Holiday Wrap Up

Finally back to work after a week off and wanted to just give a quick wrap up. I made it back from the States all in one piece. My last night in San Fran I went to the Giants game, they were playing the Rockies...really could I have gone to a more meaningless game. But it ended up being a fun night. I specifically went so that I could say that I saw in person Barry Bonds the season that he broke Aaron's home run streak. Oh well, the guy went 0-4, so not much excitement in that department (by the way he hit one out the next night and then the night after, just my luck), but I sat in the left field bleachers and got to watch Bonds up close and personal. Sat next to pilot Dave, who is a huge sports fan from Denver so we had a good conversation about sports and other things (the guy lived in Japan for a couple of years, so that was a nice basis for a conversation).

Nothing else exciting happened since I got back to Shanghai, had some great family time with the wife and kids, the weather was awesome so we got to be outside.

IN: Nicolas Sarkozy - Aren't I so worldly? The people of France have spoken (when they speak amongst the rest of the world it is but a whisper, so not many of you care), and they chose Nicolas Sarkozy as their new president. Now the mainstream US media has put their own spin on the guy implying first that he is going to be a friend to the US, which, while he won't be pompous like Chirac, just means he might be more open to talks with the US then the previous regime. They also mention the fact that he is the conservative candidate of the two that were running, which should have been written that he is more conservative then the SOCIALIST Segolene Royal, but for US standards is still a pretty liberal guy, oh well just something that the US media seemed to have forgotten. Nonetheless the guy looks like he wants to get the French working has some good ideas about fighting the French Unions, making employment more free then it is right now you know the things that have kept the French from really becoming a world economic leader, we'll see how that goes.

OUT: Boxing - if you didn't already think that boxing was out, then the latest big time match should cement it. I got to see a little bit of the fight thanks to CCTV5, but from what I hear the match was a bore fest. Glad that I was not in the States getting caught up in all the hype. Everyone thought that this would be the match that would help put boxing back on the map, but when fighters don't even connect with one good punch in 12 rounds and people are practically falling asleep in their chairs, it more rings in the fact that boxing is dead. So for all you people looking to go into boxing, try something like badminton it is huge over here and I bet the Olympic badminton events get more viewers then the boxing events.