ...or not- zags just too much. so much for the underdogs today- 2 #10s over #7s, but wins by maryland and michigan can hardly be considered upsets. binghamton not looking like much of a challenge for the dukies. maybe VCU or western KY will represent for the little guys. won't find out until tomorrow, though, because i think i'm tapped out. DVR is now taping ER and grey's anatomy for erin, relegating me upstairs to watch the rest from bed. means i'll be asleep in half an hour. great day though- looking forward to tomorrow night.

top o' the mornin'

going green here on finkipedia in celebration of the holiday. made our annual irish dinner on sunday and have the leftovers for lunch today, including homemade soda bread. (green beer will have to wait until after hours). mmmm. looking forward to a shamrock shake to cap off my day this evening.

as they say in the homeland, may the road rise to meet you, may the wind be at your back, and may you be in heaven an hour before the devil knows you're dead.

in the meanwhile, enjoy the dulcet tones of shane mcgowan belting out my favorite irish tune.

finkipedia ('07, blog) **1/2 witty comments on ordinary life

not sure who really reads the tv listings in the paper anymore, but i'm glad they're still printed. the increase in channels and the prime real estate of the newspaper page has forced the consolidation of the listings down to usually a 1/2 page. for some reason, the powers that be still find it necessary to include not just the name of the program but as much pertinent information about it as the space will allow. this means that most listings get 3 to 10 word descriptions that are rarely useful but often hilarious. no true gems in today's paper, but some good ones nonetheless (the asterisks represent ratings stars):

• scifi, 8:00pm lake placid 2 ('07) * giant crocodiles
• scifi, 11:00pm eye of the beast ('07) squid eats profits
• nbc, 10:00pm law & order "by perjury" airline plaintiff murdered TV-PG (HD)
  
• tcm, 8:00 pm rocky ('76, drama) sylvester stallone. a boxer trains for a championship fight
• max, 8:00pm meet the parents ('00, comedy) *** a man meets his girlfriend's parents
• starz, 11:00pm the game plan ('07) quarterback dad
• versus, 8:00pm PBR bullriding "birmingham" (taped)
  

downhill lies

spent last weekend skiing in park city, UT with some M'97 classmates. hadn't been skiing in about 9 years, since before we left cali. was a little worried i'd embarrass myself, or worse, break a bone or two in the process. was just like riding a bike, though. after a few warmup runs on the green slopes, i made my way up to mostly intermediate runs for the rest of the weekend. the weather was great, snow was perfect, and the resorts we hit (park city, deer valley, and alta) were spectacular. mix in some great steaks, great sushi, many beers and some poker, and it had all the trappings of the perfect man-cation.


hard to tell from the free sample image, but that's me, looking like quite the ski dork in my great gazoo helmet and trendy scarf.

wonder if they have a shamrock version?

if you've never checked out thisiswhyyourefat.com, go and take a peek. it may gross you out a bit, but it might just make you feel a little less guilty about the cheeseburger you had for lunch when you realize what some of your other options were. this is one of the less revolting images you'll find in the archives there.

it's a pic of the mcnuggetini, a delectable cocktail made from a mcdonald's chocolate shake and vanilla vodka, rimmed with barbecue sauce and garnished with a mcnugget. if i were a cardiologist, i'd refer to this as "business".

the pestilence returns

this time, it's brendan. not GI-oriented this time, which is good, but it looks like the poor guy has the flu. came out of school today with his head hung low, stating "i just don't feel good, mom". not what you expect from a second grader on a friday afternoon.

achy, feverish, sore throat, belly ache- just miserable. hopeful that a) it doesn't last long, and b) it starts and ends with him. full quarantine in effect.

"fifty-seven thousand six hundred minutes..."

the easter season gets no love. easter is a more important holiday on the christian calendar than christmas, yet it gets nowhere near the commercial attention. hard to say whether the holiday drives the lead-in season or vice versa, but either way the weeks leading up to easter have nothing on those before christmas. i can't really say that advent gets any special billing, but the generic "christmas season" certainly gets its fair share. the pre-easter season kicks off with dirty foreheads, winds down with free palm leaves that clutter your house until you get rid of them just before the next year's holiday, and ends up on a total downer of a holiday, so-called "good" friday.

lent needs to go mainstream, get the people talking about it to drive up the word on the street. mel gibson tried, but he just brought everyone down with "the passion" (besides, the merchandising options were awful). we need something with a little life in it. so, as a means of bringing some much-needed attention to the season, i'm going to propose to the u.s. conference of catholic bishops that someone there just adapt a popular broadway show and create "lent- the musical". sure, they'll have to groom over some little things (like the gay sex and the aids and the drugs and all), but the songs are way better than anything from church!

c'mon, isn't lent really a "season of love" after all?

geography bee

being the pedagogic parent that i am, i insisted that if i was going to have a pokemon battle with the boys on saturday afternoon, they would have to play a quiz game with me. i tried to get them to agree to state capitals, but they talked me into just quizzing them on the 50 states. turns out, that itself was an adventure enough.

the game went like this- i'd give them a letter, and they would have to provide me with all the states that started with that letter. first letter i gave them was L. owen's quick response: "lakota?" let it be said that the kid is well read, and he did go to custer's battlefield this summer, but i didn't realize he believed in statehood for native american tribes. with only a little prompting ("think south, near texas"), one of them quickly got louisiana and calmed my fear that this might be more of a lesson in futility for me than of geography for them.

