People are full of shit. Seriously.
Yes - thank you for protecting that special seat next to you.
Your story that the occupant was in the bathroom was not convincing - especially when he showed up 5 minutes later OBVIOUSLY from outside the train and you lifted YOUR bag so he could sit there. Thank you beeeotch. I hope you enjoy his company.
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Ok Ok
So I am one of the people called out by Capitol Swell for not updating my blog. Sorry - I've been busy.
So... what's new... let's see....
WORK: we are in the thick of appropriations season at work and my hearings start today so I am anticipating a few late nights in the next week or so.
TRAINING: i signed up for a new training program at the gym - a triathalon training program. In addition to running the Cherry Blossom 10 miler in early April I am going to do a sprint triathalon in mid-June. Sweet!
WEDDING UPDATE: we finally booked the DJ and the florist. We are now looking at invitations and working on scheduling a meeting with the caterer for a tasting and to pick our linens, etc.
HOMELIFE: is good. D and I are doing well. Had a lovely V-Day dinner at home and have been hanging out with friends (very few band gigs in Feb). Sister is getting settled in Hawaii. Mom is looking for retirement communities in Florida.
That's it for now. I will write something interesting later tonight...
So... what's new... let's see....
WORK: we are in the thick of appropriations season at work and my hearings start today so I am anticipating a few late nights in the next week or so.
TRAINING: i signed up for a new training program at the gym - a triathalon training program. In addition to running the Cherry Blossom 10 miler in early April I am going to do a sprint triathalon in mid-June. Sweet!
WEDDING UPDATE: we finally booked the DJ and the florist. We are now looking at invitations and working on scheduling a meeting with the caterer for a tasting and to pick our linens, etc.
HOMELIFE: is good. D and I are doing well. Had a lovely V-Day dinner at home and have been hanging out with friends (very few band gigs in Feb). Sister is getting settled in Hawaii. Mom is looking for retirement communities in Florida.
That's it for now. I will write something interesting later tonight...
Thursday, February 07, 2008
More Adventures in Baking - Apple Pie (I meant to post this back in early Feb and forgot to... Sorry.)
Pre - Bake
Post - Bake
Yummy!
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Monday, January 28, 2008
People are stupid
upon seeing this barrier at the train station a woman came up to me and asked if that meant that we were not supposed to go on that part of the platform... seriously...
Sunday, January 27, 2008
From the Washington Post
I like this article. Although i only fly 2 -3 times a year at the most, i think i want one of these....
Clearly, Some Are DifferentA New ID Lets You Skip The Line at the Airport. But Just How Fast Are You?
By Hank StueverWashington Post Staff WriterSunday, January 27, 2008; M01
Two of Washington's airports -- Dulles and Reagan National -- will soon be part of the federal government's Registered Traveler program, which offers passengers the happy prospect of getting through security lines faster, swifter, better. (Ninety thousand of them and counting have enrolled.) All you need do is pay an annual fee -- $100 to start, plus a $28 shakedown so the government can make sure you're, you know, okay. Next you submit all sorts of personal information, fingerprints and, because the future is now, an eyeball scan.
Then you are all clear.
In fact, the company that clears you is called Clear, and once you're good to go, they mail you a clear plastic ID card with a square blue logo that says Clear. ("The wait is over," proclaims the company's slogan.)
The mind immediately goes either way on this, first to a dark place: Depressingly, America potentially becomes still less like "America," where everyone was supposedly equal, no matter how bad things got. It's the "Lexus lane" syndrome over and over, where special people buy special access to get ahead of the losers. And yet, hasn't this been the essential human narrative all along? Me before you. People becoming Clear is simply another chapter in the self-deterministic struggle. Ayn Rand would totally have one.
After that comes a more tantalizing thought: Can we get a Clear card for everything else?
Some pre-Clears (if you'll excuse the Scientology undertones) have been waiting for this -- impatiently, of course. Clears are already the fastest people at airports even without the cards: shoes and coat off, laptop out of the case, X-ray buckets lined up on the conveyor belt, waiting for everybody else to get it together.
A few thousand people in the Washington area have already applied, and on a recent weekday, 35 people visited the American Express office downtown at 15th and K streets NW, to get cleared by Clear, says Clear spokeswoman Cindy Rosenthal. "What we hear most from people is that they want predictability," she says. "These are people who don't like waiting on line."
