What Happens When Baby's Around

We had Jazmine once again starting on Friday. As it happened we still had her going into Sunday afternoon as her mother (our daughter) was, as the figure of speech has it, running behind.

I bought lunch for my wife, Reiko, and me on he way home from Church. Of course, we ate shortly thereafter, feeding Jazmine as well.

My favorite football team, the Steelers, were playing that afternoon and it turned out I could watch the game on the TV. While my wife was watching our granddaughter I settled down to watching the game. I had gotten past the point where Cincinnati had scored first when suddenly I was informed I would have to take over watching granddaughter duties. So I set aside any idea of staying with the game; knowing I could fine out how it went later made this easier.

The approach I took was to come up with some entertainment I know she enjoys and will stay with. To that end I switched to DVD. We watched a Sing Along disk that runs for over 35 minutes. While she doesn't sing yet she takes great delight listening to the "Home on the Range". She truly enjoys music.

Next I pulled out Tinker Bell's Great Rescue, whatever the actual title. She tends to stay with this as well even though it is not a musical. By the time it was over her mom was here and it was just before 4 PM.

I switched back to TV to see how the game was going. It was over and I did not find my answer there. I went to my computer and learned that the Steelers had won.

Now you know what is of first importance and what is second importance in our household. Making the switch was not something I debated with myself over. I just did it.

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12/5 Steelers v Ravens

I watched the game into the third quarter and read about the game as well as watched video. It was a rough, tough, hard hitting, defensive game. Congrats to the Steelers.

It seems to me:  it is clear that at least the refereeing teams are not impartial this year when dealing with a Steeler game. There were two infractions on Steeler players that were not called.I doubt those who committed the infractions will be fined. Not right.

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AIDA

Wife and I saw a production of this musical. The musical, by Elton John and Tim Rice, is based on the Verdi opera of the same name. While the opera was in Italian & performed in for acts this musical was written in English and performed in two. The basic plot is the same.

The cast and crew are, in this production, junior and senior high school students. Everyone who performed in this production were capable or better.  We personally felt at least some of them should have been using a microphone.  The young woman who played Aida reflected training and skill. There was lots of energy.

Were we glad we went? Yes. We got to see one of our grandsons do his part. Did we feel we got our money's worth? Based on the whole performance, yes.

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Steeler v Patriots 11 14 10

This game was truly amazing in some ways. H Ward was caught up in a helmet to helmet contact leaving him with a neck injury or maybe a concussion. I am waiting to see if the Commissioner will impose a stiff fine ont Patriot player who did it. If he does not then I have questions.

What I expected resulted. I went to bed after the first half. This morning, when I first got up, I thought there was the possibility that the Steelers pulled it off in the second half, but...

What was wrong with the Steeler defense? I guess I can't say "everything" though that is how it felt. Why: they held the Patiots to 10 points in the first half.

What was wrong with the Steeler offense: the line could not protect Ben at all in the beginning, allowing the Pats to score without Steeler scoring.

What the Steelers usually do to the other teams was done to them last night.  The Pats did excellent man to man coverage, staying with Steeler recievers while the Pats receivers were successful.

I hope the Steelers can learn from last night and play much better hereafter. Otherwise, ...

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Cable TV

There is an interesting article in today's news reports. It deals with the high loss of subscribers to cable services. I am being generic when using the word cable as I am including every source except antenna.

When one reads the article through one suddenly discovers that the content suppliers are controlling how the retailers are packaging what they offer. In their bid to maintain high profits they are forcing the retailer to charge more than is actually necessary based on what the consumer watches. I should think that eventually the situation will reach the point whereat the retailer will be forced to charge so much that even the wealthy will walk away.

The other day I was surfiing to see what was showing on several channels. I found 2 stations showing the same movie. The only difference was that one channel had started showing it maybe a half hour earlier than the other channel. Further, and equally to the point, it is obvious that a group of channels owned by the same company shows a limited number of movies in a cycle over 3 months then changes the movies. Why do I need such "diversity"? Very simple, the content supplier has created a situation whereby I pay for more than I can use and that drives up their profits.

My suspicion is that the content suppliers have so many channels so that they can force this situation so that they can maximise their profits. I also think that the local stations have done the same thing for the same reason. Maybe those local additional stations may be the national network's idea, especially when one can tune into one of them & watch reruns of nationally broadcast shows.

How to get around this situation is an interesting question. The article noted what some internet/computer savvy people are doing. Still, to access anything via the internet one must buy into an ISP; no freebees. Pipeddream: if enough people left the cable companies completely then maybe the content supplier would be agreeable to a-la-cart. Oh, well.

