Check It Out

Got some great links for you today:

The Story of Stuff

Idealist.org

Frontline

The Decline of Morals

No more prevalent than at American NFL games. It really is a shame. Deplorable behavior:

No Game for a Family

Jets Fans

Be Smart

Interested in how kids learn? How you learned when you were younger? Thinking of how to teach and raise children? How about guiding supervisees? Here's a few articles for you:

1) Want to raise smart, successful kids? Research suggests focusing on effort instead of intelligence or ability leads to success:
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=the-secret-to-raising-smart-kids&print=true

2) Gladwell has a New Yorker article on IQ tests and the conclusions that can be drawn about the people taking them:
http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/books/2007/12/17/071217crbo_books_gladwell

3) For the first time since inception, girls had a clean sweep of the Siemens Math, Science and Technology competition:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/04/nyregion/04siemens.html

Want to get married? Plant some trees. Want to get divorced? Plant some more

A really interesting concept that I like a lot. Think it'll ever happen in the U.S.? Yeah, me either but there's always hope...

Christian Persecution...

...In Iraq. It was not surprising for me to hear the gentleman being interviewed say that Christians in Iraq were better off before the U.S.-led occupation began.

The other interesting story in the CBS 60 Minutes broadcast was the One Laptop Per Child effort. I really like this idea. I did a research report on Negroponte's organization in grad school. I do agree however with one of the men interviewed in the segment that children will need to be taught how to use the laptop and probably cannot learn to effectively utilize the laptop themselves without some sort of instruction.

Guiliani

From today's DN! broadcast:

Back in the United States, Republican Presidential hopeful Rudy Giuliani is facing new questions over hundreds of thousands of dollars in questionable billing expenses during his time as mayor of New York City. The Politico newspaper is reporting Giuliani billed several obscure agencies for costs related to his visits to the Hamptons where he began his affair with future wife Judith Nathan. Hotel, gas and other expenses were charged to city agencies tasked with aiding the disabled, providing public defenders and regulating loft apartments. Giuliani’s campaign denies he tried to hide the expenses.

I like how the issue that was brought up was whether he denied trying to hide the expenses rather than the fact that he actually had an affair...

If You're Sick...

Then stay home. Don't think you're a hero and come into work and get everyone else sick.

A thought...

Hmmm lets see. Some of the top headlines from CNN the past couple days have been Kanye West's mom, Natallee Holloway, the divorce of Hulk Hogan, and the death of Sean Taylor, yet 1 week ago 3000 people died in Bangladesh in a cyclone that is no longer in the news. 34,500 people were injured and 1,180 are missing. And what about the people who a couple weeks ago lost all their belongings to the wildfires in California? I really find it interesting to see how much of an outpouring of support and sorrow people show for celebrities in America.

Various things...

A bit of a collection of thoughts/articles in this post: An interesting, but short article. Another unrelated but also interesting article. I'd really like try one of these. A friend sent me this and I think his message is important:

Morality Quiz

Interesting quiz. Kinda reminds me of the scenario I made up in one of my first posts. Think about it.

News

Ok so I am really fed up with mainstream media. This morning on the radio all I heard about was how busy the travel season is this year. Radio program was giving advice...give yourself extra travel time when going to the airport, follow TSA guidelines. Come on. This is news??????? For a full 30 minutes the radio program was interviewing people about their holiday travel plans. WHO CARES. That is not news. After the 30 minutes the first "news" story was to tell us that the Hollywood writers strike is still on. Thanks. First of all people don't want to talk about the real issues so they talk about holiday travel plans. Then, once that gets old they talk about entertainment news. Do you think that Americans after all the reruns start showing now that the writers are on strike will actually pick up a book and READ?

Start by listening to DN! and reading THIS.

Reading. Denial.

Two article posts here. Not enough time to comment, but I think they're both good reads.


Study Links Drop in Test Scores to a Decline in Time Spent Reading

Denial Makes the World Go Round

Death Penalty

Does the death penalty actually save lives? An interesting article. I really am a believer in the incentive theory. The article does make a good point in that it is doubtful that the type of people who might commit a murder are unlikely the ones who will consider the consequences and fall under the incentive theory. I am really starting to get interested in reading econometric studies related to human behavior.

Kids and Cost

Man I'm on a roll today just finding these interesting articles. This one is about the cost of raising children. It was interesting to read the reader comments. I was not surprised by the comments at all. Everyone who has kids and commented said it was worth it. Of course they are going to say that. Everyone who doesn't have kids are glad that they don't. Again, of course. Everyone makes their decision whether that be kids, or anything else in life and then tries to justify it if someone else challenges them. It's not a novel concept. Generally, people make decisions based on what they feel is the best for themselves or what is in their best interest. I'm pretty sure that this is a philosophical principle that has already existed for ages. When people say that volunteering breaks this philosophy I would argue well maybe not really. Say for example that I volunteer my Saturday afternoon mentoring "at risk" children. By doing this I keep them "off the street". How do I benefit? Well the kids are being kept occupied so that they are not using their time to do something else that might be detrimental to society. If for example I am helping tutor them they might become a doctor one day and save my life. Who knows. If I am helping them stay in shape then maybe they won't be overweight and will help keep health care costs low. I am benefiting really just maybe not immediately.

I think both sides have valid arguments. People who have kids argued that doing so helps them live fulfilling lives. The parents then are benefiting. People who choose not to argue that they have more free time and money. They are also benefiting from their decision. Looking at it from your own perspective, sure you think you've made the right choice. For you. That's it. It's the right choice for you, and what people need to stop doing, whether it be having kids, choosing a religion, anything really, is to stop telling other people that their decision was wrong.

Question

This question just came to my mind for some reason, but I wonder:

Is there a correlation between how early in one's life he/she gets married and how religious they consider themselves? What about the I.Q.'s of the two people involved?

An interesting question because I'm not sure how you measure "religiosity", but I'd be interested if anyone has ever done a study out there on that. I'd also be interested in learning about divorce rates across religions and race. I'm pretty sure in remembering from a college economics class that there have been studies investigating the correlation between parent education levels, income and the amount of children they have.

Race and Relationships

Race is surfacing yet again in an article that I find interesting. I am definitely going to read the papers cited in the article. I've started to become more interested in sociology and psychology lately for some reason and understanding why people are who they are and why they act the way they do. I was also interested in that Christmas and deadweight loss paper. Ah, bringing back memories of economics from college. Maybe I should have been a social psychology major...