Clears are the simple and speedy people, who tend to know the price of things before they get to the register and always have the cash or debit card ready, and step out of the way immediately to a place where they can put away their change and receipt and reassemble themselves without obstructing the flow. Clears do not dig into their purses in search of engorged wallets into which they go a-huntin' for six cents so as not to break a bill, or to look for that Subway sandwich stamp card. Clears have amazingly uncomplicated business to do at banks and in post office lines -- places they almost never go to anymore -- conducting transactions so fast the teller or clerk barely has time to wish them a good day. Clears tend to order only sodas in movie concession lines. (Clears also get to movies 20 minutes early.) Clears have written pamphlet-length diatribes in their minds about a certain drugstore chain that rhymes with "Skeevy Mess" and the lackadaisical inabilities of not only its incredibly slow employees but its equally slow customers.
So why stop with airports? Clear is already thinking about that. "Major crowd events, like a 60,000-person football game," Rosenthal says, could be conducted more efficiently with Clear cards.
Clears are sometimes confused with "high-maintenance" customers, when, in fact, it is low maintenance that defines the true Clear. (Clears have doubtless eaten their share of the kitchen staff's spit for only suggesting that things could be going faster.)
Clears can give you a very long lecture about the economic concept known as opportunity cost, which is just another way of saying time is money, so why clip coupons?
Beyond a swift exchange of pleasantries, Clears never make chitchat with cashiers, because there are people in line behind the Clear, and the Clear is doing them the favor of clearing out. They almost never cause malfunction of the process, and are never more disappointed in themselves as on the rare occasion when they do take too long. Clears almost never special-order or substitute menu items, and are quietly horrified when their dining companions do. Clears love stores with names like Grab-N'-Go, or Git-N'-Gone, and long for the day when such establishments can honestly and consistently live up to such ideals. Corporate America invented self-checkout lines for Clears, which worked well for about five minutes, until someone who wasn't a Clear caused yet another human paper jam.
There is only one long line Clears accept, and that is the line to vote.
Clears come in all ages, but they get more Clear the closer they get to 40. (And less Clear after 60. You can always tell an old Clear by his polite resignation: Go ahead, all of you, he or she says, as the plane is disembarking. I'm just slowing you down.)
So far, the people who run Clear have only learned the obvious about their customer base: He is a he, a business traveler, and he's generally between 35 and 45 years old, Rosenthal says -- adding that the profile may change as Clear lanes open in other airports. He is affluent and may have a second home. He isn't merely antsy-pantsy. He just flies a lot and is sick of the lines. Clear gets him through airport security in about four minutes. In high-tourist travel markets -- such as Orlando or Denver -- he never knows if the security lines are going to be a matter of a few minutes or an hour, which makes him bonkers with Clear worry. One Clear customer, Rosenthal says, forgot important papers in his car and was able to cross back out into the terminal, retrieve the papers from his secretary, and go back through security in a matter of minutes. This is held up as the definitive Clear success story: zip, zip, zip.
Life, meanwhile, is not as zippy as all that. A Clear finds himself standing in line at a 7-Eleven, with a Big Gulp in one hand and a couple of dollar bills in the other, and realizes that he's going to have to wait for six Un-Clears in front of him to buy lottery tickets and the exact pack of cigarettes that the Un-Clear clerk cannot seem to locate. Shouldn't a Clear's Clear card work in this situation? Shouldn't a Clear be able to go to the front of the line at Starbucks when all the Clear ever orders ( ever!) is a simple grande coffee? If a Clear knows exactly what he wants in the Au Bon Pain or the Taco Bell, can he not flash his Clear card and grab-n-go, git-n-gone?
Not in America. Not yet. The Clear gets his airport privileges (and so far, he gets them only in airports like Albany or Indianapolis -- but also Newark and JFK at certain hours and certain gates), and he gets the nasty looks, too. Clears are sometimes troubled by this. They aren't so self-absorbed as to not feel true remorse and class consciousness. It's not like a country club or a gated neighborhood or first class. Clears encourage clarity in all people.
