7/30/2004 01:51:00 PM|W|P|JP|W|P|I've always had a thing for style and fashion. I also like a bevy of color. Today, I'm wearing a bright, striped button-down shirt, similar to those found at THOMAS PINK and H by Tommy Hilfiger. I've long been a fan of these, but was always too self-conscious to wear them. They are quite British, very colorful and offer personality to you and your work environment. Once people get past the amount of color and new look, most think it's a good look. I believe that these shirts will replace the tie, in terms of adding personality and flare. The Wall Street Journal published an article about these and how the trend is moving towards this style. |W|P|109120990118796041|W|P|Style: Striped Shirts|W|P|7/29/2004 12:51:00 PM|W|P|JP|W|P|Whilst listening to the Gypsy Kings last night, I drank some cheap, but good wine - Charles Shaw. My tastes aren't matured, so I don't have a clue what is good and if the wine has a "youthful exuberance and a hint of cedar chips", but I know the craze is here and I love me some two-buck chuck. Also, it's adding a new facet to my goal of being a renaissance man. |W|P|109111991993609400|W|P|Food & Drink: Charles Shaw Wines|W|P|7/29/2004 09:42:00 AM|W|P|JP|W|P|Last night Liz and I went to the Gipsy Kings concert at Wolftrap. They put on a great show and I highly recommend them. You have to see them at an outdoor show with people you'll enjoy talking with. We enjoyed some cheese, crackers, wine, music and conversation last night. It was quite a nice show. The Gypsy Kings sound much better in concert than on CDs. |W|P|109110852808534333|W|P|Gypsy Kings Concert|W|P|7/28/2004 01:06:00 PM|W|P|JP|W|P|Bengals 2004 Preview|W|P|109103436545217692|W|P|Whoo-day!|W|P|7/28/2004 11:51:00 AM|W|P|JP|W|P|Mark my words...Barack Obama - a future president of this country. This guy is the next coming.|W|P|109102986950179115|W|P|Our Next President|W|P|7/27/2004 12:41:00 PM|W|P|JP|W|P|I was thinking about this the last time I played golf. We were in Houston playing at a course where there were bag boys who picked up your clubs from the car. At that time, we told the gents, "we'll get you when we're done", fully meaning after the round, as we were accustomed to. But after the round they weren't around to do the cleaning of the clubs, etc that typically takes place. We felt bad and had hoped to give them a tip because they were very nice and helpful when we arrived. I looked up the golf club tipping at tipping and found some interesting etiquette, but nothing about bag boys. I would say that a $1 might be okay in this situation; however, I am more apt to do the tipping after a round and after my clubs are clean.|W|P|109094651127677613|W|P|Golf Course Etiquette - Tipping|W|P|7/26/2004 04:44:00 PM|W|P|JP|W|P|Your players are boring...for the most part. Please don't show guys playing all weekend who have no personality. Show me John E. Morgan getting pumped up, or don't sensor your players when they pull hook one into the drink at Doral. I want some excitement. When Tiger arrived, most of the excitement around him was due to how excited he would get and how much emotion he was showing. Critics said that wasn't supposed to happen in golf. Maybe not, but that's exactly what golf needs. Golf is boring to most people. Tiger, Jesper, Daly, Freddie, Annika and Wie are all enticing people to watch the game and recognize that it is exciting. I like Vijay saying Annika doesn't belong at the Colonial. We want rivals in this sport. Since Tiger has begun his "major slump", the emotion from his game has vanished. I miss that. I'm not even his biggest fan, but when he was battling to be the best, it was great. It brought out the personality in Duval and Tiger. So my thoughts go to the PGA Tour. Stop showing these boring ass guys. Show us people who have emotion and personality. Even if they are no names, we can all relate to someone who gets excited about a birdie and chucks his club at his bag when he bogies.|W|P|109087538146330856|W|P|Attn: PGA Tour|W|P|7/25/2004 03:39:00 PM|W|P|JP|W|P|I love documentaries and indie films. I think they are the best way to learn and in indie films, the best way to see great acting. A few of my favorites, which I will blog eventually, are Supersize me, When We Were Kings, Bowling for Columbine[note: I don't agree with this, but is the first real blockbuster documentary and had to add it on the list]. Liz and I went to see The Corporation and were very pleased with it. My first reaction was that it was extremely long and drawn out. However, a couple highlights... Michael Moore - he adds some nice commentary regarding businesses and how they are solely interested in the bottom line and how ironic it is that the companies he works with hate him and his philosophies, yet they still sign him cause they know he'll bring in the $$$ Undercover marketing - people are hired to talk loudly or place products in the way of humans during their everyday life Corporate Sponsors - two kids funding their way through college by being sponsored by a company, first union. Website here. I was very impressed by former Royal Shell CEO, Sir Mark Moody-Stuart. He is extremely intelligent and very in tune with what the world needs. The best scene in the movie shows he and his wife providing coffee and having a discussion with 25 protestors outside his home. How refreshing, taking the time to listen and asking them to talk it out. In the most intelligent moment, he said when talking with them, he found that both of them had the same desires and hopes; however, he felt he could do something about it, and the protesters felt helpless. Another welcomed narrators is Ray Anderson, CEO of Intersol. He personally recognized he was a thug for 20 years in the business world and then had an epiphany and realized he needed to change, reading the Ecology of Corporations. He recognizes the benefits of capitalism and corporations, but also sees how they are a hinderence to society and too focused on profits. This movie doesn't have the answers. It simply provokes thought and discussion. My thoughts are we are lacking responsibility from the corporations. Wall street is too focused on growth. At some point the growth numbers will plateau for any corporation. Why isn't it 'successful' by wall streets standards to remain making .20 cents a share for 20 