The first league is the most spendy league I’m in…it’s $150 to buy in…which is enough, but there is more money to be won then.  The guy that runs it brings quite a pile of beer, it’s an evening hanging out with some guys and getting loaded so the cost compared to a normal night out with a few buddies is comparable.  I had pick seven…which isn’t the greatest but after going through the draft I thought it worked out alright.  I would prefer having a pick in the top 3 or bottom 3.  Picking right in the middle gives you middle picks for each round.  The numbers should work out pretty even, but it -seems- like having a higher pick in rounds is worth more than mid range picks…but it should average out.

Here are my picks, not in “picked” order:

STARTERS
QB	Drew Brees, NO QB [Breaking News]
RB	LeSean McCoy, Phi RB [Breaking News]
RB	Arian Foster, Hou RB [Breaking News]
RB/WR	C.J. Spiller, Buf RB [Breaking News]
WR	Miles Austin, Dal WR
WR	Wes Welker, NE WR  P [Recent News]
TE	Brent Celek, Phi TE
LB	D.J. Williams, Den LB [Recent News]
LB	Jonathan Vilma, NO LB  P [Breaking News]
DL	Julius Peppers, Chi DE
DL	Trent Cole, Phi DE  P [Breaking News]
DB	Yeremiah Bell, Mia S
DB	Tyvon Branch, Oak S
D/ST	Eagles D/ST, Phi D/ST
K	Robbie Gould, Chi K
HC	Falcons Coach, Atl HC
BENCH
Bench	Robert Meachem, NO WR [Breaking News]
Bench	Malcom Floyd, SD WR
Bench	Demaryius Thomas, Den WR  Q [Recent News]
Bench	Dwight Freeney, Ind DE [Recent News]
Bench	Kevin Smith, Det RB  P [Breaking News]
Bench	Brian Westbrook, SF RB  P [Breaking News]
IR

There are some weak points, but I think there is some potential there to work out well.  CJ is a reach, but he was a good value in the round I picked him up.  Last year was my first year in this league and I was really not happy with my team.  This year I put in more effort, thought things out more and I think I did a lot better in the draft.  This league is also a PPR league and QB TD’s are worth 6.  PPR is new to this league this year and when I plugged in the league scoring into a website, the PPR change made a pretty significant difference in the order it said to pick these guys.  The scoring last year was high, this year I think it’s going to take 200pts/wk to win consistently.  It seemed to me that some guys were still stuck on the old “rb’s are king” mentality when running through this draft.  The paperwork I had didn’t reflect that…but maybe my stuff is wrong.  It’s really all just a crap shoot.  One or two key injuries is going to take a guy right out of contention.

This is my favorite league.  The guys that are in it take the game “seriously” but not over the top.  They do some homework, show up for the draft ready to pick…everyone has a computer and we do it online all in the same room.  There is quite a bit of smack talk going on, lots of beer drinking…and some poker playing afterward.  The entry fee and potential winnings are high enough that people don’t just see it as throw away money for the most part.  It makes for a pretty enjoyable experience.

The second draft of the weekend was held a Buffalo Wild wings.  I didn’t think too much of this until I noticed UFC 118 was going to be going on the same night.  I figured it was going to be pretty packed and really loud.  It was my first year in this league and I wasn’t sure what to expect.  I assumed it would be something like the first league…I was wrong.  BW’s has a wireless connection so I brought my laptop.  It was only myself and the league manager that brought laptops.  10 other guys were drafting from sheets of paper that the league manager provided with the top 160 guys listed.  They didn’t come with anything on their own.  I didn’t really understand that…but maybe they were just in it to hang out and screw around…no biggie.

My picks, not in picked order:

STARTERS
QB	Matt Ryan, Atl QB [Breaking News]
RB	Maurice Jones-Drew, Jac RB  Q [Breaking News]
RB	LeSean McCoy, Phi RB [Breaking News]
RB/WR	Knowshon Moreno, Den RB  Q [Breaking News]
WR	Wes Welker, NE WR  P [Recent News]
WR	Jerricho Cotchery, NYJ WR
TE	John Carlson, Sea TE
DP
D/ST
K	Matt Prater, Den K
BENCH
Bench	Eddie Royal, Den WR
Bench	Cadillac Williams, TB RB [Breaking News]
Bench	Devin Hester, Chi WR [Recent News]
Bench	Kevin Smith, Det RB  P [Breaking News]
Bench	Ted Ginn Jr., SF WR
Bench	Kyle Orton, Den QB
Bench
IR

In this league we have 17 slots and we did 14 rounds live at BW’s.  The last 3 slots we will pick up on FA/Waivers before the season.  Normally I wouldn’t be happy about having to burn waiver position, but everyone had to do it so it should come out fairly even.  In this league we drew for draft position from a hat, I picked #2.  I was pretty happy with that position as it gave me an opportunity to get one of the top RB’s.  This is not a PPR league, and QB TD’s are worth 4.  IMO that makes RB’s king.  Guys made some picks in this league that I didn’t quite understand.  Favre went as the 2nd qb and he was picked in the 2nd round…it seemed way to early for me.  But…as the guys were picking it seemed to me that I would have to adjust my mentality.  QB’s started to come off the board early and quickly.  As I looked at my sheets there are tiers at each position, if you don’t get a pick in the upper tier you can wait and get one in the 2nd tier.  There is quite a drop off between 1 and 2…but not so much of a drop off between each player in the given tiers…make sense?  So my thinking is always if the first few in the 1st tier are taken…I’ll wait and get some on the 2nd tier.  When the QB’s started to come off all the tier 1′s are gone quick..then the tier 2′s start going very quickly…almost all before it got back to me.  Even though I thought it was really early to pick up a QB, if I didn’t take one with the way they were coming off the board…I’d be dropping down to tier 3.  I took Ryan…which might be tier 3 anyhow.  There were a few guys that picked backup qb’s before they had a fully stable of RB’s and WR’s…picked backup te’s and backup defenses.

I mentioned earlier this league picked 14 and has 17 slots.  I didn’t pick a defense or an individual defensive player, I can pick one up on waivers and it really doesn’t matter.  If nothing else I’ll play the match up game and switch on some weeks.  Kickers for the most part are my last pick…someone else picked Gould so I went with Prater.  I’m not an expert, but I don’t think it’s smart to waste a pick on a backup defense or te…I think these can be picked up later if needed.  I’m not particularly thrilled with my picks in this league over all.  I think I’ve got a couple that aren’t too bad, but there are some weak spots and a couple of chances…we’ll see I guess.

The last league…I was hung over…basically threw away some money.  I could have a chance, given some of the other teams that were put together, but over all I don’t feel great about the team.  Who knows…maybe this is the one I’ll dominate in.  I don’t remember all my picks.  I was slotted to draft #10, which might not have been too bad.  There was a guy pickin #4 that wanted to trade out of that spot for some reason so we swapped 1st and 2nd round slots.  I did this the day of the draft and didn’t sit down and push the fantasy projection numbers to see if this was to my advantage.  My gut feeling is the numbers probably show that it wasn’t a smart move, but it “felt” like an O.K. move.  By doing this, I ended up with MJD and I think I picked CJ after that…which was a HUGE stretch and probably a dumb-ass pick.  In the first league he was fine where I got him, but in the 2nd round?  I really should have went receiver or something.  We’ll see how it works out.  Picks got progressively dumber after that…

This is the last year I do the trifecta in the same weekend.  I’d do all 3 leagues again, but not all in the same weekend.  I’d like to be able to put some more effort in the drafting process than I did on Sunday.  Some of the guys in this league kinda irritate me a little, they won’t show up for the draft and have someone else pick, they don’t do homework before hand…there isn’t really that much smack talking done and they leave early.  The reason I don’t like this is because it doesn’t feel like everyone is putting in all their effort (yeah yeah, I was hung over…took some fliers, but we’ll see).  I like to feel like I’m competing against people that are doing all they can to win…I want to feel like I beat someone on their A game.

What’s really going to piss me off is if one of these 2 defense drafting guys end up winning the league.  We’ll see how it goes though, let the games begin!

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from Wired Science by Jonah Lehrer

The 10,000 hour rule has become a cliche. This is the idea, first espoused by K. Anders Ericsson, a pyschologist at Florida State University, that it takes about 10,000 hours of practice before any individual can become an expert. The corollary of this rule is that that differences in talent reflect differences in the amount and style of practice, and not differences in innate ability. As Ericsson wrote in his influential review article “The Role of Deliberate Practice in the Acquisition of Expert Performance”: “The differences between expert performers and normal adults are not immutable, that is, due to genetically prescribed talent. Instead, these differences reflect a life-long period of deliberate effort to improve performance.”