Here's the rub: The world is ending. Things are getting tight, desperate, short. Clearness is coming to airport security lines just in time for chaos to wipe out everything. Clears are good at things like mass evacuation, but not so great in soup lines. (Just listen to how loudly and repeatedly a Clear sighs when the express lane at Giant is too long.)
In the apocalypse, it's a good idea to stick close to your favorite Clear, but you should also fully expect to be left behind.
Clearly, Some Are DifferentA New ID Lets You Skip The Line at the Airport. But Just How Fast Are You?
By Hank StueverWashington Post Staff WriterSunday, January 27, 2008; M01
Two of Washington's airports -- Dulles and Reagan National -- will soon be part of the federal government's Registered Traveler program, which offers passengers the happy prospect of getting through security lines faster, swifter, better. (Ninety thousand of them and counting have enrolled.) All you need do is pay an annual fee -- $100 to start, plus a $28 shakedown so the government can make sure you're, you know, okay. Next you submit all sorts of personal information, fingerprints and, because the future is now, an eyeball scan.
Then you are all clear.
In fact, the company that clears you is called Clear, and once you're good to go, they mail you a clear plastic ID card with a square blue logo that says Clear. ("The wait is over," proclaims the company's slogan.)
The mind immediately goes either way on this, first to a dark place: Depressingly, America potentially becomes still less like "America," where everyone was supposedly equal, no matter how bad things got. It's the "Lexus lane" syndrome over and over, where special people buy special access to get ahead of the losers. And yet, hasn't this been the essential human narrative all along? Me before you. People becoming Clear is simply another chapter in the self-deterministic struggle. Ayn Rand would totally have one.
After that comes a more tantalizing thought: Can we get a Clear card for everything else?
Some pre-Clears (if you'll excuse the Scientology undertones) have been waiting for this -- impatiently, of course. Clears are already the fastest people at airports even without the cards: shoes and coat off, laptop out of the case, X-ray buckets lined up on the conveyor belt, waiting for everybody else to get it together.
A few thousand people in the Washington area have already applied, and on a recent weekday, 35 people visited the American Express office downtown at 15th and K streets NW, to get cleared by Clear, says Clear spokeswoman Cindy Rosenthal. "What we hear most from people is that they want predictability," she says. "These are people who don't like waiting on line."
Clears are the simple and speedy people, who tend to know the price of things before they get to the register and always have the cash or debit card ready, and step out of the way immediately to a place where they can put away their change and receipt and reassemble themselves without obstructing the flow. Clears do not dig into their purses in search of engorged wallets into which they go a-huntin' for six cents so as not to break a bill, or to look for that Subway sandwich stamp card. Clears have amazingly uncomplicated business to do at banks and in post office lines -- places they almost never go to anymore -- conducting transactions so fast the teller or clerk barely has time to wish them a good day. Clears tend to order only sodas in movie concession lines. (Clears also get to movies 20 minutes early.) Clears have written pamphlet-length diatribes in their minds about a certain drugstore chain that rhymes with "Skeevy Mess" and the lackadaisical inabilities of not only its incredibly slow employees but its equally slow customers.
So why stop with airports? Clear is already thinking about that. "Major crowd events, like a 60,000-person football game," Rosenthal says, could be conducted more efficiently with Clear cards.
Clears are sometimes confused with "high-maintenance" customers, when, in fact, it is low maintenance that defines the true Clear. (Clears have doubtless eaten their share of the kitchen staff's spit for only suggesting that things could be going faster.)
Clears can give you a very long lecture about the economic concept known as opportunity cost, which is just another way of saying time is money, so why clip coupons?
Beyond a swift exchange of pleasantries, Clears never make chitchat with cashiers, because there are people in line behind the Clear, and the Clear is doing them the favor of clearing out. They almost never cause malfunction of the process, and are never more disappointed in themselves as on the rare occasion when they do take too long. Clears almost never special-order or substitute menu items, and are quietly horrified when their dining companions do. Clears love stores with names like Grab-N'-Go, or Git-N'-Gone, and long for the day when such establishments can honestly and consistently live up to such ideals. Corporate America invented self-checkout lines for Clears, which worked well for about five minutes, until someone who wasn't a Clear caused yet another human paper jam.
