Rant #2 - I went to the DMV this morning with every intention of renewing my drivers license.  I wait in line for a couple of minutes, when I realize that they might not take credit cards.  Sure enough on a big paper sign at the desk is we take cash or checks only.

We live in a world of completely fake money so why not take credit cards.  I could see that a prudent use of tax dollars would be not to pay the costs of credit card transactions. 

Back to the drawing board tomorrow!  I am sure after I go through the entire process I will have rant #3.

I have no followers on this blog, but I need a place to rant so I am starting it again.

The thing that has me a bit ticked is the government's idea of replacing the gas tax with expensive equipment to track our miles.  I find this flawed for many reasons.

First the expense of the equipment.  Who is going to pay for  it?  Oh wait tax dollars!

The gas tax is a TAX.  The government takes enough of my money for worthless purposes, so why not just add on equivalent which would be close to the average current gas tax.  Then allocate that portion to the causes that the gas taxes support.  I am sure they are great causes!

We the people are smarter than that.  We will begin using public transportation or Cars2Go.

We the people already pay in way to much to support bull shit initiatives.

Wake up people!  We should institute the flat tax ASAP!

I am sure I have more to say, but I got that tiny bit of angst off my chest.

Youth Sports

Here I sit in a hotel room in Houston.  I did not sleep well, but the bottom line is our daughters team will be competing for the Texas Director's Cup title in soccer.  The schedule has been turned upside down due to the nasty rain yesterday so we play this afternoon.  This gives me some time to reflect and comment on youth sports.

Topics covered:

Select soccer
Coaching baseball
Choosing a sport

First lets rant about select soccer.   Although our kids get excellent training, select soccer is extremely expensive.  Added to the thousands of dollars for fees are travel costs.  These go up tremendously when team advance into the playoffs.  I guess right now we are blessed that this is something we can afford for the kids to do.  After the expense comes the politics.  Good or bad select soccer is a BUSINESS.  Recently our son's coach was let go.   I will not go into the details but the result of this business decision is that the club lost a good coach, some families behaved in totally unacceptable ways, and one or both sides are lying threw there teeth.  On the positive side I love watching our kids play and try their personal best.  I am trying to calm down as a parent fan and just enjoy the experience.  Occasionally I do have to be vocal regarding a bad call or to motivate our children.  Truth silent parents are better parents.

Speaking of being silent I wish I had not over heard a couple of the Dad's from the baseball team mumbling how they would be better coaches.  In youth sports the coaches are volunteers.  We volunteer because we love the game of baseball and we love to watch kids advance their skills.  This season has not been a strong season for our team.  That being said we are playing at the top level.  I know the boys have the skills, but unfortunately we cannot play the game for them.

This leads me to the last topic, choosing a sport.  Our son is 10 years old.  He is about to tryout for a select soccer team.  I definitely encourage this because soccer is a well rounded sport and the select coaches definitely know what they are doing.  But my son is also pretty darn good at baseball.  He struggles at the plate, but he is a thinker and understands the idiosyncrasies of the game.  Does he really have to choose a sport at the age of 10?  The other sad part is that baseball and soccer are played during the same season in Texas, so he will not be able to play both in high school.  He is also pretty good at golf, but I am thinking that is also a spring sport in Texas.  When I grew up I had the opportunity to play every sport - baseball, basketball, golf, tennis, football, and bowling.  Select soccer is going to be extremely expensive, so we will need to see how passionate he is for the game.  My wife argues if he chooses baseball then we need to get him the same level of coaching they are getting for soccer.  I honestly do agree.

All that said I will conclude by saying youth sports are killing us parents.  We have to leave work early to get the kids to practice and to games.  We have to work late at night to make up for the missed time from the office.  Definitely blessed that we work for great companies that permit this flexibility.  Finally we had to split up the family this weekend in order to cover the two sports.  That is not always an easy decision nor fun.

Kids go kick some butt today.  Good luck to the Dallas Texans Austin Division 97 Girls White team.  Compete and do your personal best at the state finals.  As for the Mustang Diamondbacks please play well and win today so I have the opportunity to coach one more game next Thursday.

Play ball!

I love youth Baseball!

Last night I had so much fun coaching our team in the baseball tournament.  We were playing probably the toughest team in our league as our first game of the tournament.  The conclusion was not ideal, but boy they boys sure fought hard.  In Little League baseball rarely do you get a complete game.  Well last night we went the full 6 innings.  We lost 10-8, but with two outs the boys were attacking. The final out came on a bang bang play to first base.  Although our fans were not happy it was the correct call from my angle as third base coach.  The umpires were the best two umpires we have had all season.  They were on top of the game and enthusiastic.

I saw such great effort from these players I was pumped up.  We may have won the game if one ball bounces cleaner or I did not make a coaching error.