we went on, covering most of the states with fair success on their part and only a few incorrect guesses (most were cities instead of states, as well as the almost expected incorrect guess of "new england"). then came T. right out of the box, both gave texas simultaneously, then paused for a good bit. finally, brendan broke the silence with "talabama?". classic. i believe i gave them tennessee because i couldn't bear the thought of anything worse.

but there was, sort of. i think the last letter we hit on was R. silence again, until owen responded with "richigan?". obviously he was playing off brendan's previous response, but when i gave him a "come on..." look, he replied "what? that's how scooby doo would say it." now the silence was on my end. you just can't argue with logic like that.

leading me here, despite my destination

almost 2 weeks without a post, and now two in 45 minutes. couldn't let this wait, though. i'm adding this to my bucket list- somehow, someway, i want to see this with my own eyes. (i'd post the picture here, but it's a panorama and wouldn't fit.)

speaking of bucket lists, that sounds like a good idea for another day's post...

back off the DL

about 90% recovered from a nasty go-around with the stomach flu earlier this week. owen came home early from school on tuesday with it, and was still feeling the effects into the evening. i was fine all day, had a great dinner, went to bed a little early more for the rest than anything else, then started having that not-so-fresh feeling.

at about 10pm the fun began, with visits to the vomitorium about every 60-90 minutes throughout the night. one trip was a touching father-son moment- owen staggered into our room sometime around midnight, vomited on our carpet, then finished the job in the commode. once i knew he'd run dry, i gently nudged him aside and contributed my share. now there's bonding.

the other 60% of the family has emerged unscathed so far. here's hoping diligent hand washing and personalized water bottles keep it that way.

'roid rage

at the risk of starting a war of words in the comments section between wiley and 2white, i feel obliged to acknowledge the recent developments in the life of one alex rodriguez.

first of all, this news should come as no surprise to anyone who follows baseball. i've yet to see any of those before/after photos of a-rod, like the ones that sports outlets love to put up on bonds and clemens, but it's fair to say that a-rod now is nothing compared to the lanky shortstop that came up with the mariners. in a league where performance enhancing drugs (PEDs) were/are rampant, it's foolish to believe that after signing that almost immoral $250M contract, a-rod would have just turned his head and taken the moral high ground when presented with the temptation to cheat to succeed.

the signing of that contract, along with his antics on and off the field in NY, establish a-rod as a person with extremely low self-esteem. that low self-esteem was no doubt what drove him to feel the pressure to "'roid up", so as to avoid the ridicule that failure would bring after signing for 1/4 billion.

i give him some credit for owing up so fast. sure he's known for 5 years that there's a positive test on him, but if MLB wasn't going to leak it, why would he? his cop-out excuse seems lame, but i'm sure it's true- just make sure you interpret his feeling of "pressure" as more accurately an "immature fear of failure and loss of stature".

MLB is the real loser here. a-rod is the anchor brick in their steroid jenga tower- it all comes down now. there's no reason to believe that the 90's and early 00's were anything but a PED-fueled power trip. MLB must acknowlege that, acknowledge their outward denial, and allow all the records to stand and all the players during that period to be treated as equals. either that, or disavow the whole decade and a half and start anew.

those darn kids and their myface

finally succumbed to the pull of the black hole that is facebook. signed myself up yesterday, and already have found some old friends from high school and earlier whom i haven't heard from (or even about) in years. from what i hear that's the point, right? (that, and posting ridiculous photos from those early years)

still trying to figure out all the ins and outs of the site and figure how it will factor in to my online life. at the very least, maybe it will direct a little more traffic this way.

friend me up, 'cause i may have some dirt on you somewhere just waiting to find its way to cyberspace.

finkbowl recap

another great finkbowl has come and gone. thanks to all those who came from far and near- you are the ones that make the party what it is. some great food helps too, and i must say, this year's feature of BBQ pulled pork was a taste sensation that's sure to return next year.

a few special thank yous:

• to the 2parm clan for making the trip for tacos on saturday
• to the cast of lovemomworklife for sharing your whole weekend with us
  
• to 2white for representing with GH-world tour
  
• to googs and RK-K for being a great uncle and aunt and even greater friends
• to puddin' and "jello" for homemade beer, NY cheesecake, and companionship during the finkbowl 5K
• to CTB for a fantastic cake in a solo effort
  
• to judge, for continuing to fly across the country every year just for the sake of a good party (and for finally losing back some of the money you've taken from us over the years)

hope to see all of you next year at finkbowl XIV, for which i invoke the divine right of party kings and hereby christen "the sun bowl"

things i love: convenience stores

i've probably written in the past about the little things in life that i love, but i'm not sure i made it any kind of formal post. figured i'd start a new somewhat recurring series of posts about some of the esoteric things that bring me joy.

i love convenience stores. much of the appeal is derived from my love of road trips, which are always punctuated with frequent stops at gas stations and thus the convenience stores they often have. i love scratch and win lottery tickets (more on that in another "things i love" post), packaged processed food, and coffee- all staples of the convenience store. i love the classless atmosphere of the convenience store- guys in beamers and suits waiting in line for their coffee behind hardened women buying marlboro lights and mexican day laborers buying iced tea by the half gallon. i love the fact that you can see all these things whether it's three in the afternoon or three in the morning.

next time you stop for gas, see if you can appreciate the inner beauty of the quickie mart. it's america in a 600 square foot fluorescent-lit room (that smells like hot dogs).

they're the people that you meet, when you're walkin' down the street...

a story from the holidays that i never got around to posting...

we (the 5 of us) joined fellow stags stacey and irish and their kids in NYC just after christmas to do the holiday city thing. met at 30 rock, saw the tree, walked up 5th to see the windows and made our way to FAO schwartz. cut across 59th from there to columbus circle to make our way back down broadway, walking along the park side of 59th street. (those unfamiliar with NYC- disregard that paragraph, as it adds absolutely nothing to the story other than the setting.)

