No covers here.
The singer songwriting Brit has a great rhythmic sound. If I were to describe her latest album in wine tasting terms.. substituting singers for aroma characteristics, I would say that she has some Cher, with tinges of Janis Joplin and overtones of Norah Jones. Its a strong album and the songs are largely self written. There is some angst reflected in the production but there is also triumph in light of tough situations too.
Is the world ready for that? I hope so. The latest album out in middle February has much more structure is produced with a stronger support group then her first album, Adele 19.
Its a great listen overall and worthy of an E-music download.
: ) Pat
A written expression of a 65year old plus retired Speech and Language Specialist in the Central Valley of California.
Monday, February 28, 2011
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Starbucks on a Sunday
My Starbucks is the meeting place for many on a Sunday Afternoon.
Pete checked in. He is a recent retiree like me. His greatest hobby is geo caching and camping. He recently upgraded from his tent camper to a firm sided 16 footer. He was up geo caching (finding small treasures hidden in places guided by gps numbers) and fell and cracked a vertebrae. He has been slowed down for 6 weeks but today was on a mission to pick up good coffee for his wife. He was happy to hear of our cruise and look at the photos that I have up on flickr as seen by my iphone.
Nancy and her husband Ray were back from their week long break in Pismo. Ray showed me some photos of his lobster feed on the beach that he hosted for the family. Nancy the non seafood eater was careful to point out the fillet that she had cooking on the grill. I shared PV photos again and we talked some cooking.
Overall a great time at the Starbucks. :) Pat
Pete checked in. He is a recent retiree like me. His greatest hobby is geo caching and camping. He recently upgraded from his tent camper to a firm sided 16 footer. He was up geo caching (finding small treasures hidden in places guided by gps numbers) and fell and cracked a vertebrae. He has been slowed down for 6 weeks but today was on a mission to pick up good coffee for his wife. He was happy to hear of our cruise and look at the photos that I have up on flickr as seen by my iphone.
Nancy and her husband Ray were back from their week long break in Pismo. Ray showed me some photos of his lobster feed on the beach that he hosted for the family. Nancy the non seafood eater was careful to point out the fillet that she had cooking on the grill. I shared PV photos again and we talked some cooking.
Overall a great time at the Starbucks. :) Pat
Friday, February 25, 2011
Its Raining its Pouring
Quite a contrast to the sunny skies and warm wind in Puerto Vallarta or Mazatalan. But here we are in Northern California experiencing what we call winter.
I can only imagine our first winter in California. Dad had a new job in South San Francisco. It was the industrial city, quite different than the industrial office city that it is now. It had a major Steel mill operation that made large culverts to take water and rivers under roads and highways. It still had the slaughter houses where the West Coast rail head ended for the hogs of Armour and Hormel. Our nation's business was done by rail freight then.
It was a very wet winter. We lived in a flea bit cement floored house up against the mountain that hold the signature letters of South San Francisco. Mom got pneumonia that first year and had to be hospitalized. The rain came down. A car lost control across the street from us and careened into a barbed wire fence and then into the power pole. The line came crashing down upon the street and power was lost to the residence up and down the street.
I attended kindergarten at Marten school, at the foot of the hill. The district was not ready for our "boomer" generation and we were significantly under housed. I attended "split" sessions of school until I was in the third grade. All grades in that era were split into two halves of a school day. There were no standards that needed to be met in those days. Consequentially I didn't learn to read or write until much later than my younger sisters.. or so the story goes.
That first year it rained and rained. The storm drains filled up. Dad had some chest waders from fishing exploits. He donned them with great admonishments from mom who was always afraid of water and set about clearing the garbage and barriers that clogged the surface street and would not allow the water to get into the drains. At times he was up above his thighs pulling out tree limbs that formed a matrix barrier to the free flow of water. It looked like great fun.
I has content with splashing through the puddles with big rubber rain boots and singing the chant that goes with rain and kids.
Its raining
Its pouring
the old man is snoring
went to bed and bumped his head and
couldn't get up in the morning!
Rain is liquid gold in California.. when it pours it really pours.
:) Pat
I can only imagine our first winter in California. Dad had a new job in South San Francisco. It was the industrial city, quite different than the industrial office city that it is now. It had a major Steel mill operation that made large culverts to take water and rivers under roads and highways. It still had the slaughter houses where the West Coast rail head ended for the hogs of Armour and Hormel. Our nation's business was done by rail freight then.
It was a very wet winter. We lived in a flea bit cement floored house up against the mountain that hold the signature letters of South San Francisco. Mom got pneumonia that first year and had to be hospitalized. The rain came down. A car lost control across the street from us and careened into a barbed wire fence and then into the power pole. The line came crashing down upon the street and power was lost to the residence up and down the street.
I attended kindergarten at Marten school, at the foot of the hill. The district was not ready for our "boomer" generation and we were significantly under housed. I attended "split" sessions of school until I was in the third grade. All grades in that era were split into two halves of a school day. There were no standards that needed to be met in those days. Consequentially I didn't learn to read or write until much later than my younger sisters.. or so the story goes.
That first year it rained and rained. The storm drains filled up. Dad had some chest waders from fishing exploits. He donned them with great admonishments from mom who was always afraid of water and set about clearing the garbage and barriers that clogged the surface street and would not allow the water to get into the drains. At times he was up above his thighs pulling out tree limbs that formed a matrix barrier to the free flow of water. It looked like great fun.
I has content with splashing through the puddles with big rubber rain boots and singing the chant that goes with rain and kids.
Its raining
Its pouring
the old man is snoring
went to bed and bumped his head and
couldn't get up in the morning!
Rain is liquid gold in California.. when it pours it really pours.