I made some errors in the pitching department, but we stayed in the game.  My big error came during our final at bat.  Bases were loaded.  A better rips a single.  Runners from second and third score.  I did not pay attention to our runner coming from first because I was focused on getting the runner from second home.  He got caught to far off second base in a pickle between second and third.  The result was not good, ending in our second out.

We did have a very scary moment when a batter swung the bat around hitting our catcher in the middle of the back.  He was down for awhile.  What a tough kiddo because he stayed in the game.

DBacks! I am very proud of you!  Now if we can just teach a few of you to not cry when things do not quite go your way the season will be a total success.

Apparently Unsportsmanlike

I can certainly see how someone would perceive my actions on the baseball field today as unsportsmanlike, but that absolutely was not my intention.

I am coaching third base in a U10 baseball game and we are leading 9-4 with one out.  One of our fastest players on the team (our son) is on third.  I am collaborating with him on how we are going to score.

The batter hits a high pop fly down the third base line.  The catcher hustles down the baseline to make a spectacular catch.  The hustle and catch was definitely a web gem.  It is a live ball and no one is covering the plate so I send the runner home to score.  The opposing team was furious with me.  Honestly I did not think I did anything wrong.  One of the coaches is a friend and he was pissed at me.  I asked him if they really thought it was unsportslike and he said absolutely.  I assured him that was not my intention.  I apologized to all of the coaches.

Then the moms were bad mouthing along the fence.  I turned to them and also apologized.

I viewed this move as aggressive baseball.  We have not had many opportunities this season to teach the boys aggressive base running. 

Would I do this again?  Absolutely!  Would I do it with a five run lead?  Probably not!

It was not my intention to cause the other team to get upset.

My friend asked me if they would do this in high school baseball.  My initial answer was probably not.  The more I think about it I have seen this play done during my umpiring days by high school teams.  It would be a rare occurrence.

I will agree that by taking this course of action the timing was not appropriate.  I could have exercised a bit more respect for the fantastic play.

I would also say that some of the things that were said about me on the side lines were not appropriate.  These people have no clue about me.  I try to do the right thing and live life with a great deal of integrity.  I do make mistakes, but I always try to teach the boys good sportsmanship and to play an aggressive brand of baseball.

I will learn from this experience!

Bottom line is that both teams played a great game today.  There were some outstanding plays!

New Things Happening

I was not sure what I was inspired to post about this week.  I think I will summarize a couple of key new things that have been happening in our lives the past 3 - 4 weeks.

• Moving completely away from processed foods
• Buying local produce every Saturday at the Farmers market
• Making our own bread every week
• We even made our own wheat thin crackers
• We also made strawberry jam from local strawberries
• We are growing our own veggies in the yard
• We are collecting rain water
• We are dehydrating tomatoes from the farmer's market
• Eating all organic items
• Eating more fresh fruit

Kids are a bit frustrated, but I am feeling good!

Happy & Healthy eating!

Fantasy Baseball

Well it is time again for fantasy baseball.  I got my team yesterday.  I think I have a great pitching staff, but the rest of my team sucks.  Once again I failed to appreciate Yahoo's approach to automated drafts.  I do not spend a ton of time pre-Ranking my players, but I usually move all the injured players out so they do not get drafted and I make sure I have a shot at getting as many of the top 100 players as possible.

I guess my big flaw is that I was to worried about getting a couple of good pitchers I stuck to many pitchers in my top 100.  I also drafted dead last so I got back to back picks, but two picks after 13 other teams picked twice.

My second big flaw is that I completely fail to account for the fact that there are 14 teams in our league.

My third flaw this season was that there are a couple of very hot prospects so I wanted a shot at a couple.  I got a few to many.  I think having Stephen Strasburg and Jason Heyward on my team will be a benefit.  It sucks that Strasburg has to sit out a month in a financial move by Washington, but I understand the fact that he may be worth keeping around.

Regardless of how well my team does this season I need to definitely increase the amount of SMACK talk on the fantasy baseball site.  Last year everyone was way to quiet.  Right now everyone is bashing my draft, but soon I may have ammunition for smack talk.  If not I will certainly make something up.

Go Team!

Food Revolution

This is a short post, but I absolutely have to add this to my list.  Please watch Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution.

OMG!

I will start this post by recommending everyone watch the documentary "Food Inc".  Next pick up and read this book, "In the Defense of Food" by Michael Pollan.  And you should do all of your shopping at Whole Foods and local farmers markets.
So after watching Food Inc.  I sent a form letter to Senator Cornyn.  Below is his response and below that are my thoughts.

Dear Mr. Shaulis:

Thank you for contacting me about the production and distribution of
genetically modified (GM) foods. I appreciate having the benefit of
your comments.

