Warriors not in playoff so finding something else.

I've actually been going to quite a few sporting events recently. I saw the Sharks crush the Ducks last week. It was a great game, and I'm not sure if it's too late, but I'm jumping on the bandwagon and I'll be rooting the Sharks on in the playoffs.

Also went to my first baseball game of the year. Saw old southpaw, Tom Glavine throw the pill against the Giants at PacBell/SBC/AT& T make up your mind already Park. The kid in front of me had the new must have Giants toy, an orange rubber chicken with the Giants logo emblazoned on it. And yes, Giants fans demonstrated their loyalty/stupidity for cheering the steriod behemoth in left field and waving their rubber chickens even as they pitched around him over and over again.

Going to a baseball game isn't exactly great for your diet, but it is a great way to catch up with a friend you haven't seen in a while. The guy with the extra ticket is a friend I haven't seen since November or so. It was great just to sit around and chat and watch the game. I can see why it can be a great father son sort of thing.

Junior is not a person of the people.

So Junior was on campus yesterday. He was meeting with people from the Hoover Institute, a pretty influential conservative think thank located about a block from my office. Lots of famous political people cycle through this think tank. I think George Schulz is running it right now. Junior's last visit to this place was the first time he was running for office. Maybe this is where the whole Iraq disaster was originated.

Presidential visits are pretty imperial these days. For the last few days they have been practicing helicopter landings near Sand Hill and routes to and from Moffet. They have put up metal fencing around Hoover and the surrounding buildings. The Santa Clara Sherrif's office had a busload of officers in full riot gear. There were snipers posted in the tower, and possibly on the top my building.

Junior was scheduled to make an appearance around four. At that time a few hundred people were gathered around. They held signs, chanted, peacefully demonstrated their displeasure with their leadership. News trucks abounded. The School band was being contrarian and calling for "Four More Yars." I don't know if they thought they were being funny or if they're really just a consersative group. Two or three people managed to get themselves arrested.

Anyway the protesters were lined up along the most likely routes to Hoover. But no presidential motorcade ever came by. Junior snuck him in the backway through an area of campus that are usually walkways and no one actually saw him.

It was nice to see a rally and people expressing their views, but the President never saw it. He truly lives in his own bubble. He travels from place to place and except for the occassional Chinese heckler, will never hear these voices. And even if he there is a heckler, it's just a momentary distraction before the Secret Service squelch the voice in the name of national security.

When I got home, I watched a couple minutes of the Giants game. They were playing in Colorado and Bonds was getting booed every time any Rocky hit a ball to left or when he appeared at the plate. And I thought to myself, here are two guys that the people really hate right now. One of them gets booed on a daily basis and the other one never hears it except through abstract polling data. I'm not sure that's the way it should be.

IQ dropping on Campus today.

Junior is in town. Don't think I'll get the chance to heckle, but we'll see.

Doctors meet too early.

The only thing worse than knowing that I have to be here for a 7am meeting tomorrow morning, is knowing that I have to be here for a 7am meeting where the end results is going to be the deal I am working on will be squashed. There are a lot of issues around clinical research, but maybe in the end there's really only one issue. Money. And if people can't agree on who is going to pay, deals don't get done. I'll be there. I'll say my piece, but I think minds are already made.

How many layers to this onion?

Yes, Junior, everyone is out to get you, but that's because you've done a really crappy job. You've raised more stink than anyone who's ever held that position.

1. ABC says you knew that those two trailers out in the dessert were not mobile WMD labs. And yet, you trumpeted it as a WMD success story on discovery. This really isn't news though. The idea of a mobile lab to create WMDs is pretty silly. More resources than that need to be used to create something truly destructive. That as well as all your other statements about WMDs were lies. Ritter made that point. Blix was making that point. And try as you might, you can't lay this at the CIA. Anyone with half a brain knew you were making the whole thing up.

2. So it turns out, you can "declassify information" whenever you want. Pretty convenient to make this arguement two years into the investigation and after the first indictment has been handed down. Why now? And even if you did declassify some reports, this does not excuse you or anyone working for you from the personal attacks against Valerie Plame. And you wonder why the intelligence agencies don't want to help you more.

Resign, please.

Little pointless moment in my life.

I told my wife that a friend had offered us tickets to a hockey game. She immediately extended her arms and raised them up and down mimicking the motions of a set of shark jaws opening and closing and saying, "Powerplay." She's adorable and she doesn't even know it.

Is it all a game?

Am I cynical in thinking that Republiskunks are not really that interested in immigration reform? When I think about political issues, I like to think of them in terms of policy issues. Solutions to problems. And there is a real issue here. There are lots of undocumented workers here and lots of underlying reasons why there are undocumented workers here. America's still trying to come to terms with its own cultural tension of being a xenophobic immigrant nation.

But I realize although there shouldn't be, there's a game element to it too. There's a part that's about strategy and getting in or staying in power. Part of me thinks that republiskunks are happy to be talking about something besides the war. And they'll be happy that they can make a campaign issue about keeping the brown people out of our country instead of any of their leadership failures abroad and at home.

Of course the media is jumping on the immigration issue. Yes, the republiskunks are in power now, but they're all too willing to let them set the agenda.

My first lacrosse game.

My coworker just asked if I wanted to go to a bar with her and all her friends to watch tonight's basketball game. But the only thing worse than UCLA winning tonight's championship would be UCLA winning it while I was surrounded by drunken UCLA fans. Besides, those frickin Bruins have already cost me a bucket of tandori chicken.

This weekend my coworkers did manage an informal get together outside of work. We went to watch the San Jose Stealth lose to the Buffalo Bandits in a National Lacross League game. Lacross is an interesting sport. They get all padded up and they're not shy about whacking each other with their sticks, but for some reason, all the guys shave their legs.

Someone asked me what I thought about the game. I liked the action, the pace of the game, even the senseless violence was appealing, but I don't think I'd want to play something where shaving the legs was some sort of requirement. It just seems sort of funny.

Anyway, everybody brought their significant others and their rugrats where applicable. Most of the kids were too young to get into the game, but everyone said they had fun. I was entertained. I would go again.