Happy New Year 2007

My resolution? To have a better year then 2006.

Merry Christmas

I hope everyone has a merry xmas and happy new year. Here is a clip of my daughter ice skating.

Filling in for Batman and Robin

You know for a multi-millionare, Brucie was too cheap to give us costumes.

The hanging out of the GP's

Just us boys hanging out.

I hate Xmas shopping

Now don't get me wrong...I like buying presents for my wife, kids, and anyone else that is on the list. What I can't stand is the stuff surrounding it. Example I went to pay for a couple presents and these days most are smart to ask for my ID. Taking for granted they can read the "Please see California driver's license." Well the clerk looked like he wanted to see ID after looking at the back of my credit card. So taking cue, I showed my ID. Not a problem. Then I asked him, "You were going to ask me, weren't you?"

Clerk: "Huh?"
Me: "You were going to ask for my ID, right?"
Clerk: "Well, uh, you don't look like a guy who would engage in credit card fraud."
Me: "Umm what does a guy who engages in credit card fraud look like?"
Clerk: "uhhhhhhhhhhh"
Me: "Dude, to put it short, I got burned a few years back because someone didn't do their job. Now I don't shop there."

This was Macy's back in the year 2000 when I lost my debit card somehow and it took 3 hours to realize that I had and them 3 hours to make, not one, but two big purchases in Macy's. Basically had to swear on my family's life they were not my charges and I even contacted Macy's loss prevention to reprimand the two clerks that charged my account without checking ID.

Then you have the crowded malls. You have the sales, long lines. Basically I am done unless something catches my eye for the wife or kids.

Had a good christmas party/

Stayed at the Sante Clare in San Jose. Bueatiful hotel.. As a coworker said this morning though, "Free booze get me into trouble."

Just when you think a certain coach is a win at all costs...

...that coach surprises you. Basically was just told a story by a fellow referee who ran as AR for a soccer match. I don't want to give specific details since I am getting this second hand, but there is a point to this story.

Basically a team we'll just call Red, is on the attack and Blue is defending. Ball sails over to the Blue keeper which should be easy to pick up, which he does. Red is on full momentum, with slight hopes of getting the ball before the keeper. Keeper has the ball in hands, and then as the Red forward runs by, the keeper throws an elbow to the Red forward hitting him in the mouth.
The center referee decides to be nice and award a penalty and give the keeper a yellow card. Red converts a goal as a result and it's the only goal of the match. Awfully nice of the referee to give a PK and a yellow card.
The coach of the Blue team saw the AR offsite the next day by just chance and the coach said he suspended the keeper for 6 games and the school is reviewing the incident to see if he can be pulled from the team. Basically the coach finished the referee's job for him.
Now one may read this and say, "Justice is served." And I agree, it was. However, it was the referee's responsibility to administer the justice to being with. Deliberate elbows in the mouth are serious and need to be taken as such. Had the referee given the red card with the PK like he should have, maybe the coach wouldn't have felt inclined to take action on his own.
What is the point of the story? Am I giving kudos to the coach? Yes, I do give the kudos to the coach for trying to make a slightly correct much more politically correct that if I stepped in the middle, did my best and called a fair game, I would be confident he wouldn't give me too much grief for my efforts. However, the referee thought he was doing the keeper a favor by not sending the player off, and now instead of nature taking its course with a red card suspension, and have a chance of returning to the game, he now risks losing out the entire season. And it's his last year in the league.
We have heard of stories where the MLS has stepped in when an incident happens out of the referee's view (or worse in the referee's view) and dole out their harsh punishment even if the referee didn't issue a red card.

In summary, things can happen due to referees calling stuff such as a PK and a Red card. A team gets a goal most likely and a player gets suspended. However, you do nothing because you are trying to be nice then you may think you are avoiding a bad situation, where in contrast, you made a bad situation worse.

US Soccer is taking a turn for the worst

It turns out that Bob Bradley will be the US MNT interim head coach. This was shortly after Jurgon Klingsman turned down the position, even though geographically it would have been a dream job for him. The man lives in Southern California where the Home Depot Stadium is. I guess USSF is still pinching their pennies to bring in a man who brought Germany in the Semi Finals and was a top player back in the 1994 world cup.

So the main question is will Bob Bradley get the job. My vibes are telling me it's not that great of a move. This is a guy who has been known to lose it more than Arena did in his tenure of the MNT. I do know for California referees, two of them, both FIFA at the time have given Bradley his walking papers. In an international setting, he's going to run in to much less tolerant referees.