There is only one long line Clears accept, and that is the line to vote.
Clears come in all ages, but they get more Clear the closer they get to 40. (And less Clear after 60. You can always tell an old Clear by his polite resignation: Go ahead, all of you, he or she says, as the plane is disembarking. I'm just slowing you down.)
So far, the people who run Clear have only learned the obvious about their customer base: He is a he, a business traveler, and he's generally between 35 and 45 years old, Rosenthal says -- adding that the profile may change as Clear lanes open in other airports. He is affluent and may have a second home. He isn't merely antsy-pantsy. He just flies a lot and is sick of the lines. Clear gets him through airport security in about four minutes. In high-tourist travel markets -- such as Orlando or Denver -- he never knows if the security lines are going to be a matter of a few minutes or an hour, which makes him bonkers with Clear worry. One Clear customer, Rosenthal says, forgot important papers in his car and was able to cross back out into the terminal, retrieve the papers from his secretary, and go back through security in a matter of minutes. This is held up as the definitive Clear success story: zip, zip, zip.
Life, meanwhile, is not as zippy as all that. A Clear finds himself standing in line at a 7-Eleven, with a Big Gulp in one hand and a couple of dollar bills in the other, and realizes that he's going to have to wait for six Un-Clears in front of him to buy lottery tickets and the exact pack of cigarettes that the Un-Clear clerk cannot seem to locate. Shouldn't a Clear's Clear card work in this situation? Shouldn't a Clear be able to go to the front of the line at Starbucks when all the Clear ever orders ( ever!) is a simple grande coffee? If a Clear knows exactly what he wants in the Au Bon Pain or the Taco Bell, can he not flash his Clear card and grab-n-go, git-n-gone?
Not in America. Not yet. The Clear gets his airport privileges (and so far, he gets them only in airports like Albany or Indianapolis -- but also Newark and JFK at certain hours and certain gates), and he gets the nasty looks, too. Clears are sometimes troubled by this. They aren't so self-absorbed as to not feel true remorse and class consciousness. It's not like a country club or a gated neighborhood or first class. Clears encourage clarity in all people.
Here's the rub: The world is ending. Things are getting tight, desperate, short. Clearness is coming to airport security lines just in time for chaos to wipe out everything. Clears are good at things like mass evacuation, but not so great in soup lines. (Just listen to how loudly and repeatedly a Clear sighs when the express lane at Giant is too long.)
In the apocalypse, it's a good idea to stick close to your favorite Clear, but you should also fully expect to be left behind.
Friday, January 18, 2008
Thursday, January 17, 2008
More Adventures in Baking
here is my frankenstein pie - supposed to be strawberry rhubarb but ended up being strawberry-cherry. I think it tastes better than it looks - and it only took me 3 days to make (b/c of my unsuccessful search for rhubarb).
Friday, January 04, 2008
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!
I had a great Christmas and New Year's Eve! I was able to spend the holidays with my family and also with D's family. NYE we had a party here at the house. We had a great turn-out.
One of my favorite presents I got this year is this Kitchen Aid Mixer. D's mom got it for us. She wasn't sure what to get us for Christmas so she just bought something off the wedding registry. Hey - that's cool with me! Also I am including a sampling of the tasty treats I have made using my new mixer.
My New Mixer
Rum Balls
Sugar Cookies
Thumb-print Cookies with Jelly Filling
VT.... what are we going to do?
We have been to 3 BCS Bowl Games and have lost all of them. I'm sad but I think we will be ok. There's always next season. I'm going to start saving for the National Championship in Miami on Jan 8, 2009.
Trying to run again....
I really tore myself up with that half-marathon 3 months ago. I ran 4 miles this morning and thought I was going to die...
My Birthday Present
My friend S. gave me a lovely birthday present. It is a bulb in a pot. I planted it immediately when i got home on 12/16. Here is what it looks like today. YEA!
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
To heat or not - that is the question
So... Capitol Swell says that it is bad to keep pastries and croissants under a heat lamp but that muffins are ok.
I disagree. I think we need to break this down even more.
There is a fundamental difference between pastries with filling (fruit or dairy based) and pastries without filling. (Also please note - bagels and donuts are not included in this discussion.)
Pastries with filling can really hurt you if they are hot. I have burnt my tounge more than once on a poptart.
