I recently had my tennis strokes filmed by high speed camera.  It was very interesting.  You know what I learned?  I’m pretty good, and have lots of room for improvement if I play more (which is impossible because I’m old and am hurt all the time).  Regardless, especially on my groundstrokes, I am fundamentally very sound (thanks to my parents for all the lessons).

What was my worst stroke?  My serve.

I still win my serve most of the time.  It isn’t devastating, but I have a big kick, I’m consistent, and I can control it pretty well.  How hard do I hit it?  About 100 MPH throwing my arm out.  To put that in perspective, the best guys can serve near 140; the best women near 115.

How can the women serve faster?  Good question.  I can certainly beat them in arm wrestling.  Its technique, at least a lot of it.

Additionally, how hard to you need to serve?  Not 100+ MPH.  If you serve at the edges of the box with some spin, most people won’t even return a serve in the low 90s.  If they do, it’s popped up.

Here is my serve versus the serve of Mark Philippoussis…the most dominant server whose footage I have available (and one of the great servers of all time).

So you get these “key positions”, and here is my worst, the “Power Position”:

This is when you’re loaded and cocked.  After this its all racquet speed…how fast can I get my arm moving before I strike the ball?

So what’ wrong…3 things.

1)  Ball toss:  You can’t see it well, but my ball toss is not as far into the court/out in front.  This one is tough to change, because I am not tall.  I need the net clearance I wouldn’t get it threw it farther forward.

2)  Shoulder rotation:  We definitely look different in the shoulders, but the difference is not in elbow/racquet position….its in the shoulder rotation.  He’s dropped his shoulder perpendicular to the ground (180 degrees).  Mine is about at 115 degrees.  He has 65 more degrees of power.  He’s more loaded.

3)  Hip rotation:  This is single biggest mistake I make, and the most fundamental.  This is the only completely bad/wrong thing I do.  His right hip is cocked.  My right hip is already released (it is turned into the court).  Mark’s right hip doesn’t look like mine until after he hits the ball.  In essence, I’ve already unloaded.

So what about Andy Roddick (world record holder)?

Well…Andy is a freak, since he can get his arm moving faster than anyone on the planet other than major league pitchers….however, there is something to learn.

Mark P. has better mechanics, but Andy isn’t far behind.  His power position shows a tremendous load on the legs.  He seems poised to explode up into the ball.

In my defense, I had a knee injury during filming that kept me from a deep knee bend (but even a deeper knee bend would not change the fact I unload my hips before contact); however, the point remains valid:  Andy is generating a ton of power from his legs.

I need Mark’s shoulder rotation and Andy’s leg explosion.  I reality I would just like to be able to hit it harder than the women.

I don’t know if this is real or a joke, but some SC state senator is trying to outlaw profanity.  I just have no response….

It doesn’t get any plainer that this:

There will be a lot of political talk coming up about “changes” in healthcare…to deal with the cost, with the un-insured…about the mandate the election provided for change. I talked about the investment the healthcare industry has in maintaining the status quo here.

No matter what they say do not be fooled that some incremental change will make a difference.  US Healthcare costs are so far out of whack that only structural change will make a difference.

Also, understand what the chart is saying and think about what the end result of healthcare is supposed to be:  A longer life.  You can argue that quality is also important; however, quantity is a good surrogate, as all healthcare improvements should conceivably lengthen life some bit.  Obviously we fail.

The chart is saying:  We pay twice as much as everyone else, and are pretty much LAST in lifespan among developed first-world countries.  We pay the most and get the least.

The opponents of a change in healthcare will make two main points:

1)  The quality of care will be worse under nationalized healthcare:  Really?  Then how do all the countries ahead of us live longer and spend less?  They will say you will have less choice and wait in long lines to get care.  Maybe or maybe not, but that obviously isn’t affecting the life span in those countries ahead of us.  They may (or may not) stand in a line….but it isn’t shortening their life any.

2)  Nationalized care (or basically any change proposed) will cost too much:  Hard to argue with the chart….we are already paying too much.  I will make a comment on that, and it relates to income inequality:  Although I have no data to back this up, I bet the rich in the United States DO have the best healthcare in the world.  The issue is that so few can afford that kind of care.

What do I propose as far as a change (its easy to poke holes in the current system)?  Don’t know.  There is so much mis-information out there about WHY our current system costs so much that I’ve had trouble sorting that out.  I know alot is administation, but not all of it.  I know some of it is too few doctors/health care professionals.  I know some of it is litigation and using emergency room as last resort care.

I do know though that it can be done, because all the countries ahead of us are generally similar to the US in macro-economic conditions.  There is nothing unique about the US that is driving costs so high.

