Drugs in Sports

Let me set the stage...It was 6:30am, I was riding the bike trainer in the basement because it was like 15 F outside with 4 inches of snow and an inch of ice. On the TV to help me mentally push through an experience that I can only equate to hell, figuratively, was Sports Center on ESPN. Not the best thing to watch, but certainly not the worst - I'm thinking maybe Sex and the City, or better yet, a new episode from Nip/Tuck (wow is it horrible) would "win" in the "Don't-ever-watch-me-EVER-awards".

Moving on....This particular morning there was ANOTHER story about baseball and illegal performance enhancing drugs. Of course there are drugs in baseball - there are drugs in EVERY sport. Baseball, Football, Basketball, Tennis, The Olympics, Soccer, and even my beloved Cycling. I have, just like all of you know, known about this problem for a while now. What really bothers me is when the sports casters on ESPN talk about Baseball or Football, specifically, everyone is in complete denial. Everyone is like "OMG Somebody used a drug - IT'S A LIE - IT'S A CONSPIRACY, NOT OUR PERFECT BASEBALL PLAYERS - THEY WOULD NEVER...EVER DO SOMETHING ILLEGAL"....bulls**t.

First off, there are always bad apples, in every sport. But to think that one over the other is better simply because it has the tag, "America's Pastime", does not give it carte blanche to be held to a different standard. Meanwhile, in the cycling world - one person gets busted for an illegal substance, and suddenly every news station is reporting how dirty the sport is, giving it a bad name. All the while, turning a blind eye to baseball, football, basketball, et al.

Why this is frustrating, is 3-fold. First, if a player from a "Major American Sport" gets caught - what happens? NOT A FREAKING THING, see Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa, Jose Conseco, Jason Giambi, Rafael Palmeiro for reference. However, Floyd Landis got caught - albeit controversial, and guess what - BANNED for 2 years, all titles and everything won are gone. Secondly, to even mention that a major sport has some drug issues is almost blasphemy. All that has to be done is to check the news headlines for major sport dopers, but to bring it back up is like talking about your sex life - taboo. But dear God, baseball isn't dirty - no way, don't ruin it for the children. What a freaking joke. And finally, just to compare, cycling athletes are more tested than ANY other athlete in any "Major Sport". Win a stage? Get tested. Come in the top 20? Get tested. Oh yea, get tested before AND after every stage. Random drug screenings? To take a line from, probably the most qualified politician in the world, "You Bet'cha". 5:30am screenings are not uncommon....during the off season! Now, we can test baseball players - but not a starting pitcher, or a star player, or anyone who is good.

All this, of course, is moot pending the outcome of the Baroid Bonds trial - but ultimately, I have a suspicion it won't change anything. Nay Nay, instead, what we are going to see are excuses coming from...wait for it...LEFT FIELD from the journalists, indicating he was just one bad apple...yes, I am cracking myself up.

For what my opinion is worth, I say we go one of two ways:

1. Anyone caught cheating, in any sport, banned for the rest of your life. You're playing a sport for crying out loud. You're living the dream of most people on earth. You're getting paid to entertain my fat-ass on the couch. You're having a darn fine time and life ain't bad. In light of all that, while most of us have to suffer at a 9-5 or worse, you get to have fun. So, you mess up once, and you lose all privileges, sorry.
2. Let everyone cheat. The idea behind cheating in a major sport is to get an edge. In most sports being 1-2% faster, strong, smarter, quicker, etc. is the difference between making the hall of fame, and not. However, if everybody is doing it, there isn't an issue.
   

Panoramic....

I got a little ambitious today...I decided to see what kind of panoramic shot I could take...without traveling to somewhere cool - or without really thinking!

A few take aways:

• Next time I'll use a tripod. I ended up cropping out a lot because I didn't keep the camera level the whole time.
• Not make it a complete 180 - unless we all like it - haha.
• Get something more interesting...
• The Photomerge Tool in Photoshop is awesome! It took care of merging them and blending the layers and all the stuff that would have taken me 3 hours to do (anybody who went to DAAP would have done in 10 minutes)
  

Anyway, something that I did do right was to keep the exposure length the same. Otherwise some of the pictures would be darker/lighter than the others. Either way, you will want to click on the picture to go to Flickr and click on "All Sizes", then "Large" at the top.

For you photoshop people - the original panoramic file was 199.3 megabytes...ouch. The scaled version (converted to jpg) was 3mb (clearly extremely scaled).
Scaled image dimensions: 6430 x 700 (px)
Original image dimensions: 19408 x 3589 (px)

Then flickr compressed it some more, so if you want the original 3mb file, I can send it...if you want the true original, send me a blank CD - LOL...

Slow Sync Flash

I was messing around the other day...and consequently got extremely dizzy in the process. Anyway, my camera, and other DSLRs have this function called Slow Sync Flash. There are a few options one could perform. You can flash the bulb then open the shutter right after. You can set it to open the shutter then flash. There are also other artistic combinations - such as flashing twice. I would provide more information but as of current I don't really know a whole lot, just that it exists. I am not sure which one to use for which event - but I did find out how to use it...

Anyway, this was like my final attempt before I made myself too sick. There were many others that I took that looked terrible. After messing with the lighting inside the house, the f/stop, the shutter speed, the bulb sync mode(s), and perfecting my awesome smile, I finally came up with this:




Click on the picture to see a full size one...it's pretty cool!

CES

Quick update...