On the one hand, this is a deeply counter-intuitive idea. (It’s best articulated in Gladwell’s excellent Outliers and Daniel Coyle’s The Talent Code.) Although we pretend to be egalitarians, we really believe that the talented are naturally “gifted”. You and I can’t become chess grandmasters, or NBA superstars, or concert pianists, simply because we don’t have the necessary anatomy. Endless hours of hard work won’t compensate for our biological limitations. When fate was handing out skill, we got screwed.

And yet, the 10,000 hour rule also echoes a long-standing belief about how talent happens. Let’s call this the parable of Tiger Woods. The story goes something like this: When Tiger Woods was an infant, his dad, Earl, moved his high chair into the garage. This was where Earl practiced his golf swing, hitting balls into a soccer net after work. Tiger was captivated by the swift movement. For hours on end, he would watch his father smack hundreds of balls. When Tiger was nine months old, Earl sawed off the top of an old golf club. Tiger could barely walk – and he had yet to utter a single word – but he quickly began teeing off on the Astroturf next to his father. When Tiger was 18 months old, Earl started taking him to the driving range. By the age of three, Tiger was playing nine hole courses, and shooting a 48. That same year, he began identifying the swing flaws of players on the PGA tour. (“Look Daddy,” Tiger would say, “that man has a reverse pivot!”) He finally beat his father – by a single stroke, with a score of 71 – when he was eleven. At fifteen, he became the youngest player to ever win the United States Junior Amateur championship. At eighteen, he became the youngest player to ever win the United States Amateur championship, a title he kept for the next three years. In 1997, when he was only 21, Tiger won the Masters at Augusta by the largest margin in a major championship in the 20^th century. Two months later he became the number one golfer in the world.

The lesson of Tiger Woods is that the best way to become a superstar is to start young and get in those 10,000 hours as quickly as possible. That’s why Earl put a club in the hands of a toddler, and why Mozart was composing music before most of us can do arithmetic.

However, a series of recent studies by psychologists at Queen’s University adds an important wrinkle to the Tiger Woods parable. The scientists began by analyzing the birthplace of more than 2,000 athletes in a variety of professional sports, such as the NHL, NBA, and the PGA.  This is when they discovered something peculiar:  the percent of professional athletes who came from cities of fewer than a half million people was far higher than expected. While approximately 52 percent of the United States population resides in metropolitan areas with more than 500,000 people, such cities only produce 13% of the players in the NHL, 29% of the players in the NBA, 15% of the players in MLB, and 13% of players in the PGA.

I can think of several different explanations for this effect, none of which are mutually exclusive. Perhaps kids in small towns are less likely to get distracted by gangs, drugs, etc. Perhaps athletes outside of big cities go to better schools, and thus receive more attention from their high school coaches. Perhaps they have more access to playing fields. Perhaps they have a better peer group. The scientists summarize this line of reasoning in a recent paper: “These small communities may offer more psychosocially supportive environments that are more intimate. In particular, sport programs in smaller communities may offer more opportunities for relationship development with coaches, parents, and peers, a greater sense of belonging, and a better integration of the program within the community.”

But there’s another possible explanation for this effect, which was nicely summarized by Sian Beilock, a psychologist at the University of Chicago and author of the forthcoming Choke. She proposes that an important advantage of small towns is that they’re actually less competitive, thus allowing kids to sample and explore many different sports. (I grew up in a big city, and my sports career basically ended when I was 13. I could no longer compete with the other kids in my age group.) While conventional wisdom assumes that it’s best to focus on a single sport as soon as possible, and to compete in the most rigorous arena – this is the essential lesson of Tiger Woods – Beilock argues that that’s probably a mistake, both for psychological and physical reasons:

Sampling a variety of activities lowers the likelihood of burnout in one sport and increases children’s feelings of confidence because they get to see the results of their hard work in different settings. In addition, playing different sports lessens the occurrence of sports-related injuries that may end an athletic career. It’s common today for a 10-year-old baseball pitcher to need the tendon replacement surgeries for an injured elbow that were previously restricted to college and major league pitchers. This is the type of injury that sports medicine doctors argue is the direct result of arm overuse and sport specialization at too young an age.

Findings like the birthplace effect suggest that we need to rethink the idea that kids should receive year-round training in one sport early on. Although this early specialization certainly worked for Woods, for most kids, less sport-specific training seems to be the key to athletic success. Of course, this doesn’t mean limiting practice overall. Indeed, smaller cities offer more opportunities for unstructured play than larger cities, which results in more opportunities to hone general coordination, power, and athletic skills. These longer hours of play also allow kids to experience successes (and failures) in different settings, which likely toughens their attitudes in general.

This is a nice addendum to the 10,000 hour rule. While deliberate practice remains absolutely crucial, it’s important to remember that the most important skills we develop at an early age are not domain specific. (In other words, Tiger Woods is not using the same golf swing he relied on as a 5 year old.) Instead, the real importance of early childhood has to do with the development of general cognitive and non-cognitive traits, such as self-control, patience, grit, and the willingness to practice. This is also the lesson of a recent study on Australian football players:

The developmental histories of 32 players in the Australian Football League (AFL), independently classified as either expert or less skilled in their perceptual and decision-making skills, were collected through a structured interview process and their year-on-year involvement in structured and deliberate play activities retrospectively determined. Despite being drawn from the same elite level of competition, the expert decision-makers differed from the less skilled in having accrued, during their developing years, more hours of experience in structured activities other than Australian football.

What Beilock suggests is that the most important skills for success – the domain general traits that allow us to persist in the face of challenges and perform under pressure – are more likely to emerge when we pursue a variety of athletic activities at a young age, which tends to happen in smaller communities. (Big cities, in contrast, encourage a more single-minded focus, since any particular sport is more competitive.) We won’t be good at all of these sports, but that’s probably a good thing. The struggle will make us stronger.

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There was an article in the in-forum that people are being accessed some specials for the drain system required for the new school on the very south edge of Fargo.  Living in town, specials are “necessary” and dreaded.  Right now I “don’t have any”.  The specials remaining on the house when we bought it were less than 1k and were rolled in to the purchase price.  The first time I get a special assessed though…man I can already feel my blood pressure climbing.  It’s not so much that I don’t think sometimes it’s necessary…no the problem I have is a home owner has virtually no recourse.  I can try to argue and say I don’t think I should have to pay that much or that the work isn’t really necessary, but in the end it doesn’t matter what I think or say.  Someone somewhere will arbitrarily decide what I will pay.  I have the same problem with property tax assessments.

We had a guy come out to the house last fall to re-assess our home value to adjust our property tax.  I would love to know in the history of the town doing this just how many times the value has decreased.  We had been living in our home for a year and have put a roof as well as two windows (the biggest of course) into the place.  He looks around a bit and decides my place is work $155,000.  I paid 147,000 for it…so whatever.  I wasn’t terribly pissed at the number he came up with.  The problem I have though is that it’s in the cities best interest to assess it as high as possible and I’ve no way to argue with them about it.  I could find some appraiser to come take a look at the place and he’ll assess it lower…but the city doesn’t care.  I could argue other houses that are very similar to mine have sold for less, but they clearly state that the city’s assessed value has no relation to sale price… Then what exactly does it relate to?  Near as I can tell, it’s an arbitrary number the city wants to use to get taxes out of me.  Right now I dont’ have a problem with the house’s value…in five years though after we’ve done all the windows (this year…if the wife talks to the contractor), siding next year and probably a new deck setup the year after that…the city might well jack my “value” up quite a bit more.

I have a similar feeling about special assessments…there’s really nothing you can do about it.  But lets look at these people that got assessed for the sewer in south Fargo.  Darvin Becker is named specifically in the article.  His 2011 appraised value of his house and land is $152,300.  The article says it’s 170k, I’m not sure where they get that number…I got the 152 from the cities website.  For his share of the sewer the city decides his specials are going to be….$60,000.  Yep…60k, about 1/3 of the total value of his place.  That is insane, I couldn’t imagine getting a bill like that in the mail.  What could a guy possibly do about it?  I don’t have any information on when this guy bought his house or his position in life…but for arguments sake, lets assume it’s pretty similar to my own.  He’s owned his house for 3ish years.  He bought a place that was on the upper end of his budget, slowly doing improvements as he’s going along.  He’s got a wife also contributing to the house hold and a child or two…lets also have a couple of dogs.  I think seeing a bill like that just might be the shock his body needs to give him that final heart attack.