Science and Race

An article from the NY Times that rolls up two of the topics I'm interested into one story: race and science. First off I am going to say that I am a big believer in science. I always have been and don't see that changing anytime soon. This topic however of whether one race is intellectually inferior or superior to another I think is an extremely difficult question to answer. First of all what exactly is intelligence? Does it mean that just because one person scores higher on a certain test that he/she is more intelligent than someone else? I would say no. I don't really understand how intelligence can be explained on a racial level. It just doesn't seem possible to me. The Nature vs. Nurture hypothesis also comes into play here I believe. Its undeniable that some people are born with abilities and traits that are not common. Sure, someone may have the knack for remember useless pieces of trivia or solving calculus problems, but does this make them more intelligent than someone else? Is intelligence measured by one's ability to solve problems? Memorize facts? Having a "good day" when the test is administered? I don't know. I'm not sure that science can answer the question of a correlation between race and mental capacity. I think the brain is too complex and there are too many other factors that affect the development of a human.

Information Sources

Yet another important and interesting article from the NY Times. The article talks about increasing competition by allowing more independent information sources be allowed into the market without being overruled by the media giants. I think that this is extremely important. One organization that I recently discovered is Democracy Now! which is an independent new source that I listen to/read daily.

Geoengineering

An interesting article I just read from the NY Times Online. I often wondered about this concept because it seems like the things that humans can do to stop global warming are in fact things to reduce things like harmful emissions or carbon footprint rather than actually reversing what is happening to the environment. Do you see what I'm saying? On the one hand you can look at it like slowing down what is already happening -- sort of like doing things for example to keep yourself healthy and slow the aging process by eating healthier and exercising etc. These things will hypothetically slow down the aging process but will not actually reverse it. You will not actually get younger doing these things. I think of the geoengineering principle as a concept that could help reverse the global warming situation, in fact improve it rather than slow it down. The article makes a great point in that if this is possible then the current efforts to help slow down global warming might not be met with as much enthusiasm if geoengineering or a way to actually reverse the process actually existed. Go back to the aging analogy. If people knew there was something that they could do to actually make them younger would they care as much as they would about slowing down the aging process if they knew a reversible method existed? I think that geoengineering should be pursued however it should carefully be told to the public that this will not be a panacea and that conservation and energy reduction efforts should still be at the forefront of the human endeavor to fix the global warming problem.

Taking the Bible Literally

Maybe more self-proclaimed Christians should try this. There are a lot of hypocritical people out there and perhaps those that I respect the least are self-proclaimed Christians who don't practice what they preach.

On another note I am currently reading Al Gore's The Assault on Reason. So far I think it is a great book. I agree wholeheartedly with a lot of what's in that book.

Happy Halloween

A day late, but still worth it:

Pollution

The worst polluted areas in the world. Something seriously needs to be done about world pollution. I really think a great place to start is the commute that everyone takes everyday. There should be a serious reconsideration amongst organizations on whether to allow employees to work from home. There are certain jobs that do not require people to go into the office everyday. The argument against tele-working is that people who are "out of sight are out of mind". I think this can be resolved by having people report to supervisors more frequently when they are not in the office through conference calls, tele-conferences and IM/email. There certainly are jobs that people travel to only to sit at a desk behind a computer and not interact with anyone else. I am not advocating people work from home 100% of the time. I think that once or twice out of the month to start would be a great start to help reduce some of the traffic on the nation's roads. I also often wonder if things would be better if instead of everything being located in one big city that several but smaller towns be created that are in close proximity of one another. This would prevent everyone from going into and leaving the city at the same time. Another possible solution I see is to not have everyone work a 9-5 day. I know some people already work earlier or later hours to avoid traffic and I think if more people worked a non-traditional schedule this would help immensely too.

Religion, Baseball

I just finished reading this article in the NY Times and I couldn't help but thinking how this is not a bigger issue than the article presented it as. If you replaced the Rockies organization with any other corporate organization in America I wonder how people would react. This is a problematic statement:

“When you have as many people who believe in God as we do, it creates a humbleness about what we do,” Affeldt said. “I don’t see arrogance here, I see confidence. We’re all very humbled about where this franchise has been and where it is now, and we know that what’s happening now is a very special thing.”

Does religion have a place in the workplace? I say no.

Project Implicit

One of the books that I am currently reading is Jonathan Haidt's The Happiness Hypothesis. I've only read through about the first thirty pages or so, but one of the links he mentions is a study done by Harvard that may end up showing you that you have unconscious prejudice for one thing over the other. Take one of the demonstration tests. You might be surprised.

Clinton: Science and Politics

Hilary's promises sound good, but again they are just promises...

Her remarks yesterday, at the Carnegie Institution of Washington, amounted to a spirited attack on President Bush for waging what she called a “war on science” that has allowed political appointees to shape and in some cases distort science-based federal reports.

In the telephone interview after the speech, Mrs. Clinton also tacitly criticized opponents of evolution. Some of the 2008 Republican presidential candidates have said flatly that they do not believe in evolution, while other Republican contenders have said they support teaching evolution, intelligent design and creationist ideas.

“I believe in evolution, and I am shocked at some of the things that people in public life have been saying,” Mrs. Clinton said in the interview. “I believe that our founders had faith in reason and they also had faith in God, and one of our gifts from God is the ability to reason.”

“I am grateful that I have the ability to look at dinosaur bones and draw my own conclusions,” she added, saying, too, that antibiotic-resistant bacteria is evidence that “evolution is going on as we speak.”

I really hope that whoever is elected president can work on separating politics and science. Over the weekend I attended Green Festivals in D.C. It was an extremely interesting visit. I really hope events like these get people to no only think, but start acting in helping to preserve the environment.

Working Together

An interesting article about two different groups of people learning about each other's cultures in order to better work together. The article brought up the subject of the language barrier which I agree is a definite hurdle to overcome, but as the article pointed out even learning simple phrases can make a huge difference.

Religion Articles

The NY Times is my favorite source to get news/read articles. There is always something interesting in it. I'd say my second favorite paper to read is The Wall Street Journal. Both top-notch publications. I'm going to share two articles this post.

This first article talks about bringing violent video games into the church to teach children life lessons. According to the article churches are using the video games to attract young people into the church. Quotes that I found particularly interesting are below:

Once they come for the games, Gregg Barbour, the youth minister of the church said, they will stay for his Christian message. “We want to make it hard for teenagers to go to hell,” Mr. Barbour wrote in a letter to parents at the church.

“It’s very pervasive,” Mr. Palmer said, more widespread on the coasts, less so in the South, where the Southern Baptist denomination takes a more cautious approach. The organization recently sent e-mail messages to 50,000 young people about how to share their faith using Halo 3. Among the tips: use the game’s themes as the basis for a discussion about good and evil.

David Drexler, youth director at the 200-member nondenominational Country Bible Church in Ashby, Minn., said using Halo to recruit was “the most effective thing we’ve done.”

Mr. Barbour recently met for several hours with the church’s pastor and successfully made his case that the game was a crucial recruiting tool.

In one letter to parents, Mr. Barbour wrote that God calls ministers to be “fishers of men.”

“Teens are our ‘fish,” he wrote. “So we’ve become creative in baiting our hooks.”