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3rd Parties

Third parties serve an useful purpose, they make waves for the 2 major parties when they drift too far from the people. Someone wrote a blog reflecting frustration with the negative effects of some 3rd parties on GOP successes. Several GOP candidates, for whatever reason, were not able to overcome their respective opponents. Rather than begrudging the 3rd parties & the Tea Party the blogger should be asking the soul-searching question or 2 that deals with why the vote went the way it did.

Both major parties have been dwelling in their ivory towers, spinning their plans & dreams w/o fully appreciating what the People want. I believe the Republican Party (GOP) had a better handle on it, though. That is why the GOP did so well.

Anyone who thinks it is possible to win 100% in is living in a dream world. It appeared and was proven right that several of the Tea Party backed candidates never actually had a chance. I do not begrudge those candidates their respective bid, they were willing to take the gamble. That they won in the Primary may say something that the GOP needs to consider when choosing who to put up. Normally, candidates support the Party with donations and time and may even have run for  local office. At the local level issues are different from the State & National level, at least in degree. What is the truly valid issues to run on? Who are the advisors? Are they properly attuned to the People or just to the Party? What is the political party majority of a given district, etc?

When a 3rd party or movement has a major impact on the outcome of an election then the 2 major parties need to regroup & try to accurately & in an unbiased way try to read the message being sent and take that message to heart.

Normally, 3rd parties & movements come along when there are enough dissatisfied people out there. 3rd parties are a response to the major parties going a route not agreeable to the voting public & this is more so for the party in power.

According to the polls, if I have it straight, a majority of adults are very unhappy with the health bill that was passed into law. The Democrats had an agenda, they did not care what the people thought and they used their overwhelming majority to force the issue. They paid the price, at least to some degree. I doubt if the framers ever considered how this law would impact job creation because they did not care.

Maybe we need a national health package of some sort. But rather than create something sane they created something that did not really save harmless the People. I strongly suspect the framers were as concerned with protecting the flow of reelection money as anything else. Also, they left out some critical issues, probably due to political sensitivity. Let me repeat what I saw in the news (left leaning even) the American People never supported what was made public from the git-go. Nevertheless, the Democratic Party went down the path they elected to go down.

As for the Stimulus package: How much of it was driven by the concept of "pay back"? A lot of what came to light very quickly after passage sure looked that way.  Why hasn't it succeeded in creating more job, rather than just slowing down the number of jobs still being lost? Real long term impact may not have been properly considered.

The view that so long as I have enough money to push my message & my choice of people I can sway the People to vote the way I want, whatever else may be true. Eventually, their attitudes come to haunt them.

To repeat, 3rd parties and other movements have always come along & have a major impact when the 2 major parties forget who ultimately puts them in power.

This turned out to be longer than I expected when I started. There may be more to be said; nevertheless, I am stopping here. I have expressed my thoughts & opinions. Anyone who disagrees is free to do so. I do not  demand conformational.

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Football

Last night's Sunday Night Football game was a good game in terms of action and, thus, excitement. The Saints apparently were hungrier than the Steelers, thus their win. Reading between the lines of the Steelers writeup afterwards leads me to suspect the writer saw the outcome the same way. To NO congrats on the win.

On the other hand, I think the Steelers could have won the game except for their offense. The Steeler offense, to my eye, has for a very long time had trouble with scoring even in games they win. For example, late in the game I watched a Steeler receiver catch the ball, carry it for great yardage twisting & turning only to have an opposition player knock the ball loose leading to a Saints score. In short, the Steelers have turnover issues.
From what I could also gather, the NO Saints had more men on the line than the Steelers had been facing for some while. Thus, the Steelers were having trouble making long plays. Did the Steelers make the necessary adjustments? To some degree.
For the Steelers sake I hope they learn the right lessons from their last loss fast. Two losses should not be fatal to their march to the Play Off season. However, that could mean they are tied, at best, for first place in their division (I haven't looked at the current standings yet).

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Safety in Pro American Football

I have just finished listening to Coach Tomlin's comments. They are fair as well as a good position to take.

I am not a doctor of medicine and am only coming from a common base that anyone can have.

Regarding comparing different types of injuries, ranking or whatever is as much a matter of opinion as anything.

While all injuries heal if allowed to does not necessarily mean that problems will not develop later on because the injury occurred. Many injuries can lead to arthritis or other motion limiting results in the long run they do not effect the brain negatively.