The dude bought a 150k house…because it’s the house he could afford for his family.  Suddenly he owns a 210k debt against a 150k asset.  He didn’t do anything wrong like taking out one of those variable rate mortgages, he’s been paying his bills on time…living the American dream and suddenly the city has bent him over.  Initially when I read the article I thought I would sell the place and move…but how can you?  Who in their right mind would buy a 150k place at 210k?  Who is going to buy that lot with that huge ass special hanging over it.  Not only has the city increased his overall cost (150k now costs him 210k), it has also severely devalued his property.  Instead of having an asset he could potentially sell and end up square with his 150k investment…he now has to sell it at around a 60k loss.

I can’t comprehend how this is even possible.  There should be some kind of state law that limits the amount of specials that can be assessed on a property based on it’s total value.  Maybe 10% would be the max?  That’s still 15k on a 150k house…but at least with a law that sets a max amount, a home owner can budget for the “worst case scenario” and be confident that if the city does go ape shit he can still cover his mortgage.  The more I think about that idea the more I like it.  The more lavish your house/land the more you owe the city.  It semi stands to reason that a bigger/better house would use more city resources than a modest quiet place.

I try to imagine putting myself in this guys place…and I can’t even fathom what I would do.  Maybe just stop paying the mortgage altogether.  I’d hate to sell the place at a ridiculous loss, I certainly don’t want to pay that exorbitant amount…what options does a citizen have?  Like I said earlier, my first instinct would be to sell the place and move.  It occurred to me that living out in the country would limit these kinds of problems…but that’s exactly what is causing these people problems now.  Their places, back in the day, were out in the country…now the city has swallowed them up and expects them to pay for the growth.  It’s hitting some of these folks hard because they have larger yards than the city standard.  For awhile they had the benefit of a decent sized area just close enough to town to be convenient but far enough away to give that solitude feeling…now they are paying for those years of peace.

There were two articles from the in-forum dealing with this, one where it outlined the initial problem and another posted today (8/17) about the results from a meeting on Monday (8/16) relating to this issue.  I checked Darvin Becker’s specials, you can look up any address on the city’s website and get value/property tax/special assessment information.  Right now his specials for drain and sewer are 14k.  He has another assessment on there for paving for 16k bringing his total up to 30k+.  This shows updated as of 8/17 just after midnight.  I am assuming this is the total coming out of that meeting.  The article said the high specials were related to the sewer and drain projects, so was this originally going to be 16k + 60k?  damn…

I always paste the link and the article text form the in-forum into my posts because after a certain amount of time they charge you to view old articles from their website.

link to story 1

Lower bid cuts some Fargo specials

Residents say 25th Street assessments are still too high
A lower-than-expected bid for sewer and storm drain work will lower special assessment bills for residents in the 25th Street South corridor near the new Davies High School in far south Fargo.By: Marino Eccher, INFORUM

A lower-than-expected bid for sewer and storm drain work will lower special assessment bills for residents in the 25th Street South corridor near the new Davies High School in far south Fargo.

But the changes won’t put much of a dent in the bills for residents along 25th Street who balked at high assessment costs last week. Some of those residents still face special assessment charges of nearly $70,000.

Special assessments are charges levied by the city on property owners to pay for certain public works improvements such as roads, sewage and sanitation. The assessments in question were tied to the construction of the new high school, which will open in 2011.

Fargo City Engineer Mark Bittner said bids for the sewer work were expected to come in around $4.6 million. Instead, contracts were awarded for $2.6 million.

“There was lots of competition for it,” he said. “The locals bid it pretty tight.”

As a result, the sewer portion of special assessments in the area will fall.

Bittner also said the city dropped special assessment charges for sewer work altogether for some properties on the west side of 25th Street and on 64th Avenue because those properties shouldn’t have been billed in the first place.

“We had assessed sanitary sewers in areas that we had not intended to assess,” he said. He said the new sewer work “didn’t have any benefit to those properties.”

The reduced charges cut a chunk out of the assessment bills for some property owners. Shepherd of the Prairie Moravian Church on 25th Street saw its bill slide from $130,000 to $103,000, and the bill for a large undeveloped parcel owned by the Ryland Development Corp. across from the school site fell from more than $1.1 million to $970,000.

But the hefty assessment charges that vexed homeowners on the 6200 and 6300 blocks of 25th Street remained largely intact.

Darvin Becker, who lives at 6217 25th St. S., saw his assessment fall from $64,000 to $60,000. He said the reduction of a few thousand dollars doesn’t change his chagrin over the assessment fees.

“It needs to be more in the ten of thousands,” said Becker. The assessment bill still represents more than a third of the value of his $175,000 home and property.

Becker and a number of other homeowners in the area who are considering a protest will meet with special assessment officials on Monday night.

Link to story 2

Some south Fargo residents found confusion and frustration – while others left relieved – after a meeting Monday about special assessments to pay for infrastructure near the new Davies High School.

City engineering and assessment staff met with about 70 landowners Monday at Fargo City Hall to give information and help residents calculate their assessments, but changing estimates have left many confused about the projects.

“I feel that we’re still just confused,” said Lori Gerhardson, a real estate agent whose boyfriend, Ben Davidson, owns a home being assessed for about $22,000 in assessments.

“It depends which day you ask,” Davidson said, adding his assessments have been both higher than that and as low as $17,000 over the last month.

Part of the confusion, he said, is that the projects are broken into three improvement districts, and each carries a separate assessment figure. Lower project bids and a change in the way sewer costs are assessed also meant homeowners have seen several changes in the figures.

It wasn’t all bad news Monday.

Gabe Maliske was anticipating paying $1,300 a year but found out Monday that was his entire assessment amount. His annual payment would be just $54.

“So that’s a nice surprise,” he said. “I guess I feel a whole lot better about it.”

City Engineer Mark Bittner encouraged landowners with larger lots to look into whether they qualified for a deferral on a portion of their special assessments.

The deferrals are meant as a way to try to help these homeowners transition from rural residential areas, where lots are larger than typical city properties, Bittner said.

Deferrals are available for single-family home landowners with more than 135 frontage feet, the area the city uses to determine assessments.

“So 135 (feet) will be assessed. Anything over that will be deferred,” said Danny Eberhardt, special assessments coordinator.

The agreement is good for up to 10 years, but Bittner said there may be a provision added to extend the time.

Darvin Becker, who lives at 6217 25th St. S., saw his assessment fall from $64,000 to $60,000 after lower bids pushed down assessments but was hoping after Monday’s meeting that he would also qualify for a deferral for a portion of his assessment.

“It’s confusing,” he said. “It’s still going to be very costly. We have to sit down and figure it out.”

The projects, which include paving and sewer work along the 25th Street corridor, have been met with protest from several landowners. Eberhardt said his office received some formal protests, but he wasn’t sure how many.

To trigger a City Commission review of the improvement district, 50 percent of homeowners in the area must protest.

Lori Gerhardson has almost 500 signatures on a petition to protest the district but wasn’t sure if it was 50 percent.

“It’s gonna be close,” she said.

To check how much you owe in city special assessments, visit www.fargoparcels.com.

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Main Entry: ²intangible

Function: noun

Date: 1914

: something intangible: as a : an asset (as goodwill) that is not corporeal b : an abstract quality or attribute (as loyalty or creativity)

I’ve always got my eye out for a “bigger better” deal.  A lot of people I talk to would like to make more money with less work/responsibility.  When it comes to evaluating the position you are in compared to a position you might take, it’s important to look at the over all bigger picture.  The position you will take almost always offers -something- better than what you currently have.  When I moved from a temp employee for IBM to a regular employee with my current company, I took a fairly significant pay cut.  While I was taking home less money over all I gained health insurance, the inherent stability that comes with being a regular employee for a company and (the biggie at the time) the potential for upward movement.  In the end this move paid off as it was 6 months till I moved into the position I have now which pays decently with some nice perks…but there are also drawbacks.

At this point I’ve got a pretty decent job for my position in life.  It’s a lot more flexible than a lot of jobs would be in terms of hours, the company provides a cell phone for us that we get reasonable personal use from.  The atmosphere, for the most part, is pretty laid back.  It’s easy to get vacation time approved, and I generally like the people I work with every day.  There are drawbacks though, one of the main being 24/7 support.  It would be nice to be able to leave the office at the office and not think about it on the weekends or vacation.  In my chosen profession though the odds of not being on call in some form are pretty slim.  There are some growing pains with the processes we follow and so forth, but I think that would be fairly true in most businesses.

