Monday, April 21, 2014

technological solution to bad calls in professional games

we've all seen it - the referee blows a call; doesn't see a foul or calls the wrong foul; or any other number of scenarios.

the solution i propose probably would not eliminate 100% of bad calls, but at least it would give referees more data.

why not have every player wear 5 or so sensors on their bodies: wrists, ankles, neck.  maybe there are other spots to place the sensors.  these sensors can then detect fouls and where feet are placed, etc.

not only would this help with refereeing the game, but analysts and coaches could collect massive amounts of data - especially for more dynamic sports such as soccer and basketball and even hockey.

Sunday, April 20, 2014

WEP 2014 4.18-20

good weekend.

the two older kids were out with their friends on campouts and parties friday night.  so my wife and i got to hang out with the two little ones.  it was fun.

on saturday, i cleaned the pool filters (psi was up above 25 - it should be just below 20).  then i trimmed and mowed the lawn, dead-headed my roses and then went on a 6 mile run/walk.  my younger son came along with me (on his bike).  it was nice talking to him.  we stopped several times and enjoyed the nice weather.

my wife spent all her time this past week and weekend cooking easter rolls and then delivering them.  my daughter is trying to earn money to go on a band trip to hawaii next year, so this was to help her.

after she completed her deliveries and after my run/walk, we cleaned up and then ate dinner at jason's deli.  then we went home and relaxed and put the kids to bed.

sunday was easter - went to church, enjoyed the services, then came home and relaxed.  the kids did a little treasure hunt as well as easter egg hunt.  we played scattergories, then ate a ham dinner.

Saturday, April 19, 2014

my dream replacement for my old laptop

i got to dreaming this weekend.

i'd love to get rid of my laptop set-up with two 19-inch dell monitors.

in it's place, i'd love to get a surface pro 2 ($1000) and a 27-inch samsung monitor ($273).

it might be a few years, though, before this happens.

Friday, April 18, 2014

WIR 2014 4.14-18

Super busy week - full of meetings during the day as well as meetings at night.  The highlights are below.

health
worse than the week before.  only did monday, tuesday, wednesday and saturday.  i'm about 7 hours or 11 miles behind my goal.  if i run two miles every night this week, along with the usual four miles in the morning, i should be able to make up the 7 hours.  thankfully, the weather is nice this week.

leadership development
the big item was getting out the questionnaire survey to my co-workers.  unfortunately, out of the five people i sent it to, only two have responded.  the goal is to get the book read over the next month to two months.

work efficiencies
the biggest work task i have going on now is this little proposal of mine to save the company about $500K.  i've talked to one other manager about this, as it impacts her group as well.  she confided in me that she had similar thoughts as i had described, so this validated what i've been thinking.  i then gave my manager an update on this initiative and have set up a meeting for the first week of may to fully discuss this.  she has a follow-up with another supervisor, before meeting, to ensure we are all on the same page.

air conditioning unit
we're going to get the upstairs system a new set of coils as the old ones have rusted quite a bit.  the company wanted us to replace the whole system, but that would have ran us about $10K.  instead, i opted to go with the simple coil replacement which is about $3K.

Sunday, April 13, 2014

WEP 2014 4.11-13

carnival fund-raiser
our kids' school had their carnival fund-raiser on Friday night.  The weather was really quite perfect - cool, with a slight breeze.  The kids had tons of fun doing the jumphouse, face-painting, trampolines, playing in giant hamster balls in a pool, auctions, food and candy.

paddle boats and trains
on Saturday, we got to go on walks, do some yard work, eat donuts and then we cleaned up.  After that, we drove to the city park and rented some paddle-boats and let the kids have a bit of fun.  Then we went on a little train ride around the park.

it was lots of fun for the family and quite memorable.

after that, we tried a new burger place - the food was actually really good, but the price was way too much.

after we drove home, we relaxed and enjoyed the evening.

our son B was able to go to an NBA basketball game with his friends and he had quite a bit of fun.

good bye to friends
Sunday was church and meetings and dinner with friends.  Our good friends are moving, so we ate one final dinner with them and played games and had a fun time.

