Purple Nurple

That's right.

On the Road

As the title may suggest, I am again on the road. This week it is Salem, Oregon for a 3 day DUII enforcement training. Today was day one, so far it has been pretty interesting stuff. I am looking forward to the next couple of days.

So, since there really isn't too much news to report on my end, but I have come across a couple of links I thought I would pass along.

I haven't seen this in Astoria. Yet. I am not ruling it out.

If you read Penny-Arcade (and the news posts) you will have already seen this.

Thats all for now. Be excellent to each other.

The Power of Voices

I doubt this particular bit of news found its way to too many of you out there, but Dave Niehaus was just elected to the baseball hall of fame as a broadcaster. Make no mistake this is an honor the man has earned and then some. Dave has been the voice of the Mariners since day one of the franchise.

But this post isn't exactly about how awesome Dave is, how he deserves to be in the Hall of Fame. Hearing about Dave, and also having read on of Canzano's better columns about the Schonz has had me thinking about the voices that define teams and sports for me. More than any specific game, any player or any heroic performance those two announcers are my childhood sports memories.

I know a couple of you out there grew up in Portland and grew up as Blazer fans. I am still a Blazer fan, and Brian Wheeler isn't bad. But it doesn't always feel like listening to a Blazer game either. The voice of Bill Schonely is so iconic to me it is hard not hearing it, even 10 years after he was run out of the organization. I know he is back doing some work for the Blazers and you can still hear a few of his wonderful phrases but so many are lost. It's almost worst hearing the few that they have as sound bites for the radio broadcast or for Standard TV commercials. Yet, every now and again, from somewhere deep in the back of my memory snippets of his calls come back.

I am thankful that Dave Niehaus is still working for the Mariners. Like Schonely, he doesn't work full games anymore, but there is couple of innings each game that he does call the play by play. I know there will come a day when he is too old to handle even the light duties he has and we will hear his last call. If I am aware of it on that day, I am sure I will feel sad, wistful perhaps. I have a feeling it won't really sink in until the next summer though. One day, when I am in my office tuning into the game I will forget that Dave is gone and expect to hear his voice, and it won't be there.

This post got a little sentimental, which wasn't my original intent. In the end, perhaps the Northwest should be happy to have been blessed with two fantastic, iconic, and long-lasting play by play announcers.

My oh my.

Thoughts on Ties

So, I am not exactly what most would call a metro-sexual. If you are reading this blog, it is likely that this isn't news. At least one person has described me as “the straightest guy I know.” I am not sure that was meant as a compliment, but what the hell... I take what I can get.

All that said, I do have at least a small interest in men's fashion. Specifically, the areas of men's fashion relating to the proper fit, cut and style of suits, dress shirts and the proper way to tie a tie. To me this is only natural since I wear a shirt and tie most days. Also, show me a guy that didn't at least have some interest in knot tying as a kid. All boys love knots, I don't know why, but they do! This is an interest I have discussed more then once with one of my good friends, J.T. We have downed more than a pint talking about ties and tie knots. So what is the point of all of this?

Let me give you a little background first. As discussed in the paper, and later their book “85 Ways to Tie a Tie” given certain assumptions there are only 85 ways to tie a tie (excluding mirror images). To those of you interested in the basics, look here, for a more in depth look, start here.

After careful review of the literature, it seems to me (unless I am seriously misreading this information) my two favorite tie knots are not amount those considered among the “13 useful knots.” I find this deeply disturbing. I started tying these knots in the mistaken impression that they were a Windsor and a Half-Windsor. As far as I can tell, this was due to some bad information on the web and my misreading of some of what was out there. That said I think both of these knots look just fine. I am not the kind of guy that needs marching orders for everything, and I am certainly not going to stop using the knots, but I find it interesting that these knots aren't on the list.

For those of you that might be interested, here they are (using the notation most commonly used) Maybe I am just not reading the symbols and tables right...

My version of the “half-windsor:”

Li, Co, Li, Ro, Li, Co, T

This knot is a little asymmetrical, but not overly so. Really, I think it makes a nice compliment to a well tailored suit. It is not my everyday knot, but some days when I am feeling slightly off kilter myself it is quite nice.

My version of the windsor:

Li, Co, Li, Ro, Ci, Ro, Li, Co, T

This is my everyday knot. This knot is quite symmetrical and makes a nice, medium sized triangle. It is neither as large as a try windsor, nor as difficult to tie. I feel it fits better in most shirt collars (especially button down collars) than a true windsor.

I don't know. Maybe I am way off base. For those of you out there that wear ties, or have an eye for such things, tell me what you think.

Also... for the cooks out there, this site is awesome.