When evaluating a potential new position I have to put a value on all the “perks”.  My over all number for moving to a new company would be about 10k more than what I make now.  It’s pretty easy to put a value on the cell phone (monthly charge -10 x 12 ).  I value the cell slightly less than a full on cell plan because of how ours is locked down by our security policies.  The tougher things to value are the flexible schedule, the 24/7 support and general atmosphere.  The perk that has the most value to me is the flexible schedule.  When you have a kid there can be emergencies from time to time and sometimes things just happen.  Currently it’s pretty easy to work from home occasionally.  What is it worth to give up that freedom?  I value it at about 7k.  Maybe it’s worth even more than that…I dunno, but that’s the number I put on it.  What is 24/7 support worth?  If a company has some kind of rotation…that might seem a little better than what I have now, but it’s not always that clear cut.  Is the guy that is on the rotation expected to know everything there is to know about everything the company does?  When I worked for IBM the server guys were on a pager rotation.  They used to complain about it quite a bit when their time in the rotation came up.  They would miss out on quite a bit of sleep for about a week…it seemed pretty rough on them.

I said earlier that +10k was my magic number…and it was up till last night.  After putting in some serious thought into what it would take to jump ship…I think it would take quite a bit more than that.  The old man’s health is quickly becoming a major factor in my decision.  If I go to a new place I won’t have the leave time built up that I do now.  I won’t have the ability to work remotely and keep things running smoothly.  As things stand right now, if the SHTF it might be possible for me to take off and work remotely for a short period of time.  And when the end comes this place has a pretty open ended leave policy for death in the immediate family.  It is somewhat unreasonable to expect a new employer to be as understanding/accommodating as one you’ve been with for a few years.  So, what’s it worth to give up all that?  It’s tough to put a price on it really.

At this point, the only job I would seriously consider is one that moves me back to botno…those are few and far between.  The problem with taking a job back there is how it limit’s the wife’s career growth.  Currently she’s doing quite well where she works and is padding her resume well.  If I ask her to work from home she will lose out on opportunities for resume enhancement and potential forward movement.  In the end, we need to put a dollar amount on what it’s worth to move back to the farmstead.  If we limit her career advancement we are putting around 15-20k on that…potentially more if she can move further than I’m expecting her to in the next 5-10 years.

In the end everything has a price, be it the Benjamin’s or otherwise.

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We rolled into the yard around 5pm or so.  The folks and the kid were up at the lake messing around with the old man’s new personal sized pontoon thingy.  We let the dogs out and figured they could burn off some nervous energy.  They rounded the corner of the car…and there it was…across the yard was the black cat the old man has been taking care of for a few months now.  The cat is probably around 3-5 months old and is the only one out of the 4 that were dropped off that has hung around.  The dogs locked eyes…and took off like pack of wolves after this poor cat.  I figured for sure the cat would run…hell no, he arched his back hissed…and got his ass kicked.  He might have taken the first quick step away, but the little black dog knocked the cat down and the Sarge came in for the kill.  He had a hold of the cat, and managed to toss it in the air.  Sara and I were hauling ass over to the skirmish and we managed to get the dog off the cat before he killed it.The cat didn’t appear to be visibly harmed really.  He ran off, and I saw him a couple of times over the course of the next few days…he’s fine.  The last evening we were there he was in the house playing with the new dog (later in this story).  The Sarge was disciplined and remained on the tie out for a bit after that.

The next day mother called someone around the area that was selling shelties…so we went up there to pick up one of those.  If you know anything about these dogs you know what size they are.  This dog is smaller than the cat that got worked over the day before.  Needless to day we didn’t let this dog play with the Sarge.  We introduced them, the Sarge sniffed him up a bit…but we didn’t let either of them loose around each other.

I have no idea how to get this aggression out of the dog.  I’ve decided to enroll in some training classes tonight and see how that goes.  If the training doesn’t work..I’m going to have to think long and hard about getting rid of him.  As it stands now, I’m not going to be able to leave him alone around small animals…but if I can leave him off the leash with me around and have him not try to kill everything that would be a win.  I’m also thinking about “doggy day care” a day or two a week to promote some socialization.  I’ll have to talk to them and see how they handle fights and so forth.

It’s going to be a long road, but I’m going to employ some touchy feeling training as well as some serious alpha male training and see if we can’t get this worked out of him.

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The ride was set to start at 1130, so I figured I would get there just before 11.  Earlier in the day I ran around looking for parts, that brought me by U-Motors…and that got me registered about 3 hrs before everyone else…which saved me some time in line.  There really wasn’t a line around 11, but they were giving away t-shirts as well and the time I was there I got the size I wanted.  I rolled up to the joint at my target time and there were already several bikes parked there.  I didn’t get a count at all, but I would guess that over all there were 125+ bikes on the ride.  I’m a little self conscious about bringing my bike out to things like this.  It’s not a show bike, it’s pretty small and chances are I look like a bear on a trike when I’m rolling around on this thing.  After looking around at the other bikes there, if I wasn’t on the smallest bike it had to be damn close.  Not counting the crotch rockets, which could have easily been 250′s and I’d have no way to know, the next smallest bike was probably an 850 (which my buddy’s wife rides).  Some of the people there had some pretty showy bikes…a couple of “choppers” that have probably been in a show or two and there were lots of Harley’s…lots and lots of Harley’s.  There were a fewer older bikes as well, considerably older than mine.  In fact one of my buddy’s and his wife were probably on the oldest bikes there, outside of the “classics”, which didn’t bother them at all.  Another guy in our little sub-group was rollin around on a new triumph, another was riding 2-up with his woman on a newer Vulcan 900 and the last guy in our group was riding a newer road star.

There was no shortage of guys I would throw in the “douche” or “poser” category, in fact they seemed to be the overwhelming majority of these riders…which is starting to make me think that maybe I’m the douche.  I think as far as “bikers” go, my style is in the minority.  I hesitate to call myself a “biker”, I’m just a normal guy that rides a bike every chance I get.  I enjoy working on it, but if I had the spare case I would love to just pay someone to set it up the way I want it, if I want anything done to it I’m going to need to figure out how to do it myself.  It’s still tough for me to look at a guy on a “Harley” that is just shinny as all hell, decked out in a vest, the head gear (bandanna) leather chaps…etc and not think the dude is some sort of weekend warrior.  There’s really nothing wrong with that…but I don’t quite understand the desire to dress the part.

I did redefine what a poser is as far as bike classification is concerned.  Obviously by looking at a guy, I’ve got no way to know what his occupation and mentality is…maybe he dresses the biker part every day of his life, works in some sort of automotive shop and gets into a bar fight every chance he gets.  There was one guy in particular that was dressed the biker part, but bought himself one of those honda manufactured choppers (Honda fury).  I can understand people like this style of bike and maybe it makes them feel bad ass or something, but I can’t really understand why you would buy one instead of building one.  Part of the aura around a chopper is the idea that you built it yourself or at least customized it quite a bit yourself.  Something like this is just like however many thousand others they put out.  The guy had some cobra pipes on it, and while he was accelerating it sounded pretty good.  It wasn’t obnoxious and over the top…it just sounded good…accelerating.  The problem, which is the same with all OEM bikes, is the AIS (or catalytic converter).  This device is put on the bikes to meet some emission standards and only hurts the performance of the bike.  When you decelerate it gives a popping sound…that sounds like shit.  It will happen while the bike is idling as well, but it’s most noticeable on deceleration.  So, bad ass biker look…bad ass bike…performance issues = poser.  Also, the dude had ear buds in listening to presumably some sort of mp3 player…which is decidedly unbadass.  There were other guys rolling around like this as well that would fall in to the poser category.

The ride was fun though.  I called on Friday to get information about it and was told it was 130 miles.  After completing the course, it was more like 150 or so.  Given the speed we were going, I would have made it on a tank…but I filled up at the last stop just to be sure.  There were 4 30min stops at bars along the way.  I was a little disappointed in the bars TBH.  They didn’t seem like they were anywhere near prepared for the amount of people that were coming.  I wouldn’t say everyone on the ride drank, but chances are a lot of people were going to order something from the bar..and I think more people would buy more stuff if it was easily accessible.  The first bar had a beer stand outside…which wasn’t obvious at all unless you came into the establishment from the correct side.  The side we walked in on showed nothing about a beer stand outside.  The second bar was serving lunch…a sloppy joe, some chips, beans and a pop for 5 bucks.  Not a bad lunch…but you had to go inside and wait in the same line as the people getting drinks to get it.  Something like this should have been much more stream lined.  I would have set it up outside on a picnic table or something.  These were all small towns that (just like souris) could have easily liberated some tables from the park for the 45 min people where there.  Throw some coolers of beer and pop outside and have a couple of people manning the stations.  For the most part, the lunch could have been a serve yourself affair, but if your going to have people get for the customers it has to be a much more streamlined setup.  The third bar(s) were right across the street from each other and didn’t have the people behind the bar to handle the crowd.  The last bar was prepared and did exactly what it needed to so the “bikers” could get a drink.  They had a couple of people behind the bar moving drinks very fast.  The difference is they have an outside bar area setup for that kind of thing.