The second article talks about how radio is being used to spread religion in remote areas of the world. I wonder why in the third paragraph the author thought it necessary to point out that the farmer has 24 grandchildren. A lot, yes, but worth noting in the article? Questionable. Again I've selected some passages in the article to share here:

"These programs connect people to a world that they otherwise have no access to," Fortner said. "They indicate to these folks that someone 'out there' cares enough about them to prepare programs in their own language and speak to them about their own struggles."

"This brings more people to the church," said Xavier Muaga, the Anglican pastor. "Some people started going to church and gave up, and these programs convince them to come back. Others who have never been to church hear this and are convinced to become Christians."

Christianity, the world's largest religion with about 2 billion adherents, has the most massive presence on global religious airwaves. Christian programs range from Bible readings to radio seminary courses for undereducated pastors.

In contrast to the evangelical nature of Christian radio, Islamic radio tends to focus on people who are already Muslims.

The i-Rack

Morals

Another extremely fascinating article. I am going to buy and read Haidt's book. It has a lot of positive reviews on Amazon. If the book is nearly any as good as the article was then I know I'll definitely enjoy it. I think I should have studied psychology in college...

Racism and Life Expectancy

An extremely fascinating article on racism and life expectancy. I would have never thought the two were correlated but after having read the article and thought about my own experiences I can definitely see how there is one. I don't think anyone who has not been discriminated against can accurately make an assessment. These are the same people who say that using race is a "copout" or people are just playing the "race card". Well these are the same people who have never themselves been a victim of racial discrimination and are in no position to make such a comment. Just look at the recent news. Some examples include the Jena 6 incident and Donovan McNabb. Race is still very much an issue in today's society. Although there might be less overt big incidents there are certainly smaller more subtle and even unconscious forms of racism that occur everyday everywhere. This latter form of racism may even be more detrimental to society because it does not make people take action. It is like the global warming issue. Things happen gradually but no matter how much attention is shined on the matter people will just not take action until a big event happens. Unfortunately, I feel like racism will always be a part of society. I recently finished reading the autobiography of Malcolm X. Although I do not agree with everything in the book I would very highly recommend it to anyone who has not read it. It definitely helped bring a new perspective on racial issues to me and I really felt like I learned a lot and made me grow as a person. It also made me think and reflect on my own experiences past and present.

Mike Tyson, Ticket Prices

Wow the infamous ear bite happened 10 years ago? Seemed like it was just yesterday. Mike Tyson is facing jail time again. Man talk about falling from the stars. Another victim of too much fame and too much money too fast. This guy is in so much debt I don't know what he is going to do. Might as well stay in jail.

On another note here is a list of recent ticket prices to sports games as of late. Somebody actually paid close to $2,000 to see the Cowboys-Bears game on Monday night? Wow. The most I've ever paid for a sports ticket was $400 to see a hockey game during the Stanley Cup Finals in Canada. The seats were in the last row too.

'Till Death Do Us Part...Or A Divorce

I feel like there should be a coin flip after the "I do's". An interesting article in the NY Times:

More than half the Americans who might have celebrated their 25th wedding anniversaries since 2000 were either divorced, separated or widowed...

What I found a little interesting were the last two paragraphs:

Among men over 15, the proportion who have never been married was 28 percent for whites, 45 percent for blacks, 39 for Hispanic people and 33 percent for Asians.

Among women over 15, it was 22 percent for whites, 44 percent for blacks, 30 percent for Hispanic people and 23 percent for Asians.

I guess that is the equivalent of saying the percent of people that never marry in their lifetime. I tend to agree with that seven-year itch theory and I've heard as well that if people make it past their 10 year anniversary then there is a good chance that they will stay together beyond that. I would say that probably for the majority of people there is that "honeymoon" period were everything is fine and dandy followed by few rocky years by which at around year 7/8 is where the decision is made. It was brought up in a conversation I had with some friends that because people know that divorce is an option, people are more likely to marry knowing full well that it is not necessarily until "death do us part". I wonder of the percent of marriages that do stay intact, how many actually only stay together because filing for a divorce would incur substantial financial costs and emotional impact on the family whereby the decision to stay together unhappily outweighs those costs of actually getting a divorce. I also wonder if there is a correlation between the length of a marriage and the average age of the two people involved. For example, are younger couples more likely to divorce after the same years being married as an older one?

Ah, Rivalries

This kid found out the hard way. I can't say I have much sympathy for him though.

Best Places to Start a Career

Businessweek released its list of the best places to start a career. All I have to say is read the last two words in my blog title: be wary. I don't really like these type of lists. It really is a person-by-person basis as to whether someone likes one company over the other to launch a career. What they should really be doing is not focusing on the new hires but talking to workers who are further along their careers and who may have started at one of the "top companies to start a career". I can bet a good number of these people are not at the same company. It would be worth asking them how they thought the company they started with benefited them at their current spot in their career if at all.

I Smell A Rat

Well I actually didn't get close enough to smell it, and it hadn't been there long enough to start decaying, but there were plenty of flies trying to eat it. That was what welcomed me when I came home from work today in my front yard.

On another note if you're thinking about quitting your job you may want to read this. It seems like a lot of work though, eh?

Big Brother

Not exactly an unbiased piece, but she makes some good points. I'm not sure that I'd support the Real ID initiative. Having all that information in one place is a tad risky for my liking especially if the necessary and proper security has not been implemented. Even after that no security measure is 100% impenetrable.

Improving Wikipedia

Quite an interesting idea. I like it. Although like the article states this is not a complete solution it is definitely a step in the right direction. I'm happy to say that my Wikipedia contributions have remained largely unchanged!

New School Year, New Menu

Interesting:

In a study last year, the Center for Science in the Public Interest graded the state nutrition programs. The highest grade, an A minus, was awarded to Kentucky. Twelve states were awarded B’s (New Jersey got a B, Connecticut a B minus), six states and the District of Columbia received C’s, eight states were awarded D’s (New York earned a D plus) and 23 states were graded F.

I hope that the proposed changes help make a difference in getting school-aged children to start eating healthier. I'm not sure however that schools should do a complete 180 on the health food though. I think that the menu changes should be gradually changed so that it won't be so much of a shock to the students. Healthy eating is only one part of the solution with the other being sufficient physical activity. As I've said before health education is also crucial.

Another One Joins the 54%

This time its Shaq. I think Shaq is getting mentally prepared for this upcoming season to reunite with former "protege/apprentice" Anfernee "Penny" Hardaway and didn't have enough brainpower to go around to juggle that, a wife, 6 kids, D-Wade, Pat Riley, and overweight kids on a TV show. By the way, do you remember Penny Hardaway back in his heyday? The guy was pretty good. Had all those TV commercials with Lil' Penny. Its a shame what injuries did to him. It kind of reminds me of Ken Griffey Jr. Those Ken Griffey Jr. baseball games for SNES and N64 were awesome. The Atlanta Braves was the team to be. I remember being able to outsmart the computer in the N64 game to be able to trade for all-star players. Basically all you had to do was come up with a trade package that would send 2-3 average players to the other team for one star. Keep doing this until you had 2-3 stars. Then repeat the process to trade for an all-star. My team was unbeatable. I think I scored 60-something runs in a game one time.