we were across from the NYAC when a few black suburbans pulled up to the curb right next to us. a few guys get out to stop the westbound traffic on 59th so that someone from the car could get to the NYAC across the street. stacey and erin stood around watching to see who would get out, while irish and i marched forward with the kids. we walked back to ask what they were doing, and erin replied "watching some middle-age woman waiting to cross the street"- right at about the same time that stacey realized that the woman was hillary clinton. stacey clapped and gave a little cheer, and senator clinton came right over to her and erin and engaged them in conversation.

the guys and kids made it back to them in time to have the kids at least say hello and wish the new secretary of state well. i realize that while she wasn't campaigning she's still a politician, but she was nothing but pleasant, genuine and friendly. let's hope her meetings with heads of state are as enjoyable for her as this was for us.

a new beginning

put aside your political ideology- today is a day to identify yourself only as an american. as with any new endeavor, the only way to succeed is to begin with the belief that we will. if you believe in the merits of intercessory prayer, then take a few minutes today to ask for God's grace on our new president and the country as a whole. if you don't believe in prayer, then at least wish president obama well.

then, republican or democrat, god-fearing or godless, pledge to do your part to correct this mess and get this country headed the right way again.

can't wait until he's in a group of his peers

if you happen to check on the official finkipedia blogs, you might notice that delegate steve's blog now redirects to a new site: steve shannon for attorney general. steve's been in the virginia house of delegates for a while now, and is trying to take his platform of support for the police and victim's rights to the office of the attorney general for the commonwealth.

check out the site and support him with your good wishes and even a few sheckels if you so choose. i'd love to be able to blog about steve meeting his colleagues from other states, if for no other reason than to use use one of my all-time favorite pluralizations.

liberal media? you decide.

as you know if you've been reading along, i voted for barack obama, and truly believe that he can make a difference. but i'll be the first to admit that in a broad sense, the media treated him with kid gloves and gave the mccain/palin ticket a much shorter leash on most issues. this of course won't stop now that the election is over- i'm sure we'll find that issues that arise during this presidency will be presented in an entirely different light than during the last.

case and point: just read that obama's nominee for treasury secretary, timothy geithner, has been found to have made some tax mistakes and had some issues with an immigrant housekeeper. nominees have been railroaded for both these issues in the past, yet the articles from wsj.com and washingtonpost.com both seem already to give geithner the benefit of the doubt. it may very well be true that these were honest mistakes, but both the journal and the post (especially the post in this blog post here) seem ready to sweep this under the rug so as not to disrupt the coronation next week.

only XXVII days to go!

christmas and new year's festivites are over with, which can only mean one thing: time to get started planning finkbowl. creeping up fast- less than 4 weeks away, if you can believe it. preparations include: scouring the cookbooks for fun new recipes, paying for everything in large bills and asking for singles as change, and brainstorming for this year's saturday night contest (think i've got a good one this time).

and here's the official announcement of something i leaked to some of you over the past few months- super sunday this year will include the inaugural finkbowl 5K, to be run on sunday morning at 10AM. there'll be a 1 mi fun run and a full 5K, with prizes to the winners. i'm planning on designing some t-shirts too, hopefully will have them available for purchase at cafepress soon.

may be a bit ambitious for the morning after a finkbowl eve celebration, but i think it will be a fun way to bring a little fitness (not to mention yet another competitive event) to a great gathering. now get out there, get in shape, and show us what you've got.

happy new year

winding down the christmas break. all the decorations are down, house is back to "normal" (whatever that term means), and the christmas music is gone from finkipedia.

should get back to a more normal schedule of posting here over the next week or two. some great stories from the break that, as erin likes to say, are "blog-able". hope to get the time to jot them down here.

welcome!

to those of you dropping by after seeing the shameless plug in the annual finkmas letter, welcome aboard. take a bit to troll thru the archives- amongst the aimless opining on politics, music and baseball, you might actually find some updates from finkdom. hopefully you'll bookmark the site and drop by from time to time to check in on us.

open posting here, so feel free to drop a comment or two and make your presence known. we promise not to put you on our spam list.

(by the way- the background music is just a temporary holiday theme. if "rudolph" has left you with a lifelong fear of burl ives, please don't let that keep you from visiting here after the holidays.)

please enjoy the music while your party is reached

in the beginning there was muxtape, and it was good. then the gods of the internet said "let there be a way for individuals to search for songs already on the internet, then map them to a playlist that they would create. let the html code for this playlist be made available to them, so the user may post this playlist on their own website." so the gods of the internet created playlist.com, and it was good.

you'll see the new feature on the right- the new home for the soundtrack of finkipedia. hope you're enjoying the holiday tunes- i was able to find only 3 of my top 5 christmas songs, as posted last year, so i filled in two other worthy stand-ins. this station will be all christmas music all the time until after new year's day, when we'll switch over to a whole new format.

blue (and orange) ribbon day

nothing better to brighten a miserably rainy winter day than a dose or two of baseball sunshine. got a call from erin this AM while i was at work that "the seats" had finally arrived. they were packaged with wooden planks to be mounted on for stability, which need a coat of stain and varnish before i attach them. and while there's some appeal to the character that 40 years of back sweat, stale bud light and gulden's mustard give the seats, a good scrubbing with a magic eraser is in order before they're ready for public viewing and seating.

a few hours after getting the call about the seats, i read this about a huge deal omar had just worked out adding even more reinforcements to the bullpen. it means we give up endy, which just kills me, but overall i think this deal and the signing of k-rod put the mets in striking distance of a pennant.

until i can move my seats in front of the TV to watch the now-anticipated new season, i'll just leave them where they are here in front of the computer, so i can watch this over and over, toasting endy and wishing him well.

still here

thanks for checking back. having a hard time finding even a few minutes to spend jotting down my thoughts of the day here, much less a few hours penning the ol' christmas missive. not looking much better for the rest of the week either- christmas shopping tonight, then school christmas concert tomorrow, then on call for the weekend.

gets much easier after that- no big plans for the weekend before christmas, talking about possible trips to NYC or DC to catch some big city christmas cheer. updates and reports here, i promise.

