Steve Holden's Blog

Thoughts & Tips For September 2020

Photo by Steve Holden. MORE LIKE THIS!

CURRENT EVENTS

No big change for us on the COVD-19 front.  We continue to be vigilant and focused: #wear_a_mask; #wash_your_hands, #social_distance, and #stay_home_if_sick.  The good news is that Christy's school as been able to go back to teaching kids in person with a host of safe guards which is a blessing and an answer to prayer.

Tour de France 2020. Who doesn't want to watch 4 to 5 hours nearly every day during September seeing some of the best athletes in the world do what most people would consider completely impossible? I am all in. I am watching via NBC Sports via YouTube TV.

My candidate for President of the United States in 2020 is Jo Jorgensen (#letherspeak, #letherdebate). While I don't agree with everything she is advocating, she is in my humble opinion the best option for a President Of The United States who believes in and will fight for:

• right to life, liberty, & the pursuit of happiness
• right to keep & bear arms
• right to live where you choose & how you chose
• right to privacy
• right to worship how, when, & where you choose
• right to be treated equally under the law

OTHER THINGS THAT ARE GOING WELL

• The PodCraft Beer Show just had episode 7 and next week is episode 8. I have had some super spectacular craft beers that have blown my palette away.  As a craft beer fan I have actually realized how much I've missed by not paying attention to the special releases that many breweries do and I had no clue how amazing they are.
• I am still playing D&D every week or so with friends from high school.  It is frankly one of the best unattended consequences of COVID-19 for me.
• I am still loving my water-proof MP3 player -- AfterShokz Black Diamond Xtrainerz.
• We were able to camp at San Elijo State Beach in August which was awesome ...

EXPERIMENTING WITH MEDITATION

The book "10% Happier: How I Tamed the Voice in My Head, Reduced Stress Without Losing My Edge, and Found a Self-Help That Actually Works"
By: Dan Harris (#meditation) got me to do a little experiment over the last month since finishing the book. I've been doing five minutes of unguided meditation using the Apple iOS app Oak from Kevin Rose before I stretch in the morning.  Nothing bad has happened (Ha Ha!) I actually now think a little "mind exercise" is a good thing. My monkey mind is strong! More updates as time goes on.

If you are interested in guided meditations, then the only examples I've had experience with are Mike Foster's Guided Meditations. The Oak app has them but I haven't used them before.

TECHNOLOGY, TIPS, & SUGGESTIONS

I have just started using this new Google Chrome browser feature for organizing tabs.  So far it is an awesome new feature.

This what I've been listening to on Audible (you can try Audible for free for 30-days and get two free books if you want). Over the last month:

• "The Lions of Lucerne" by Brad Thor [Book #1 of The Scot Harvath Series] #fun
• "Path of the Assassin" by Brad Thor [Book #2 of The Scot Harvath Series] #fun
• "State of the Union" by Brad Thor [Book #3 of The Scot Harvath Series] #fun
• "Accelerate: Building and Scaling High Performing Technology Organizations" by Dr. Nicole Forsgren, Jez Humble, & Gene Kim #work

I am currently doing all my Audible listening on my cell phone Samsung Galaxy S10+.

I also managed to finish a few Kindle books (I am currently using a Kindle Paperwhite for nearly all my reading):

• "The David Rivers Series: Books 1-3 -- Greatest Enemy, Offer of Revenge & Dark Redemption" by Jason Kasper
• "Scars: John Dempsey Novella" by Brian Andrews & Jeffery Wilson #fun
• "American Operator" by Brian Andrews & Jeffery Wilson [Tier One #4] #fun
• "Red Spector" by Brian Andrews & Jeffery Wilson [Tier One #5] #fun

One of my "newer" (I've heard in the past that this isn't a word, but I still use it all the time) favorite bands is Lo Moon.  They opened last year for several shows that the CHVRCHES did, and I'm super impressed with them.  I recently bought their album Lo Moon on Amazon so I could load the MP3s on my AfterShokz Black Diamond Xtrainerz  as I really wanted to listen to them while swimming.  Other specific albums I listen to frequently while swimming are: CHVRCHES (Bones of What You Believe, Every Open Eye, Love Is Dead) and Maggie Rogers (Heard It In A Past Life).  I will also drag a lot of 80s New Wave to a folder for 'random' mode listening.

Def Con (the yearly hacker conference I've been going to since #18) was completely virtual this year.  A ton of solid cybersecurity content is readily available if you are interested.

QUOTE I'M THINKING ABOUT

"We are what we repeatedly do, therefore, excellence is not an act but a habit." - Aristotle

ESPN Announcing System - Secret Podcast Tool?!?

ESPN PlayByPlay is a potentially interesting product geared for turning young kids into sports announcers.  It includes signature ESPN sounds, stadium chants, an 'on-air' light, 3 microphone jacks, one line in jack (for an MP3 player or other audio in), and speaker system.

No word if there is a mix out.  But there is an extra audio port that online resources fail to mention what its purpose is.  If it did do an audio mix out, then it could be a great podcast tool.