:) Pat
Thursday, February 24, 2011
Giving Up on a Camera.. Sort of
Last summer I bought the latest in Canon elph series the very compact Canon SD780is. Its a great little package. Its was even smaller than the last elph I had. Great features, it was always there, just a very nice "pocket camera" with all the great features. 12.1 mega pixels, HD movies, face detection,shake resistant, reasonable tele.AND IT MAPS AT 180DPI! It booked out to be $185 at Costco.
It was ready for our cruise to Alaska. It has been good as a camera source for my current passion, watercolor. It was also great for this last cruise in February. The trip with the kids to Mexico from LA. But despite my thinking that elphs were pretty indestructible..... they are not.. especially in my hands. Ask Heather, she got my last one that was in great shape except it started to exfoliate..it continued to flake all the way to the Ecuador.
This latest Elph died, well precisely, the screen died on the last day of our Mexican cruise. It was set up with all kinds of great cool additions. It even sported a 16 gb SD card. Can you imagine how many photos you can take at even 2mg per? Precisely 5000. Oh my. 2 hours of HD movies. yada yada yada.
So what to do, I really need a camera to do the everyday shots.. and all of the other stuff that goes with the expressive personality.
During this time of year.. February.. post valentines day.. there are not piles of digital cameras in the stores. I think that they are waiting in anticipation for the next change. It could happen any-day.. probably CMOS processors for the masses? There are just not any good cameras out there at Costco.. or Walmart for that matter and I am sure that I could find one that would do at Best Buy.. but there I would be stuck with the last greatest idea when the new ones hit the market in April or May, ready for the summer vacations.
So what to do. When in a quandary.. you go on line. In the world of Ebay I noticed that some folks were selling their cameras that did not work with and interesting description piece. Apparently Canon has a loyalty discount. If you have a Canon out of date and not working, Canon will give you a significant discount on a refurbished model of their cameras. What you need for a "loyalty discount" is an old one that has some serial numbers on it and a willingness to send it in. This is particularly big with the SLR photographers who have foiled and spoiled their camera and are ready to trade up to a fancier model. This is where the people with broken down models have a market for their POS cameras. I was ready to do this myself but discovered that my camera's numbers are nearly all worn off. Clearly I have gotten my money's worth out this little gem.
I found a refurb red one that I bought on ebay for 119. I have extra batteries and SD chips so this one makes since while I wait for the next new advances in Elph technology... predictably within the next month or two.
Life is tough when you are on the bleeding edge! ;) Pat
It was ready for our cruise to Alaska. It has been good as a camera source for my current passion, watercolor. It was also great for this last cruise in February. The trip with the kids to Mexico from LA. But despite my thinking that elphs were pretty indestructible..... they are not.. especially in my hands. Ask Heather, she got my last one that was in great shape except it started to exfoliate..it continued to flake all the way to the Ecuador.
This latest Elph died, well precisely, the screen died on the last day of our Mexican cruise. It was set up with all kinds of great cool additions. It even sported a 16 gb SD card. Can you imagine how many photos you can take at even 2mg per? Precisely 5000. Oh my. 2 hours of HD movies. yada yada yada.
So what to do, I really need a camera to do the everyday shots.. and all of the other stuff that goes with the expressive personality.
During this time of year.. February.. post valentines day.. there are not piles of digital cameras in the stores. I think that they are waiting in anticipation for the next change. It could happen any-day.. probably CMOS processors for the masses? There are just not any good cameras out there at Costco.. or Walmart for that matter and I am sure that I could find one that would do at Best Buy.. but there I would be stuck with the last greatest idea when the new ones hit the market in April or May, ready for the summer vacations.
So what to do. When in a quandary.. you go on line. In the world of Ebay I noticed that some folks were selling their cameras that did not work with and interesting description piece. Apparently Canon has a loyalty discount. If you have a Canon out of date and not working, Canon will give you a significant discount on a refurbished model of their cameras. What you need for a "loyalty discount" is an old one that has some serial numbers on it and a willingness to send it in. This is particularly big with the SLR photographers who have foiled and spoiled their camera and are ready to trade up to a fancier model. This is where the people with broken down models have a market for their POS cameras. I was ready to do this myself but discovered that my camera's numbers are nearly all worn off. Clearly I have gotten my money's worth out this little gem.
I found a refurb red one that I bought on ebay for 119. I have extra batteries and SD chips so this one makes since while I wait for the next new advances in Elph technology... predictably within the next month or two.
Life is tough when you are on the bleeding edge! ;) Pat
Monday, February 21, 2011
Observations on a 7 day Mexico Cruise
1. Got a great deal on an arrival hotel in Long Beach downtown Holiday Inn rather than on of the breach.
2. Great pick up of the two jet blue passengers in and out of Long Beach airport from the bay area Micheal and Heather.
3. Easy on to NCL's Star ship in San Pedro, LA's cruise ship docking area. Temp in LA was low 70's beautiful.
4. Plugged in the two for one martini hour before dinner each night.
5. Food was really pretty good in the main dinning room. No lobster, but Beef Wellington, and Prime Rib. Highlight of my lunch picks was Chicken Melansa, a chicken fried Chicken cutlet. It was always available with Spring Rolls from Viet Nam with chili lime sauce. Service was great. We had a server a couple of times that had been with NCL for over 30 years. He was happy to show off his watch and ring that signified that.
6. No afternoon tea on this ship.
7. Left my Cpap machine on shore in the overnight bag by mistake. Won't do that again. Lack of sleep was not fun for Sue or me. We survived.
8. Lack of programing on the ship due to taking over since the last cruise of public areas such as a movie theater, a card playing room and other meeting places. Replaced by more lux cabins and suites.