'tis the season

transitioning from one holiday to another this week. had a fantastic thanksgiving at the kentagon in DC, complete with a short swing by the lincoln memorial just for fun. brought grandma D and big buddy home with us to DE and enjoyed a few days just hanging around with them.

picked up our tree on saturday and decorated it with the kids sunday. have most of the household tchotchkes appropriately scattered and the christmas tunes on constant shuffle. next project? christmas letter. anxiously awaiting the arrival of my muse so i can bang out another summary of a year in 500 words or less. maybe this weekend- the egg nog is chilled and waiting.

what i'm thankful for, 2008

time to update the thankful list for this year- just a few of the things that come to mind for this year...

• wood burning fireplaces
• my new laptop
• the running bug
• edamame (get it in big packs from costco- totally addictive)
• guitar hero for wii
• blue moon belgian wheat ale
• snow (thankful for it, just haven't seen too much of it around here in a few years)
• the onion (check out the recent articles about the blue angels tryouts and GM- hilarious)

take a minute to think of yours.

are you ready for some 3D football?

saw this article yesterday, which immediately conjured images of the last 3D experience the NFL offered us- the craptacular halftime extravaganza "bebop bamboozled". amazingly, i couldn't find video of this masterpiece online, so the only reference i can direct you to is a snippet in the wikipedia article about super bowl XXIII.

remember it well, because superbowl XXIII was the first time anything like a finkbowl occurred- had a bunch of high school friends over to the old fink estate on LI for the game, and we all shared in the pageantry of "bebop bamboozled" together. for some strange reason, i kept the official coca-cola 3D glasses from the event until just a year or two and as recently as last year saw them lying around somewhere. maybe the NFL will give me some kind of credit on new glasses if i can produce the old ones.

is that a buckle on your hat, or are you just happy to find religious freedom?

stumbled across a random trivia question on another website last week. the question was, "in what year did the pilgrims sign the mayflower compact?". 4 choices: 1590, 1600, 1610, and 1620. made my choice, then upon redirect to the answer page, discovered that only 27% of respondents (about 750 to that point) answered correctly- no statistically significant difference from random chance.

the question i pose to you is not whether or not you know the answer, but whether you think you, me and everyone else should know the answer. does this date belong in the group of important dates that all americans should know?

the "longfellow" jokes must be just around the corner

hilarious discussion at dinner tonight. just me and the 3 finklings, rehashing our day over a fine repast of leftover enchiladas.

from nowhere, brendan asks, "hey dad, what's that long word that starts with 'A' and means 'waves' or 'bubbles' or something?" complete blank.

"and it has a 'Z' in it". even more confused. a few blind stabs with "accessorize", "analyze", even "azimuth", all incorrect.

"it's a really long word, and it means, like, doing something or making something". still not entirely sure where he's going with this, but somehow i come up with "you mean onomatopoeia?"

"YEAH! onomatopoeia!" apparently, the word came up in his language arts class today. the lack of an accurate definition or even approximate spelling wasn't surprising, because those meant nothing to him. at the recitation of the word alone, he burst into laughter, repeated it a few times, and then he and owen moved swiftly into a chorus of "i-don't-wanna-pee-ya".

i tried settling them by getting all didactic, and giving them good examples of onomatopoeia, like "buzz" and "cluck" and "bang", and it worked for a second, until brendan came up with "toot", and the poetry lesson was flushed away again by toilet humor.

my 3 songs, veterans' day edition

yes, i realize vets day here in the US was initially called armistice day and celebrated the end of WW1, and this post may have been more appropriate on V-E day, but vets means all conflicts now, right?

• van halen, "everbody wants some"
• split enz, "i got you"
• oasis, "wonderwall"

ooh, that smell

rediscovered one of my favorite smells of childhood- the smell of the halloween candy bag. not the halloween night, fresh-from-the-hunt smell, but rather the week-after, three-pounds-of-candy-sitting-in-the-plastic-bag smell. it's totally different than the smell that you'd get when you opened a bag of snack-size kit kats, or sniffed your own yet-doled-out halloween candy bowl. the week-old candy bag smell has the perfect dilutions of peanut butter and chocolate and twizzler and plastic wrap all mixed together, giving it its own aromatic uniqueness. it is a scent that is so tantalizingly pleasing, one could argue that the scent itself is what drives confusion into the minds of the candy chooser.

like any good thing, however, it can be overdone. after about 3 reese's cups and a mini 100 grand bar, the tantalization begins to morph into nausea. but as long as you keep the temptation of the milky way midnights from pushing you over the edge, the smell of that bag is pure olfactory bliss.

moving on

now that the election is behind us, let's get back to the important stuff, like linguistics!

saw this great article today, and while it's not exactly grammar-related, it touches on more of my language pet peeves. i think this list is great- i'd of course add "literally" to their list, likely near the top, but can't argue with any of their choices.

anything you'd like to add to the list?

election night live

finally have a laptop with functional wireless, so i figured i'd give some live blogging a try. just about everyone reading this will be catching it later, but this is my test run for a finkipedia live event for my absolute favorite TV day just 5 months from now, the opening day of the NCAA hoops tourney.