Video Game Simulation

Is this really a good idea? I'd be interested in seeing what the actual "game" looks like.

How Much is 0.9% ?

Apparently significant enough to warrant a story about it pertaining to DNA. I wish that article was a little more detailed.

How much would you pay for a high quality hamburger? An excellent article. Just don't read it if you're hungry.

School uniform debate. Back to school time so I guess that article is appropriate. I don't necessarily see why uniforms are a bad idea in schools. If you think about it uniforms are worn in pretty much every other line of work.

Traffic

Traffic was beautiful this morning. Absolutely a piece of art. I think I saw every traffic law imaginable being broken. Back to work and school time. Thought this was interesting:

What America's Top 15 Jobs Pay
Today's Best Entry-Level Salaries

Listing...

Just listing some interesting articles here:

• Proposal to privatize health IT advisory body spurs debate
• Lawmakers pursue more money to guard intellectual property
• Technology could bridge safety gap

• The Color of Health Care: Diagnosing Bias in Doctors

• EPA will ask BP to offset pollution
• The Threat of Climate Change

Pay Someone Else To Save The Environment

Interesting concept, but I don't think that its a good solution. It really does take the effort of every single person to help preserve the environment. As the article said the reduction is simply an estimate of the cost. There's no way that people should think that paying money instead of taking action will make the same difference.

Anyone Out There a Statistician?

I believe it, but I need someone who's better at statistics than I am to point out the flaws in the study. Please advise.

Do You Take A Lunch Break?

Probably true:

A study by chicken fast food chain KFC Corp., found that 60 percent of workers in Corporate America actually considered the lunch hour “the biggest myth of office life.”

I'd agree with the article that in some instances it is self-imposed. I certainly feel like I get more done during the day taking a working lunch. Then again it might be the nature of the business that I'm in. Who knows.

Attention Notre Dame Fans

There's something about you that makes me dislike you. Don't worry though, you're not as bad a Red Sox fans, although you're slightly worse than Redskins fans. Here you go:

1. Simply being Catholic is not a reason that allows you to root for Notre Dame in college football.

That's only a small part of the article. Well said Clay, well said.

How Much Was Your Raise This Year?

Was it better than 0.7%? Gotta love the NY Times:

Unfortunately, these policies are unlikely to come from the current White House. This administration prefers tax cuts for the lucky ones in the top five percent.

“You just cannot be a meat-eating environmentalist”

EVER since “An Inconvenient Truth,” Al Gore has been the darling of environmentalists, but that movie hardly endeared him to the animal rights folks. According to them, the most inconvenient truth of all is that raising animals for meat contributes more to global warming than all the sport utility vehicles combined.

Wow. Maybe vegans aren't that crazy after all. I consider myself a bit of an environmentalist but I'm not sure I could give up eating animal protein. Mmm....Brazilian barbeque...

Breaking News: Most Flights Are Late

Why is this even a story? Do you ever wonder about those people who rush to get onto the plane and have seats in the front? Or how about when the plane lands and the people in the back stand up immediately looking to be the first ones out?

Dinner...with Frank Caliendo?

There's a good chance that I had dinner with some friends yesterday and one of the people in attendance was Frank Caliendo. He didn't do the John Madden impression though.

On another note I just started another blog with a college friend. Its just about sports. Check it out, bookmark it, read it:

http://lastsecondshot.blogspot.com/

Homeownership

Owning a home is nice, but maintenance is tough. I think I need to make more money so I can afford a maid. Sheesh.

Seattle

Took another trip to Seattle to visit another friend from college. Seattle is a cool city with seafood, Starbucks, and hippies. Pike Place Market is awesome...flying fish and other fresh food. I went there on a Monday morning and the place was still packed. I can't imagine what its like on the weekend.

Kansas City

Took a trip to Kansas City to visit a friend from college. Not really a whole going on in that city...except for BBQ. Good stuff. I don't think there are many vegans in KC.

Early Morning Run...With A Wrench?

So this morning I went on my morning run like I usually do. This time around along the way I spot what appears to be a homeless man helping an old woman change a flat tire on the side of the road. Like the upstanding citizen that I am I go over and try to help the cause. No luck. The bolts on the wheel are on way too tight and even I (with my superhuman strength) could not remove them. I tried.

Falling Behind Already

I haven't even had this blog for an entire month and I'm already starting to fall behind. My "topics to blog about" section is getting huge. I still need to get something up here on my recent trip to Seattle and Kansas City. Hopefully that will be soon.

More Wrestlers and Steroids

More allegations of steroids in professional wrestling. You know sometimes it makes me wonder. Steroids in professional sports and wrestling. For a lot of these guys they have nothing to fall back on. Sure, some are charismatic enough to launch an acting or TV career, but other than that what else do they have? Even though these guys make millions of dollars every year, does a professional athlete salary suffice for a comfortable salary? Its hard for me to believe that it isn't but sometimes this money is squandered early on in a career (see Mike Tyson).

I think college athletes should be called "athlete-students" rather than "student-athletes". Granted only a minority of college athletes make it to a professional team and yet others go overseas to play. But how many of these college kids actually think that they should also have an education to fall back on because they won't make it? I'm not sure, but realistically it is probably not many. Understandable. They are chasing what in many cases is a childhood dream to become a professional athlete.

Once again, the single-mindedness is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, only those who truly put everything they have into attaining the goal to become a professional athlete actually make it (with a combination of innate talent/gift). However, I believe that this single-mindedness also leads athletes to block out any possibility of not making it. Even if this "student-athlete" does graduate college, do you think that he actually cared about his degree let alone remember anything while playing a sport professionally?

A lot of professional wrestlers are former high-school/college athletes themselves who couldn't make it to a professional team either due to injury or lack of talent. These guys are not really that educated. I would be interested in seeing the percentage of college graduates that are in professional wrestling. But, does this lack of education mean that these men are really that dumb/ignorant enough to knowingly take steroids? I would argue no. These men full well know what they are getting themselves into. The choice to take steroids to get them through the sheer pain that they put themselves through day in and day out for their passion in life trumps the option of quitting and trying something else. Given that a top wrestling superstar needs to be "larger than life" in persona and physical stature I don't think that this problem will go away.

Do You Work Too Much?

Take my poll about how many hours you work per week in the top right. I'm interested in knowing if the mythical "9-5" job still exists in America? Well, besides in the government. CNN had a little quiz that you might be interested in looking at. I heard that in France people only work 35 hours a week. Wow. Can anyone confirm this? I also heard that they get like 5 weeks of mandatory vacation. Mandatory vacation. There you go. However, I wonder how salaries compare to those here in America.