Great Baseball Game!

Conrad and I got to go to yesterday's evening San Diego Padres vs. Cincinnati Reds baseball game.  We had a great time, Padres won, and the San Diego Chicken was there making us all laugh at his skits. 

There was a time during the dark days of the Padres when the San Diego Chicken was the only fun part of being at the ball park.

Santa Clara, CA Run GPS Location

This morning ... before the second day of Podcast Academy III ... I went for a run near the hotel. In looking at the map in Microsoft Streets & Trips 2006 it looked like there was a little river bed near by and I was curious if maybe there could be a path there.

The location was Lat 37.38871N, Long 121.96890W (aka -121.96890).  And sure enough there was a major bike/run path.  It was much more enjoyable then running in morning traffic.

"The Only Real Option Is To Get Control Of My Gambling"

The above quote is from John Daly and is inESPN Magazine on page 62 of the June 19, 2006 edition. 

A good example of Daly's challenge is that in 2005 after coming in second behind Tiger Woods at WGC-AmEx Championship in San Francisco, Daly 'celebrated' by going to Las Vegas and losing $1.65 million in five hours.

According to the article he estimates his currently losses over the last 12 years at between $50-60 million.

Poor Marlins - Baseball's Great Divide

The recent ESPN magazine noted that the 2006 payroll for the Marlins baseball team was $15 million. There are 12 major league players that make more in one year then the Marlins complete payroll.  They are:

1. Alex Rodriquez, Yankees, $25.7 million
2. Derek Jeter, Yankees, $20.6 million
3. Jason Giambi, Yankees, $20.4 million
4. Barry Bonds, Giants $20.0 million
5. Jeff Bagwell, Astros, $19.4 million
6. Mike Mussina, Yankees, $19.0 million
7. Manny Ramirez, Red Sox, $18.3 million
8. Todd Helton, Rockies, $16.6 million
9. Andy Pettitte, Astros, $16.4 million
10. Magglio Ordonez, Tigers, $16.2 million
11. Randy Johnson, Yankees, $15.7 milion
12. Chan Ho Park, Padres, $15.3 million

Business of Football: The Patriots

Forbes for 19Sep05 has an in-depth financial review of the National Football League (NFL) franchises and a "cover story" on the The Patriots owned by Robert Kraft.

There is some serious money to be made.  For instance the project revenues for this 'year' (hard to define the start and the stop of the business calendar from the article) for just The Patriots stadium operations:

• $107 million on Media (TV and Radio) [I recommend that you don't think of podcasting a live NFL event unless you like to give your lawyer lots of money.]
• $41 million on Premium Seating [80 posh suites generate $165K a year + 6000 club seats and 2 club rooms]
• $40million on General Tickets ['for the little people?']
• $38 million on Sponsorship & Merchandising [includes signage + naming rights]
• $19 million on Stadium [concessions, parking, etc...]

NOTE: At the end of the article there is a funny story where Kraft was in Russia with Citigroup's Weill and News Corp's Murdoch, and he showed off his 2005 Super Bowl Ring to Russian President Putin who admired it (124 diamonds) and then put it in his pocket thinking it was a present for himself  The ring is now on display in the Kremlin Museum. ;-)

Technology Ads in ESPN Magazine

I am not a big sports guy in the sense of that I usually read the Sports Page first or subscribe to a sports related magazine.  But I do follow baseball, football, and occasionally golf.

Christy's brother Brian has been getting ESPN magazine and the issue 8.16 for 15Aug05 was waiting for him to read at our house after returning from vacation but he is now on an extended stay on the East Coast. 

So ... I was thumbing through it before it went in the recycle,  and the technology related ads caught my eye, here is the list that I saw for sure:

• EA Sports Madden 06
• Toyota Matrix
• Net10 "Pay As You Go" Cellphones
• Memorix 2-GB USB TravelDrive
• Microsoft Windows XP
• LG -USA mobile communications
• Motorola Razrwire
• Best Buy

The other thing that caught my eye was the ESPY Style 2005 Gift Bag.  There was a good amount of tech included: Bose, Keurig, Panasonic, Sony, Timbuk2, Voicestick, and XM Radio.

Geek Runner

My main form of exercise is running (maybe better to categorize as jogging for some people). Every other day or so I run about 4 miles. I occasionally mix in a little bike riding, light weight lifting, or recreational swimming.

I noticed in the latest Road Runner Sports catalog (no easy URL) that you can now officially completely geek out your run with tools that track your vitals & time, listen to music, track your GPS location, display maps, upload all data collected to a computer for post analysis, etc.

I recently went to Road Runner Sports (luckily I live in San Diego and can go to their store) and got some new running shoes (GEL Kayano X). I had been developing a little bit of discomfort in my left foot so I also did a gate analysis and found I was running in the right type of shoes. So, I guess my old shoes had just reached the point of replacement. One of the new things I was told during my analysis, was that "typically" running shoes need about 30 hours to "recooperate" from a run and completely go back to "full support mode." So, I either need to get another pair of shoes for back-to-back running days or start doing an every other day routine.