9:30pm- NBC just called ohio for obama, which probably seals the deal for him, but i like most am waiting to see what happens in florida and NC.

10:20pm- still no word on VA, NC, FL. i do like that map on the 30 rock skating rink. nice touch.

12:30am- been official for 90 minutes. speeches are done, talking heads are not. off to bed.

election 2008: final synopsis

i won't drag this on, as saturday's post pretty much sums up most of how i feel.

this country needs a better sense of direction. while the obama plan might not be the thing to bring the dow back to 14K by march, i do think in most facets his overall plan has the right direction. on a personal level, i still worry about his health care policy, but i cannot overlook his desire to provide health care to almost every american. see my previous post for comments on his economic policy. never got a chance to post on the candidates' positions on the war, but in short, i think an exit strategy is better than an open-ended attitude. finally, i think obama's personality seems to lend itself better to the diplomacy skills a president needs both here and abroad. for those reasons and others, i'll be casting my vote tomorrow for barack obama for president of the united states.

one final note about tomorrow's election. i'm a little late in starting this, but i'd like to propose a movement to "keep home the vote". this doesn't mean that you shouldn't vote- what it means is that if you don't know whom you're voting for, then don't press a button, pull a lever, or punch a chad just because you think it's your civic duty. you should not be choosing candidates like my mom picks NCAA tournament teams- by their names, mascots, or colors. whether it's the presidency or your local sherriff's race, if you don't know a single thing about the candidates other than their names, don't vote. it's unfair to them, to the others who vote, and to the district you're voting in. take a second tonight to go online and read the synopsis of the candidates' positions for the races in your area. even if it's one little item that sways you, use that as a reason to cast your vote.

that being said, enjoy tomorrow. it's the greatest day of the year to be an american.

election 2008: taxes

like with many things in life, this issue-by-issue breakdown of the campaign hasn't gone as i had planned. here it is just 3 days from election day and i've only posted a few reviews of issues. at this point, i should hope you all know who you're voting for, but i'll leave one last issue post because i'd like to discuss (rather one-sided, i might add) something i've become a litte fired up about lately.

i will direct you to the candidates' official websites here and here to review their tax plans if you haven't already. briefly, mccain suggests across-the-board cuts, while obama suggests cuts for most except the weathly. obama also supports increasing taxes on such things as capital-gains, large corporations, oil company windfalls, and estates over $7M. it is hard to find some of the specifics to the obama tax plan with regards to tax increases on his website- some are insinuated, others not mentioned directly at all.

was on an e-mail thread earlier in the week with wiley and a few others regarding the candidates and their economic policies. the debate mostly centered around obama's plans and whether his plans for tax increases on the wealthy and on businesses would do anything to help the beleaguered economy. many argued that his tax plan will hurt businesses to the point of forcing jobs overseas, forcing job cuts and forcing price increases. they argued that there was no proof that tax hikes would help the economy; rather, that history and economic research showed tax cuts across the board were better for stimulating investment and business. the claims of "redistrubution of wealth" were made, and it was suggested that the obama plan just moves money around, rather than helping everyone get more money on their own.

it is hard to dispute some of those claims. i would tend to agree that the mccain plan is more favorable for business, which suggests that it should thus be better for the economy as a whole. (there are however some prominent economists who argue that under democratic presidents and their tax policies (higher taxes for the wealthy and business), the GNP historically increases more than it does under republicans.) but while mccain's plan will put more money in everyone's pocket, it will do so in a way that will significantly widen the gap between the haves and the have-nots.

here's a graph the washington post drew up showing how different income brackets would be affected by each candidate's tax plans. now here's another interpretation of those same data, illustrated so that each group is displayed proportionate to its size. notice in those graphs how the mccain tax cuts get larger for each increase in income, thus bringing more money to those already more fortunate. notice also how almost 2/3 of americans, the 2/3 that need it most, fare significantly better under the obama plan, and 99% will be the same or better off. the increase in take-home revenue for those people should increase demand for goods and services. this demand should force businesses to keep prices stable, force supplies and thus production up, and create jobs, thereby offsetting the potential negative effects of corporate tax increases.

with regards to government revenue from taxes, when 1% of americans are essentially paying for programs and policies that the other 99% are more likely to use, it is hard to deny that there is a redistribution of wealth. this is where the debate leaves economics somewhat and turns to social justice. i would argue that "redistribution of wealth" is not a pejorative term, but a necessary process in a healthy society. to help the least of our society should allow them to be better suited to help society as a whole, thus contributing more and ultimately reversing their position from that of a financial drain to one of financial support. it's also the moral and ethical thing to do.

this process of rehabilitating the lower class takes efficient, well-designed social plans that require significant sums of money, money which must ultimately come from those who are more fortunate. it would also take way more time (and space) to discuss, so for now, i will leave you with my final assessment on the issue of taxes: for the reasoning i outlined above, i've gotta side with the obama plan.

tomorrow, my final assessment.

physician, heal thyself

getting my late winter cold a few months early this year. started with just a scratchy throat last thursday, and has progressed to general misery, mostly in the head and neck. sound worse than i feel, but i have no voice. (good thing this isn't an audio blog).

thanks to the hoarseness i got a remark from just about every patient today, more than half quipping unoriginally "you need to see a doctor!" the other half thought i had been rooting too hard for the phillies. i of course told them i'd rather have tuberculosis than root for the phillies, and if they insinuated similarly again, i'd cough in their general direction.