Pastries without filling such as muffins AND croissants are better when warm. This is a fundamental truth.
I'm not sure what else I need to say about this.
I disagree. I think we need to break this down even more.
There is a fundamental difference between pastries with filling (fruit or dairy based) and pastries without filling. (Also please note - bagels and donuts are not included in this discussion.)
Pastries with filling can really hurt you if they are hot. I have burnt my tounge more than once on a poptart.
Pastries without filling such as muffins AND croissants are better when warm. This is a fundamental truth.
I'm not sure what else I need to say about this.
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
My turn at the helm...
Well... it has been a while since it was my job to hold down the fort until last votes. I guess it could be worse. It looks like i will get out of here by 8 and hopefully be on the 8:40 train. I was hoping the boss would tell me to just go home - but no dice. Honestly - if we worked until midnight today and tomorrow just so we don't have to work on Saturday I totally would. Working on the weekends is BS. There should be no need for it. Of course, now that we are going to vote on a CR that will take us to 12/21 then maybe there isn't a need to work on Saturday. I hope so.
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
My Birthday
I turned the big 31 the other day. Woo Hoo. No one cares when you turn 31. Last year was cool b/c we had a huge party and everyone was there and I had a great time. This year was still nice (got a great present from S.O. - going to see Ave. Q @ the Hipprodrome) but a lot less exciting. I guess every birthday can't be a huge party... S.O. and I had a lovely dinner at Pazza Luna and then went out for drinks with N & C at Captain Larry's. I can't wait for the smoke ban to go into effect. My clothes smelled like ASS. I had to leave them in the hallway b/c i didn't want them stinking up my bedroom. 50 days to go. Ban goes into effect on February 1, 2008. Gosh i can't wait!
Vick Sentenced
So, Michael Vick was sentenced in federal court yesterday to 23 months and 29 days in jail for his crimes. I don't have much to say about this other than I understand b/c of sentencing guidlines that it was unlikely he would get less time than his "co-defendents" but it still makes you think about what is wrong with our judicial system when someone convicted of RAPE and MANSLAUGHTER against a HUMAN BEING gets less time in jail than someone who committed crimes against ANIMALS. I love animals. I think Vick got what he deserved - But i also think that we need to seriously think about increasing the penalities for crimes committed against humans - rather than lowering them for crimes against animals.
I pretty much agree with everything in the following article.
The Sentence Reflects the Lies
By Michael Wilbon
Tuesday, December 11, 2007; E01
ATLANTA -- It caught most of us by surprise, the length of the sentence handed down Monday, when perhaps it shouldn't have. When two of his co-conspirators were sentenced a few weeks back to 18 and 21 months respectively, we should have known Michael Vick wasn't going to get a year or 15 months. He wasn't going to get less jail time than the people who delivered him to the feds. He wasn't going to get less jail time when it was his money that financed the dogfighting enterprise that was his undoing.
Maybe we were caught by surprise because we thought there was still a little bit of influence left in Vick's name, because he reported to jail before it was time, because he's a celebrity athlete and we're accustomed to most people in the culture being lenient when it comes to the rich and famous, or perhaps because the St. Louis Rams' Leonard Little got only 90 days in the city workhouse and four years probation for killing a motorist when driving while drunk, which turned into an involuntary manslaughter plea.
The talk turned, very prematurely we can see now, to whether Vick could be back for the 2009 season, maybe even by minicamp that spring. Clearly, none of this mattered to U.S. District Judge Henry E. Hudson, who sentenced Vick to 23 months in a federal prison. It was a stunner to digest, from the time assessed to the fact that Vick was dressed in black-and-white prison garb instead of one of his own suits, which a whole lot of hardened criminals are allowed to wear to sentencing. Immediately, it seemed downright excessive and meant to embarrass. More serious crimes yield smaller sentences all the time, every day really. In fact, the entire reaction to Vick's heinous behavior at times has seemed excessive in the context of crimes like rape and manslaughter.