Exciting Saturday Night

Exciting! By which I mean sitting at my dinning room table writing a post while my girlfriend sits at the other end play World of Warcraft. I do have cookies though. And cookies are awesome. Alright, so I am figuring this post will be mostly an update as to what we have been up to. After that I will probably go back to intermittent silence punctuated with some rambling sports posts and other half formed thoughts.

First, Work!

I am still with the DA's office. If I haven't mentioned it, we recently (within a couple of months) moved into completely remodeled offices. It hard to describe the improvement, but let me try. When I started I had an 8x6 (give or take) office with a window. Pretty swank! Until you realize it wasn't in the DA's office. It was out the back door, kind of set off from everything else. It looked a lot like a broom closet door. Then the workers got started remodeling the 3rd floor of the courthouse where our offices had been. So we moved into some temporary digs on the 2nd floor (near the elk and deer heads). My "office" was a former file room that I shared with 2 other people. It was narrow enough I could touch both walls when I stood in the middle, and maybe 15 feet long. Anyway, short story long, my new office is awesome.

Really, work in general is pretty good. I have a pretty good handle on my caseload at this point and it feels easier and easier to keep all the strands in the old duder's head. This month is pretty light. It doesn't look like I have any trials set this month. I am going to a DUII enforcement conference at the end of the month. Being the giant dork that I am that should be pretty fun. March is shaping into a busy month on the trial calender. I will try to let you all know how that goes when I can.

Side note: The Girlfriend is starting a new job on Friday. We are excited. There may even be covert jig dancing. (Free associated note: An undercover officer infiltrating the mob actually used the last name of Covert. And they never suspected him...)

Second: Non-Work! (A broad topic, but I couldn't really think of other ways to break it down.)

I am working my way through FF XII when the mood strikes me. I am fairly impressed with it. I like it more than FF X to be sure. I never could get into that one.

I am also doing a bit of reading. I got started on the Three Kingdoms thanks to an awesome Christmas gift from Paul. It is fairly dense and it is taking time to make a dent. But it is good so far. I have also been reading my way through the entire transcript of the Rosenberg trial. I am not sure why I decided to do it. I remember reading a short news article about a motion (Petition actually,) to unseal the Grand Jury records on the case. Then I just decided, what the hell, the transcript is available in a nice handy .pdf, why not read it.

That is about it for leisurely pursuits at the moment. The weather hasn't been good enough for much outdoor activity out here. I don't mind getting wet, but when its wet, cold and windy I tend to stay inside. I watch a little TV, but nothing to exciting.

I think I want to subscribe to a couple of the criminal law journals that are out there. I have had a couple of ideas for scholarly articles, but nothing with any real creative/scholarly force behind it. I have been thinking maybe if I dig into some of the literature that is out there I might find a little more energy for it.

Closing - The house.

I will spare you a lengthy discussion of the plumbing ordeal from the last 2 weeks. The important thing is that now we can do dishes.

But maybe even better then the clean dishes: The house is, for all intents and purposes DONE!
There will always be a couple of little projects to attack, but it is done. Feel free to check out the pictures below. Also, if any of you (that is the "yous" that I actually know) want to come for a visit there is a functional and furnished guest bedroom. Day visits also rock.

First Post in 2008

Hello again and welcome to a new year. I know I have been a little lax in the whole posting side of this blog thing. Which, I guess is the only side of the whole blogging thing. And while there are some interesting things out there that I would like to post about (including a response or 2 to some of Syd's most recent thoughts), something has come up which I feel demands attention.

I am going to start with a disclaimer before I launch into this. I have a standing bet with a friend about who will win each of the major party definitions. In the race relevant to the discussion (diatribe) I am about to launch, I win a meal if Obama wins the primary.

As some people might know, today as the Nevada Caucuses. It seems Iowa isn't the only state using this strange system. This really isn't that crucial of a state in the grand scheme of things. A candidate (democrat) needs 2,025 delegates to win the nomination. Nevada (not counting any applicable super delegates) was worth 25. So, in terms of actually moving closer to the nomination Nevada is not that important. However, it is the first state with a significant minority voting bloc. Additionally in a primary, perhaps more then any other form of combat or competition momentum is king. Headlines and news get votes.

Now, with all that said, the results of the Nevada Caucus are as follows:

Clinton: 12 Delegates, 51% of the actual vote.
Obama: 13 Delegates, 45% of the actual vote.
Edwards: 0 Delegates, 4% of the actual vote.

Based on those results who do you call the winner? I don't feel the need to get into a debate about the substance of any given candidate, but to me this is more a matter of honest reporting.

Is the person that got more votes? Or the person that actually won more delegates?

