Three Days?

source: Wikipedia

Today (Saturday) is the last day of the NFL draft. Round 1 was Thursday night, Rounds 2 and 3 were Friday night and rounds 4 through 7 are today. Teams are allowed an extraordinary amount of time to make a selection in Round 1, hence Round 1 gets it's own night. The draft is extended over three days to generate maximum exposure and control of the (sports?) news cycle.

Three days for multi-millionaires to decide which genetic mutants are going to be multi-millionaires and which other genetic mutants are going to have to use their college degree to find a job. But the President (or Governor or Mayor) better finish their speech by kickoff.

The whole world is laughing.

Training camp starts in under 90 days.

Old Business Revisited.

Are You Ready?

I posted in September about the national embarrassment of a local Green Bay affiliate not covering President Obama's speech to a joint session of Congress in lieu of the pregame coverage of the opening game of the NFL season. In order to avoid the same "schedule conflict" the NFL and the Democratic National Committee have put their heads together (I fear without the resounding loud crack that would have been so satisfying). The NFL will begin the 2012 championship season on Wednesday, September 5, 2012 to avoid President Obama's to the Democratic National Convention on Thursday, September 6, 2012. The fact that this shift is even news is troubling. Still a small victory is a victory nonetheless.

No 'Bots About It.

I posted in mid-February about the plethora of pornbots on Twitter and Tabitha Fung's campaign to get pornbots banned from Twitter. The pornbots have adapted. The latest generation have an account with tweets containing an innocuous quote, but the link in the description is always porn. If you haven't signed the petition yet, please lend your support.

Stretching My Legs.

I posted in January about my commitment to Illinois Governor Pat Quinn's "Walk Across Illinois" program. It became apparent immediately that my normal day to day walking would complete this challenge by August. Not only isn't that much of a challenge, it doesn't really do anything additional for my good health. As so often happens, life circumstances provide an answer.

We found out from Little Suzy's pediatrician that Little Suzy's weight was out of ratio with her height, enough to require action. So now, when Suzy comes home from  school we go for a walk, weather and schedule permitting. Suzy has even joined the"Walk Across Illinois" challenge with me. So far, we've walked 5 miles together, leaving 162 miles to complete the challenge. That's not a lot of miles walked, but it's still winter in the Midwest.

Thank You.

Thanks for spending to take some time to read my little blog. Let me know what you think and have a great weekend.

Football, Jobs and The President

I am ashamed of our country. Not only did we spend 8 years as the laughingstock of the free world (previous president) we continue to soil ourselves in public. Worst of all, no one seems to notice or care.

Who Needs Jobs? We Have Football.

With nationwide unemployment listed at 9.1% but an effective unemployment rate much higher President Obama spoke to a joint session of Congress last night about jobs. The President actually wanted to speak Wednesday night, but House Speaker John Boehner wouldn't schedule a joint session of Congress due to a conflict with the GOP Presidential Candidate Debate. Normally a speech to a joint session of Congress is during prime time. Unfortunately, Thursday September 8, 2011 was also the 1st game of the NFL season and prime time was reserved for Monday Night (Sunday Night?) Football on Thursday Night. Thursday Night Football doesn't begin until midway through the season, but I digress. To avoid a conflict with the football game, President Obama's speech began at 7 PM EDT. The NBC affiliates in Green Bay and Milwaukee chose to air a pregame show instead of the President's speech. My head hurts.

Souce: Wikipedia

Hail To The Chief. Yah, Right.

Although the elected President of the United States belongs to a political party, the office of the President of the United States has no political affiliation. The office of the President represents many things but for the sake of this post two items are of critical importance:

• Elected Leadership. When the founding fathers set guidelines for leadership of the USA, the founding fathers established free elections as opposed to establishing a monarchy. Our leadership from president of the country to mayor of the smallest town is decided by a vote, not through bloodlines.  Not only is our country based on free elections, but we espouse to the rest of the world that all other countries should follow our lead and in establishing, promoting and protecting free elections.
• Peaceful Transfer of Office. No matter how divided our country has been at various points in our history, elected offices have been transferred without violence on the dates prescribed by the written laws established for each locale. In short, the results of free elections determine who takes charge, not stockpiles of weapons or military takeover. Again, the peaceful transfer of power is a tenet we want other countries to adopt as the only method to transfer leadership.

How seriously can other countries take the USA if we preempt our President's speech to our elected representatives in favor of a show about a sporting event before the sporting event occurs?

What To Do?

This total ignorance of our countries' values didn't happen overnight and is endemic of a highly politicized government and extremely polarized populace. In my world, NBC would have told the affiliates in Milwaukee and Green Bay to show the speech in real time. There should have been long and loud criticism about choosing pregame over the speech, but what do I know? I do know that the lack of civility and priorities that lead to the choice of pregame instead of President needs to be changed. None of us can count on those in Washington to create that change. So what do we do? What can the average person do to bring us back to a country that both respects and is respected?

ROL: Context Matters.

ROL (Return on Life) is a self designated qualitative measure based on the quantitative metric, ROI (Return on Investment). ROI is maximized when small investments provide whopping returns. ROL is maximized when small incremental lifestyle changes provide exceptional enhancement in one's QOL (Quality of Life). This week's ROL is about delaying final evaluation until actions are reviewed in context.

Source: morgueFile.com

Are You Ready?

Tonight starts the NFL 2011 Championship Season. Despite the fact that pro football adds no value to society I am a huge fan. I love the game.  Not so much the talking heads. Even less the useless statistics the talking heads spew whenever there is 2 seconds of stillness. For example:

• The (beloved) Bears are 46-3 the last decade when they have 40 or more rushing (running) attempts per game. The inference is when the Bears run, they win. In context please understand that in the 2010 season the most yards gained per pass attempt average (San Diego) was 8.7. The most yards gained per run attempt (Philadelphia) was 5.4. Additionally running plays take longer than passing plays. In short, teams pass when they are behind and run to protect a lead. You don't win because you run, you run more when you are winning.
• Time of possession early in games. This Sunday the (beloved) Bears are playing Atlanta. Atlanta starts with 12 plays and kicks a field goal to end their1st drive. The Bears run 3 plays and punt back to Atlanta. Atlanta has 14 plays, misses a field goal and the 1st quarter ends Atlanta up 3-0. Immediately a statistic pops up showing Atlanta has a 12:00 minute advantage in time of possession. All true, but Atlanta leads by a mere 3 and the Bears have only had the ball once. Given context the stat is meaningless.

I Will Never Be Ready For This.
I will follow up the above constructed, albeit true to NFL examples with a real life example. If you don't notice the thick line in the middle of my progressive bifocals you wouldn't know I have poor depth perception and poor peripheral vision. Unless I told you, you wouldn't know I am under treatment for anxiety. These two facts converge when I have to back my car 100 feet in an alley with two feet of clearance on each side. I sweat profusely. I will do anything to avoid backing my car more than 5 feet. As a casual observer you might think I'm chicken or maybe even chickens*#t. In context, my reticence to put the car in reverse make sense.

Hold Your Horses, Bucko!

Next time you see something that doesn't compute hold on a second before uttering the last word of "What the ?" See if you are able to see the situation in context. Maybe even consider exchanging "What the ?" for "Can I Help?"

Do you have other examples of context lending perspective? Or do you see things in a more "black and white" manner?