Mike Tyson was convicted of rape, yet he and his crime didn't generate anything close to the outrage of the Vick case. I have no tolerance for what Vick did, from financing the enterprise to actually killing dogs. Jail is where he deserves to be. But have we really come to the point, agitated by the frighteningly influential animal rights lobbyists, where an animal's well-being is more important than a woman's? It's sad if our priorities are that twisted. The reaction to Vick's crime reached a feeding frenzy that seems to ignore all context.
I was reminded by multiple lawyers Monday night, one in my own family, that it needs to be restated that Vick's crime was a federal offense, carrying mandatory sentencing guidelines. There was virtually no chance he'd receive less jail time than his co-conspirators. And it's a near-certainty that Vick, once again, made his own situation worse by lying.
Falcons owner Arthur Blank, drained by the day's ordeal before the start of the Falcons-Saints game, told me just before kickoff that, from all the information he solicited, Hudson "is incredibly thoughtful, bright and fair. And there's information we weren't privy to that drove him to his decision on this." It was impossible to not see the disappointment on Blank's face, like a parent who is angry with his child but in despair nonetheless. On the topic of whether the sentence was excessive, Blank lamented that "Michael had been something less than forthcoming since his plea agreement."
In other words, Vick simply lied too many times. He lied about whether he actually killed any dogs, then admitted to hanging two. Testing positive for marijuana certainly hurt. Vick failed an FBI polygraph and lied about a positive marijuana test in September. In fact, Hudson told Vick in court Monday afternoon, "I'm not convinced you've fully accepted responsibility."
In other words, the early surrender, the public apology, the participation in an animal sensitivity training course might have impressed PETA to some degree, but it was not enough for the judge to outweigh Vick's constant lying, going all the way back to the spring of 2007 when he lied to Blank and to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell about the depth of his involvement. Vick was denied an "acceptance of responsibility" credit that could have reduced his sentence. Reportedly, federal prosecutors opposed giving him the credit.
In other words, every time Vick could have done himself some good, he lied or failed to take responsibility for his actions. Seeing that, Hudson nailed him.
It's fair to wonder now at what point Vick will take responsibility -- and not in some phony public relations way. This doesn't have anything to do with the NFL and what the commissioner's office thinks. It doesn't matter to me at the moment whether Michael Vick comes back as a quarterback or a running back, to the Falcons or Raiders, or whether he comes back at all.
For essentially the next two years Michael Vick will be incarcerated, not free to come and go as he pleases. At some point you have to hope Vick comes to realize the key to his future isn't what Hudson thinks, or what Blank or Goodell or those who will excuse him any act feel, but whether Vick understands that it's going to be difficult to build any kind of tolerable future without coming to grips with his recent past.
I pretty much agree with everything in the following article.
The Sentence Reflects the Lies
By Michael Wilbon
Tuesday, December 11, 2007; E01
ATLANTA -- It caught most of us by surprise, the length of the sentence handed down Monday, when perhaps it shouldn't have. When two of his co-conspirators were sentenced a few weeks back to 18 and 21 months respectively, we should have known Michael Vick wasn't going to get a year or 15 months. He wasn't going to get less jail time than the people who delivered him to the feds. He wasn't going to get less jail time when it was his money that financed the dogfighting enterprise that was his undoing.
Maybe we were caught by surprise because we thought there was still a little bit of influence left in Vick's name, because he reported to jail before it was time, because he's a celebrity athlete and we're accustomed to most people in the culture being lenient when it comes to the rich and famous, or perhaps because the St. Louis Rams' Leonard Little got only 90 days in the city workhouse and four years probation for killing a motorist when driving while drunk, which turned into an involuntary manslaughter plea.
The talk turned, very prematurely we can see now, to whether Vick could be back for the 2009 season, maybe even by minicamp that spring. Clearly, none of this mattered to U.S. District Judge Henry E. Hudson, who sentenced Vick to 23 months in a federal prison. It was a stunner to digest, from the time assessed to the fact that Vick was dressed in black-and-white prison garb instead of one of his own suits, which a whole lot of hardened criminals are allowed to wear to sentencing. Immediately, it seemed downright excessive and meant to embarrass. More serious crimes yield smaller sentences all the time, every day really. In fact, the entire reaction to Vick's heinous behavior at times has seemed excessive in the context of crimes like rape and manslaughter.