U.Va.'s Class of 2011 Will be Most Diverse

Apparently this year's incoming first-year class to the University of Virginia will be the most diverse in the University's history. 33.5%. A little bit above one-third. Although this is an improvement from the past I think the University still has a way to go. Take a look at the cover of the University's recent alumni magazine. Do you see any differences between the two pictures? No, I don't mean the colors of the photos or the different clothes. Look at the makeup of the two crowds. Namely, I don't think that 33.5% is a high enough percentage of diversity. Again, encouraging news, but I hope that the University will not be satisfied and will continue to increase diversity on campus.

Tiki, Eli, Vick, and the Metro

The latest report out of New York is that former New York Giants and UVA running back Tiki Barber is in a verbal sparring match with current Giants quarterback Eli Manning. There you go Eli. Way to lose focus by worrying about what a former teammate has to say about you. That's Tiki's job now. To talk about NFL players. Deal with it and stop being a baby. I think Peyton stole all the talent from his parents and left none for Eli. I wonder if Eli remembers his draft day when he demanded to be traded from the San Diego Chargers. I guess he thought having LaDanian Tomlinson as his teammate would have been a bad thing. Good move.

Does anyone think that Michael Vick will consistently be the first pick?...in the prison football pickup games with the rest of the prisoners? All joking aside, he will probably get the "Paris Hilton" celebrity treatment and Martha Stewart house arrest. What a sad story this has become. A few weeks ago on SportsCenter one of ESPN's brilliant commentators stated something along these lines: (Well, the Falcons will be a different team with Joey Harrington at quarterback versus if they had Michael Vick. Joey Harrington is no Michael Vick.) You think??? Thanks for the insight.

In other news, I am going to gripe about Metro some more. I was trying to get into D.C. yesterday during rush hour and one of the trains did not have A/C. Next it was decided that because of this the train was deemed "out of order" and everyone on the entire train was forced to get out and wait for the next one. The next one comes 2 minutes later but does not leave for another 10 minutes as "we are experiencing delays. Thanks for your patience customers". Lastly, why don't people understand that you walk on the left side of the escalator and stand on the right?

Off to Kansas City and Seattle

I will be traveling to Kansas City and Seattle tomorrow night until Tuesday evening so I probably won't get the chance to make any posts until at the earliest next Wednesday. I'll be sure to give a summary of the trips with pictures when I get back.

What Do You Think Of Your Boss?

Apparently there is legislation in the works that would give employees grounds to sue their employers for being mean. The article brought up an interesting point of the generation gap between new hires coming into the work force (Generation Y) versus retiring Baby-Boom generation managers and how the younger generation is more likely to complain about their supervisors and quit. I think this legislation will have problems defining what exactly is an "abusive work environment". It might be hard for an accuser to bring forth the proper evidence other than "he said/she said" especially if the abuse does not take place in front of other employees. If you get the chance to read the article but don't have much time skip to about 3/4 down the page and read some of the "horror" boss stories. Yikes.

Are You Fat?

If so now you can maybe blame it on a virus. An interesting thought that I just had: Do you think it would be possible to "infect" people who are in extremely poor countries with limited access to food with this "obesity virus"? Well, I will shoot down my own idea and say probably not because I would contend that these people obviously need the nutrients provided to them by food because of extreme malnourishment. It'll be interesting to see what further research shows.

Call Me Mr. Produce

I thought I'd take the opportunity to give you a sample of the food that I ate at a restaurant, the food I bought, and the food I cooked today. See if you can tell which is which. As Emeril Lagasse would say, "I wish you had Smell-a-Vision".

Also, not too long ago I had the chance to eat Maryland Chesapeake Crabs in Annapolis, Maryland for the first time. Good stuff.

On a side note, I had another what I would consider successful weekend at the batting cages. I got to use my old little league bats for the first time in a very long while. My friend told me that I should probably upgrade to a high-school level bat which is heavier. That might be added to my wish list. I forgot how much fun it is to hit a baseball. Oh, and I found out that the "fast" pitch I was hitting today was 65 mph. That means I could probably hit a change-up from a 2- or 3-A league pitcher. I think they should just call me up to the big leagues right now. If I had the money to buy a new house right now it would have a gourmet kitchen and a batting cage in the backyard.

Good Morning Sunshine

Up early this morning as I like to be most days. Plan is to hydrate up with water/Gatorade then go out for a run around the area neighborhoods. I started the early morning jog on the weekend habit about five years ago and absolutely love it. Remember those scenes in Rocky IV where Balboa is running through the snow in Russia all by himself in the early morning? I love that. Those training montages are great. One of my fondest memories from Syracuse was recreating that during the winter time. If you've never been up to Syracuse it snows. A lot. And it is absolutely frigid in the winter. So while I was there I decided to "take advantage" of that environment and get myself into Rocky Balboa shape. I remember getting up on those weekend days in the dead of winter when it was even too cold to turn around in your bed stacked with about five blankets to keep warm. I'd get myself ready (minus the whole drinking the raw egg thing), don the multiple thin layers of clothes and a hat, and take out my iPod...queued up with the all of the Rocky soundtracks. Stepping outside of the front door of the house was exactly like the movie. It was just me, the sun, and the snow. I remember one time where it was so cold outside that my iPod stopped working because I guess the hard drive froze. It was really quite an exhilarating experience that I'd recommend if you're up to it. I'd like to if I ever get the chance (like so many others have) recreate the running up the library stairs in Philly scene. Other fond moments come from when I was at Virginia and I would run by all the frat houses early on a weekend morning. One time I ran by this house and actually stopped because I could smell the alcohol emanating from the porch. I stopped long enough to notice that there several drunk kids sleeping outside on the porch. Good stuff. On a side note, does any one else who works a standard desk job feel like sitting at a desk in front of a computer all day is actually more tiring than it should be? I feel like I need to take a nap most days I get home but realize that all I did during the day was sit.

Super Mario

No not Mario Lemieux or Luigi's brother. Mario Batali was featured in this NY Times article. I found it interesting that the man owns his own pizza oven. Nice. That would be great. I must say to me the room that makes a house is its kitchen. The thing about food that can be deceiving is that its not always easy to tell how much time and effort went into making a dish. I think most people overestimate the time and effort it takes to make an appetizing meal. It doesn't have to be hard or complicated. This article talks about how Chicago Public Schools tried to introduce healthier foods into the school lunch menu, even going to the extent to try to add organic foods. I for one don't use organic foods much in my cooking. I've tried cage-free eggs a couple times and some vegetables. I don't really taste a difference, but feel the difference in the wallet.