I  think, nevertheless, that head butting should be minimized if not eliminated, if at all possible. What concussions seem to lead to, in the long run, is debilitating in the extreme. In this case the negative results effect the brain. An example is the boxer M.Ali. Therefore, I support the NFL's efforts to minimize concussions by making head butting illegal and placing heavy fines on those who do it.

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Web Browsers

I had one that I liked but when I acquired a new computer for some reason I did not go back to it until yesterday. In the meantime I had changed ISP. My situation now is I can't use the mail portion of the browser the way I want so I have dropped it.
I would have to go into my ISP settings & make modifications. I am not prepared to do that now.
Consequently, I have set up Google's browser for handling my gmail account. That way it is always available. Also, I have advised everyone of my latest change.
I also have to review additional folder options for retaining any emails I may wish to hold onto long term. I would like to be able to save some to "My Documents" for long term retention.
I guess I am now into Cloud Computing.
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Rescue

This morning my local time I watched the last rescue worker come up from the mine. All the people who worked behind the scenes should be proud of their part of this magnificent effort. Those who were at the scene should also be very proud of their work as it was critical for them do do their jobs correctly as well. As for the 6 men who went below to help the trapped miners, God bless them for their courage as well as for their doing their assigned task in a professional. manner.
It was great to learn that the Chilean president never lost hope but, rather, pushed to find out the miners status and pushed for the rescue. Chile did itself proud. I, for one, wish them all well.
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Firmware issues

For awhile now I have been having connectivity issues degrading operations. It all started when Internet service was temporarily lost. I had reset the modem without success. I confirmed that the problem was not with my computer by going to a wi-fi hot spot where Internet speed was extremely fast w/o any hang-ups. I do not have the expertise to explain it but I finally followed the suggestion to turn my router off and on after several seconds had passed. Result, I am back to 4G connectivity! It never hurts to "zeroize" firmware and software.

Am. Football - Week 1

I am not following all the games but those who wish to certainly may.
Nevertheless, I do follow 1 team and they won today. I had other things that needed to be done before I was comfortable with watching it. Once I finished with those those things I checked to see if the game was being shown locally on TV. As it turned out it was not. Mind you I do not live near where my team is based.
I take advantage of being able to follow the game on my computer taking advantage of the graphic approach. I came in somewhere in the 3rd quarter and the game was tied. Eventually my team took the lead by 3 points, score now 3-9. Then the opposition scored, evening up the score. The next thing I know we are in overtime (OT). My team lost the toss and had to kick. Opposition was unable to score and finally had to give up the ball. With the kick the ball flew to the 50 yard line where the player catching the ball was tackled. In the next play my team moved the ball on a run that ended in the end zone. Mind you, that was the first touchdown of the game. Of course, by the rules the game was over and the extra point was therefore not kicked.
It was an interesting game that was low scoring and probably exciting to watch at times. Just the same, some low scoring games can be boring. I suspect this one was not.
I plan to check out the high lights tomorrow on NFL.com.
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Hurricane Earl

Today the sky is cloudy. The temp is in the low to mid 70's. The humidity is or at least feels high. The hurricane called Earl is off North Carolina. Projections indicate that where I am will not be very adversely effected. I am thankful for that. I am pleased that so much of the East coast will not be badly dealt with by it. However, I pray that the area north of me finds that the storm hitting them is, at most, a cat 1. We wish them well. By the way, I've already taken dog for his daily walk.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali

I have found her writing to be provocative in a positive way. She gives her thinking in a clear & concise way. She is worth any one's time to read & think about.
Remember, she grew up in the Islamic culture. She has also experienced the non-Islamic world. She is classically educated. She knows of what she speaks firsthand.
I wish her the very best.

The Tax Picture

I just finished viewing a video discussing what the probable tax pictue will be as of the end of 2010 & the beginning of 2011. They see taxes going up. They see changes in other areas due to impact of unfunded mandates, etc. I suggest logging onto Merrill Lynch web site & watch the video.
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Reading Material - Mystery

Good day all. I have been reading stories by "foreign" authors; an Icelander and a Swede. The obvious: they are not foreigners in their respective countries.

First I read Jar City by Arnaldur Indridason. I enjoyed it. It had some complexity to it that built tension. I would recommend it. By the way, there is a possibility that the translator, Mr. Scudder, is a distant relative. I've only read this one.

I am now most of the way through my second book by Henning Mankell. He is more complex creating more tension. He reminds me of the American woman who writes her stories set in England: Elizabeth George. By the way, I saw his One Step Behind  (this is the one I am most of the way through) in movie form on American PBS Masterpiece: Mystery as well as some others.

