10 Thoughts for November 3, 2014

1. Health: Damn, I still have this cough.  It's not anywhere as rough as it used to be, but three weeks of coughing is tough.
2. Football: I guess it's a mix of schadenfreude and irony, that Mark Sanchez took over for Nick Foles late in the 1st quarter of the Eagles - Texans game, and delivered, while Jets fans bemoan their situation where Michael Vick, starting for injured Geno Smith, fails to deliver a win, sinking the Jets to 1 - 8.  That's what happens when you kick out the quarterback that took you to two straight AFC championship games, when the real problem was always your shaky o-line and a lack of quality possession receivers.
3. Football: Best wishes for Conner Halliday and a swift recovery from a broken fibula, and at least a chance to show what he can do at the next level.  He was close enough to breaking a few PAC-12 records, but then had his leg crushed under the weight of Leonard Williams falling down as WSU's center pulled him down from behind.  I think everyone who saw Halliday screaming in pain and clenching his fists, cringed at the thought of what just happened.
4. Football: Some will see the final score of the USC - WSU game and think that it was a blowout, but in reality, at one point in the 3rd quarter WSU had more yards than USC and had been driving down the field with ease.  That 3rd quarter stop to force a WSU field goal was pivotal, followed by two straight Trojan TDs, sealing the deal.  Also, finally, we saw USC simply take advantage of what their opponent's defense was giving them -- the vertical game.
5. Football: Okay, one last point on football.  Seattle won an ugly game against the lowly (and winless) Oakland Raiders where a quarter of its starters were out with injuries.  The o-line was terrible, and Wilson could barely manage a passing game.  Meanwhile the Rams just beat SF in Levi's Stadium while Arizona took down Dallas.   The NFC West is not where most people thought it would be, but I always thought that Arizona was primed to be tougher this year than last.
6. TV: I did not know this, but apparently the big reason why many older but very popular TV shows haven't ever made it to DVD, was because of the difficulties securing music rights for songs used in TV shows.  At the time of those shows, it was never conceived that these shows would have a long viewing life, such that contracts for royalties were limited to a few years following the original broadcast.
7. Politics: I am really excited to see what the results are from tomorrow's midterm elections.  Those projections you're seeing and hearing about, are based on either pure polling or a mix of polling plus past results and a few other external factors.  I think the polls are important, insofar that nearly all of the key battleground seats are within 5 percentage points, which mean that if you add up a solid ground game plus margin of error, these races are toss-ups.  When you see 79% odds that Republicans will take over the Senate, you have to understand that it is not impossible nor is it improbable that Democrats will maintain control.  These seats are toss-ups: Alaska, Colorado, Georgia, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, New Hampshire, and North Carolina.  Does that sound naively optimistic?  Maybe, but the Democrats have invested heavily, through different operations, this year in a massive ground in most of those battleground states.  While Republicans are claiming that they've invested heavily in the ground game, following the Obama playbook from 2012, I believe we're seeing the "Windows Phone following Android" effect, where the trailing team forgets that it has to work faster and harder to actually catch up to the front-running operation, not merely target its current operations.  So yeah, I'm excited to see what happens.
8. Technology: You should explore remote areas around the world with Google Maps.  When you zoom in, you'll discover amazing Android Photospheres that allow you to immerse yourself in these difficult to access places.  Some great places to explore: Tibet and Southeast Asia.  It's phenomenal the reach and effect Android has had in this world.
9. Technology: I'm unabashedly a fan of Google Docs, but sometimes you need much more powerful tools / functions to create and edit in your documents.  WPS has been absolutely fabulous as a substitute for Microsoft Office.  For the better part of a decade, I've used Open Office and its predecessor, Star Office.  WPS is much better, including the fact that WPS has Android / iOS / Windows / Linux apps, making its distribution far wider than Open Office.  Note: If you need VBA / macro scripts, you should consider paying the $70 for the Pro version, but most of us won't need to use macros, especially since viruses take advantage of enabled macros in docs.
10. Health: It was a bit weird to find out that I had watched Brittany Maynard's final video, hours after the fact that she had actually died.  In her video, she intimated that she was willing to live past the date -- Nov. 1 -- that she had originally planned for, were she able to maintain her quality of life.  Now, you have to remember that in April, she got a 6-month diagnosis, so November 1st was a bit of a stretch -- and in fact she'd recently had two seizures in a single day.  I understand the multiple facets of this issue, and as such, I believe the most compassionate treatment is to allow everyone to decide their own fate according to their feelings.  Some folks cannot and do no not want to further deal with the physical pain of many terminal diseases, while others have a desire to live out every moment of life as long as possible regardless of the effort and pain to be endured.  And then there are those who are devout Christians who believe that suicide will exclude them from God's kingdom, and as such, see the pain as their own crucifixion to be endured.  Can we reasonably say that one size fits all?  I do know that a true Libertarian would refuse to dictate that one size fits all.