As far as the kids and school lunch topic goes I feel like a health class should be part of the standard classes like math, history etc. This reminded me of when I volunteered at the Boys and Girls Club a few months ago. One of the activities for the kids was to get them to name and identify certain foods. So the instructor had a bunch of real fruits and vegetables in a basket and picked one out one at a time and asked the kids to shout out what the fruit/vegetable was. Well the kids did fine with standard things like apples, carrots, and potatoes. The funny part was when the instructor pulled out a sprig of parsley. The room went silent, and one kid shouts out: Its weed!

HA. I got a good laugh out of that one. But seriously, kids need to be taught early on the importance of exercise and nutrition. In addition, if there are nutritious options available then I would argue that the kids would eat them rather than going hungry. Makes sense. I can see how it is hard for parents to get a tasteful and healthy meal on the table everyday. Its hard. I don't cook everyday. There just isn't the time. What I do is when I do cook, make more than enough for multiple meals. There's of course a tradeoff here. If you are willing to eat the same thing for a couple days in a row then its fine. You also need to own a decent set of Tupperware containers and a reliable microwave.

Another thing that I like to do is to buy those pre-cooked rotisserie chickens at the supermarket. That is a good option I've found. It comes out to a max of $10 for one. If you look at the price of a package of chicken it is about equivalent except that you don't have to cook it and clean up afterwards. You can use it in pretty much any dish too.

The picture I've included in this post was a lunch I had at a French restaurant in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. It was duck con fit.

Newsflash: Chernobyl 'not a wildlife haven'

Another brilliant headline that I felt like sharing.

Kayaking on the Potomac

A little late on this one, but last week I had the chance to go kayaking on the Potomac. Good fun, but harder than it looks. It actually gets pretty tiring.

Steroids and Wrestling

Interesting article in the Washingtonpost. I had no idea that even the low-end stars make around $100K a year but have no benefits package. Yeah, its definitely not a glamorous lifestyle: being on the road all of the time, punishing your body taking hits and then having to workout incessantly to maintain a physique. Its no wonder that these guys turn to illegal substances just to get themselves through the day.

The article did make a great point in that there is no off-season. The reason is that professional wrestling is not a sport, it is sports-entertainment. That means it really is basically a soap-opera in that there are scripted storylines involved. In order to give wrestlers time off the storylines need to somehow explain their absence which is usually done through a fake injury. The vicious cycle is that the top stars are the top stars because they are seen by the fans week in and week out. You don't make your way to the top by getting little face time with the fans and on TV.

Then of course there is always the money factor involved. Professional wrestling is afterall a business. As much as it is nice to think that the owner Vince McMahon cares about his employees and as much as this may sound heartless, he obviously knows that for every star that he loses there are at least a dozen if not more up-and-coming hopefuls just waiting for their chance to break into the business.

It will be interesting to see if/how Congress decides to monitor illegal substance abuse in professional wrestling.

Jay-Z

Rapper Jay-Z tops Forbes hip-hop "cash kings" list

Let's see, according to the article Jay-Z made at least $238 million over the past year. Nice. Oh and he's dating Beyonce too. Yeah...definitely far from living a hard knock life.

On another note, I thought this commercial was pretty funny the first time I saw it. Never tried Vitamin Water though. Maybe I'll give it a shot after I finish the case of Gatorade sitting in my pantry. Gotta love the bulk purchase at Costco.

Zero to Hero

Gilbert Arenas, Gil, Gillyweed, Agent 0. Whatever you like to call him he is the star of the Washington Wizards. I recently added a link to his blog in my "Links to Other Blogs" section. Interesting reads for the most part. I am trying to expand that section so if you know of any other blogs that you read that you think I'd be interested in by all means leave a comment. The NBA regular season starts in a little over 2 months. Let's see if Stern can put Humpty Dumpty together again by then.

Finishing off with some random thoughts:

• Took me 1.5 hours to get into D.C. last night. 1.5 hours. Why do I continue to use Metro?
  
• Recently bought two shirts advertised as wrinkle-free from here. These shirts are anything but wrinkle-free. Anyone have any good suggestions for quality wrinkle-free shirts?
  
• Immediate plan is go to cook an egg, chicken, and cheese omelet (mmm protein) then hit up the batting cages for some BP.
  

Nats, Skins in Town This Weekend

The Washington-Metro D.C. area will be awash in sports glory this weekend as the Nationals and Redskins both have home games this Saturday. What does this mean? TRAFFIC. Although the weather looks like it will be great this weekend the couch and TV remote might be more appealing than the Beltway or waiting in a crowded Metro car. The talk of the town is that even though the Nationals will not be in the postseason, the team is poised and ready to spoil the postseason hopes of its opponents for the rest of the season. Whooppee. God forbid the Redskins also win on Saturday. I won't hear the end of it from Redskins fans I know or on the radio/TV. Folks, its preseason...

Question posed to Redskins Head Coach Joe Gibbs: Coach, what do you hope to see in this weekend's preseason game against the Steelers?
Joe (paraphrased): Well, I'd like to see each unit go out there and play cohesively and smoothly. Then, I'd like to see individuals show me what they have to offer to this team.

Thanks, coach. On another note, do you ever wonder about reporters sometimes? Do they come up with the questions or does someone else feed them the questions? Is it funny to ask questions you already know the answer to? For example, why do you ask the losing coach at the Superbowl how he feels? Are you hoping he is going to say "I feel great"? He freaking just lost the Superbowl. How else is he going to feel???

Note to Metro: There is a Nationals game this Saturday. Have more train cars running more frequently. Thanks.

In other Washington sports news, former Washington Wizards forward-swingman Jarvis Hayes has signed with the Detroit Pistons. I think Jarvis will have trouble getting non-garbage minute playing time on that squad. I mean he was a semi-important part on a Wizards team that is not as good as the Pistons. If he's looking for a team closer to winning a championship then obviously this was a good move for him as long as he's willing to give up some playing time. Oh, yeah, and the money increase probably wasn't too shabby either.

Attention Mark McGwire

I've got to find the testimony that McGwire gave in that congressional hearing a few years back. "I am not here to talk about the past". What might I ask are you there to discuss then???

I had the chance to see McGwire play during his record-breaking home-run season during a game against the New York Mets. He hit a home-run during the game and literally swatted the ball out of the stadium. Straight-up backhanded it out there like he was holding a tennis racket. SI recently published an article in its latest magazine that chronicles Barry Bonds' stats over his entire career. This includes his height and weight as well as pictures of him. If you get the chance I'd recommend checking it out. If you take a look those pictures you can definitely see the man putting on weight...inconsistently. Being an avid fan of bodybuilding myself and I know that even "professional" bodybuilders when adding mass generally put it on consistently and not in large spurts. For a normal human being putting on 5 pounds of muscle per year is considered great. I know from personal experience. Genetics plays a huge part in being able to add muscle mass and granted these guys are professional athletes so they have that part working for them. I highly doubt that McGwire will ever be voted into the Hall of Fame.

