Weekly 11/21

Thanksgiving week
Last week my company made a mistake (and the mistake for my productivity standpoint) of giving me a smart phone.  Wow. I thought I know what I was missing and it wasn't much, but I was wrong.  To have real features and apps that work and not just gimmicks is truly useful and cool.  I mean yeah I could get on the internet and I could take pictures and I could email and text with my blackberry and other cell phones, but to get it all on a decent sized screen and at speeds that really work I couldn't imagine how I made out without it before.  (Before I forget I need to get the app that would let me blog).  So I mostly just email and play games, but I have found some neat apps and am discovering new stuff everyday.  

So the Ravens beat the Cincinnati Bengals (who were in first place).  It was a quality win and without Ray Lewis on the field.  The defense gave up a lot of yards, but they got 3 turnovers which was great.  The offense was actually balanced and even had some explosive plays.  All in all a pretty good game against a quality opponent. I hope they can keep it up Thursday vs. the 49er's. I wonder how my barber is getting along.  A niner's fan in a Ravens world.

I need to take my boat over to get pulled this weekend.

 

Weekly Update 11/14

Last week this whole Penn State scandal came out.  Ugly stuff pointing to something I see much of these days.  I don't like the hero worship (of Joe Pa) and institution worship (of Penn State).  He is just a man.  Worthy or respect sure, but not of a godlike status.  But let's take this farther, the reasons for the cover up were to preserve the status the institution and the public figurehead.  I believe that if these legends and myths weren't perpetuated and furthered the actions of this man would have been stopped and innocent people's lives would not have been ruined.  No one would have stopped and thought about the appropriate action to take.  The proper authorities would have been called and this would have been brought to an end.  Unfortunately those that heard the stories stopped and considered, how will this reflect on our institution and what are the impact on it before they thought what is the danger to others from this man.  Obvious comparisons can be drawn to the Catholic church scandals and the institutional cover up which led to the victimization of thousands of people.  the scale is much different but the lesson to be learned is the same,  More damage was done to the reputation in the wake of the cover up then if the crimes were confronted head on. The church seemed to stand for something greater than man thus trust worthy, which made the betrayal worse. When a man and a school are held in that regard the damage is still significant when they betray that trust. Would I support a school sure and respect a coach ok, but not enough to make the mistake that they are infallible.   

Ravens lost again.  I am glad I was in Delaware in a hanger working on an airplane.  I didn't waste 3.5 hours that's the good news.  The bad news is the Ravens are schizophrenic as I thought they were. They beat the Steelers in a good game, well executed.  Then they struggle against Seattle?

At the barbershop on Friday evening, one of the busiest times, I was sitting in a chair getting my hair cut.  I looked at the waiting area and every person, teen aged through middle age, was white.  I guess Harford county is reversed integrated.