Thoughts from Panera Bread

Free WiFi is awesome. It allows you to get out of the house and do the exact same thing as always, but with scenery. Panera Bread has given me the opportunity today and I am grateful. Obviously I am a little busy these days if I am posting from here, so let me throw some quick shots out today.

Sports
I am about footballed out right now. Being in Dallas, the Cowboys occupy 75% of the airwaves this time of year at a minimum. This team has done its best to take my little interest and step on it. The high school feuds that exist or are trumped up by the talking heads have me wishing for sports talk in place of the tabloid gossip.

The Ranger's off season so far has been non-dramatic which makes me somewhat happy. We sold on the down tick with Gerald Laird. His five tool player status along with his experience merits more than a high school kid and a slow to mature AA player. I don't think the return was horrid, but it was underwhelming. So far they have yet to sign a blockbuster player. Thank Goodness! Kerry Wood and his permanent spot on the disabled list went for over 10 million a year. Thankfully we are not weighing down our future with such contracts. I don't care how good you are (Teixeira, CC, etc.), 6+ year contracts are nuts in this league. It guaranteed... results are anything but. I for one would love to see contracts have a consistent base league-wide based on experience and then having significant bonuses tied to performance. 55 home runs one year brings in 8 million extra, the slump the next year to 21 homers only brings in 2 million. How much drama could we eliminate with such a system. How much easier to keep franchise players that build a fan base. Most likely it is too simple to actually happen.

Church
I have a structural engineer teaching our Young Marrieds class at church this quarter. This bodes well for both my excitement and my comprehension. I have a subtle feeling that some us may have to be translators if he gets too technical, but I bet his lessons won't be hard to understand.

Cinema
Once again the holidays are here and movies that technical have not been released are being considered for yearly honors. Just sad. I wish they would have awards that require 100 million in sales to get be eligible. No more artsy films that are only released in 17 theaters. I am not saying that all of these films stink, but at least talk about films that people have heard of. Using my new eligibility rules from above, here are the best films of the year based upon the buzz generated by the common man:


Roundhouse to the Oscars
The Dark Knight
Iron Man
Wall-E
Get Smart
Kung Fu Panda
Indiana Jones
High School Musical 3

Not the list that you will see anywhere near the Academy Awards, but certainly the list of movies that I have been hearing about.

New Laptop
I got a new laptop about a week ago. I am so pumped. The last computer purchase that I made was before I started college in the summer of 2000. I went with an Asus that I got off of NewEgg. It has an Intel Core2Duo P8600 processor, 4 Gigs of RAM, a 320 Gig Hard Drive, and a huge 1 Gig NVidia GeForce 9650 GT graphics card. The best games from my old system look like an Atari on an HD TV. Oh, and I got this since I started grad school this fall...

Heard While Making This Post
Weezer - Possibilities
The Calling - Wherever You Will Go
Jimmy Eat World - Sweetness

Artsy

I figure that since the title of this blog includes the word Views, I had better add a few. Before the weather became too cold for afternoon strolls, I took my camera with me as I walked the local jogging trail. I also do this to highlight my oh so excellent and unprofessional camera. I have a Kodak EasyShare Camera and have taken close to 3,000 pictures with it. I have had camera store clerks scoff at it, but I still believe that it does a great job.

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This was taken prior to the walk on my back porch. This plant of ours turns bright red in the fall.

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Self Portrait - Reflection in the Creek

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This was an experiment to see if I could capture a car going at least 45 miles per hour through a bridge railing.

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Souring - How High Can You Fly?

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Disgust... Disgrace... Disrespect

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Freedom

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Dancing Lights

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Depth Perception - Floating Leaves

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Fluidity

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Resilience

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I am In Charge

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Blockade

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Vision - During the recent election, candidates were shown looking up in a way to signify leadership and vision. If I ever run for office, I will use this picture as a telling early sign of such traits.

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Redundant Redundancy

What If

I had no job, no responsibilities, and was bored out of my mind? That question was the answer to my question of "Why?" after watching a video earlier today. Here are some answers:

Turn myself into a quartet and cater to nerds - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lk5_OSsawz4

Learn every batting stance ever and record them in my mom's back yard - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B34vVWisTPQ

Blog

Master Table Tennis - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8IVASo0umU

Post new Facebook status updates all day long

Learn the robot (wait for the guy 45 seconds in) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSoVKUVOnfQ

Watch Youtube

Make a Tutorial on How to Boil Water - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kieGBkOdyMU


Let me know if I forgot any

The Lighter Side

It is time for a post on the lighter side of things. I have noticed that Baseball has slipped to #2 on my topics list, so today I am going to help it and other topics get more recognition.

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It's Hot Stove Season in Baseball Land
Oh boy am I excited. Possible blockbuster deals and team upgrades make this time of year a fun time to keep up with the great game. Being in Texas, I don't see many of the big names coming here. I would love to trade Salty for a pitcher. Greinke appears to be a possibility that I would go for. Any trade must be for a promising pitcher. We don't need anything else right now.

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The Best Stadium?
Today on the lovely Ticket, the broadcasters boldly predicted that the new Dallas Cowboys stadium was so expensive, so luxurious, and so innovating that it would be the best sports stadium for at least 10 years. They justify this position by claiming that Jerry Jones is more ambitious and has more money to spend than anyone else.