Maybe the cost/profit ratio just isn’t there for the bars to prepare like that…I don’t really know.  I don’t fault them for being overwhelmed but it does let me know that next time I might think about bringing my own beverages.  It wouldn’t be too difficult to strap a small cooler with some ice to the rack of the bike.  A sandwich or two wouldn’t hurt either.

The last stop was very educational for me.  One guy in our sub-group was riding a road star.  It’s a bike that is very high on my list to buy.  I have had no real experience with them other than seeing them online or on the showroom floor.  He offered to let me ride it, but I’m not very comfortable riding some one’s bike if I’m not looking to buy it.  He has cobra pipes on there…which were loud…loud…freekin loud.  I followed right behind him for a pretty good leg of our ride and they seemed too loud for me.  I hadn’t really seen a bike that I would classify as too loud until this ride.  I’m sure if I was on the bike and sitting ahead of the pipes they might have been fine…but behind it was a bit much.  I want the bike for long rides and even mine get a bit annoying after awhile….so going louder just isn’t going to work for me.  I like a deep thumping sound and his wasn’t as deep as I would have liked.  Maybe different pipes on there would be more to my liking.  I have jardine’s on mine so those on the roady might be what I’m looking for.

He needed fuel the same time I did so we both took off for the gas station.  We rounded the corner and both hit it…he left me in the dust like I was stalled out.  Now granted he has 1000cc on me, but I still get a little disappointed when I’m blown away.  It just reaffirms that no matter what I do to my bike, it’s still just a 650.  It’s very good around town and all that…but on the open road it gets smoked pretty easily.  There is no replacement for displacement.  I told one buddy that no matter what size bike your on, the speed limit is still 75…he did point out that some guys can get there a whole lot faster than others.

Initially I was disappointed by the roady, I expected more.  I expected my bike only bigger.  I love the sound from mine so if I could just get a bigger engine with the same noise I’d be happy.  I’ve only seen pipes like mine online, I haven’t seen them on any enthusiast bikes or even images in Google outside of the sale images (jardine turn out).  After I got my head around the fact that it’s a different bike with a different style engine, saw that it’s designed to compete with a Harley cruiser…I decided that it’s in fact the bike I want (unless a stratoliner is obtainable at a reasonable price).

There was a pig roast afterward.  It was the first time I’ve had pig like that and not been involved in the cooking process.  The pig wasn’t near as good as what we make…I don’t think they injected it with anything and they for sure used propane instead of charcoal.  The flavor for the sandwich came from different bbq sauces you could put on it.  The people that roasted the pig are a commercial outfit that are designed to go around and do this stuff for people.  I kinda wonder what they would charge for an event like that.  Their cooker had a rotisserie inside it, which is something the old man and I had talked about putting in “ours”.  They didn’t have a skewer that would spear through the pig, instead they used a rack type setup that held the pig as it turned.  It’s a good idea and I think a guy could build one pretty easily.  Actually, I bet you could use welded wire for it…hrm.  I suppose it wouldn’t stand up to the weight.

The ride was fun, it was a good opportunity to be around people with the same interests and talk about bikes for a little while.  It would get old if we were to do it all the time, but carving out an afternoon for it was a pretty good time.  It cost me 25 bucks to be on the run, that got me a tee-shirt and dinner afterward as well as being entered in their drawings.  It was 10 bucks for Sara to come to just dinner, listen to music and be entered into the drawing.  It’s not a bad price I don’t think.  The money is suppose to be going to the wadena school.

Next year I’ll try to catch a couple more of these runs.  Back home they didn’t have motorcycle runs, but over the winter they had poker runs damn near every weekend.  It’s pretty much the same concept.  Maybe there is some law against gambling or something that prevents that stuff from going on around here.  I’ve noticed the bars here don’t have “punch boards” like they do back home.

Some pix taken on the run, incidentally…these pix were taken with the blackberry.  They look pretty sharp IMO.  It’s such a shame the pix are encrypted on our company phones and such a bitch to get off there on to something usable.

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After looking over various styles and price points I’m probably going to end up on a Yamaha Road Star 1600-1700cc.  This falls in to my projected price/performance sweet spot.  When the cash is in hand things might change a little bit, maybe there will be a killer deal on some other bike, but as it stands right now this one seems to fit for me.  I’m familiar with Yamaha engineering to the point where I’m comfortable working on some minor to intermediate problems that arise.  To get in to a harley at my price point it’s going to be older and have high miles.  Harley’s of that era are going to take a bit more work on my part to keep running than I want to deal with.  I want this bike to just work.  I don’t want to have to do anything to it other than change oil and fill gas.  After I get this bike I’m going to be making some adjustments to the v*, and I don’t want the hassle or time sink of working on 2 bikes at the same time.

I’ve outlined the requirements for a new bike, there are a couple of “musts” and several “would be nice’s.  The musts have to either come with the bike or the bike has to be cheap enough where I can order it right away.  The first must is a set of hard saddle bags.  I don’t want leather bags because after time they start to warp and look like shit.  I’ve seen quite a few bikes with some high mileage on the bags and the hard ones still look really good where the leather ones look worn.  I want to be able to ride in the rain if necessary and not worry about the bags going to hell, and I want them water proof.  The windshield is a must as well.  I rode the v* a little bit without the windshield around town and it sucked.  The purpose of the “new” bike will be out of town riding.  I’ll use it for my daily commute, but I want to be able to get on the highway with it…those quick runs to the farm and back.  Without  windshield it is a lot more tiring to ride…it feels like I’m constantly battling that unseen force, they also keep the bees out of your chest.  I want some highway bars on the bike.  It’s nice to be able to stretch the legs out a little bit on long cruises, much the same as a car.  I want some after market pipes on it.  I don’t want it to be uncomfortably loud, but I do want it to make some noise.  I’d like it to have an aftermarket air intake system.  This would beef up the performance a little bit.  The final must is a passenger back rest.  I run around with the kid a bit and I wouldn’t feel comfortable with her on the bike and no back rest.  It gives her the freedom of not having to hold on to me all the time and is a little more safe IMO (I don’t have any data to back this up…just my feeling and impression).

That’s it really, the must list isn’t long and most cruising bikes have some form of the items listed above.  There are quite a few “it would be nice if” but nothing that would be a make or break on a sale.  They would make one bike more desirable than another…but it doesn’t void the sale.

I would like to have an after market seat on the bike.  They are overall more comfortable than the OEM seat, but I don’t have enough experience to say I want a Mustang seat over a Corbin seat.  I’d also like a driver backrest, detachable preferably.  After some short rides on the v* I noticed my back gets a little soar and I’m hoping the backrest would help out a bit.  It would be cool to have some after market grips.  With the gloves I have they are not necessary for comfort, they just look cool.  A hitch and wiring would be nice as well.  I’m not sure I would pull much of anything with it..unless the hitches have a large enough weight rating to be able to pull a trailer with a 4-wheeler (another discussion for another time).  The hitch is really an edge case item.  It’s not something I could see getting a whole lot of use out of, but I’m sure there would be a couple of times it might be nice to have.  It might be nice if I could pull a bike trailer with a dirt bike on it for the kid…we could ride out in the country somewhere for her to go riding around.  There might be other times it would be handy as well…heading up to the farm I might need to bring something larger that won’t fit well on the bike..etc.  I’m sure there are other dressy type things that would be nice to have…but those are really the only ones that I can think of right now.

One dude on an enthusiast message board for Road Stars had a 2k2ish roadie with 33k on it.  The mileage seems slightly high, but the year isn’t too bad.  The guy was also selling the trailer he pulls behind the bike as a package deal for $5500.  IMO that’s a pretty good price, I’m hoping to be able to get in to a decent cruiser for 5500, so if a trailer comes with it…what the hell.  He had pictures and all that and everything looked fine.  Also, I think a guy on an enthusiast message board might take a little better care of it than the average bear.  I’ve seen a few on craigslist in the 5500-6500 range.  Depending on the mileage that might be acceptable, but I would really like to stay around 5500.