Many of you….actually some (perhaps few) of you, know that I had a blog at chasingeden.com for about 5 years; then I “archived” those entries for various reasons.  I’ve put the old entries back up here.

On another note, I never really ride the wave of great new websites, since they come and go.  This followed by that, followed by whatever.  Some great new site/service becomes popular and then it goes away.  Those kind of things follow an exponential growth curve, like multi-level marketing or bacteria growth.  It takes a while to ramp up, then everyone is doing it, then it tails off…then trends down.  However, Facebook is pretty cool.  I never thought I would hear from most of those people again and its been nice reminiscing for the most part.

Posted a bunch of old pictures I scanned on Facebook.

I had this great idea that I would get a bulletin board for Xmas and put a bunch of old travel stuff on it to put in my office.  Maybe it would diffuse some of the emotion?  Maybe it would serve as a nice conversation piece?  It is more like shuffling around the skeletons in the closet.  Everything buried is not treasure.  But they are fun to look at!

Anyway, I went home for Xmas.  I drank so much at Jason’s I blacked-out and threw up on his couch.  I saw Rick Gibson and Marty Price, and felt bad the next day because I probably didn’t make a fool of myself since I’m generally well-behaved when I get drunk….but when you black-out, who knows?

I’ll write a New Years Resolutions post later, but now I want to mention that New Years is the most overrated holiday.  I pay too much money to get an all-inclusive deal at some swanky restaurant for a 5 course meal I don’t really want to eat so that I can get  “free” champagne toast at mid-night.  Drinks are rarely included in the “all-inclusive” price, which is a good thing since I do not need extra incentive to get trashed.  I tend to do that anyway.  Then there is the whole “What are you doing for New Years?”conversation.  Everyone calls everyone in an endless circle trying to figure out which venue we want to waste our last bit of money on in 2008.  The coordination required is almost worse than planning a vacation.  Reservations are a nightmare because no one will commit.  I told Jeanette I would prefer to stay home and watch Dick Clark/Ryan Seacrest on TV.  At least then I could get drunk w/o having to drive anywhere….which makes the final point about New Years:  No holiday is more focused on drinking and going out than New Years.  There will be cops out and they will stop you/me.  I guess the only thing worse than wasting your money getting wasted on New Years is to be the designated driver.  It will be fun trying to find a taxi at 12:30 though if you don’t have a DD.  I bet no one else will need a taxi.  They’ll be plentiful.

Happy New Year!!

I usually don’t remember much before High School.  I have a notoriously bad memory for stuff unless something specific triggers it….such as music.

I remember getting a tape copy of The Great Radio Controversy, maybe from Eric Venable, maybe Jeff McKinley, maybe Christopher Brotherton, maybe from Scott Langnecker…don’t remember, but until that point I had really just listened to the radio…which meant I didn’t get any hard-rockin’ music.  Back then to listen to something different was a big deal.  Ozzy Ozbourne was the devil.  Kiss was evil.  AC/DC stood for Anti-Christ/Devil-Child.

Anyway, I listened to that tape (I loved tapes) over and over, and it was great.  Jeff Keith had this great, raspy, screech and the songs…well….rocked.  The Great Radio Controversy was and still is a terrific album.

I made Marty and Marc listen to it one day in the car (Marc was the only one that could drive I think), and they were like “What is this crap?”.  Tesla taught me it is ok to be different.  Well….not really, but I do remember thinking “Why don’t they like this as much as I do?”

Anyway, I don’t get to remember childhood that much, but Jeff Keith’s classic rock rasp takes me back:

“Hey! yeah, yeah. Uh huh.

Bustin’ ass all day
Just to put food on the table.
And I always will for as long as I am able.
Done all I could,
Ev’rything that a man should do.
Still they refuse to call me,
Call me what I am. Hey!

Do you know what it takes to be a man?
Don’t take a whole lots of money,
Diamond rings upon your hand, no.
That ain’t what it takes to be a man.
Do right by the ones you love,
Always give a helpin’ hand. Yes, I do.

Now I’ve been through it all
Seen the good, the bad, the ugly.
Always take care of my share of responsibilities.
Now, just because I grow my hair
And play in a rockin’ band,
Old folks are always telling me,
“Boy, why don’t you grow up
And be a man.” Hey!

I know what it takes to be a man.
It ain’t the way you look
Or the clothes that you wear.
That ain’t what it takes to be a man.
Do right by the ones you love,
Always lend a helpin’ hand.”

Thanks Jeff.