What I wish is for Klingsman to reconsider taking the position. He would be much better in the running then Bradley.

Day of struggling

It seemed like everything I did today was a struggle. Tried to put together a scanner and it was a struggle. Tried to take a test and it was a struggle. Tried to solved all of other people's technical issues and it was a struggle.

On the flip side of things, my darling daughter has been doing great in school. I got three spelling tests handed to me, two of them she scored a perfect paper and got a 90% on the other. Nice to know the extra help we have given her has paid off.

USSF registration is fast this year

I thought it was amazingly fast when they got my referee license in about a month's time of submitting the paperwork, doing the check vs. the new referee registration electronically. I was afraid my upgrading paperwork would slip through the cracks. Turns out my instincts were correct because the www.d3refs.com web page now suggests registering this way for grade 7 and higher since we have additional paperwork to turn in. Well with my instructors license there was no paperwork involved with the reg form so I decided to give the electronics a try. As it turns out I got my license for 2007 in even half the time. Looks like there is a lot of improvement on the process to get it out in such a timely fashion.

Spent the better part of my day tearing down a scanner and bring it back up. Not really what I wanted to spend the day doing, but maybe the first hour or two was worth while. The rest I don't know about. I have to do the same tomorrow while chasing a call down to make sure he is up and running even though I think it's his program doing the problem because it works on another system.

For fun and entertainment my sister sent me this

Winning streak finally shot down

Well after a few tournaments where I have walked away with cash, it turned out last friday I finally got the boot with no cash. Placed 4th out of 9th and what got me the boot was I went all in on pocket 8's knowing that one player was left. As it turned out, she had pocket Aces and I never hit my card.

Find myself missing an old passion.

No, not an old girlfriend. I've been finding myself more and more missing my old passion for fencing. I fenced in De Anza College . When I first took it, it was more of a "hey this could be fun to do between classes."

I remember my first instructor, Elmer Gates. He was an old gentleman from Indiana. You could tell from the way he says Italian (He pronounces it Eye-talian). I remember slow learning the first class. That was because we were spending much of our time learning the footwork. A lot of it without the foil. So it was no surprise when I was at the class I was screwing up the parries. I remember he stepped in to help me on many occasion.

When we got into bouting, I found myself wanting to be a director (they now call them referees). By then I was getting the hang of the fencing. Then I was so stoked, I wanted to fence in the summer and then in the fall. Then I was taking fencing every quarter by the fall, I was a teacher's aid for the beginning class. Even bought my own mask, foil, and jacket.

I then was started to get bored with the class because I wasn't learning anything new. But then a friend I made in the class found a maestro who was teaching at nights at my old high school. I decided I was going to take a few classes. His name is John DeCesare. He was an interesting fellow. Gave me a few finer points in fencing which was different with Gates and a few new moves that I hadn't learned before.

It was then that I started competing. I took second in my first competition. Then there was the De Anza/West Valley fencing bash twice a year. I made some friends there. I also placed 2nd on the inaugural and first from there on out until I left.

Thing was I was also refereeing soccer and it got to a point one of them had to go. I chose the refereeing. See my post of how I became a referee for details. Problem is when you get to the pinnacle of a course, then you can only tune up what you know.

I then moved a bit up north after Gates retired. Before Gates retired, they needed a successor. Unfortunately I didn't have a degree or I could have taught the class easily. So it went to a rookie. She did one smart thing and take individual lessons from Connie Yu. Her daughter Jennifer, placed very well in National Competitions. I went to seek a new fencing place. I found Sword Play Fencing Academy. I actually discovered it during my college years as I was competing in the amateur level. It was a nice set up I remembered and the host, George Platt was pretty cool. I decided that was going to be my stomping ground where it could gear me up for better fencing and competitions.
At that point I had a wake up call. My competing in college was nothing compared to SPF and USFA competitions. There were kids who were better then me. It was discouraging, but after a while I just rolled with it and tried to be the best I could be. Before I hung up the equipment I did finally get ranked. By now the rank is gone since it lasts 4 years from last competition where you would earn the ranking.
What prompted me to write this was I was in Fullerton visiting my wife's family and my nephew and I were playing with light sabres a little aggressively and then it just brought back memories. As my nephew was wailing away with his sabre, it took little effort to parry his and then my daughter's at the same time. I was once told by old timers, fencing is like riding a bike. Once you get back on, you don't forget how to ride. I didn't believe it until that day.