6 quirks

got tagged a while back by n., she of lovemomworklife, to post about 6 unspectacular quirks about me. "tagging" amongst bloggers is equivalent to chain letters, and i'm really supposed to "tag" 6 others now. don't have enough people to keep the chain going, but i will go ahead and post my quirks, because i think it's a fun idea.

1) i love peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, but they should be made with skippy peanut butter and welch's jelly (NEVER jam), and always accompanied by a glass of milk
2) i can sleep on either my right or left side, but i must face the outside of the bed
3) i eat ice cream with a teaspoon and cereal with a soup spoon, no exceptions
4) i can't watch half a movie. i've never left a movie in the theater, and won't start a movie on DVD unless i can finish the whole thing
5) i always keep the money in my wallet in denominational order, from lowest to highest, all facing the same direction
6) while i may forget the names of people or places, i almost always know how many letters are in the name of the thing i'm trying to remember

you can see n.'s 6 here and googs' 6 here. show us yours- leave your 6 in the comments section.

can it really be "classic" if one team has only been around for 10 years?

as you know, i love baseball. and despite the b-list headliners of this year's fall classic, i'll be watching every game. plenty of reasons to watch, not the least of which to root, root, root against the hated phillies and their fairweather, bandwagon fans.

granted, the rays were a team that could barely attract 10K people even earlier this season and now fill their awful domed stadium with bandwagon hangers-on. but philadelphia fans are different. they come out of the woodwork every time a team of theirs gets into the playoffs and cry about how long it's been since their town has had a champion. happened all those years that the eagles were making it to championship games, and now that the phillies have a chance, it's resurgent again.

i say, if the phillie phaithful want to see a local champion, they can suck down a cheesesteak while watching the DVD of the philadelphia soul's arena football championship season from last year. let the rays join the '69 mets in the lovable-former-loser's hall of champions.

falling into the season

finally had some fall-like weather around here, with temps barely cracking 60 this weekend. celebrated it appropriately enough by hitting the pumpkin patch today. googs and rachel were up from DC for a visit, so the 7 of us went across town to visit the local agri-tainment farm. a short hay ride, some apple cider, pick-your-own indian corn, and plenty of pumpkins of all varieties.

mentioned the other day that i've got the running bug after watching erin in chicago. to help keep myself honest, i decided to keep a running diary, and what better way to do that than with a blog. i can't promise any scintillating, insightful posts, but if you're interested in following my progress towards chicago 2009, check out the newest flog*, finkathon.

*fink blog, of course.

election 2008: debate #3

a two-for-one post day, so i can hold up my pledge to respond to each debate.

enjoyed last night's debate a little more than the previous one. for starters, i thought the format was great, and i thought bob schieffer did a great job. i thought he missed a few opportunities to chase them down a little more, but overall i thought he was unbiased and fair with his questioning.

from the candidates, the rhetoric was all the same, most of it right down to the sound bites that are all too familiar now- "the same kind of insurance senator mccain and i enjoy", "clean coal, solar, biodiesel, wind...", etc. even the newest proposals, those regarding the recovery plans for the falling economy didn't seem to offer much of anything new. like with the last debate, i think i was too familiar with each candidate's policies and plans to get anything out of their context.

i did, however, gain a lot by watching these men in their attitudes towards each other. the longer this campaign goes on, the more mccain comes across as a grumpy old man. his tone of voice, his snide comments, and his annoying smirks give the impression that he's completely fed up with obama. on the times when obama gave his negative opinions of mccain's plans, he gave straightforward opinions of why he felt those choices would not work. when mccain brought up perceived flaws in the obama plan, he did so with a sense of incredulity and arrogance that those suggestions would even be made. this kind of attitude does not exactly match up with the open-minded, reach-across-the-aisle persona that he is trying to portray. worse, it insinuates an inability to negotiate with adversaries, a quality that a presidant can ill afford.

time is winding down, and as you can see from my lack of recent posts, i've not found my own time to comment more on this election. i'd like to put up another comparitive post or two on policies, but as much as i wanted my vote decided only on issues, i'm having a difficult time separating the subjective from the objective. this ship is listing to port, and it will take a strong wind in the next 3 weeks to change the course to starboard.

runner's high

still trying to catch up after spending the past weekend in chicago watching my beloved run her 5th marathon. an awesome, inspiring event. erin and our friend bryan (fellow hoya M'97) ran on sunday, while their respective spouses (myself and bryan's wife cindy) and a gaggle of other hoyas were in attendance to cheer them on. one of them went so far as to run the last 6.2 with erin- thanks, maguire.

the chicago marathon is truly a spectacle. 33,000 people running a viewer-friendly course through a great city. so inspiring, in fact, that i've pledged to run it next year. a while back i ran the san diego marathon and while it was certainly an achievement, the entirety of the event itself coupled with my less-than-kenyan performance made me immediately want to have another crack at a marathon someday. so here i am, 8 years later, finally with enough inspiration to make it happen.

thanks, erin.

election 2008: debate #2

i think the banner headline on drudgereport.com last night summed it up best: "BORING!" if the VP debate frustrated me, this debate annoyed me. fortunately, i missed the first 40 minutes and was subjected to only the second half. don't think i missed very much from what i've read.

the only thing i learned last night was that mccain's disdain for obama seems to be growing by the day. maybe the third and final debate will provide more insight into the candidates, but i'm not hopeful after watching their behavior yesterday.

there's always next year (though that's what we said last year)