I am going to boldly take the opposite side of this argument. I think it will be less than 5 years (probably 3) before some new stadium takes over the title. I can't count how many new stadiums were hailed as the best ever and would never be topped, all have since been dethroned. I guarantee that this one will be topped and saying otherwise is not a wise stance to take.

Now don't get me wrong, I think that it will be a great place for many years to see a game. But the best? I tend to think it will be outdone by someone and in the not-so-distant future.

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How To Cut In Line
Check out this article on the best ways to cut in line. A quick look:

researchers have tried to unpick the psychology of the queue, though most work has focused on reducing consumer frustration. However, one classic study found that New Yorkers were more likely to react to people who cut in front of them in a subway queue than behind.

Yankee fans only care about who is in front of them (Red Sox), they never see it coming from behind (Rays).

A cheap shot and off topic... you bet. Thoroughly satisfying... definitely.

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A Smart Choice
I rented Get Smart the other night and it exceeded my expectations. It had plenty of witty comedy, but kept from being downright silly. I give it a solid 4 out of 5.

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Too Long?
People often complain about the length of the Baseball season. 162 games is a long season. But now that both Hockey and Basketball have started up, I suggest that they feel longer. Baseball goes roughly from March through October, or about 8 months. Basketball and Hockey go from roughly November through June, or about 8 months. The difference to me is that at least in baseball, my team is playing every day or two, not every three to four. All of the down time combined with the length of the playoffs make the 'Winter' sports drag on and on.

I think that we might need to take the schedules down a notch, but let's apply it to several sports.

Election Musings

Feel free to refine or poke holes in the following ideas.

The Primaries
Is anyone confused about the primary process? I know that I am. This process wreaks of a lack of planning. It just sort of fell together this way over time. I live in one of those states that doesn't matter in the primaries. Texas. The state that holds 34 electoral votes has virtually zero sway in the primaries. Who chose Iowa and New Hampshire as the king-makers of this country? Iowa doesn't even use a legitimate selection system (caucus) in my opinion.

So here is my plan. It is simple, and it is allows the nation (not a handful of states) to choose who gets to run.

Super Tuesday 1
The First Tuesday of February of the election year. All 50 states will hold a primary election. Candidates that can gather signatures amounting to 0.25% of the popular vote in the previous election are eligible for their party. That would be slightly over 300,000 signatures in 2012.

Super Tuesday 2
The last Tuesday of April of the election year. The top 3 vote getters for a party will be eligible. All 50 states will hold a primary election. The top popular vote getter wins the nomination.

How hard is that? You get rid of caucuses. You get rid of superior first choice states. You get rid of goofy delegates, super-delegates, and all that jazz.

Election Day
I think that everyone can agree on this one except for my boss. Let's make election day a federal holiday. This will help prevent the end of the day rush (when people get off of work). We don't have to sneak out during the lunch break to vote. This day is a celebration of our country's freedom. Let's celebrate.

Next, let's move election day to the first Friday of November. Why you ask? Because I want a 3 day weekend... just kidding. Most people stay up late and watch the results, most people also get little sleep, and most people spend the next day at work talking about the results. The result... a very unproductive workday.

Voter Registration
The most controversial measure on my blog today. Let's do away with Voter Registration! What?!? Why or how would you do that? Simple, use the same form of ID that everyone else requires... a Driver's License.

If I go the movie theater and look young, they demand it. If I go to 7-Eleven and use my credit card, they sometimes demand it. If I want to drive a car, I must have it. If I want to get on an airplane, I must have it (or a Passport). Whenever I get a new job, they make a copy of it. Everyone else accepts this form of ID, why not the election board.

Why do I want to do this? So we can simplify the process of voting and eliminate the occurrence of minimize suspicion of election fraud.

Issues to Overcome
Fake IDs - If high school aged kids can produce McLovin, we need to check for it. Answer: Every polling place uses an ID verification webservice that takes Drivers License Number, First Name, and Last Name. This webservice interfaces with the state's database and spits back a Valid or Invalid verdict.

Using the Same ID More than Once - This same webservice puts a little X next to everyone name as it is checked. After being checked once, it will return invalid.

Security or I Don't Trust Those Newfangled Machines - This is a valid fear, but it nothing more than that. I work in the financial software industry. I pull people's credit reports, wire money, send SSN numbers around all via a webservice. How is this allowed? Because we use secure methods (ones that I will not divulge here). If I can do it with that information, we could have the NSA whip up something better in no time I would bet.

This Disenfranchises People - I know, I am suppressing the vote of people who don't have an ID. I am against the poor, the immigrant worker, and the elderly. You know what, I think that would could figure something out here, I just haven't come up with it yet. Help me out.

What Band Would Play At Your Inauguration Party?
Ah yes, the really important question of the day. I thought about this one and came to the conclusion that the word Party was the key. So my initial verdict is:

Toby Mac

I could party to:

Let's Get This Party Started - to set the mood
Feelin' So Fly - I could do some goofy dance like them
Extreme Days - to go along with the urgency of things
Boomin - just to bring everyone together

Could you wish for a President that sang with him, I don't want to gain the whole world and lose my soul!

...and yes I am white... so is Toby Mac.

Please feel free to offer other suggestions...