9. About 40 preschool age kids on ship. Looked like they were having fun they had their own parts of the ship. Not many school aged kids on ship.
10. At least 3 families from Merced on the ship. One man stopped me in the buffet and asked if I was from Merced. He mentioned that he had seen me walking through his neighborhood daily.
11. Met a nice couple from Idaho, Idaho Falls. Retired from running a produce trucking business from the Central Valley to Montana and Idaho.
12. Had 3 great wine tasting sessions and got to taste wines from areas that I wouldn't normally try.
13. Entertainment by Kerry Stokes, a Vegas style hypnotist that also sold an improvement CD step for self hypnosis. We bought it.
14. Had two great specialty dinners. We treated everyone to the French Bistro. It was a 20 dollar surcharge. I thought it was worth it. Wonderful food. I had the french equivalent to Italian cipino, Bouillabaisse. I also had a delicate lobster/shrimp cream sauced rolled in a footlong puff pastry. Yum. Linzi had the standing lamb chops, Sue had shrimp risotto, and Michael and Heather split a 32 oz boned rack of beef, very tender. The sides were great too.
The second specialty meal was hosted by the kids. It was at the Italian restaurant. The cappacio was paper thin. Great antipasto and a super meal too.
15. Some of us found the ice cream center, where they dipped four kinds of ice cream all afternoon. The desert buffet had a soft serve that dispensed choc and vanilla throughout the lunch and dinner venues.
16.Sue moved out of her "safe" element. She usually is up for shopping only at the portside stores. This time she wanted to see some more of Maztalan. He hired a taxi that threw her wheelchair in the open area area of a chopped VW dune buggy kind of vehicle and were taken to the gold zone for 10 dollars each way. He dropped us off at a gallery where we found some really cool things to buy. We brought back a nice margarita glass set. A few doors away was place selling dresses. Sue got a nice gauze blouse and a gauze dress, both of which had embroidery. Our last call as a place selling serving dishes. I bought a three of which one got broken on the way back to the ship.
17. The next day was Puerto Vallarta. It is a growing bigger every day with more time share structures and tourist facilities. It still has one of the nicest malecons (ocean walks. We bargined for a great price to get all of us to the river walk flea market. We were let off at the swinging bridge. We all nogotiated the swing and headed down the walk.
Its a beautiful walk along the river. We stopped at a very upscale indoor/outdoor cafe and had a round or two of margaritas and a couple of steaks and shrimp from their barbie. We will remember this as gentle mariachi players with harps and guitars strolled the restaurant playing to customers. It was the first time that Sue had been on the walk. She thought it was great. She would love to do it again.
18. Linzi negotiated her parents return on a 8 dollar taxi that took us back to the ship while the kids stayed in town a little longer.
19. We all made it back on the ship and we were headed home. 3 nights and two days later we were make in LA where the weather had changed and the clouds and arrived with the colder weather.
20. We dropped Heather and Micheal off at Long Beach where they picked up a rental car and toured the fabulous Getty museum. Linzi piloted us home over the storm swept grapvine up the 99 and made dinner for us that night.
21 Sue and I are so fortunate to have such sweet daughters that are such a joy to travel. Mexico in February is delightful. the lows were in the upper 60's with highs in the low 80's. Couldn't ask for a better place to be in the winter.
2. Great pick up of the two jet blue passengers in and out of Long Beach airport from the bay area Micheal and Heather.
3. Easy on to NCL's Star ship in San Pedro, LA's cruise ship docking area. Temp in LA was low 70's beautiful.
4. Plugged in the two for one martini hour before dinner each night.
5. Food was really pretty good in the main dinning room. No lobster, but Beef Wellington, and Prime Rib. Highlight of my lunch picks was Chicken Melansa, a chicken fried Chicken cutlet. It was always available with Spring Rolls from Viet Nam with chili lime sauce. Service was great. We had a server a couple of times that had been with NCL for over 30 years. He was happy to show off his watch and ring that signified that.
6. No afternoon tea on this ship.
7. Left my Cpap machine on shore in the overnight bag by mistake. Won't do that again. Lack of sleep was not fun for Sue or me. We survived.
8. Lack of programing on the ship due to taking over since the last cruise of public areas such as a movie theater, a card playing room and other meeting places. Replaced by more lux cabins and suites.
9. About 40 preschool age kids on ship. Looked like they were having fun they had their own parts of the ship. Not many school aged kids on ship.
10. At least 3 families from Merced on the ship. One man stopped me in the buffet and asked if I was from Merced. He mentioned that he had seen me walking through his neighborhood daily.
11. Met a nice couple from Idaho, Idaho Falls. Retired from running a produce trucking business from the Central Valley to Montana and Idaho.
12. Had 3 great wine tasting sessions and got to taste wines from areas that I wouldn't normally try.
13. Entertainment by Kerry Stokes, a Vegas style hypnotist that also sold an improvement CD step for self hypnosis. We bought it.
14. Had two great specialty dinners. We treated everyone to the French Bistro. It was a 20 dollar surcharge. I thought it was worth it. Wonderful food. I had the french equivalent to Italian cipino, Bouillabaisse. I also had a delicate lobster/shrimp cream sauced rolled in a footlong puff pastry. Yum. Linzi had the standing lamb chops, Sue had shrimp risotto, and Michael and Heather split a 32 oz boned rack of beef, very tender. The sides were great too.
The second specialty meal was hosted by the kids. It was at the Italian restaurant. The cappacio was paper thin. Great antipasto and a super meal too.