The reason I’d like to stay around 5500 is so I can sneak a few other things in to the over all bike budget.  I would like to get a small dirt bike for the kid.  Something in the 100-125cc range.  She’ll be 12 by the time I’m looking at making these buys, and she should be big enough by then for a dirt bike.  We had 3-wheelers as kids and they were all kinds of fun.  We don’t have the space for her to ride like I did, but if we can bring it along to the various farms or maybe find somewhere around town with some kind of track or something she can piss around on.  It might be a little bit dangerous but…there are all kinds of things that the kid will do that are dangerous.  IMO the fun factor out weighs the danger.  Hopefully when she’s old enough for her license I can buy her a mid sized bike to run around town.  Anything larger than that though she’s going to have to buy.  Looking around online you can buy those old 2 cycles for around 800 bucks.  It’s enough but not too bad, hopefully they will last a couple of years.  The problem with those old 2-cycle engines is they burn up quicker than 4-cycle.  I don’t want to get in to something that I’m looking at replacing pistons and heads within the first year of ownership.  I’d like it to carry her until she’s 15 or so.

I’d like to pick up a trailer to haul the bikes around with.  We should be able to pick up one of those wire bedded suckers for a fairly reasonable price.  It will have more uses than just hauling the bikes around, when I get back in to bow hunting again I’ll be able to haul a 4-wheeler on it as well…so it’s not just a one trick pony.  I’d like one wide enough to be able to haul 2 cruisers.  If we go camping or something it might be nice to take an afternoon cruise in a park on the bikes or whatever.  I could install a hitch on the car to pull this trailer easy enough.  If not, we’ll just have to take the pickup a few more places…no real big deal.  I don’t even know how often I’d haul a bike around like this.  It would probably be used more for a utility trailer than anything else.  In either case, it would be semi handy to have one.

After I get a larger cruising bike, I’m going to be looking to make some changes to the v*.  I’m going to lower the back end a couple of inches and raise the front end about 2 inches.  I’m going to “chop” the rear fender.  I don’t plan on making any cuts to the OEM fender, I read that there is one that can be bought at fleet farm cheaply.  I’m going to get rid of the front fender completely.  I’m going to put about 16″ ape hangers on it with some internal wiring.  I’ll use stainless steel cables and chrome things up a bit.  After that I’ll install a hyper charger and throw on a custom seat.  This should give me a pretty neat “chopper” look to the bike.  It won’t be an every day driver anymore but more of a take it out and cruise sometimes kinda thing.  I’m torn on the paint job, I’ll either go with the same purple it has on it now, just freshen it up and paint over the silver…or I’ll see if someone can give me a “real tree” paint job and I’ll put on some of those hunting vehicle decals.  Finish it off with some bullet turn signals and we’re done.  I have no idea what this is going to cost me, but it should look pretty good when it’s done.

When I’m finished with this I’m hoping to get by for about $7500.  This might not see like much money to most people, but to me it’s a significant amount.  Also, it’s not like I’m getting money together for the benefit of the whole family…getting a different bike is for me alone really.  It’s a pretty selfish thing that I can only ride 7 months out of the year (at best).  I’ve gone over my budget and found the “extra” money to throw at this project so I should be able to do it by the summer of ’12.  It’s a little bit of a wait and hopefully nothing major comes up that takes this whole project off track.

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It’s difficult for us as “regular” people to understand how these seemingly rich people can argue and bicker about what seems like pennies compared to the overall bigger picture.  If we take a step back and relate it to our own situations it’s easier to see how we would fight and scratch for everything we could get or believe we are entitled to.  I’d like to see both basketball and football model themselves a little more like baseball.  What seems really screwy to me is that the NBA wants to get away from guaranteed contracts.  It’s obvious why the owners would like this, but what incentive is there for the players to agree to something like this?  This happens in the NFL, the teams can drop a player whenever they want to and just write off the contract…the player can sit out training camp and so forth but they still get fined for the days they are gone.  How did something like this ever get agreed to by the players association?

In the guaranteed contract area, baseball has the right idea.  When you agree to something, player or organization…you are obligated to live up to it.  Maybe the players performance has surpassed the contract value…then the team ends up with the better deal…maybe the player declines.  Either way, it is a contractual obligation that both sides need to live up to.  I’m sure the argument in the NBA will be that these long term big money deals are crippling the teams…well, then stop giving the god damn deals out?  It’s only a multimillion dollar organization that cannot understand the concept of not spending more than you can afford.

Beyond this, how are the players going to possibly believe that the teams cannot afford these contracts?  The teams are going to whine and complain that they are losing money, but their behavior over the past little while has shown they have plenty of money to throw around.  I’m sure the owners are going to show some sort of expense reports or something that will back up their claims…but how can the players know these are legit?  I don’t have 20 million to spend…but I’m going to offer LeBron 130million!  To a reasonable person this just doesn’t make sense.  The league is going to ask the players to take pay cuts, lower the percent of the overall revenue they are sharing and give up their guaranteed contracts.  I hope the players are ready for a long term lockout.  We look at the salaries they get and think they should have no problem getting buy until things are re-enstated, but just like “normal” people…the rich people expand their life style to fit their income.

The NFL is in a little bit of a different situation in that some of the things they are arguing for are slightly different.  In the NFL one of the major sticking points are the rookie salaries.  They are giving these huge contracts to unproven rookies, and that is taking money out of the pool that would be available for the proven vets.  I think the rookies need to have a salary scale based on draft position.  I believe MLB and NBA already have this in place and it’s a very good idea.  You might argue that there is more of a chance for injury in football…but everyone takes the same risk.  The high draft picks will -probably- play a little more than the lower draft picks, but the cost/risk is taken care of by the higher salary for the higher position in the draft.  Outside of that…you then get into the same issues as the NBA.

I generally like the idea of a salary cap.  I like the jockeying and player swapping teams have to do to make the numbers work out.  I don’t like the way the NBA does the salary cap as they have too many loop holes.  I think contracts should be guaranteed.  The only thing I really don’t like with MLB is the way the players union pressures guys to take as much money as possible in each contract.  I think that should be up to the player if they want to give a “home town discount”.  I understand how previous contracts influence future contracts and the players union is interested in maximizing player salaries now and for the future…but I think a player should be able to give up some money so the team can spend to get other players to build a contender.  This is “somewhat” common in the NBA and I believe Tom Brady did it with his last contract.

We’ll have to wait to see how it works out…and I’m really hoping there isn’t a lockout in either sport.

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This is the first trip her and I have taken alone anywhere…ever.  Usually we have at lest the kid with us or more usually the kid and the dogs.  I enjoy traveling with the whole family, but it’s not really a vacation for me.  I have to keep an eye on the Sarge so he doesn’t kill something, I need to watch the kid so she doesn’t hurt herself.  I need to listen to the kid complain that she’s bored, or wants to do (blahblahblah)….it’s not an actually break for us.  This time it was just us…and tbh, I was a little apprehensive.  We get along fine…but over the course of a weekend there is usually one knock down drag out fight about something.  A week in Vegas?  Sounds like a smashing idea!

Her mother offered to give us a ride to the air port.  That worked out well as we wouldn’t have to pay to leave our car there and she would be able to bring the kid to the air port to meet us.  Seeing mommy at the airport is probably fairly important to Sam, and I know it is to Sara.  I’m good with it and it also means that we don’t have to drive around to pick her up.  We’ll get in fairly late, so it will be nice to just go home, say hi to the kid and dogs…and hit the rack.  As we get to the airport we see that our plane is running 2hrs late.  That puts what would have already been a late landing in vegas even later.  It’s kind of a bummer…but what can you do really?

Now comes the shittiest part of the whole flying experience…airport security.  You have to virtually strip naked, put everything in a plastic bucket…then walk through the metal detector.  Now this alone doesn’t sound so horrible…and frankly it’s not, but the problem comes in when you have a shitload of people just as pissy about the situation as you are all trying to rush through…it’s most unpleasant.  I wasn’t able to bring my pocket knife or leather man…cause you know I just might assault someone on the plane!  Never mind the fact I’ve gone through the hassle of a concealed weapons permit…fuckers.  So I strip down…even remove my belt and walk through the machine (BEEP)…ta hell?  Oh, wallet…I’ve got a truck key in there.  Walk through again (BEEP)…ta fook?  I turn my pockets inside out…nothing…walk through again (BEEP).  Now we’re getting concerned, I’m figurin barney fife is getting ready to snap on the rubber gloves.  Then they tell me “You aren’t touching the sides as you go through?”.  Dunno deputy dip shit, I’m wider than this god damn thing…I suppose I’m brushing them.  I walk through again, sucking everything together…no Beep.  Don’t touch the sides…handy little piece of information to have right there.

