Really like this one.

“Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.”
-Mark Twain

I think my parents secretly used this as their maxim for raising me.

Damn the pressures!

I’m so torn on the ever-developing Marion Jones saga.  She used to be one of my favorite athletes (along with Justin Gatlin) and now I just don’t know what to think.  It’s funny, a part of me feels betrayed, like a little kid finding out one of the many white lies we’re told as children, and another part of me feels sympathy for their situation.  As an athlete I recognize the pressure these people are under to perform, to constantly be moving forward and showing results.  It’s sort of like the stock market in those terms, often finicky traders will look less at the quality of a company as a whole and more only at the bottom line, so it’s all about producing results, and producing them now.

But that certainly doesn’t excuse them - many amazing athletes before them have created history (Michael Johnson, Carl Lewis) without doping.

It will be interesting to see what happens with Marion Jones, more importantly it will be interesting to watch the olympics this year as history is again created.

Ever hear of Usain Bolt?  If you haven’t, you will this summer.

Check this out (Dad this is a mandatory click for you)

Say Thank You.

This of course is generally relevant to everything, but I’m referring to work environments in particular.

When in doubt, always say thank you.  Today I had a brief instant where somebody did something for me just in the flow of the workday, and I almost wrote it off to “part of the job” - and then I had a flashback to working for somebody who said “thank you” about once every two years and everything else was “expected”.   I immediately stopped, went back to the person and said thanks - it’s a little thing, but if you’ve ever spent time working for somebody that never said it, it’s one of those work-morale things that goes a looooong way.

Thanks for reading.

Carlin rolling about.

Sitting here at work listening to NPR, and they just referenced the California wild fires using the term “Fire Event”.

Anybody who listened to George Carlin knows that he’s rolling in his grave.  Or he’s laughing.  Or he’s saying “no shit, you thought I was kidding?”.

Know what drives me crazy?

First of all, let it be known that one of my favorite things is “discussing”.  Discussion in general makes me happy.  Also, something I really respect about some people is when they opt-out of a discussion topic because they lack information on the topic, instead of choosing blind ignorance.

So, what drives me crazy?  It drives me crazy when somebody not only doesn’t know anything about the topic they are discussing, but then adimantely defends their point - and then they even try arguments that are COMPLETELY UNRELATED to the topic at hand, but they wouldn’t know that because they know nothing about the topic anyway.

Let me give you an extreme example, for the sake of demonstration.

me: “Having a 4GB install for After Effects is bloated and unecessary”

them: “I disagree, because the Yankees are really good”

me: “Um.. I’m not sure the two are related…”

them: “Well clearly they are, because doesn’t A-Rod choose release candidates for AE?”

me: “You know what, nevermind.”

Losing a generation of greats

Culture is awaiting re-definition.

George Carlin, Luciano Pavarotti, Tim Russert, Chuck Jones, Bo Diddley, Yves Saint Laurent, Sydney Pollack, Charlton Heston, and more.

Who is next to define our entertainment, the arts, journalism, and politics?

I can tell you one thing, something needs to change, because right now it’s defined by “omg brittany’s kids aren’t wearing seatbelts”, Big Macs, and American Gladiators.

Here’s to waiting for a prodigy.

Knives and Playgrounds

Tuesday night we were training on the fields at Webster Middle School.  Halfway through practice I look down, and what do I see?  That’s right, a 4 inch buck knife. (which looks like this for those that didn’t grow up in the woods).

Why was this on the field at a middle school?  Umm… no idea.  But one thing I am sure of, is that it didn’t belong there.  It didn’t have blood all over it so I assumed it hadn’t been carelessly used in a murder lately, so after some though of what to do with it, I brought it home and threw it in my garbage.  (Would have kept it but it was rusted).

Which poses the question, what do you do when you find a weapon?  My initial reaction was to find a security guard at the school (most schools in LA have security) and give it to them, which was probably the best bet, that way they could report it to the principal as well.  But I couldn’t find anybody.  So then I thought to just throw it in a dumpster, but last thing I need is a homeless guy murdering somebody with a knife that has my prints on it.  Then I thought to put it in a public mailbox, because the USPS probably has better protocol for that sort of thing than I do.  But then I thought that didn’t sound quite right either.

And I’m definitely not giving it to a cop in LA, in case you haven’t been paying attention, cops in LA aren’t the best decision makers in the world.  Sounds like a great way to end up getting tasered and put in jail, and I’m not joking at all.

What would you do?

Mr. Rogers, one of the best ever

This is amazing. Tonight was the first time I have ever seen this video, and it brought tears to my eyes. In 1969, the Nixon administration (and congress) planned on slashing federal funding of PBS.

Fred Rogers appeared before the United States Senate Subcommittee on Communications to try to sway them from cutting the funding, which would have likely had dire consequences on his show. At this time his show was relatively small-time compared to what it would become, and way before “Mr. Rogers” became a household name.

This video is 7 minutes long, and Fred Rogers with true sincerity and compassion tells Senator Pastore what PBS is all about, and Pastore, who is ice-cold at the beginning of the video, is almost reduced to tears by the end and awards $20 million in funding to save PBS. A must watch if you have the time… or even if you don’t.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXEuEUQIP3Q

I think that true compassion like Fred Rogers had is very hard to find now-a-days. Budgets for education are cut so slim that many wonderful teachers being lost every day, billions and billions of dollars are being shuffled around to be spent policing the world, while education and children at home suffer the consequences of US Tax dollars being spent abroad.

President Bush would like to cut all federal funding for PBS by 2011 (source). Don’t let it happen.

What would Mr. Rogers do?

Too Many Cooks in the Kitchen, revised

The “too many cooks in the kitchen” phenomena is perhaps the most frustrating thing for me in work life as a freelancer. Though perhaps it could be re-written “too many people with chef hats, not enough people that know how to cook”.

I’ve posted about this over at themographblog, but it’s a never-ending saga of (as my favorite Hillary Clinton quote puts it) too many people that are “All Hat, No Cattle”.

Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness

So right now there is a commercial that plays on conservative radio here in LA (yes, I listen to conservative radio on my way to work… gotta hear all perspectives, even if they are dreadfully nauseating) and in this commercial it has “testimonials” from people about a certain proposition that will be on an upcoming ballot.

One of the actors says, “The Constitution says we are entitled to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. What ever happened to that?”

Eh hem. Pardon me, hate to be a bother with the whole “facts” thing again, I know how much neo-cons hate those darn facts. I, of course, fully support the phrase… but “Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness” is in the Declaration of Independence, not the Constitution.

Go back to bed America, we will now return you to your regularly scheduled disinformation.

Declaration of Independence:
http://www.ushistory.org/Declaration/document/index.htm

Constitution:
http://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/index.html