Mike Tyson was convicted of rape, yet he and his crime didn't generate anything close to the outrage of the Vick case. I have no tolerance for what Vick did, from financing the enterprise to actually killing dogs. Jail is where he deserves to be. But have we really come to the point, agitated by the frighteningly influential animal rights lobbyists, where an animal's well-being is more important than a woman's? It's sad if our priorities are that twisted. The reaction to Vick's crime reached a feeding frenzy that seems to ignore all context.
I was reminded by multiple lawyers Monday night, one in my own family, that it needs to be restated that Vick's crime was a federal offense, carrying mandatory sentencing guidelines. There was virtually no chance he'd receive less jail time than his co-conspirators. And it's a near-certainty that Vick, once again, made his own situation worse by lying.
Falcons owner Arthur Blank, drained by the day's ordeal before the start of the Falcons-Saints game, told me just before kickoff that, from all the information he solicited, Hudson "is incredibly thoughtful, bright and fair. And there's information we weren't privy to that drove him to his decision on this." It was impossible to not see the disappointment on Blank's face, like a parent who is angry with his child but in despair nonetheless. On the topic of whether the sentence was excessive, Blank lamented that "Michael had been something less than forthcoming since his plea agreement."
In other words, Vick simply lied too many times. He lied about whether he actually killed any dogs, then admitted to hanging two. Testing positive for marijuana certainly hurt. Vick failed an FBI polygraph and lied about a positive marijuana test in September. In fact, Hudson told Vick in court Monday afternoon, "I'm not convinced you've fully accepted responsibility."
In other words, the early surrender, the public apology, the participation in an animal sensitivity training course might have impressed PETA to some degree, but it was not enough for the judge to outweigh Vick's constant lying, going all the way back to the spring of 2007 when he lied to Blank and to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell about the depth of his involvement. Vick was denied an "acceptance of responsibility" credit that could have reduced his sentence. Reportedly, federal prosecutors opposed giving him the credit.
In other words, every time Vick could have done himself some good, he lied or failed to take responsibility for his actions. Seeing that, Hudson nailed him.
It's fair to wonder now at what point Vick will take responsibility -- and not in some phony public relations way. This doesn't have anything to do with the NFL and what the commissioner's office thinks. It doesn't matter to me at the moment whether Michael Vick comes back as a quarterback or a running back, to the Falcons or Raiders, or whether he comes back at all.
For essentially the next two years Michael Vick will be incarcerated, not free to come and go as he pleases. At some point you have to hope Vick comes to realize the key to his future isn't what Hudson thinks, or what Blank or Goodell or those who will excuse him any act feel, but whether Vick understands that it's going to be difficult to build any kind of tolerable future without coming to grips with his recent past.
Thursday, December 06, 2007
Wednesday, December 05, 2007
Pooped On - AGAIN
look, i'm not crazy. They really are after me. We had a fire alarm pulled in my building this morning and so i went across the street to another building and just hung outside under the awning for the "all clear." As i'm waiting i get pooped on. AAAHHH!!! At least I was wearing a hat - but still - how gross.
I am not imagining this. They really are after me. It's happened before....
I am not imagining this. They really are after me. It's happened before....
Trying to get back into it....
I've been starting to run again. It is taking a really long time for me to recover from the half-marathon. It's been almost 2 months and i an only now starting to get myself back together.
My knees and ankles are killing me.
On Sunday I ran to the Fort and 2 times around before I had to head home (it was freezing cold!) This morning at the gym I ran 4.4 miles in 50 minutes (starting with a 2 minute walk, ran 20 min, walked 2 min, ran 25 min, walked 1 min). I really wanted to go further but my legs were killing me. I'm going to try again Friday morning and see how i do.
The Cherry Blossom 10 miler is coming up in April. Sign-up is next week. I really want to do it.
We'll see.
My knees and ankles are killing me.
On Sunday I ran to the Fort and 2 times around before I had to head home (it was freezing cold!) This morning at the gym I ran 4.4 miles in 50 minutes (starting with a 2 minute walk, ran 20 min, walked 2 min, ran 25 min, walked 1 min). I really wanted to go further but my legs were killing me. I'm going to try again Friday morning and see how i do.
The Cherry Blossom 10 miler is coming up in April. Sign-up is next week. I really want to do it.
We'll see.
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