15. Some of us found the ice cream center, where they dipped four kinds of ice cream all afternoon. The desert buffet had a soft serve that dispensed choc and vanilla throughout the lunch and dinner venues.
16.Sue moved out of her "safe" element. She usually is up for shopping only at the portside stores. This time she wanted to see some more of Maztalan. He hired a taxi that threw her wheelchair in the open area area of a chopped VW dune buggy kind of vehicle and were taken to the gold zone for 10 dollars each way. He dropped us off at a gallery where we found some really cool things to buy. We brought back a nice margarita glass set. A few doors away was place selling dresses. Sue got a nice gauze blouse and a gauze dress, both of which had embroidery. Our last call as a place selling serving dishes. I bought a three of which one got broken on the way back to the ship.
17. The next day was Puerto Vallarta. It is a growing bigger every day with more time share structures and tourist facilities. It still has one of the nicest malecons (ocean walks. We bargined for a great price to get all of us to the river walk flea market. We were let off at the swinging bridge. We all nogotiated the swing and headed down the walk.
Its a beautiful walk along the river. We stopped at a very upscale indoor/outdoor cafe and had a round or two of margaritas and a couple of steaks and shrimp from their barbie. We will remember this as gentle mariachi players with harps and guitars strolled the restaurant playing to customers. It was the first time that Sue had been on the walk. She thought it was great. She would love to do it again.
18. Linzi negotiated her parents return on a 8 dollar taxi that took us back to the ship while the kids stayed in town a little longer.
19. We all made it back on the ship and we were headed home. 3 nights and two days later we were make in LA where the weather had changed and the clouds and arrived with the colder weather.
20. We dropped Heather and Micheal off at Long Beach where they picked up a rental car and toured the fabulous Getty museum. Linzi piloted us home over the storm swept grapvine up the 99 and made dinner for us that night.
21 Sue and I are so fortunate to have such sweet daughters that are such a joy to travel. Mexico in February is delightful. the lows were in the upper 60's with highs in the low 80's. Couldn't ask for a better place to be in the winter.
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
The End of the West Coast Offense
Its was Bill Walsh of the San Francisco 49ers that became connected with the offense in the NFL called the West Coast offense. It was a gigantic departure in concept from the traditional offenses that used short yardage running plays to grind down the field and an occasional pass that went for many yards in a single down. The West Coast offense used short passes to move the ball consistently 5 to 8 yards down the field usually to an outside receiver or a running back out of the backfield.
The current scheme is decidedly different. Most passing plays are consistently looking at a 20 to 35 yard pass with the receiver starting straight down the middle of the field and slightly curving more toward the middle just before the pass arrives. This is sometimes called a skinny post. The philosophy is no longer a Joe Montana or a Steve Young short pass but passes longer and more convoluted toward the center of the field.
There are artifacts of this style of play. The defense has to be very active in the middle and long portions of a vertical offense. It is very difficult for them to do this as the receiver knows where he is going and the defensive man does not. Defenses are able to stop these plays with good geometry in the gaps and with hands up for the defensive backs. This results in more knocked down plays. With plays taking longer to develop, this puts much more pressure on the quarterback. Blitz schemes are getting harder to identify and many successful defensive plays occur when the quarterback is rushed or his throwing arm is stopped mid throw. Short plays where the running back or the tight end make quick angled patterns are much less regular in the flow of the game. This is because more teams are risking longer passes. A check down pass if the long ball is not available is too late in a slant pattern.
Teams are not fooled by naked bootlegs. The forty niners used to send all their pass receivers one direction and Montana would slip out of the pocket going the opposite way for a big gainer. This is not practical in today's scheme. When it is done there are many quarterbacks on the grown not getting up to play the next play.
The NFL product as it stands is very quick. It is hard to imagine unless you are down on the field how the pace of this game has sped up. Plays last an average of 3 seconds. This makes it really hard to get long plays in. It happens because there is some tremendous work being done on the line to protect the quarterback for an additional 1 to 3 seconds and to allow for the pathways through the line to get enough punch on the pass to get through arms and hands that could intercept or change the direction of the pass.
I was always amazed at the speed and strength Brett Farve as the pass coming off his hands blisters through the air with incredible speed and accuracy. As quarterbacks get older, the speed is still their but the accuracy is often lost. This is why the Green Bay quarterback Aaron Rogers is so good. He is very accurate in his passes. As time moves along he will develop the ability to read defenses like Brady or the Manning Brothers. Then he will be unstoppable.
The 49ers are due for a new quarterback this year. The Stanford quarterback from this year will be a great addition. He must be cultured like all of the others that came before him. Lets hope that they get a great line to protect the quarterback whomever he is.
: ) Pat
The current scheme is decidedly different. Most passing plays are consistently looking at a 20 to 35 yard pass with the receiver starting straight down the middle of the field and slightly curving more toward the middle just before the pass arrives. This is sometimes called a skinny post. The philosophy is no longer a Joe Montana or a Steve Young short pass but passes longer and more convoluted toward the center of the field.
There are artifacts of this style of play. The defense has to be very active in the middle and long portions of a vertical offense. It is very difficult for them to do this as the receiver knows where he is going and the defensive man does not. Defenses are able to stop these plays with good geometry in the gaps and with hands up for the defensive backs. This results in more knocked down plays. With plays taking longer to develop, this puts much more pressure on the quarterback. Blitz schemes are getting harder to identify and many successful defensive plays occur when the quarterback is rushed or his throwing arm is stopped mid throw. Short plays where the running back or the tight end make quick angled patterns are much less regular in the flow of the game. This is because more teams are risking longer passes. A check down pass if the long ball is not available is too late in a slant pattern.
