Old Home Weekend.

My parents came up this weekend because one of their old friends was having a milestone birthday. We were invited along for the celebration. These are family friends that have been semi-attached to us forever. They lived in Michigan when we lived in Michigan. They lived in New York when we lived in New York. They lived in southern California when my parents moved out to California. It's been like a long game of tag. I guess the funny thing is that even though we are all roughly the same age, my brother and I aren't close at all with their three daughters and we never really have been. We had a nice cordial dinner with people I really haven't spoken to in about ten years. Maybe this is the awkward way of family friends.

Maybe everyone eventually ends up in the Bay Area. The next day I saw four other people that I used to know as a kid back in New York. One or two of which I see on a semi-regular basis and one or two I haven't seen in forever. It was very interesting to see one kid in particular. I say kid, because he is several years younger than me and last time I saw him he was around 12. Now he's an adult with a real job and a girlfriend and very chatty. Neat, but I'm not sure exactly what to make of it. But I guess I always knew he'd turn out okay. He was a kid who had a lot of heart in doing whatever he did.

Wifey and Baby got dragged along to all of this memory lane stuff. I wonder if Wifey feels like she learned anything new about me this weekend.

Changing the World.

Yesterday I spent the day in a class about strategic descision making. What I've learned is that I'm more tactical than strategic. I focus on problems at hand, rather than more global longer horizon issues. Or at least that's how my position is designed, because that's what I end up doing everyday. I know they'll say it's important and all that, but in some ways it seems like a luxury to be able to think like that. We did a bunch of exercises meant to get us to think more big picture.

In a corner of my mind, I was thinking about America's problems in Iraq. Junior is not a strategic thinker. He's all political tactics. I won't go into the millions of examples here, it is simple political truth at this point.

Here's my one minute walk away from the training in mathematical business speak for you. How do things change?

(Dissastisfaction x Values x Support)> Risk = Change.

However you want to quantify these three elements, they need to mulitply out to something greater than the risk for a change to occur. It seems to make sense, but I haven't really tested it out yet.

Bad poo day.

Yes, so far I'd have to agree with those who say raising a child is one of the greatest experiences. Nothing compares to earning that smile on a baby's face. It means you've figured it out and things are all okay. Still yesterday is one of those days that I'm going to have to mention someday to my offspring when I need to put her on a good guilt trip. Not once, but twice, she pooed through her diaper and through her clothes until it was all over my clothes. I really hadn't known it was possible. The second time I was up in the city and needed to borrow a shirt before I could get home. Nasty. Nasty.

So as you might expect, we went out and purchased some larger size daipers today. Hopefully, they'll hold.

Bored of Bud & Barry

No one is asking me if I'm going to follow Bonds around to watch him break the records. I don't get it. Why does everyone care if the Commish follows him around. Somehow his presence adds or detracts legitimacy from the record? It really doesn't do either. Just bored sports writers trying to spin up controversey.

Friday notes

Overall it's been a real long draining week. I've had too many meetings at work and somebody it our family has just been a big baby at night. I don't feel like I've gotten much work done and certainly no writing done.

Two bits of randomness. One involving random trivia.

1. The reason there are 18 holes on a golf course is because their are 18 shots in a fifth of whisky. I should have realized the whole game started out as a prolonged drinking game.

2. My right foot is half a size larger than the left foot. I'm not sure if this is that unusual or everyone walks around slighly uneven. I still buy just one pair of shoes and it hasn't seemed to impact my ability to do anything. Yet I find myself worrying if my baby's feet are symetrical.

Junior talk irrelevant.

I listened in to a good portion of Junior's press conference this morning. He really does have some interesting speaking habits. I'm not sure if he was the dumbest person in the room, but after listening to a series of articulate questions and stumbling second grade answers, he certainly gives that impression.

And it's almost as he never actually hears the question. His mind gleams onto one or two of the keywords and he starts to spew out words. I think he actually answered less than twenty percent of the questions asked. Most of the time he says something completely unresponsive.

It went something like this:

"What evidence do you have that al-qaeda is responsible for sectarian violence in Iaq?"

Al-qaeda is bad. Ossama is bad. Al-qaeda is in Iraq.

Also, if Junior begins a thought, "I respect the (fill in blank i.e. Congress, democratic leadership, Putin, the Constitution, ) tremendously." It's a clear sign that he doesn't. Really.