It has been good and fun to read, for me, someone new. I am a little better acquainted with the respective country's geography and how the respective police forces may work. It is interesting to deal with names, how to pronounce for example. I am hardly close to being an expert by a long stretch. Nevertheless, I am finding them enjoyable.

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Some Food For Thought

Should we ignore medical knowledge & take a stand based on views held many (thousands) of years ago down to the present? What does the ongoing analysis of DNA tell us about different conditions? Should we ignore this information? There are examples of the clash between science & religion in the past. In the long run it has been science that has come out on top.

It is my view that God created everything. God started with the Big Bang. All the possibilities were wrapped up in the initial moment. Our sun, a yellow dwarf, is not a fist generation star. For all that is known about the universe we, in fact, have barely scratched the surface.

It is interesting to follow archeology, especially human evolution. God's "hand" may be directing but I doubt God has "spelled out" any of it to anyone.

I consider it dangerous to take stories in the Bible & say "this is the word of God." Why? The first several chapters of Genesis are based on Babylonian and other non-Hebraic creation stories that go back more than 4000 years! All of Genesis and some of Exodus are based on oral tradition finally being put on the then current material made to be written on. Many of the later books are historical.

We of the English speaking world depend on English translations of the ancient Hebrew, Greek and Aramaic original. Oh, yes, that's right: those "originals" are copies of copies of... Nevertheless, I suspect there was not that much lost once written. On the other hand, I am certain that the folkways and mores, cultural and social norms of the day were reinforced. Additionally, just how well does the translation reflect the original human author's thoughts, ideas and understanding. This is not to deny the effort to come up with better, more accurate, translations.

I'll stop there for now.

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Baby Makes 3

This weekend, starting Thursday evening, we had our granddaughter. In many ways this was a typical weekend with her. She has a sunny disposition.

What was different was we were going to see the musical Alice In Wonderland. Now, this was not a Broadway production. In fact, it was put on by the students of a certain school, Phil-Mont Christian Academy. This was part of summer camp @ the school. Everyone who signed up for it was in. One of my grandchildren has finished 3rd grade and the other 6th grade and they were both in. Also, there were older students as well. It was clear they all enjoyed themselves & the audience did too.

She was great from when we bathed her to almost the end of the production, 6:30 PM. This includes an hour at the school. Once she became restless though, I took her out so she would not disrupt the program. She settled down fairly quickly and we went back in but it was done. Overall, she did great there.

Next we went to a restaurant to eat as we & everyone else had not eaten. As it turned out, for whatever reason, she had to be in grand mom's lap the whole time, no one else would do. Nevertheless, that experience worked out OK too.

Both her cousins enjoyed seeing her and taking an interest in her. Everyone enjoyed themselves. We didn't get home too late. So we were able to get a good night's sleep.

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Human History

My latest issue of Scientific American came in the other day. One of the articles ("When the Sea Saved Humanity") deals with how close H. Sapiens almost went extinct. This article was very interesting as it discussed climate change & the struggle to survive the changes. Note that from a certain point on in our very early period of existence for a very long time Africa went from lush landscape to desert & back proved challenging.

There is also an article "Our Neanderthal Brethren" that discusses genome sequencing & what is coming out from that. The author's point is that H. Neanderthalgensis & H. Sapien both share the same parent &, therefore, are brothers. Reviewing NOVA's 3-part series, "How We Became Human", I found the common ancestor to be H. Heidelburgensis.

The NOVA series recapped as well as made some points clear (for me). The air dates were in late 2009. This series + related information can be found on http://www.pbs.org/.

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Various

Within the past 30 days a missionary that I help support through my church's Mission committee went through a horrendous experience. He works in Haiti. While some of his helpers & he were loading a van to take supplies to another location some men pulled a gun to rob them. He was shot in the leg, rushed to a Doctors w/o Borders site where he received good treatment and eventually flew to the States. He has recovered & will be returning in a few days to continue his service. He is a man of courage and conviction. God be with him and his team.

This post is titled "Various" so I may as well comment on something else. This is a change of subject.

I believe the political process that is in practice now to be distructive. It seems to me that most of our "leaders" are polititions vice states-people (as in "statesmen"). While I have not changed party registration I am tempted. The Libertarian party looks better to me, for example.

I recommend reading a play script written some years ago by Robert Bolt: A Man For All Seasons. yes, he also converted it into a movie script of the same name. It is well worth watching in my opinion.

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