Teams are not fooled by naked bootlegs. The forty niners used to send all their pass receivers one direction and Montana would slip out of the pocket going the opposite way for a big gainer. This is not practical in today's scheme. When it is done there are many quarterbacks on the grown not getting up to play the next play.
The NFL product as it stands is very quick. It is hard to imagine unless you are down on the field how the pace of this game has sped up. Plays last an average of 3 seconds. This makes it really hard to get long plays in. It happens because there is some tremendous work being done on the line to protect the quarterback for an additional 1 to 3 seconds and to allow for the pathways through the line to get enough punch on the pass to get through arms and hands that could intercept or change the direction of the pass.
I was always amazed at the speed and strength Brett Farve as the pass coming off his hands blisters through the air with incredible speed and accuracy. As quarterbacks get older, the speed is still their but the accuracy is often lost. This is why the Green Bay quarterback Aaron Rogers is so good. He is very accurate in his passes. As time moves along he will develop the ability to read defenses like Brady or the Manning Brothers. Then he will be unstoppable.
The 49ers are due for a new quarterback this year. The Stanford quarterback from this year will be a great addition. He must be cultured like all of the others that came before him. Lets hope that they get a great line to protect the quarterback whomever he is.
: ) Pat
Monday, February 7, 2011
Superbowl and Players Shares
The last of the holidays for a while is the super bowl Sunday. The Green Bay Packers won the Superbowl over the Pittsburgh Steelers on the strength of two interceptions and the accuracy of Cal Berkley's Aaron Rogers.
So what did they play for? There is the Superbowl ring, and the title and being bookmarked in the era. The cash bonus shares worked out to be 83,000 dollars for the winner and 42,0000 dollars for the loser. Thats a nice piece of change for one game but it is probably less than most people would consider as a winning cut. The one minute commercial adds on TV were going for 3 million and there seemed to be plenty.
Many of the players were hoping to show their skills for lucrative contracts in the future. But wait, there may be no future. The contract with the owners expires the 5th of March. Both sides have braced themselves and their positions for a long battle. The players want a bigger piece of the pie. The owners want them to have a smaller piece of the pie and play two more regular games. They also want a rookie salary cap.
The last piece, the rookie salary cap is an interesting proposal. They want the player contract to limit the offers the owners have to make to rookies in the league. At the table we come across similar concepts. The management which has the right to do do certain things, wants a contract in place to police its own managers. Then, it can all be blamed on what the employees want as the root of the evil rather than their own lack of management discipline.
It is not evidently clear that most markets are sending the owners to the poor house. This is because there really isn't full disclosure of the profits that are made by pro football teams in any area. The lack of a pro team in LA, one of the biggest markets and the highly successful Green Bay Packers franchise in a market that should not be able to sustain the cost is a tribute to the equitably of the football market and the overall lack of future sustainability of the product. The football market loves and pays for the little guy whereas the baseball market without its restraints has no qualms about wiping out its weakest link while allowing its biggest markets to dominate. The SF Giants win of the World Series is really the exception. Players and teams are allowed to re-assemble at will until the last 5 weeks of the season. The Giants are an excellent example of this. Sustainability of a fan base is much fore difficult under these terms.
So I hope that everyone enjoyed the game on Sunday. It looks to me that there won't be much football next year. Just like there wasn't much in 1987. It will be good for yard work.
: ) Pat
So what did they play for? There is the Superbowl ring, and the title and being bookmarked in the era. The cash bonus shares worked out to be 83,000 dollars for the winner and 42,0000 dollars for the loser. Thats a nice piece of change for one game but it is probably less than most people would consider as a winning cut. The one minute commercial adds on TV were going for 3 million and there seemed to be plenty.
Many of the players were hoping to show their skills for lucrative contracts in the future. But wait, there may be no future. The contract with the owners expires the 5th of March. Both sides have braced themselves and their positions for a long battle. The players want a bigger piece of the pie. The owners want them to have a smaller piece of the pie and play two more regular games. They also want a rookie salary cap.
The last piece, the rookie salary cap is an interesting proposal. They want the player contract to limit the offers the owners have to make to rookies in the league. At the table we come across similar concepts. The management which has the right to do do certain things, wants a contract in place to police its own managers. Then, it can all be blamed on what the employees want as the root of the evil rather than their own lack of management discipline.
It is not evidently clear that most markets are sending the owners to the poor house. This is because there really isn't full disclosure of the profits that are made by pro football teams in any area. The lack of a pro team in LA, one of the biggest markets and the highly successful Green Bay Packers franchise in a market that should not be able to sustain the cost is a tribute to the equitably of the football market and the overall lack of future sustainability of the product. The football market loves and pays for the little guy whereas the baseball market without its restraints has no qualms about wiping out its weakest link while allowing its biggest markets to dominate. The SF Giants win of the World Series is really the exception. Players and teams are allowed to re-assemble at will until the last 5 weeks of the season. The Giants are an excellent example of this. Sustainability of a fan base is much fore difficult under these terms.
So I hope that everyone enjoyed the game on Sunday. It looks to me that there won't be much football next year. Just like there wasn't much in 1987. It will be good for yard work.
: ) Pat
Saturday, February 5, 2011
Visit and Tour de Force
We had a great visit with Mom and Dad in Morgan Hill this last Thursday.
Linzi and Sean came on down and we had a great time. It was nice to see one of my sisters again. Sue and the girls had a chance to go out and do some thrift store shopping while dad and I worked on getting some connections made with his internet e-mail and parameters setting for working Aperture again.
We worked on bringing photos into the program and making new versions of the photos as he continued to process them. The nice thing about Aperture is that you can make incremental new versions of any of the photo steps you are doing as it goes along. We also worked on using the color overlays to show when whites and blacks in the photo were blown out because of the settings used.