Now we wait 45 min for the flight to come in and we board the plane.  The woman had the foresight to reserve us seats on the 2 side of the plane (seat layout was 2×3).  So while we are a little snug, at least it’s against each other and we’re not putting someone else out.  She is afraid of flying…I’m not really sure why.  I assume it’s a slight unnatural sensation and you can’t really see what’s going on.  I’m not afraid of it per se, but I do find it uncomfortable.  When they pressurize the cabin, it makes me a little queasy and screws with my ears.  I can’t hear very well..and it just -feels- strange.  Other than that I’m find..the up and down motion doesn’t bother me and I like to watch things out the window…I think it looks cool.

We get into vegas pretty late, but all the lights are in full effect.  Many people raved about how the lights look when you come in to town…I’m not seeing it.  They are lights…on buildings…I’ve seen lights on buildings…nothing new here.  Getting off the plane and to the hotel was relatively painless.  We were thinking about a cab, but on the plane they mentioned the shuttle tix they were selling.  14 bucks per person and that takes care of both ways.  We weren’t sure what a cab would cost…but this saved us hassle and I’m all for that.  Getting to the shuttle pick up area we see the desk there was selling the same tix for 12 bucks…something to keep in mind for next time.

Lines…lines…lines.  Everywhere you go there were lines for everything.  I’m not a huge fan of standing in line to begin with…but throw in some walking and soar feet…it wasn’t a good time.  At the hotel check-in they offered us an upgrade at what seemed like a reasonable price.  It gave us a bigger room with a “jacuzzi”.  The Jacuzzi turned out to be a jacuzzi tub, but it was nice none the less.  The room was clean and good sized…the bed was very comfortable and the a/c worked decently.  All things that are key for a comfortable night stay.  It had a huge window that was looking to the backside of the strip…which gave us a view of empty parking lots basically.  Off in the distance though were the mountains…now that looked really cool.

For our first night we didn’t have too much planned, we want to look around a little bit…find some food and just chill.  Being that we got to town 2hrs late, it really cut in to the time we had to just hang out.  Never the less we did decide to strike out onto the strip and see what we see.  And see we did.  It was around 1230am or so when we started walking around and all that you could see for miles were drunks.  There were quite a few people out and about…and every one of them were shit faced off their ass.  Littered on the sidewalk were little playing card sized “fliers” with naked chicks on them.  Later I would come to find out where these came from.

If you haven’t been to Vegas before, or any large party area…it’s probably tough to imagine the level of drunkenness that was staggering down the street.  It was a Friday night and these people were ready to party till Sunday.  I’m many years past that stage in my life and don’t begrudge the people that still want to do it…but I just don’t want to be a part of it.  Party your ass off…I’ll find something else to do.  The wife (whom has a degree of her own in partying) was even a little put off by it.  It really killed the atmosphere for us, we walked a little but then headed back to the hotel.  I don’t think we grabbed anything to eat…we just went to bed.  We weren’t pissed or anything…but that first night really set the expectation for vegas.  We decided that if we were going to do any exploring it had to be during the late morning/early afternoon.  Once it gets on to evening, we needed to find someplace to hide out a little bit.

Saturday we set out to get some tickets for a show or two.  We didn’t buy anything in advance because we didn’t want to be held to any clocks.  There are these 1/2 price ticket booths all over the place and that’s where we got our tix from.  The woman has been wanting to see the bodies exhibit for awhile so we figured it was a good time to check that out.  The normal tix for the show are slightly more than 50 bucks each, we got ours for 25.  Now we had a destination and a time to be there…with a couple hours to kill we were going to check out the strip and find food…leisurely enough.

I wasn’t sure the strip was going to be something that we’d want to walk.  Looking at maps and stuff it looked a lot longer than it really is.  Also, the heat is a huge factor for me.  I don’t do well in high temperatures….I’m a god damn viking not a jamaican.  The heat (surprisingly enough) was not that bad.  Oh it was hot in the sun, but there was a slight breeze and shade in several spots.  When you stood in the shade the breeze made things quite pleasant.  We trekked down the strip, taking in all the sites and the woman snapping pictures to her hearts content.  There was lots of things to see and do, and there were a pile of people…but it didn’t seem so overwhelming…yet.  It was probably my curiosity keeping my attitude positive more than anything else.  Even though it’s not my ‘element’ it was something new and I wanted to see all I could.  We decided to have lunch at the “Harley” cafe.  A friend of Sara’s said it was good.  Sure enough, it was pretty good.  We ate for about 30 bucks.

Eating in Vegas is an art all to itself it seems.  There are lots of places for food and some of them are really expensive.  Even the decently expensive places though had a few specials and all that.  We went to what looked like a pretty fancy Italian place Saturday evening.  There were two menu’s there.  The first was a special menu where you could order your meal (salad, entree, desert) for twenty bucks.  That isn’t bad at all.  If you were to order of the regular menu…it got pretty spendy in a hurry.  We looked at the cheap menu and decided that we’d go with that.  The food was good but not excellent, the service was really good though.  I’m not sure what eating off the cheap menu did to the entrees though.  They are the same as you see on the regular menu for a higher price…maybe they were smaller portions or something?  dunno, either way the meal was more than enough for sara and plenty for me…both of us left satisfied.

Anyhow, getting back to Saturday afternoon…we made the trek down to MGM where we went to check out the bodies exhibit.  I’ve heard about this before and it’s not something that interests me in the slightest.  I’ve cut up so many animals that I’ve seen this stuff in them…a person isn’t really all that different.  Sara was really enthralled by it tough.  She spent so much time looking at each exhibit and seemingly studying it.  There was a section devoted to the circulatory system that interested me a little bit.  Not so much in how blood moves around…but more in how they displayed it and the technique they used to get things viewable to the people walking through.  Then there was the “abortion” exhibit (for lack of a better word).  This showed the various stages of development of a fetus.  I found this really interesting as it was something I hadn’t really paid attention to before.  There was one woman that came out of there crying…which was less than I expected.  With the time Sara spent looking at things and how interested she is in stuff like that I think it was quite worth the price.

We decided that we would hike back down the strip to the hotel, stop in a couple shops and rest up for our evening entertainment…which we hadn’t procured yet.  I wanted to go to some kind of show, but I wasn’t really sure what.  I wanted some comedy and before we left I saw a hypnotist playing there.  We hit the 1/2 price tix again and got VIP seating for the “naughty boys” hypnotism show.  VIP gives you better seating and an open bar.  For what drinks went for at other bars the extra 20/per was worth it.

On our way back to the hotel we stopped in M&M world.  There was so much M&M crap there…and they knew what they wanted for it all.  I’m sure you can get it cheaper online…but I decided to pick up a pair of boxer shorts.  Normally I’m not a boxer guy…but I didn’t have anything to bum around the hotel room and they were kinda cool lookin.

We made it back to the hotel and tested out the jacuzzi tub…I’ll leave that to the imagination.

After that we headed out for dinner (see Italian post above) and then over to the hypnotist.

The tickets for the hypnotists said “harmon theater” but everyone we talked to said it was at planet Hollywood.  The show started at 9 but we wanted to be there by 830 because we didn’t know the seating situation and so forth.  We started looking for the damn place…and looking and looking…we asked several people where it was and seemingly got a different answer each time.  We were starting to get a little pissed and it didn’t seem like we were going to find the place.  Finally one shop keeper we asked broke out a map to show us where it was at…we had to walk around PH and over to the theater.  It wasn’t really attached it didn’t seem like.  I suppose people kept saying it was at PH because of it’s recognizably.

The show was hilarious.  I love watching hypnotists.  I saw my first one in college and have been hooked on them ever since.  I think it is pretty amazing how they can put someone in a “trance” like that and have them do some pretty outlandish stuff.  The ones we went to were “adult” oriented.  There was no nudity but all the jokes and stupid stuff were very adult themed.  It was a good show.  After that we went back to the hotel and ordered a small bit of room service.  We didn’t need anything, but the munchies were there so we caved.

The next day didn’t start off quit so smoothly.  It was Sara’s birthday so I was trying to let her decide how things would flow.  She didn’t want to make any decisions, and I’m cool with that…when I am being catered to sometimes the best thing is to let someone else run the show and not have to think about anything…just come along for the ride.  The problem was every time I made a decision, she would say “what about this…what about this…”.  We were both getting frustrated really quickly. It was pretty much a by product of not sleeping much, the walking and the heat.  I had mentioned the day before about going to the CSI experience.  Sara is a big CSI fan, so I thought this would be pretty cool for her to feel like she’s taking part in an episode.  Again we hit the 1/2 price tickets.  Given that we’d walked up and down the strip the previous day we took the mono-rail this time.  Full day passes were 12 bucks…which isn’t bad if you are going to be using it a bit…one time passes are 5 bucks…which can be a touch steep depending on where you wanted to go.