"could've been so beautiful, could've been so right" - tiffany, "could've been"

you know it's bad when you start your post quoting tiffany. but that's how messed up my mind is tonight. see, here's what came in the mail the other day...




it's where i should be tonight- at game #3 of the NLDS against the cubs. never been to a playoff game before, and finally got my chance. i won the online lottery to purchase tickets for the NLDS (this was of course before the flushing in flushing), and bought 4 tickets to the first home game. figuring the mets would take the wild card, by choosing home game 1 i'd get to see game #3, which would have been tonight at shea. best case scenario, mets take 2 in chicago and have a chance to win the series. next best case, they split in chicago and come home for a meaningful game. worst case, they lose 2 in chicago and i get to see possibly the last game ever at shea. instead, i am at home tonight, rooting hard for the brewers, downhearted like all other met faithful.

well, perhaps some are a little more than just downhearted.

election 2008: vice-presidential debate

at some point during last night's debate, i realized that the experience was not unlike watching a NASCAR race: i was watching the competitors going round and round in circles, waiting for one of them to crash. made it a little less exciting since neither of them truly crashed, but i think something may have been gained in the exercise.

first off, some comments on the moderator, gwen ifill. a wonderful woman, i'm sure, but if i were in the mccain camp, i'd be furious. i didn't keep track, but if i had to guess, ifill offered the last word to joe biden on at least 80% of the questions she asked, regardless of who was asked the question first. maybe some of that blame can be shifted to palin, who seemed to not use all of her allotted time on more than one occasion, but i think the disproportionate opportunities for rebuttal by biden were glaring. i think ifill also could have pressed each candidate further during the free time after the 90-second answers were given.

regarding the debaters, it was interesting to watch the differences in style. from the outset, biden looked directly at ifill when answering questions and rarely at the camera, while palin looked directly at the camera almost immediately after she began speaking each time. biden used the camera more so as the debate went on, but only when he had aggressive points to make, which came off as harsh and negative. palin came across as speaking directly to the public, which was clearly intentional. because her style was smooth and pleasant, her points seemed more substantive than they truly were.

this debate frustrated me. i think biden had more substance, but it was hard to tell because he blew much of his credibility with his style. he kept tripping over words, needlessly repeated phrases, and ranted about "fundamental" differences so much that the term got watered down. he refused to acknowledge any potential differences between himself and obama. biden insisted he and obama have always been of the same opinions on iraq, although their voting records demonstrate otherwise. palin hit him hard on that, calling out his kerry-esque reversal given his aye vote on the war resolution. biden could have defended himself better but chose to lose face to defend the ticket. it painted a wishy-washy picture which i think weakened biden a good bit.

palin, to me, had nothing to say. she brought up the points she was coached to bring up, and made them well. it infuriated me when she said something like "i may not answer the questions directly as you or the moderator would like me to", and she kept her promise. she repeatedly brought up unrelated topics and harped on "energy independence" as if it were the answer to all the world's problems. often, her answers started well but turned to canned fluff (shout-outs to all her buddies in alaska), and on one occasion (don't remember the question) she just rambled for all her alloted time with a bunch of patriotic cheez-whiz and not a single salient point. she came off as as a promoter for the ticket, someone like giuliani or romney, rather than someone on the ticket herself.

and then, she said it. the one thing about this current president that drives me crazier than anything, and palin said it. during an answer to a question about the dangers of pakistan and iran, palin dropped the N-bomb: "nucular". i didn't want to believe it at first, but she said it again. "nucular". and again. "nucular". and again. "nucular". there is one and only one way to pronounce the word "nuclear"- just as it's written, with the "l" right after the "c". our current president doesn't seem to understand that, and unfortunately, it seems mrs. palin doesn't either. it is extremely hard for me have faith that someone can comprehend the intricacies and ramifications of nuclear proliferation if they cannot even pronounce the damn word.

here's my bottom-line interpretation: biden is a good guy with a strong background of service who is afraid to say where he differs with obama for fear of presenting a divided ticket. palin is a wonderful public speaker, and i'm sure the best gosh-darn cookie-makin', baby-totin', moose-killin' hockey mom up there in juneau, but someone who has no right being a proverbial heartbeat away from running the free world.

almost every pundit i watched last night before and after the debate made the point that while VP debates may be interesting, they don't affect the election at all; people vote on the presidential candidates, not the VP's. unless i am given reason to be swayed differently between now and nov. 4, i may be the exception to that rule.

a tale of two cities

somewhere in lower manhattan today, david wright woke up around two p.m. still reeking of piss and wild turkey from the atrabilious night before. streaks of eye black still ran down his cheeks, courtesy of the river of tears that turned him from a pretty boy third baseman to an alice cooper look-alike. he clapped twice to turn on the projection screen TV just past the foot of the bed, quickly navigated past the channels of the ESPN family to avoid any sight of the previous afternoon's events, and stopped on CNBC to check how his abercrombie and fitch stock was performing. he rubbed his eyes, not sure if the smeared eye black was somehow distorting his view of the ticker, then stared agape when he realized the carnage befalling wall street. taking a swill from the warm half-empty bottle of miller chill on the nightstand, he muttered to himself, "thank god i'm not a stockbroker", then pulled the sheets over his head and went back to sleep, content with the knowledge that someone not in orange and blue would be on the cover of the post tomorrow.

election 2008: debate #1

i'm not avoiding the obvious post on the collapse of the mets, i'm just fulfilling my promise to promptly report on the debates as they happen. honest.

watched the whole of friday's debate live. i took no notes, because no average american does, and haven't and won't read any transcripts, because i want to remember the debate as an average american would.