Now, I was as upset as anybody that Gore won the popular vote but lost the actual election. That said, if you are the NY Times, the LA Times or the Washington Post, what headline would be an actual HONEST report of the news?

Clinton scores election win. (LA Times, subhead to McCain's win...)
McCain Clinton capture tough wins.
Clinton, Romeny win Nevada.

It would seem 3 of the largest newspapers have chosen to go with the popular vote, despite its clear irrelevance. This is the same as writing "Gore wins!!" the day after the 2000 election was decided (I know there was a lot of confusion with the 2000 election, but I think you get my point. I could try to think of some other more amusing comparisons, but I don't have the energy tonight). Given the importance of headlines, of momentum and of looking like the inevitable winner how do you think this will effect the upcoming primaries in other states? The answer seems clear to me.

I am not sure I am ready to accuse all three papers (or most other news media) of having an agenda. I will say I find it unfortunate that they have all chosen to run the story this way.

Feel free to post your own thoughts below.

Cleaning Up

Ok, a few things to clean up I guess. I had planned on finishing off the saga of my Bandon Trip back on Sunday, or Monday but that didn't happen. So I am gonna take care of that. I also wanted to drop a little news on the trial I had today and lastly I wanted to make sure that everyone out there has heard what the Oregon O-Line laid down on the Jim Rome show.

Bandon Conclusion

So first things first. The conclusion to the trip to Bandon was fantastic. Four days of golf on the coast in November and no rain. I finished my match with Dad all square and frankly had to work to get that. Its not that I was playing that poorly, it was more a combination of some real bad bounces my way and that I now give him 2 shots a side (4 shots on 18 holes).

Anyway, here is a link to some of the pictures I took of Bandon Trails and Pacific Dunes. I forgot my camera the day we played Bandon Dunes.

Trial

I had another trial today, my first since the 2 days trial I talked about earlier. It went pretty well actually. I won a conviction on the DUII and lost on the Hit and Run. In all honesty though, I would take that outcome 99 out of 100 times. That makes my personal record 3-2. I am sure at some point I will stop keeping mental count of my record, but not yet. Although the facts and proceedings are public record, the case is still technically pending so I won't write anymore about it until after the sentencing. I am just still a little excited.

Oregon Football

Some of you may know, and some of you may not but Oregon has been getting a fair bit of Rome Karma and Rome love of late. In fact, counting the 3 Oregon o-lineman that went on last week thats 6 Oregon interviews in 2 weeks. None of them rocked like Jeff Kendall's though. Fan-freaking-tastic. I thought I should throw up a link just in case some of you missed it. Here is to the fat kids living the dream.



Also, here are some links to the reactions to that rant:

Rome
More Rome
More More Rome

Another Post From the Road

Another day, another round of beautiful golf. I should have some pictures up later, probably tomorrow or Monday. The weather has been perfect so far. At least as perfect as weather on the Oregon Coast is going to get in the winter.

I took good advantage of the calm winds and no rain today to fire my best round of the weekend by a good 7 shots (I shot 85 today). And frankly, I am still not putting well at all.

Also, and I am pretty excited about this, I am finally getting the chance to use the gift certificate I have for this place. So, for that I owe thanks to Dirty P (and his lady) and Snowman. (Let me say this: I have thought a long time how to deal with talking about friends etc on this blog. I considered the "First Initial Approach" but I am not a fan... I have settled [as you can clearly see] on the "strange and amusing nickname method." Please know that this is done with all possible ironic intent... also, Dirty P, get off your lazy ass and post something! Football, work, your recent trip, anything.)

Match Update:

With 18 holes left to play, the match is all square.


In other news: the Fightin' Illini rock... and I am still a sucker a good football movie.

Post from the Road

Back country roads change after the sun goes down. They change even more when the fog rolls in at night. I thought I knew that... my drive to Portland taught me otherwise.

I wasn't really thinking too hard when I left and I just jumped onto Highway 202 (runs into Highway 26 eventually...) and started driving. After a short stop at the Olney general store (can't make a long drive without some Mt. Dew, and Whoppers... well the Whoppers are optional) I just started making miles. And more miles. After a while I started to wonder where Jewell had gone. It wasn't until I hit Birkenfeld that I realized what had happened. In the dark and the fog I had missed the turn onto Highway 103. Worst was, once I realized my mistake it was just as fast to continue on through Vernonia as turn around.

Also on the list of things fog changes: Elk. So there I am driving along in the dark and the fog on a road I've never driven. When suddenly, out of nowhere, just off the road 4 huge bull elk show up. Now normally I am cool with elk. I look at them from a distance, watch the males ram each other now and again. But when you add dark fog and a touch of surprise to the equation, elk are downright frightening. And I don't mean dark, unfamiliar basement with strange sounds frightening, I mean like change your pants terrifying.