We got to the CSI thing and found out there were 3 different crime scenarios to chose from.  I talked her in to us taking a different one each and making it a little bit of a competition.  After waiting for the dipshit blonde to finally let us in…we began our missions.  I’ve experienced more challenge getting out of bed in the morning than this thing presented.  It was less of an “experience” and more of an “interactive exhibit”.  You looked through a microscope at a piece of hair or bullet…matched it to the 4 possibles…etc.  I’d chosen one with a guy that was shot and buried in the desert.  I was able to identify the bullet by sight (45, JHP), identify the hair as dog hair from the 4 possible animals, then identify it by breed….it wasn’t a challenge.  I, being less interested in the actual CSI show and more in the challenge of the experience, whipped through it in about 20min.  Sara, looking around at all the CSI related stuff, managed to drag it out to an hour.  Both of us were very disappointed in the “show” and I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone.

At this point it was getting late in the day so we ventured back to the hotel and took a quick nap before finding some fireworks.  The woman had her heart set on seeing fireworks in Vegas.  I found they were doing it at Ceasar’s palace but “where” was a bit more tricky.  There wasn’t really anything published till the 1st so you had to follow the crowd or talk to a few people to find out what’s going on.  As we’re following the crowd we pass a sign that says 99 cent margaritas, lime and strawberry.  Naturally we grabbed a couple and headed over to watch the firecrackers.  We stood on the bridge over the street between Cesar’s palace and bill’s bar…more and more people started filing in…so the woman decided we need more margaritas!  Off we go back to the bar and back to the bridge.  By now there were getting to be a shitload of people…shitload.  I hadn’t seen this many people except on T.V.  The firecrackers were nice…but then we go to leave…OMFG…the biomass wasn’t moving…at all.  It was insane!!  We were going to head over to Fremont street, but after seeing all those people we decided to head over to the bar and suck up as many margarita’s as possible…actually we only had a few each and they were really small.

A quick supper at “Nosh” a gourmet sandwich type place and off to bed.  Airport…blahlbhablah home.

Vegas was O.K. I suppose for what it was, it’s not my cup of tea at all.  I wouldn’t be too stoked up about going back unless it was for a purpose..see a specific show, etc.  I have no use for all those people.  I really think that’s going to be my attitude about most large cities, but Vegas has a little extra trash about it.

The first afternoon we walked out of the hotel some lady (whom looked like she worked at the hotel) asked use a few questions “how long you in town, you married, I’ve got a complimentary show for you”.  I got sucked in as I wasn’t aware of this particular scheme.  If it was just signing up for something I might have went for it, but she asked for 40 bucks and said I would get it back in cash after I went to the meeting.  I assume this is a secure thing to make sure people show up.  I wasn’t down with that and walked away.  These people were fucking everywhere.  You walk by and they start getting on your ass, over and over again every hotel most every street corner…all over the god damn place.  My god it got old.  Finally the last day some dude came up to me in the hotel “Hey big man…how long you…” “dude, knock it off” “oh, hey looks like they’ve been burning this guy”…yes they have.

Beyond this scheme, there are the people handing out the porn cards.  There isn’t just one here or there…it’s like running a god damn gauntlet when you walk down the sidewalk.  The cards are littered all over the sidewalk, there might be little white “pasty’s” over the nipples but it’s still a very explicit picture.  There were people walking around with children…looking at this crap.  It really turned me off and I like some good adult entertainment.  For me, it was just like the beggars in San Fran..it was pretty disgusting and distracts from the entire experience.  I don’t blame the people handing them out…I expect they are probably just guys working for some cash under the table…but the people selling this type of shit or the law allowing this type of stuff really needs to be adjusted.  I’m not sure what the law is, but it must have something to do with these guys not being able to talk about the service offered…they flick the cards and make noise but they never talk about it.  They wear shirts that say stuff like “nude girls on demand” but never say anything.  It’s a shitty deal for normal people just walking and looking around.  Lots of people had children all over Vegas…with this kind of stuff going on, I wouldn’t bring Sam to Vegas.

There are some guys selling water all over this place.  This was a pretty cool deal really.  They’d pull water out of their ice coolers and sell them for a buck each.  We bought several of them…it wasn’t a screw you over price and the water was cold.  One guy was offering 2 for 1…undercutting the competition!

I’ve mentioned a few times that I had a beer and a few margarita’s.  My “no drinking” resolution was able to with stand deer season and everything else that came along…but it was not able to last through the Vegas heat and all those god damn people.  There were a couple of drink specials I took advantage of, but other than that I didn’t have too much.  I’ve no plans to drink anymore here…but I needed something to settle me down in that crowd.

Speaking of drinking…the wife grabbed a bottle of wine on the way back to the hotel.  When she decided to crack it open…we had a problem, it was a cork top and not a screw top.  Naturally we didn’t have a cork screw…I had to MacGyver a solution to this situation.  Now were I able to bring my leatherman with this wouldn’t have been a problem…but since that dangerous weapon might be used to tighten a screw! I wasn’t able to bring it with….I had to use a butter knife to shove the cork back down in to the bottle to finally get in to it.  God damn airport security bullshit.

Over all, it was a good time for the wife and I.  We both enjoyed getting away and not having to think about the kid or dogs.  Maybe we’ll take off somewhere just ourselves in a couple years again.  Next year we’re planning on going somewhere with the kid and dogs…just to a lake or something.  We’ll see.

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I’ve been really pushing to keep her in this stuff for a couple of reasons.  I think it is very important that children are involved in something artistic at a young age.  It’s easy to enroll them in sports…in town she gets to hang out with some friends and run around but I think things like the theater allow them to express themselves and their creativity in a way that other things do not.  I also think doing something like this and receiving positive feed back from a crowd is vital to her getting over her fear of being in front of people and leading a group.  I think being able to talk in front of people is probably the most important thing children can lean from choir and acting.  It’s a vital skill in the business world that is largely undervalued by a lot of parents.

Anyhow, getting to the conversation…these two ladies were talking about the cost of the program and how it was expensive.  One parent mentioned limiting the number of sessions her daughter could be in because of the cost.  I can understand how parents have to pick and chose things for their children to do because of cost.  Things can be very expensive and you have to make wise decisions.  From my perspective, this was the first year Sam won’t be in daycare all summer.  Our options are her home alone or find stuff for her to do.  We had been looking for something athletic, but the kid is flat footed.  This has been diagnosed and addressed recently but the decision was made for her to sit out any sports during the summer session so she could get more comfortable with the inserts in her shoes.

The ladies having the conversation were lamenting the expense of this program.  They never mentioned the other programs their children were in and I gathered they were not in any.  This program runs all day for three weeks.  The cost for 4* weeks of this program was $200 (* the first week was 4-7 because some schools were still in session).  3 weeks of the class is Mon-Thurs 9-4.  I can get how someone might have to say no, they just can’t afford it…maybe it doesn’t work out because of the time the parent(s) work..etc.  I get that, it’s a perfectly reasonable excuse.  These ladies didn’t indicate that the money was an issue.  They were bitching more and more about the time and the running around they had to do.

As their conversation went on it became very clear that their main complaint wasn’t the money they spend on the program, it was the time investment they would have to make.  They didn’t think they would get enough time to do nothing after work.  This was pretty disgusting to me.  These parents that don’t take the time to invest some effort into finding and fostering what their children are interested in are the same ones that are going to be confused later when their kid is pregnant and/or a drug addict.  I get the time constraints when a person has multiple children…but one of the ladies was a mother of two, the other was a grandmother, wtf else do you really have to do other than chauffeur your children around?  To me, that is the commitment you make as a parent.  If you cannot get your child involved in activities and support them you are just setting yourself up for problems later when their friends get them interested in things…drugs, sex…whatever.

It was two women talking, and it seems to me that when women (whom are a little older) start talking to each other in settings like this their favorite past time is bitching about stuff.  If you’re concerned about the money, shave a hundred bucks off somewhere else in your budget…go out to eat less…whatever.  A lot of people in the same income bracket as me hide behind the financial aspect of activities as a reason for not letting their children play.  The real price they don’t want to pay is the time commitment.  I’m fortunate to have a very flexible job where I can work around the child’s schedule.  I realize some people don’t have that…but I also expect that a lot of them don’t really try to be involved.

It’s easily observed that children whom are involved in activities, with parents that are actively involved do better in school and have a better chance at becoming productive members of society.  It doesn’t bother me so much when I see a parent that isn’t involved…the world is going to need more strippers.

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