So, I wasn't fortunate enough to attend CES this year....however, I was able to see some live feeds, other blogs, and news coverage over it. One thing I would like to quickly comment on - and I wish I had a picture but I don't...

So robots are the wave of the future, right? Artificial intelligence, the movie iRobot, etc etc. The biggest fear, and rightfully so I believe, is that the robots may turn on us. I write software for a living and I know first hand, sometimes the computer and the code your wrote just doesn't quite run how it should, or it has a mind of its own. A simple software issue I wrote is no where near as complex as AI or robot technology, but sometimes things happen. Anyway, during the coverage for CES there was a robot there that had no arms. Instead, it was like a triangle with very broad shoulders and the triangle shape down to its waist. I am not Mr. Industrial Designer, but I thought that design was perfect solution to the problem.

This robot served a different function - nothing of which had to do with having extremeties - so to solve that issue, they just took the arms away. No more fear that the robot would be able to attack or detain you. I'll see if I can ever find a picture again - but it was a cool solution and a cool idea.

Update - found it

What is Your Vote?

Rachel and I want to start decorating our condo with meaningful images.

I took both of these the other day, and can't really figure out which one I like more. Help decide..

Image 1:


Image 2:


Click on them to see higher resolution images. They are hosted on Flickr.

PSA Part 2...

The more I thought about what I was going to write about, the more I started to get a little nervous I might upset somebody. If I try to make this all politically correct all the time, eventually I'll end up getting bored with it...long after all of you have. In light of that - I promise, nothing I write is ever intentionally meant to hurt anyone...

While I want to generally keep this as an extended stats update with news about whats going on with me, lets face it, that is pretty boring. Like many to all of you, we wake up, go to work all day long, come home, eat dinner, (If you're like Mr. Engineer, you pour a tall one out of your kegerator - which by the way, TOTALLY jealous), watch some TV, go to bed, rinse, wash, repeat.

I won't get into politics too much, and fortunately the election is over so it should be calm for a while. I will, however, attempt to make interesting observations or flat out comment about stuff. For example, American Idol...that's probably all I really have to say. Other than the fact that Fox should get a clue and cancel it like they did prison break. Outside of the few funny, obviously horrible tryouts, it's the same thing over and over again. Nothing new, nothing special - as much as I love House, they both have started to wear out their welcome. What shows do you guys all want to see canceled?

Back on topic - many of you probably do not know that I have started the process to go to law school. Those of you hearing this for the first time, I will pause while you finish laughing. I don't have a lot of information right now, other than I have sent my law school applications into a few schools. Those would be UC, UD, OSU and Santa Clara. Santa Clara?? Ohio School, Ohio School, Ohio School, California School.....that stands out worse than a black guy at a McCain rally - damn, I said no polics.... Yea, it is in the heart of Silicon Valley and they have a GREAT Intellectual Property/Information Technology Law/Patent law program - right up my alley and exactly what I am looking for. I kind of have an idea which universities will accept me and which ones won't, but as of right now I am hopeful.

Anyway, I see Mr. Army has already done his best to make fun of me, haha - He needs to remember I will have the whole floor and the entire attention at his wedding...

Until next time head on over and watch probably the BEST series EVAR....

The Ring

This has nothing to do with the not-scary movie. Instead, this has to deal with the hardware I gave to the fiancee.




Most people have not the opportunity to see it - so here is what I took, but more importantly, here is what I bought/gave. I think it is nice...haha

And a quick plug by me - I was quite happy of the quality of the photograph. I got a really nice new camera for Christmas. The camera is a Canon XSi for those interested.

Post One....Welcome Message and a PSA

Wow - so what a start this is. I am, admittedly, not the greatest writer in the world - and while that is a certain downfall which might prove difficult to continue to follow this blog, I'd like to think I can salvage it with a bit of humor.

Admittedly, I am also not that funny...So what I have working for me is a blog that has no real content, a terrible writer/publisher, and something that isn't funny...Why am I doing this? haha

Anyway, to the people who read this - purposely, this will be a little on the private side. I have only given this site out to specific people on purpose - although, beware, it is a public site that can be searched on google or whatever. If anything, this is merely a way to keep in touch with the people I care about. I feel unfortunate that we all have moved on other places - on the other hand, there is the internet - and with hoards of people getting internet on the phone and whatever else, keeping in touch can be an easier task. If/when I hang out with some of you guys I might talk about it - names will be changed, events and locations will be conveniently left out - so no need to be completely embarrassed. I will post pictures, but mostly of the stuff I take with my camera - like sunsets, cars, or things I find interesting.

I am not sure of the frequency of updates - I also cannot gaurentee correct speling or grammer; Sentence structures and prepositions and run-on-sentences and misuse of not only the semicolon but also misuse of the dash and most likely completely void of punctuation and or commas may be present. But I will NEVER forget the period

If nobody reads this on a consistent basis, I am fine with that - check back every now and again. Either way, I'd like to say hello to everyone. I will read the comments - haha, if there ever are any, so if you have something to say - by all means, rock it!

Ok - one quick edit...This is a bit of a "beta" or an experiment, if you will - but by all means, actively participate in the comments section, or by email, or text message, or whatever - more input and conversation from all of you, the better!! If any of you have your own blog or something, let me know. Mr.Industrial Designer, you seem to be the news most recently - send me links or some story or whatever and I will gladly post them up. I want everyone to have fun and enjoy this - so as of right now, nothing is out of the question (and by nothing, I really mean nothing that is illegal - haha).