Okay, almost all questions were about Iraq. He's still pushing that the report in September will somehow be radically different from the interim report today, and anyone who doesn't see it that way is in favor of losing the war. Really, the debate has gone beyond whether to stay in or not, but to, when to pull out and how. He's a couple steps behind.

I've been thinking some more about whether he should be impeached for all his crimes. Honestly, maybe no president has violated so many rules and been more deserving. But do we really need all the negativity that would go with an impeachment at this point? He's on the clock. I think we've probably reached the point where the next election should be what people focus on. Looking forward a bit. I just there was a way to try him for his crimes after he gets out of office.

The Story is Out.

For those who haven't seen it yet, I've put a link to my latest published story over on the side bar. We ended up with a title that the editor pretty much chose. I'm not sure I really like it. It's a little cliche for my taste, but I could see why it fits.

I actually don't think it's one of the more interesting things I've written. But I have few complaints if someone is willing to publish it. It's not like I have a rep to protect. But I'd like to see some of my longer pieces get published. I've got a couple other things that I think are much better, but haven't found publishing homes.

Going Home

I went to visit my parents over the recent holiday. They have a nice large house, but going there feels a little like stepping into the past. Not my particular past, I didn't grow up in that house or anywhere near Southern California, but even with a new HD TV (no cable) and a new internet connection (finally!) it feels like I step back in time a couple decades. They have lots of old stuff that has always defined their home and it never gets thrown out.

I probably feel like that because there are fewer distractions. It's like taking a retreat, where you focus on relationship building or spending quiet time by yourself because there isn't much else to do. My brother and I didn't even get any real exercise in. We dug through the garage and all we could find were one baseball glove, a frisbee and a couple old wooden tennis racquets endorsed by Chris Everett. That and the heat was killer.

All we did was eat and marvel over the baby. LA does have that going for it. The best and cheapest Chinese food. Baby J was suprisingly cooperative in traveling there and back and tons of entertainment for seldomly seen grandparents.

Wifey finally got over some of the guilt of the parental thing and we got out to see a movie about a French chef rat. And we also went to a nice little wedding in the middle of a Japanese garden. Interesting setting. There was a pond in the middle of the place and all the tables were around the pond. It was hard to keep track of where people were in the dark.

Good trip, but glad to be back.

Frak Scooter

I recently finished reading Al Gore's latest book, The Assault on Reason. He asserts that political discourse in this country has left logic and reason by the wayside. There is still some wiggle room for free and open discussion, but it doesn't matter anymore because no one is willing to be reasonable or objective anymore. It's all about political posturing and extreme though paradigms that leave out any ability to see truth.

He starts by saying everyone shares blame for this, but then he draws most of his examples from the failed leadership in this country. Our leader has attacked the Constitution, the rule of law, science and reason itself over and over again. (Try the book for more details.)

The commuting of Libby's sentence is the latest example. Scooter was found guilty of lying to cover up one of the great crimes of this century. A tit for tat exposing of a CIA agent in retaliation for someone point out that their pre-war intelligence was illusory.

I'm sure Scooter was promised that as long as he kept his mouth shut he wouldn't go to jail. Junior says he respects the jury and justice. He certainly didn't prove it.

Honestly, I was a little surprised that it happened now. Junior has just put another arrow in the democratic quiver heading into '08. So why? Was Junior really afraid that Scooter might squeal? Does he think Hillary/Obama is inevitable? Does he not care what happens in 08 because he's as lame as these ducks come? This can't possibly play well in middle America.

Weekend moments

If we're going to cover all the trails in the Best Hikes for Children in the Bay Area, we have to get a good early start. This past weekend, we started with the very first trail in the book, the sandy beach walk at Chrissy Fields up in the city. It was pretty nice out there, but unfortunately, baby J is probably just a tad young for the Chrissy fields marshtide interpretive center or the Farralones ocean exhibits. It was a nice day out, and it seemed to go pretty well, except for small stretches where the Pacific winds were trying to blow us all away. But J was a trooper.

After the brief hike, Wifey and I dropped the baby off at Grandma's and went to the new San Francisco center. Okay that's how lame we are. To us, it's still new and this is the first time we've been there. But really, once you've seen one mall, you've seen them all. I don't think I'll be back there for another few years.

Had Sunday dinner with some relatives at a buffet. J continues to be everyone's center of attention at get togethers. It's amazing how every little thing she does seems to bring a smile to everyone around her. That's the magic of babies I've never understood before. This time she pulled on a tray so hard she whacked herself in the nose. You'd think she might cry, but impressed with her own strength, she smiled instead.