Well apparently being "frank and candid" won't get you punished by the MLB commissioner. I doubt it, but I wonder if this will get anyone else to come forth and be "frank and candid".

Malcolm X, Donaghy, Becks, Offerman, Stock Market

Quick post here with a variety of topics...

NBA referee Tim Donaghy pleaded guilty today to two felony charges in connection with the NBA betting scandal. He could get up to 25 years in prison. The question is how does the NBA repair its image? I know for sure when I go to the Wizards games this year at Verizon Center I am going to heckle the referees just for the fun of it. Here's an off-the-wall solution. Have no referees. Let the players call their own fouls. Come on. Its done in pickup games around the world everyday. These guys are professionals, right? No, but seriously in my opinion I don't think that this is more widespread than Donaghy. If it is I think he is going to try to bring down as many people with him as he can. He'd just better make sure he's in jail first, otherwise the Mafia is going to be after him.

In other news the U.S. stock market has been falling faster than Pacman Jones' NFL career. The S&P 500 pretty much erased its gains up until this point this year. One thing to take note of is that if you're looking to buy now might be the time. If you're already in I'd probably say don't look and wait it out. I know my portfolio is down right now but you've got to think long-term.

Plan for the rest of the night is to start reading The Autobiography of Malcom X and watch Becks and the Galaxy play the United again for the second week in a row. There we go. Malcolm X and MLS. What a great way to wind down the day.

And finally, former MLB player Jose Offerman decided to get himself arrested by wielding his bat at an opposing pitcher and catcher (see photo above).

Newsflash: Airplanes Are Dirty

Doesn't surprise me a bit. I read somewhere else that said the handles on grocery shopping carts have more germs than the average public restroom. I believe it. Also, do you ever put your grocery food in the child seat compartment? If you do, why? Think about what sits there. Right.

Tax-Free Holiday

This article talks about state tax holidays in the U.S. If you're interested further in taxation and e-Commerce, ask me about a paper that I wrote on the subject and I can send it to you.

On an entirely different note, this morning I came to two complete stops on the Toll Road going in the opposite direction of D.C. This should not happen. Ever. Drivers with E-Z Pass: the whole point of E-Z Pass is so that you don't stop at the toll booth!!! Slow down if you have to, but please don't go from 60 mph to a complete stop. Thanks.

Note to Self: Pitching Doesn't Win Championships...

...in Fantasy Baseball that is. So at the beginning of this year's MLB season I, like millions of others around in the U.S. took part in a fantasy baseball draft. I am in two leagues this year. The one I am about to write about I've been in for a couple of years now. The league has a core of returning entrants each year, which are my dorm mates from my first year of college. I think its great to get the competitive juices going year to year with the same people. We also keep the same core for fantasy football and fantasy basketball. Anyway, at the start of this year's draft I had a strategy to use my first five picks to take the top starting pitchers and relievers in the league. I figured that I could possibly trade them away later in the season for some power in the lineup. About 1/4 the way through the season I looked like a genius and was sitting pretty atop the league leader board. Well that was short-lived. I am now in 9th place out of 10 teams after having only traded away one of my star pitchers. I'll admit my strategy didn't work and I'll learn from it the next time around. In my other league however I am in 1st place out of ten teams when I didn't employ my "take the top pitchers" strategy. You'll be hearing plenty more about fantasy sports as time goes on. I am in 4 different fantasy football leagues this year so things could get interesting.

On another note, I heard a report on the radio this morning detailing a British study that experimented with mice and junk food. The radio report said that the study fed junk food to pregnant mice and found that the offspring are more likely to have a penchant for junk food. Makes sense. I've always thought that you develop a taste for different foods while growing up but apparently it starts earlier than that.

Making Math Look Good

This article talks about how actress Danica McKellar wrote a book that is aimed at making math appealing to girls. I think that its a great idea because it gives girls an excellent example to follow. I guess not everyone is going to be like Lisa Simpson.

"When girls see the antics of Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan, they think that being fun and glamorous also means being dumb and irresponsible," says McKellar. "But I want to show them that being smart is cool. Being good at math is cool. "I want to tell girls that cute and dumb isn't as good as cute and smart."

Amen to that!

Good Night Canada

Is what Tony Kornheiser has been closing the show, Pardon The Interruption (one of my favorite shows on TV) with lately. If you are unfamiliar with the show, he and his co-host Michael Wilbon discuss current sport events in a rapid-fire session in a various entertaining segments. Around the Horn is also quite entertaining. The only problem is I never get home from work early enough to catch them in time...

So today was Day 2 of incorporating some sort of additional oblique exercise in my workout. I hope that this improves my swing.

Be a Better Co-Worker

Read, and send to your co-workers. It's all common sense stuff, but we'll all be better off.

E.A. Sports. Its In The Game.

Are You Getting the New Madden? Vince Young is on this year's cover. He's already missed a game for violating team rules by not staying in the team hotel. Will the Madden Curse continue?

What is the best sports video game of all time? I would have to agree. Tecmo Super Bowl was an extremely addicting game. I remember my brother and I playing the regular season mode. You would have to check you players' status on the roster, hoping that they were in "excellent" condition. If you had a key player injured, and you thought that he should be back the next game and wasn't simply restart the game and sometimes he would return from the injury.

The playbook was only eight plays (four for the original one). There was this one play that worked about 95% of the time. In fact it worked even better when the other team picked the same play and blitzed you because the tight end was always open over the middle. My favorite team was the 49ers. Joe Montana to Jerry Rice was unstoppable. Jerry could catch anything. I think John Taylor was the other wideout. On defense you had Ronnie Lott and I think Charles Haley. The computer was decently good at cheating during the game, by allowing the other team's RBs to run ridiculously fast, but if you really wanted to guarantee your win you could cheat by going into their playbook before the game started and changing all of the plays to ones you could easily stop.

If when you had the ball you ran in a zig-zag it would almost guarantee you the ability to outrun all of the defenders. The hail-mary pass was also an option. Simply hike the ball, keep running backwards until your receiver is out of the screen (and all you see is that arrow) then toss it. More often than not you'd end up with a catch. Oh the memories. When playing my brother we would hide our controllers under a pillow so that we could guarantee the other wasn't cheating by seeing what play was being picked. Randall Cunningham was the Michael Vick back then, and Barry Sanders, Lawrence Taylor, and Reggie White were all equally unstoppable.

Office Politics

An interesting article with some advice that I am certainly going to try to remember to do. Because I've always thought of myself as a hard worker, I think the point that stuck out most with me was the last paragraph:

Don't assume hard work is enough. In today's competitive work world, being competent is not sufficient to earn you accolades. Getting ahead requires strategic thinking, subtle self-promotion, and teamwork. People sometimes assume that working harder will result in recognition, but more often than not, all it nets them is more work.

Woe Is Me

To all you complainers and whiners out there, stop it.

Voicing your frustrations is a natural way of dealing with them — but watch out for when a conversation dissolves into a bitch session.