We had a great time and he seemed to really get the hang of it.
After a great Moma Brown ham dinner that night, we traveled north and landed at Lindsay and Sean's new digs in Berkley. Lindsay introduced her mom to the delights of a vegetarian fast food restaurant across the street. It was a new and a pretty cool experience.
The next day we did a run to the Magic Johnson thrift store on University Street in Berkley. Sue was in her element and picked out a really cool Alaska photo book for me for 2 bucks. It had a couple of photos that could me included in my Alaska series. My sister said that a series should be at least 5. I have two completed so onward to three more.
The latest one is a "Leaving San Francisco" painting. Its based on our Alaskan trip that included an under the Golden Gate Bridge scene that is pretty cool. The challenge is to capture the mood and feeling of the scene with many of its conflicting lines without duplicating the photograph.
I started it last Monday in class. My teacher warned me that at first you paint in the basic color blocks before working the detail. That is some very good advice for this piece as it is, is a scale and angle depended work. EH...u.. so much fun.
When we are near an Ikea store there is always something that you need. The mother of IKEA stores in in Emmeryvile, a short drive from Berkeley. Lindsay needed to pick up some supports for her bed and the Expedition would save her the problem of getting them home with a rental car. Sue needed a couple of yards of orange fabric that she had seen the last time we were at an IKEA. It was there along with 200 dollars of other essential merchandise.. what fun. Lunch at IKEA is always a kick. Sue got the salmon with the lemon dill sauce. She reminded me next time to other it without the sauce. Lindsay picked the meatball group with he masked potatoes and veg., and I had the baby back ribs.. yum.
We dropped her off at home and trucked on home. What a great trip! It sure is nice to have the lift fixed on the truck.
Pat
Linzi and Sean came on down and we had a great time. It was nice to see one of my sisters again. Sue and the girls had a chance to go out and do some thrift store shopping while dad and I worked on getting some connections made with his internet e-mail and parameters setting for working Aperture again.
We worked on bringing photos into the program and making new versions of the photos as he continued to process them. The nice thing about Aperture is that you can make incremental new versions of any of the photo steps you are doing as it goes along. We also worked on using the color overlays to show when whites and blacks in the photo were blown out because of the settings used.
We had a great time and he seemed to really get the hang of it.
After a great Moma Brown ham dinner that night, we traveled north and landed at Lindsay and Sean's new digs in Berkley. Lindsay introduced her mom to the delights of a vegetarian fast food restaurant across the street. It was a new and a pretty cool experience.
The next day we did a run to the Magic Johnson thrift store on University Street in Berkley. Sue was in her element and picked out a really cool Alaska photo book for me for 2 bucks. It had a couple of photos that could me included in my Alaska series. My sister said that a series should be at least 5. I have two completed so onward to three more.
The latest one is a "Leaving San Francisco" painting. Its based on our Alaskan trip that included an under the Golden Gate Bridge scene that is pretty cool. The challenge is to capture the mood and feeling of the scene with many of its conflicting lines without duplicating the photograph.
I started it last Monday in class. My teacher warned me that at first you paint in the basic color blocks before working the detail. That is some very good advice for this piece as it is, is a scale and angle depended work. EH...u.. so much fun.
When we are near an Ikea store there is always something that you need. The mother of IKEA stores in in Emmeryvile, a short drive from Berkeley. Lindsay needed to pick up some supports for her bed and the Expedition would save her the problem of getting them home with a rental car. Sue needed a couple of yards of orange fabric that she had seen the last time we were at an IKEA. It was there along with 200 dollars of other essential merchandise.. what fun. Lunch at IKEA is always a kick. Sue got the salmon with the lemon dill sauce. She reminded me next time to other it without the sauce. Lindsay picked the meatball group with he masked potatoes and veg., and I had the baby back ribs.. yum.
We dropped her off at home and trucked on home. What a great trip! It sure is nice to have the lift fixed on the truck.
Pat
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
Three Communication Partners Along the Walk
As many of you know I walk 2-3 miles every morning.
Along the way I talked to three people.
The Audiologist
On the crossing over to the Raley's block on Yosemite I waited at the light with a man dressed with a tie. He mentioned that it looked like everyone was hurrying to work today. They wouldn't have to hurry if they left a little earlier. I had to ask him the question. Are you headed to work?
Oh yes, he said.
Where do you work? I asked.
He said the Hearing aid store.
I said, Are you the audiologist?
He said, "yes."
I said, I am a speech and lang.retired. He gave me his name and I shook has hand.
His face lit up and he said,"All of us Audio guys hated taking the undergrad classes in speech.
I saidwe felt the same about our hearing classes
He said When we started to work with the clients the speech stuff really came in handy. Its hard to get people to believe the difference between hearing and listening.
I commiserated and described my ear wax issue and how to took 3 or 4 days after the flush to get my hearing back. He immediately got into professional mode,
He said,"Did they check your hearing after?
Hell no I said.
He said "I would have checked for treciary effacement. Or a precusor to diabetes." "Nope none of that," I said.
The Former Boss
After we crossed the street he went on to his job and I continued to walk to Starbucks for my dopio machiato espresso. While I was there I talked to Gordon, my former boss at the county.
I showed him the mophie that I bought that extends the battery life of the Iphone by twice and is hidden in the case of the phone. I likes to sit in Starbucks, and read his book on his ipad. He was also interested in the painting I just completed. I was able to share that with him from my iphone and connect him up with my blog. Its kind of a complicated address and it I am not sure that he will be able to navigate to it.