The United States enjoys the safest and most plentiful food supply in
the world. Key to our successes are production and safety practices
rooted in sound scientific practices. Among these practices,
biotechnology, though still in its infancy, has the potential to help
keep U.S. agriculture at the world's forefront while ensuring a safe,
abundant, and affordable food supply.

Underscoring the immense size and slow response time of the federal
government, biotechnology development, and the development of GM
foods, continually outpaces the standards of federal agencies that
regulate and monitor food products. Several federal agencies,
including the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the United States
Department of Agriculture (USDA), have a role in the development,
production, and marketing stages of the entire U.S. food
supply—whether traditional or GM. Any plant or animal product intended
for human consumption must undergo strict scrutiny by the FDA and
USDA. Additionally, the USDA must review and approve all GM crop
varieties—subject to further examination by the Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA)—before planting.

As you know, food containing GM plant varieties is now commonplace.
The Congressional Research Service estimates that nearly 70 percent of
the U.S. food supply contains some form of GM crop variety—most
notably corn and soy-based ingredients used in many processed foods.
However, a narrow category of dairy products is currently the only GM
food product derived from animals to be approved. Although questions
were raised about the safety of meat and dairy products derived from
cloned animals, the FDA has concluded that these products are as safe
as meat and dairy products derived from naturally born animals.
Cloning technology does not alter the genetic makeup of animal, but
rather generates an exact copy. The FDA is currently developing
guidelines for monitoring the marketing of cloned and other
animal-based food products with the help of USDA and the biotechnology
industry.

Additionally, questions have been raised regarding labeling
requirements for GM foods. No government regulation exists to compel
food manufacturers to label a product that contains a GM variety,
however GM food products are subject to all existing USDA and FDA
safety and labeling requirements. Moreover, USDA has determined that
cloned animals will not qualify for the USDA Organic marketing label.

I appreciate having the opportunity to represent Texans in the United
States Senate, and you may be certain that I will work to ensure that
decisions concerning the development, production, and marketing of our
food supply continue to be rooted in sound and safe scientific
practice. Thank you for taking the time to contact me.
Sincerely,

JOHN CORNYN
United States Senator

My thoughts:

1.  At least his office replied, but the form letter is full of Bull Shit.
2.  Sound scientific practices my eye.  Hmm, lets make sure the results allow Monsanto to monopolize crops.
3.  I trust the EPA, USDA & FDA almost as much as I trust Capitol Hill.  Wink!  Wink!
4.  Thank goodness cloned animals do not yet qualify as Organic.  Hell up until a month an organic cow was a cow who had access to a pasture.
5.  Final note genetically modifying crops to be resistant to Round Up.  WTF!!!


I bet this sounds yummy with all of your foods - Glyphosate (N-(phosphonomethyl) glycine)!!

I am moving toward this diet - "If God created it and man has not mucked with it, then I can eat it"

Not quite there, but working on it!

Next month they vote on Genetically modified alfalfa and wheat please send your Congressmen & women a note and visit http://www.saynotogmos.org/.

Eat Healthy!

Well I just had to toss out another post.  I have become extremely disillusioned with our political process.  Two things specifically get under my skin.

1.  Adding items to a bill that are completely out of context such as this added to the health care bill:

"By the way, buried in the new House health care bill is an unrelated but also sweeping measure that rewrites the rules dealing with college loans for needy students"

2.  All of the deal making it takes to obtain a vote.  I heard the Nebraska deal was removed, but there was still advantages to Louisiana and a couple of other states left in the Health Reform Bill.

Collaboration and Common Sense should rule the day.  Special interest and unrelated topics do not belong.  Both parties are guilty as hell and should be ashamed as to how they represent us.

Bills should be broken down into reliable and efficient legislation.  I think a 2000 + page document that takes a law degree to understand makes little sense.  Every member of the house and senate should be able to efficiently discuss the bill and damn it work together to craft what makes sense for the people.

I had some politicians I was planning to support come November, but now I am leaning toward voting out every incumbent.

I have this simple message for the Government of the United States.  Get your act together!

Stay tuned for my next post when I reveal the canned response I got from Senator Cornyn regarding the up coming decisions on genetically modified alfalfa and wheat.  An entire rant is forthcoming!

Peace!

This blog was about to die off since there is not much happening in the world of on-line poker.  I recognized that there is so much more to post about.  So I will try once again to post at least weekly.

So this week is SXSW in Austin Texas.  I got to see a set by Surfer Blood at Waterloo Records.  Last night I got to see Cracker and the BoDeans at Auditorium Shores.  The family was hungry so unfortunately we did not stick around for Cheap Trick.  We stopped at Whole Foods for some food and heard a tiny sampling of the Octopus Project.  I wish today I was at the Continental Club for Mojo Nixon's party, which includes The Mother Truckers and Mojo himself.

Today we are off to visit a new farmer's market.  Despite the rain, we hope to get some local foods.  The only way to go.

Peace!