The article mostly deals with how women vent their frustration with each other. It would have been interesting if the study had included males as well. I think the study would have been even better had it only used Boston Red Sox fans.

Here, I'll Pay You $70 to Lose 9 Pounds This Month

That is what residents of the Italian town of Varallo could get. How much do you think would need to be offered to convince fat Americans to do the same?

Bad Workout Habits

I go to the gym pretty regularly. Over time I've seen people doing things ranging from the downright stupid and ridiculous to downright dangerous. Here you go, I'll share a story. It was back a few years ago in college. This big muscle-head was doing squats with a huge amount of weight. Easily around 400 pounds. So this guy gets done with the squats and begins to re-rack the weights. What's so unique about this story you ask? Well, as it turns out, he took off all of plates from one side of the bar first instead of alternating. I mean this guy must have put the weights alternatively when loading the bar right? Why wouldn't you do the same when re-racking the plates? Needless to say the entire bar came crashing to the ground and everyone just stopped and stared at him.

Anyway, when you're at the gym, make sure you don't repeat that. Also be sure to avoid these workout habits. I'd be interested in hearing gym stories from other people.

Macho, Nacho Man?

Remember that song? According to this article, it turns out that you if you're a man with feminine facial features then you will be seen by women as being more warm, faithful, and possibly a better parent than men with more masculine features. So there you go. That's the solution to getting more first dates. Now, if you want a second date, you'd better pay for the first.

100 Best Places to Work in IT - Overall Rankings 2007

Computerworld ranked the 100 Best Places to Work in IT for IT professionals in the U.S. What surprised me was that Fairfax County Public Schools cracked the top 10. Your's truly is a product of that school system. Also, here is how the rankings were chosen along with some other interesting statistics.

Dear Metro,

Anyone in favor of ditching the entire current system and going with this?

Greatest Record in All of Sports?

ESPN is asking this question. I believe I stated this in an earlier post, but in my opinion, the greatest record in all of sports is Cal Ripken Jr.'s consecutive games played streak of 2,632. Come to think of it, any record involving consecutive anything deserves to be recognized. Think about it. All it takes is one miss and the streak is done, and you have to start all over again from the very beginning. Aside from any normal human bodily function, is there anything that you consistently do everyday without ever missing a day? Cal never missed a game in I think 17 consecutive seasons! Can you imagine never missing a day of work? If my memory serves me right I think Ripken sat out the next game on purpose in order to break his own streak. The man could have probably gone on for god knows how much longer. Simply amazing. I'd love to hear what record other people think is the greatest in all of sports.

Christ-like smudge fetches $1,000-plus

"There are some people who need this kind of thing to sort of start them on their faith journey. I don't," she said. "That's why I don't mind parting with it."

Did you know that if I took a piece of toast out of the toaster and saw that the burn marks on it resembled Jesus I could sell it on eBay for a couple thousand dollars (if not more?). Or, that if I went under a bridge and found that the water marks on the bridge resembled Jesus I could get people from all over the world to come visit and take a look? Pretty amazing stuff, huh? (In case you were wondering both of those things did actually happened, among countless other stories).

....now, where's my toaster?

Microwave Etiquette and Morning Talk Radio

Ok, this post might be a little random, but I'll try my best to stay coherent.

I'll start with the office microwave lunch dilemma. So today at lunch I go to the microwave to heat my lunch and find that someone else's lunch has 18 seconds left on the clock, but no one is around waiting for it. The timer chimes and the microwave stops and still no one. Being the courteous and polite person that I am I wait there for oh say a good 2 minutes, take this person's food out and begin heating mine. Right as my lunch is finished heating the owner of the food I had taken out comes by and apologizes to me. Now, I have had instances where this has happened to me before and the reception I received was not as pleasant. The last time I remember it happening I had to try to reason with the person as to why I took their food out. Again I stood there and waited a few minutes. I stress I tried to reason with this person, but they received no apology from me. I'm sorry but you can't possibly so busy as to not have the time to stand by the microwave for two minutes while your food cooks. Even if you can't spare the two minutes, and you just have to walk away, then be back in two minutes to retrieve your food! I'd love to hear other stories from people. Is there an unwritten office rule to using the community microwave during lunch?

I'd also like to do a quick run-down of some news bytes I remember from listening to the radio on the way into work this morning:

• There was a report out saying that U.S. employers are expecting raises this year for employees around the 4% range, with bonuses for pay-for-performance programs bumping this figure up to 12%. My first year of working...I'll now know what to expect...
• Tommy Thompson has removed himself from the presidential race. I remember going to hear him speak earlier this year about his attempt to run for president. In my opinion, although I thought he was a good speaker, I didn't think that he was presidential material.
• The Boston Red Sox is losing its lead on division rival the New York Yankees. Now if you know me well enough you know that I pretty much despise the Red Sox mostly because I think the fan base is a bunch of whiners. Now don't get me wrong, I don't like the Yankees either, but if Yankees success means Red Sox failure then I'm all for it.
• And finally, the Washington Redskins won its first pre-season game. There will be much, much more discussion on this blog about the NFL season once it starts. I'll just say that it is great living in this area while not being a Skins fan. In fact, I would say that messing around with Redskins fans is a lot more fun than making fun of Boston Red Sox fans. Redskins fans are always so optimistic. "This is our year", "Superbowl-bound baby!". I remember the year that Joe Gibbs joined the team. It was like The Second Coming. Come on people, be realistic. And by realistic I mean 6-10 / 7-9. The same thing with Red Sox fans. The reason why your team didn't win the Series for 86 years was not because of "The Curse". It's because your team was never good enough to win it during those years. Face it. Stop whining. The worst part is that these people were even more obnoxious after the Sox won the Series a few years ago. Ok, one Series win in 86 years. Go ahead, celebrate. Come back when you actually build a consistent winner and maybe I'll start respecting you more.
  

Let The Battle Begin!

I just finished watching some Iron Chef America. Love that show. I like food. I like to cook. I like competition. I love how Iron Chef America puts all of it together. Great idea. A whole network on food? Brilliant. I'm not that big of a wine guy however. Have you ever bought a $50-$100 bottle of wine? I've done it several times. It hurt each time. I just can't see buying a drink that costs that much money when I know that amount of money could feed me for a week. Give me $100 to buy on food/drink? I'm buying steaks, lobster, and other food. Drinks? I'm fine with Gatorade, tea, juice, protein shakes. Did anyone watch The Next Food Network Star? I picked Jag from the very beginning and I think he would have won had he not disqualified himself by lying. I've listed the shows that I enjoy watching on Food Network. I like taking pictures of food too. I've included some of the things I've cooked recently in this post.

• Throwdown, Bobby Flay
• Iron Chef America
• Emeril Live, Emeril Lagasse
• Good Eats, Alton Brown
• The Essence of Emeril, Emeril Lagasse