The Business Teacher
So off I went and ran into my friend who taught with me at one of the high schools.He taught business and typing. He has been retired for about 5 years. We talked travel. He wishes that he could get out and travel more, but his wife keeps him close to base. He told me about being in the service after WW2 in Germany and Paris. We talked for awhile until his wife came out and gathered him back in for a phone call. He seemed oblivious to its context which reminded me of my first years in the County serving Gustine.
I had a mother of a student that would see me crossing the campus and would buttonhole me and take up my time. The secretary would look out the window and see what was going on and immediately shout to me that the district office was on the phone and I needed to get to a phone to return the call. That was a good cue for her to stop the conversation and let me continue on with what I need to do. This teacher I was talking to was probably the target of a bogus call to get in and do what his wife wanted him to do.
It was nice today to have three very different conversation partners on the walk.
:) Pat
Along the way I talked to three people.
The Audiologist
On the crossing over to the Raley's block on Yosemite I waited at the light with a man dressed with a tie. He mentioned that it looked like everyone was hurrying to work today. They wouldn't have to hurry if they left a little earlier. I had to ask him the question. Are you headed to work?
Oh yes, he said.
Where do you work? I asked.
He said the Hearing aid store.
I said, Are you the audiologist?
He said, "yes."
I said, I am a speech and lang.retired. He gave me his name and I shook has hand.
His face lit up and he said,"All of us Audio guys hated taking the undergrad classes in speech.
I saidwe felt the same about our hearing classes
He said When we started to work with the clients the speech stuff really came in handy. Its hard to get people to believe the difference between hearing and listening.
I commiserated and described my ear wax issue and how to took 3 or 4 days after the flush to get my hearing back. He immediately got into professional mode,
He said,"Did they check your hearing after?
Hell no I said.
He said "I would have checked for treciary effacement. Or a precusor to diabetes." "Nope none of that," I said.
The Former Boss
After we crossed the street he went on to his job and I continued to walk to Starbucks for my dopio machiato espresso. While I was there I talked to Gordon, my former boss at the county.
I showed him the mophie that I bought that extends the battery life of the Iphone by twice and is hidden in the case of the phone. I likes to sit in Starbucks, and read his book on his ipad. He was also interested in the painting I just completed. I was able to share that with him from my iphone and connect him up with my blog. Its kind of a complicated address and it I am not sure that he will be able to navigate to it.
The Business Teacher
So off I went and ran into my friend who taught with me at one of the high schools.He taught business and typing. He has been retired for about 5 years. We talked travel. He wishes that he could get out and travel more, but his wife keeps him close to base. He told me about being in the service after WW2 in Germany and Paris. We talked for awhile until his wife came out and gathered him back in for a phone call. He seemed oblivious to its context which reminded me of my first years in the County serving Gustine.
I had a mother of a student that would see me crossing the campus and would buttonhole me and take up my time. The secretary would look out the window and see what was going on and immediately shout to me that the district office was on the phone and I needed to get to a phone to return the call. That was a good cue for her to stop the conversation and let me continue on with what I need to do. This teacher I was talking to was probably the target of a bogus call to get in and do what his wife wanted him to do.
It was nice today to have three very different conversation partners on the walk.
:) Pat
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
Carrot Cake to Die For
There are two types of people in this world. Those that love carrot cake and those who loath it.
If you are one of those that love it. You will flip over this version. This one didn't even get to the frosting part. Its texture is really carroty and it has the moisture that we all like consistently formed from top to bottom of the cake. Sue said what about you making some of those brownies from the mix? She got this instead.
It really needs a food processor to emulsify the sugars. I found it interesting how the oil got into it. I used the tiny hole in the center of the food processor to drip in the oil. It made a superior carrot cake. You were going to use a food processor to chop up those carrots anyway. So its a wipe the processor clean kind of recipe and replace the grater with the metal chopping blade. What a deal! The parchment on the bottom really helps in pulling off the cake from the bottom of the pan. Its very easy this way. Try it, I am sure you will like it. Hats off the cooks ill for their recipe!
With a few carrots (about 8) in the fridge, this is almost a pantry kind of cake!
Carrot Cake
2 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour (12 1/2 ounces)
1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/4 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon table salt
1 pound medium carrots (6 to 7 carrots), peeled
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar (10 1/2 ounces)
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar (3 1/2 ounces)
4 large eggs
1 1/2 cups vegetable oil , safflower oil, or canola oil
Cream Cheese Frosting
8 ounces cream cheese , softened but still cool
5 tablespoons unsalted butter softened, but still cool
1 tablespoon sour cream
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups confectioners' sugar (4 1/2 ounces)
Instructions
1. For the cake: Adjust oven rack to middle position; heat oven to 350 degrees. Spray 13 by 9-inch baking pan with nonstick cooking spray. Line bottom of pan with parchment and spray parchment.
2. Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and salt in large bowl; set aside.
3. In food processor fitted with large shredding disk (see below for mixer method), shred carrots (you should have about 3 cups); transfer carrots to bowl and set aside. Wipe out food processor work bowl and fit with metal blade. Process granulated and brown sugars and eggs until frothy and thoroughly combined, about 20 seconds. With machine running, add oil through feed tube in steady stream. Process until mixture is light in color and well emulsified, about 20 seconds longer. Scrape mixture into medium bowl. Stir in carrots and dry ingredients until incorporated and no streaks of flour remain. Pour into prepared pan and bake until toothpick or skewer inserted into center of cake comes out clean, 35 to 40 minutes, rotating pan halfway through baking time. Cool cake to room temperature in pan on wire rack, about 2 hours.