I did eventually make it to Portland, elks and fog be damned. And from there down to Bandon. I can firmly say this about golf here. No matter what anyone else tells you, walking up and down these hills with a groin pull is very very painful.

Through 36 holes I am not playing well, but not all that badly either. I won't bore you all with any kind of blow by blow, but I will say its been fun and the weather has been pretty good so far.

Match Update:

As you may know, my father and have been competing against each other for as long as I can remember. To those that have heard me talk about it, you know this is as deep and intense a rivalry as you are apt to find in the world.

Through 18 holes I was one up.
Through 36 holes I am three down.
36 holes left to play - Look for another update tomorrow.

4th Quarter

(God damn you Alabama!! ) (Now all thats left is to throw a few Seminole Chops around)

Great hit on Carpenter! He barely had a chance to cover up before that one. Good series for the Duck D. They have really stepped up again.

OK, 13 min left, you are up 19 in what may be the biggest game of the year (at least short of the bowl game). Do you a) run it into the middle of the line 3 times. Or b) stick to the offensive game plan, keep the Devils on their heels and in over pursuit and make a firm statement on national television? I think you all know my preference, lets see what they do.

Oh no!! Dixon took a stinger on the knee there!. He is up and walking off, but I think I suffered a minor coronary.

There goes the last timeout... Now I am more ok with a little more conservative offensive series. But not much. Its not like Leaf is some schmuck red-shirt freshman with no game time experience.

Great play call to start of Leaf. Love to convert here... gonna be 3^rd and long it looks like though.

Good look at Scott, ball just drifted a little. Gotta believe it would have been complete if Dixon were throwing. Syria is kicking well today. To bad he is already a Junior. It's so nice to not live in mortal fear of punting

Eleven more minutes of sold defense. Thats all he need. And not the “keep it all in front of you, let them dink and dunk defense” stay a little aggressive and trust your secondary.

Reason # 4,135 I hate these announcers. They don't even bother to understand the difference in pass interference rules between college and the NFL. The NFL has a 5 yard rule for pass interference, in college you can bump until the ball is in the air.

Great defense there. You gotta believe its 4 down territory here. And it is, Carpenter is still on the field. One more big stop could be the game.

ASU may have converted on 4 and 10 but I am proud of Aliotti. He didn't rush 3 or 4, he sent a linebacker and it nearly paid off. No reason not to play balls out in a game like this!

Picked!!! I had feeling one of those was going to come one of these plays. Would preferred a knee and a touch back, but its tough to keep your head sometimes.

Looks like Dixon will be ok. Glad to see him moving on the sideline. Also more than ok seeing them leave Leaf out there. At this point, no reason to risk Dixon any more.

Nice pass by Leaf gets it to third and manageable. On third and three, it will probably stay on the ground... and nothing gained unfortunately.

Drained a good 2 minutes off the clock though.

ASU will be going to the air here. We'll see how good Carpenter really is. Down 19 with 6 min to play. Still hoping that Aliotti doesn't get too complacent

Rushed 3 lineman on each of those. You would think Aliotti might of learned something from last week and the first 54 min of this game. You would be wrong.

Thats an ASU TD... took a whole 41 seconds off the clock. Still a two score lead, but this game is by no means over. Big question... does Dixon come back in now? Only if ASU scores again? (Also up for debate, you need 2 scores in 5:20 seconds, do you try the on-sides? [I say no, given Oregon's past history of being extremely conservative in situations like this])

Well... its a long field Oregon can use to drain the clock. Just have to do it. No three and out here. Gotta run 5-7 plays.

It is still Leaf... and they throw a short pass! Complete, and still in bounds. 2 & 8... Stewart dances, and leaves it at 3 & 7ish. ASU uses one of its last 2 timeouts. Down to 4:14... need a conversion here.

Damn it! Two good play calls, and Leaf can't keep it in bounds on the sideline route. I know its a tough throw, but you need to convert on something like that. Weight is back on the defense.... and a bad bounce costs the Ducks 20 yards on the point.

Send a blitz Aliotti! Got him!!! 7^th sack of the game and another from Reed. Exactly what I wanted to see.

Didn't want to see that long pass caught... FUMBLED!! I know he is fighting for yards, but you have to hang on to the ball. Heads up play by Glasper to get on top of it. And not try and pick it up or carry it.

That should seal the game. Not as huge as Harper's pick, but it really is just about the nail in the coffin.

Oregon closes the game with a sack... 8 on the night. Fantastic game all around.

Thats all for tonight. BC is down 7-0 at the half. Go Seminoles! Go Bobby Bowden you crazy old sonuvabitch go!