from the outset, it was clear that moderator jim lehrer was intent on having a debate filled with banter and interaction between the candidates. the candidates, especially mccain, were not interested in that. (i know the candidates were not privy to the questions in advance, but if it was expressed to them in advance that this was the kind of debate lehrer was looking for, they intentionally made it difficult for him by opting for a standing-at-podium-style debate rather than a seated one.)

it was meant to be a foreign policy debate but because of the recent financial crisis and the bailout plan in congress at the time, the first 40 minutes of the 90 minute debate focused on the bailout plan and the struggling economy in general. with regards to the bailout plan, neither candidate cared to elaborate on details they preferred, but expressed faith that a good plan would come out of negotiations. when asked what they'd cut from their presidential wish lists to pay for the bailout, obama couldn't list a single thing. mccain talked about spending freezes and getting rid of pork barrel spending. the cuts he mentioned were cuts he planned on anyway, so didn't really answer the question he was asked.

each candidate tried to sneak in bits and pieces of their domestic policy into their answers on the financial crisis. energy independence seemed to be a hot topic, and a few mentions of reforming health care as a means to save money were made by obama. overall, i don't think i heard enough from either candidate that would sway me towards one or away from the other on the domestic side.

foreign policy was where the fireworks came out. the basics of the candidates' foreign policies are: obama- focus on afghanistan, let the iraqis run iraq, begin diplomatic proceedings with rogue states; mccain- focus on iraq, increase presence in afghanistan but not at the expense of the iraq theatre, no diplomacy with rogue states. mccain repeatedly name-dropped and place-dropped, playing his experience card while exploiting obama's lack thereof. i'm not sure just knowing the names of foreign leaders or saying you've been somewhere makes you more qualified, but it's hard to discredit 25 years of experience on the world stage.

as a debate, i thought obama's presence helped him early, but mccain fought back hard throughout the foreign policy section. since this post is more an evaluation of the debate itself than the content, my final evaluation is what i think the perception of the average american would be. scoring it like a boxing round, i've got mccain winning 10-9 on my card on the strength of his attacks towards the end.

flashback

it's after midnight- can't sleep, all fired up after another devastating loss by the mets. got up to re-read one of my favorite posts, coincidentally from a year ago today.

a favorite because i like the way it's written, but also because it's a good one for me to go back and read every so often.

4 more games left in the regular season- i may be re-reading this post daily if this keeps up.

technical difficulties, please stand by

been having some access problems at work these past few weeks- can't seem to get my laptop to connect to our wireless network. quite frustrating. hope to fix the problem soon, and get to posting more in the near future. lots of topics to cover before the election.

keep checking in- i'll be back on track soon.

for dessert, astronaut ice cream

i thought about posting today about the candidate's positions on the economy, but i couldn't bring myself to do it. too depressing. so, i present you with some lighter fare.

in no particular order, the top 5 foods that sound to me like they could be on a martian middle school lunch menu:

5) gravlax
4) dolmas
3) pad thai
2) chicken tikka (even martians would have chicken as a lunchroom staple)
1) scrapple


and for my first ever embedded video, the coolest physics teacher ever:

election 2008: immigration

obama calls the issue "immigration" on his website, mccain calls it "border security and immigration". that's about where the candidates differ the most, because as far as i can see it, their plans for reform aren't that dissimilar.

both candidates support reinforcing border security with manpower, financial aid, and technology. obama says nothing more than just that; mccain suggests he'll spend money on unmanned patrols of the border and subsidies to US attorneys in border states. both candidates support an employment eligibility system for businesses to verify the immigration status of employees. obama just says he'll "crack down" on employers who hire illegals, mccain supports their aggressive prosecution.

with regards to the immigration system, both support streamlining the process, with mccain giving some detail and breaking down immigrant workers into several groups- highly skilled, low-skilled non-agricultural, and low-skilled agricultural. his suggestion for the last group, however, is the quite vague promise of providing "a non-bureaucratic, adaptable, useable program that is reflective of market needs and protects both the immigrant and US workers". translation- "we'll conveniently ignore this group, since we know our food supply system would collapse if we cut off the supply of illegal workers in agriculture". at least mccain gives it a shot though- obama doesn't address the topic at all.

neither candidate supports a mass deportation of illegals. rather, they both would ask that all illegals be accounted for, be asked to learn english, pay a fine, and be offered a chance at citizenship after all others who are currently in the system. mccain gives a little more language about weeding out those with criminal records or who have used ill-gotten social security numbers.

obama gives additional points about working with mexico to promote their economic development as a way of decreasing illegal immigration and to expedite the citizenship process for immigrants who serve in the military.

in summary, i'm struggling to find much difference between the candidates on this point. i'll have to call it a push for now, and see how it plays out during the debates.

pass the can

another fleeting memory of days gone by popped into my head the other day. not sure why i was thinking of it, but i had this great memory of the summer theater fundraising campaign for the will rogers institute.

there was a time, probably when i was about 13 or 14, that i would ride my bike to the mall with a friend or two and see a movie almost weekly during the summer. the multiplex at the mall participated in the fundraising campaign, which involved a trailer starring usually one or two a-list celebs of the day telling the story of will rogers and his eponymous institute. the trailer would end with the celeb shaking a coffee can emblazoned with the will rogers logo and announcing that ushers would now be passing the cans. house lights would come up again for a few minutes while people dug for change and passed the cans, then dimmed again once the collection was over so the movie could start.

apparently this is still done, as the website attests. while i don't go to the movies nearly as much anymore, it's been quite a while since i've seen the will rogers promo. anybody else remember these, or seen one in the past 10 years?