4. For the frosting (See below for mixer method): When cake is cool, process cream cheese, butter, sour cream, and vanilla in clean food processor workbowl until combined, about 5 seconds, scraping down bowl with rubber spatula as needed. Add confectioners' sugar and process until smooth, about 10 seconds.
5. Run paring knife around edge of cake to loosen from pan. Invert cake onto wire rack, peel off parchment, then invert again onto serving platter. Using icing spatula, spread frosting evenly over surface of cake. Cut into squares and serve. (Cover leftovers and refrigerate for up to 3 days.)
In our case the cake never made it to the wire rack.. maybe yours won't either.
: ) Pat
If you are one of those that love it. You will flip over this version. This one didn't even get to the frosting part. Its texture is really carroty and it has the moisture that we all like consistently formed from top to bottom of the cake. Sue said what about you making some of those brownies from the mix? She got this instead.
It really needs a food processor to emulsify the sugars. I found it interesting how the oil got into it. I used the tiny hole in the center of the food processor to drip in the oil. It made a superior carrot cake. You were going to use a food processor to chop up those carrots anyway. So its a wipe the processor clean kind of recipe and replace the grater with the metal chopping blade. What a deal! The parchment on the bottom really helps in pulling off the cake from the bottom of the pan. Its very easy this way. Try it, I am sure you will like it. Hats off the cooks ill for their recipe!
With a few carrots (about 8) in the fridge, this is almost a pantry kind of cake!
Carrot Cake
2 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour (12 1/2 ounces)
1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/4 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon table salt
1 pound medium carrots (6 to 7 carrots), peeled
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar (10 1/2 ounces)
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar (3 1/2 ounces)
4 large eggs
1 1/2 cups vegetable oil , safflower oil, or canola oil
Cream Cheese Frosting
8 ounces cream cheese , softened but still cool
5 tablespoons unsalted butter softened, but still cool
1 tablespoon sour cream
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups confectioners' sugar (4 1/2 ounces)
Instructions
1. For the cake: Adjust oven rack to middle position; heat oven to 350 degrees. Spray 13 by 9-inch baking pan with nonstick cooking spray. Line bottom of pan with parchment and spray parchment.
2. Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and salt in large bowl; set aside.
3. In food processor fitted with large shredding disk (see below for mixer method), shred carrots (you should have about 3 cups); transfer carrots to bowl and set aside. Wipe out food processor work bowl and fit with metal blade. Process granulated and brown sugars and eggs until frothy and thoroughly combined, about 20 seconds. With machine running, add oil through feed tube in steady stream. Process until mixture is light in color and well emulsified, about 20 seconds longer. Scrape mixture into medium bowl. Stir in carrots and dry ingredients until incorporated and no streaks of flour remain. Pour into prepared pan and bake until toothpick or skewer inserted into center of cake comes out clean, 35 to 40 minutes, rotating pan halfway through baking time. Cool cake to room temperature in pan on wire rack, about 2 hours.
4. For the frosting (See below for mixer method): When cake is cool, process cream cheese, butter, sour cream, and vanilla in clean food processor workbowl until combined, about 5 seconds, scraping down bowl with rubber spatula as needed. Add confectioners' sugar and process until smooth, about 10 seconds.
5. Run paring knife around edge of cake to loosen from pan. Invert cake onto wire rack, peel off parchment, then invert again onto serving platter. Using icing spatula, spread frosting evenly over surface of cake. Cut into squares and serve. (Cover leftovers and refrigerate for up to 3 days.)
In our case the cake never made it to the wire rack.. maybe yours won't either.
: ) Pat
Finishing the Watercolor
What a blast.
I just finished a watercolor of approaching Juneau, Alaska. Juneau is an island city that must be reached by either air or boat. It has big mountains that steeply climb right out of the city. So the capital of Alaska has a considerable mountain habitat around it. Around the corner and up the draw a little is a viable glacier. The Mendenhall glacier drops its huge chunks of ice into the river about 14 miles for the city.
This painting was fun to do. Its my second foray into using this medium. This canvas is set up to be really forgiving. With just a little water and a bit of a scub the artist can get right down to the white canvas the started the painting. Watercolor canvas performs just like watercolor paper in that it will accept delicate washes and lifts. It does not tear or flake. It has an occasional pill like all canvas does.
My sister suggested that I set up a camera on a tripod and take the steps of this painting in action. There are 10 steps there were photographed and are now on flickr. You can take a look at them from the link on the side of this blog. I have left some commentary as to what happened at each step and what I was projecting that I needed to do in the next step. Most steps had one day between them. The steps took about an hour each. I would stop when I got tired of painting or when the paint needed to dry for the next step.
It was really fun for me.
: ) Pat
I just finished a watercolor of approaching Juneau, Alaska. Juneau is an island city that must be reached by either air or boat. It has big mountains that steeply climb right out of the city. So the capital of Alaska has a considerable mountain habitat around it. Around the corner and up the draw a little is a viable glacier. The Mendenhall glacier drops its huge chunks of ice into the river about 14 miles for the city.
This painting was fun to do. Its my second foray into using this medium. This canvas is set up to be really forgiving. With just a little water and a bit of a scub the artist can get right down to the white canvas the started the painting. Watercolor canvas performs just like watercolor paper in that it will accept delicate washes and lifts. It does not tear or flake. It has an occasional pill like all canvas does.
My sister suggested that I set up a camera on a tripod and take the steps of this painting in action. There are 10 steps there were photographed and are now on flickr. You can take a look at them from the link on the side of this blog. I have left some commentary as to what happened at each step and what I was projecting that I needed to do in the next step. Most steps had one day between them. The steps took about an hour each. I would stop when I got tired of painting or when the paint needed to dry for the next step.
It was really fun for me.
: ) Pat