One of the games our two families like to play is the sofa game.  Everyone puts their name on a paper and then we draw names.  If you draw your name, you have to re-draw.  You then "become the person" whose name you drew.  Then you sit boy-girl-boy-girl.  You leave one extra space.  The person to the right of the empty place calls a name.  The person who has that then then sits in the empty spot; they also create the next empty spot.  The goal is to get 4 in a row (or however many you decide depending on how many people are playing the game).

the office
often, when we try to wind-down for the day, we've been watching The Office all over again.  We only watched the episodes once or twice when they were on TV.  So, it's been fun watching them again on Netflix.  We are in the Robert California season.

Friday, April 11, 2014

WIR 2014 4.7-11

pretty normal week - not much exciting happened.

air conditioning units
I guess the biggest item this past week was the visit from the A/C techs.  They told me exactly what I knew they were going to tell me - that I need a new system; that the Freon we have now is out-lawed and that it will cost $100/lb as if we need to add more.  The upstairs system is really in need of replacement - there is a major leak in the coils.  so next week, I'm expecting another visit to discuss options and how much it will cost.  the home repairs never end.

health
it was an ok week.  I did some exercising, but we had a couple of weak cold fronts move in and it made it difficult to get up an exercise.  But we did it anyway.  I just didn't get in some extra evening miles (2-mile runs).

work / leadership development
My old boss invited me to lunch on Tuesday.  We were both really busy, so we only had time for a quick bite at the local cafeteria.  We talked a lot about future assignments for me.  I explained to him where I see myself going and what types of assignments I need to get there and he was able to give me some good advice about what I need to do.

Then he asked me if I wanted to go down the technical / professional track or the management track.  I told him I'm focusing on the management track.  Then he asked me how I'm doing on developing my leadership skills.  I honestly have not thought about this much.  I've done tons of leadership training, but then never was in a position to really use it, so I've kind of abandoned the whole leadership mindset for the last 5 years.  So, he suggested I start focusing on developing my leadership skills (not my management skills).  He suggested I begin by reading The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership.  After lunch, I found some on-line presentations about the book and read through those.  I then decided to go ahead and order the book.  There seems to be a lot of interesting content and ideas in the book.  I may be blogging more about learning leadership and developing my own leadership skills; so stay tuned.

That is about all for the week's highlights.  The weekend should be nice and enjoyable.

Monday, April 7, 2014

WEP 2014 4.4-6

Gorgeous weekend!  I did lots of yard work in the morning.  I took my boys to Lowes - we got lots of good for the yard.  Then we laid rock in the back yard.

After that, we went to my son's E soccer game.  He won 5-1.  Then we went to Jason's Deli and ate.

I didn't order the Reuben; rather I ordered the Smokey Jack Panini - it was really good!

The rest of the day was relaxing, watching some NCAA basketball and spent time with the family.

Sunday was really relaxing too.  We went on a walk; got rained on a bit and then spent the rest of the day inside watching TV.

Friday, April 4, 2014

WIR 2014 3.31-4.4

Work
It was a great week - the highlight was my one-on-one with my boss.  I had this idea to save our company some money - to make it more efficient.  The idea had been floating in my head the last few days and by the time Thursday rolled around, I still didn't have it solidified.  So I go into the one-on-one, I report out on the main things going on.  Then I just jumped feet-first into the suggestion.  I told my boss that the idea wasn't fully baked, but I knew they were looking for efficiencies.  After I dumped the idea, my boss reacted quite well - they liked it!  They told me to keep working on it; to work with a few other people and that by the time my new assignment rolls around (in June or July), it should be off to a great start.  By my calculations, the savings gained will be around $500K.

Health
Another idea I've had floating around in my head is this motto of 6:1:4.

6 - six miles of walking or running
1 - one meal
4 - four days a week

I kind of did this last week.  It might have been 3 days instead of 4 days.  Anyway - I did a pretty good job.  My weight went from around 217 down to 210 over the course of the week.  So, I'm trying to drill that motto in my mind 6:1:4

NCAA Tournament
I won my family's bracket challenge.  This was the 11th year of our family doing this, and I finally won!