Due to a change in vacation policy at work, I’ve had to take a large amount of vacation here at the end of the year.  I planned alot of projects around the house and I’m taking a short trip for my Mom’s bday, and will have Xmas stuff as well…so in the end, even though I have about two weeks off….it isn’t much “vacation” really.

I guess that’s how it works when you get older:  Vacation is just a time when you catch up on other things, or you take a really expensive trip somewhere and actually look forward to going back to work afterwards because those vacations are sometimes more stressful than your normal routine.

I think I’ll go grab a cup of coffee and go to Home Depot.

Damn….that is funny.  I know she’s an actress, but it almost seems like she means it.

Not all “stuff” is created equal….or is even useful at all.

I’m not talking about diamond studded toothbrushes for your toy poodle.  That’s fine with me.  If you want to waste money on your dog’s oral hygiene, so be it.

I’m talking about entire industries/sectors of the economy that don’t provide anything useful or are unduly bloated.  Their existence is a distortion; a fluke of a particular set of conditions at the marcro level (govt, laws, etc).

Here is an example often given:  Income inequality creates crime because the really poor want what the really rich have….so some portion of them steal it.  If there are more poor and more rich (the income distribution widens)….there is more theft.  To combat this situation the really rich simply move into gated communities, install security systems, etc. 

Some portion of the home/personal security market is a distortion due to income inequality.  In my opinion, although it adds to GDP, it should subtract from it.  It is a negative value service/product.

Though the US has a 12 trillion dollar GDP….I think much of it is a fantasy.  I don’t know what percentage might fall into this “useless” or “distortion” category…but it does make me wonder how “rich” our country really is.  What is rich?  Is it having enough money to buy stuff that will insulate you from the poor?

Anyway, these arguments have been made before, but the reason I’m bringing it up again is that there is another sector of the economy much larger than personal security that I think is of debatable usefulness…and whose size is certainly a distortion:  FINANCE.

Finance will of course always exist (as will Accounting, Financial Advisors, Insurance, Lawyers, etc); however, there are so many laws and obscurity in finance, that sometimes I wonder if much of the industry is a fiction….just pushing around numbers on balance sheets, or “trading” assets that aren’t backed by anything REAL. 

I’ll give two examples:

1)  Hedging:  In managing hedges, if someone makes a negative bet on company A, in theory it allows someone else to make a positive bet on company A and maintain the overall hedge.  In my example it is easy to see that there is no real value created, just two opposing bets in a zero sum game. 

But if you manage thousands or millions of those bets, and roll them up into a balance sheet and play some accounting tricks….it may look like you have real assets, which of course someone else could then potentially hedge against.  The fact remains it is a zero sum game, an accounting fiction adding no real value….just pushing paper. 

2)  Derivatives:  If hedging seems complicated, derivatives are even more mind blowing.  Let’s take the “assets” created in the previous example, and decide that we don’t want to invest/hedge on Company A anymore…..we want to invest in part of company A and part of company B.  Of course that entity doesn’t actually exist, but through derivatives you can create it on paper. 

Do you have a new asset?  If you combine a bunch of things based on a bunch of other things in a cascade of derivatives, you eventually get so far from reality that you don’t understand the assets backing the paper.  Are there any?  Is your derivative simply backed by another package of derivatives that folds back on itself or ends in a dead end?

It is easy to see that if enough people play the game outlined above, you’ve created something from nothing.  Its a distortion too complex to get your head around, so you assume its real because really smart people are using big formulas at the top of tall buildings to work it all out.

In the end, I think much of the “cloud” of finance exists as a distortion.  In a world where people eat, sleep, talk, and move on things that EXIST in the real world……if all those fancy financial instruments didn’t exist would we be any worse off?

I don’t think so.  At least not materially (since of course there isn’t much material about finance).

What about all those jobs?  Legions of very, very smart people are employing their time in industries (Accounting, Finance, etc) that shouldn’t be as large as they are….which means they are NOT doing something else, which could be more useful:  Medicine, Science, Construction, Engineering, Teaching, etc.

Imagine how much better off we’d be if the brainpower of finance were focused on advancing clean energy technology?

Some may say, “Finance is enabling clean energy technology…by allowing money to flow into it.”

I say, “Yes.  Finance can be useful, parts of it are useful.  However, the bloat and complexity of the current system is not.  It is just dangerous paper pushing….created by distortions, enabling further distortions…..creating assets that don’t really exist and diverting brainpower from other industries where it could be better employed.”

I remember when Enron went bust I said, “Through fancy accounting tricks, one day a company is going to make a profit selling to itself.”  Well….its already happened.  The entire industry of Finance is making a profit selling to itself….forever pushing pieces of paper back and forth amongst itself….thinking that somehow it is creating value.