years. If I ran a company that stayed the same size and maintained consistant profits, I'd be thrilled. Why does it have to be .20 with a .05 increase in earnings every year? I believe that we will see a backlash against BIG BIZ...wal-mart, microsoft and starbucks, etc. Companies with a fresh perspective and a responsibility to the economy, environment and people will succeed. Here's the book the movie is inspired by... |W|P|109078564245149474|W|P|Movie: The Corporation|W|P|7/23/2004 12:21:00 PM|W|P|JP|W|P|I've been interested in finding out more about my family's [Premuda side] heritage. My grandfather on my mom's side has done an amazing job of tracking his families lineage and I would like to do the same for my dad's side. Read below for something I dug up thanks to Kim Premuda, my grandpa's cousin. The following was received February 29, 1996, from Mario Premuda in Genoa, Italy. Giovanni is Mario’s son, and Luigi is Mario’s grandfather. Dear Kim: Giovanni requested me to write for you what I know about our family name. It is out of doubt that Premuda family originated in the island of Lussino (Losjini in croatian). This is the smaller one in a system of two islands : Cherso and Lussino, joined by a narrow bridge of land, and located just south of Istria peninsula between Italy and Croatia. Probably the word Premuda has no meaning, as Giovanni wrote, but there are other versions which I heard from an uncle of mine who spent the last part of his life in Greece and over there died a few years ago . According to him, it is a late latin/early venetian name: Pre-Muda, which would mean “Near to / by (Pre) - The post station where the horses were changed (Muda)”. According to this version, the family was living on the main land and then was pushed to the islands by the barbarian hordes of Slaves and Unns. In effect, Lussino used to be a part of the Illirian province of Roman Empire. When the western empire fell, it remained under the eastern empire of Bisantium and later on, when it developed as a regional and then world wide power (of the then known world!), it came under the rule of the Republic of Venice. To Venice it can be reported the strong Italian feeling of Lussino people, who spoke a venetian dialect as well as all the rest of Dalmatia did, together with a sort of croatian dialect which was spoken by inland people and by the most modest member of Lussinian community. When Venice was “sold” by Napoleon to Austria, Lussino became a part of the Austrian Empire who lasted until 1918 (My father was born in 1907 under Austrian rule). It fought then its being part of Italy against the pressure of Great Britain and France who planned a larger Yugoslavia. My father died in 1941, when I was two, in an Italian submarine. On being a comparatively small island the cradle of the family, it was pretty easy for some relatives of ours who had Premuda’s blood and a good inclination to, to trace our ancestry back to the late 15th century. I am told that an aunt of mine, Letizia, who married a brother of my father, and now lives at Trieste has a very complete lineage tree. The one I have, which concerns my branch, goes back to a Giovanni Premuda who, in the year 1655, used to be “Padrone di Legni a Cabotaggio” which means “enabled to be captain within the limits of Mediterranean Sea”. The son of his son Matteo, Antonio Premuda, was an admiral of the Venetian navy during the war of Tunis of 1765 and was later the first Lussinian captain to sail with a brick to London. From then on the Premudas were Captains and Shipowners. Owned by a Premuda was the first steamer sailing in the Adriatic sea. The last ship owned by the family was “Gardenia”, a 5,000 tons ship (Not bad for the years between the two wars) owned by my Grandfather Luigi as part of the shipping company “Liburnica”. The present “Premuda” Shipping line was originally owned by another branch of the family. At present my fortunes are quite distant from those of our shipownerish past! I do really trust that your supplying the record of your ancestry will enable me to find in Trieste the connection which you are looking for. One more “colorful” item which might please you: When packing the household of my grandfather’s villa at Lussino for running away from the Yugoslavian communists to whom the island had been granted by the winning Allieds further to the second World War, a cousin of mine, Giuliano Cosulich, is reported to have found a parchment by which an Antonio Premuda was nominated baron of the Holy roman empire by the Emperor Charles the 5th of Spain further to his successfully fighting the turks away from the island, located south of Lussino which, from then, bore the name of Premuda. I do not know where this document is now or whether it did really exist at all, but it is a fact that we have a family coat of arms : A cock, on a green hill, singing at the rising sun. I am looking forward to receive your information. All the best by Mario Premuda. |W|P|109059981917406759|W|P|Premuda Family History|W|P|7/23/2004 11:58:00 AM|W|P|JP|W|P| I love documentaries, and this is the pinnacle of documentaries for startup businesses. It documents the successes and failures of a dot com during the internet business hayday. It's amazing to see the amount of money that these guys go through. Starting my own website and business makes me love this movie so much more. It both inspires and scares me to go through the journey of starting a business. Check it out.|W|P|109059865582893689|W|P|Movie: Startup.com|W|P|7/22/2004 10:04:00 AM|W|P|JP|W|P| From time to time I like to dabble in some bound literature.  Liz's mom is a true book lover. I was talking to her and she said that I needed to read The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand while in my 20s. I bought the book on Amazon and when it arrived I was suprised by the thickness and density of the writing. Not to be discouraged, I opened it and started reading immediately and became lost in the lives of Peter Keating, Ellsworth Toohey, Dominque Francon, Gail Wynand, and most importantly Howard Roark.  Patience is rewarded with this book. At times I found myself wanting to skim some pages due to the detail of her stories and length of words, and at other times I was so into the story that I was close to missing many metro stops. I won't give away too much, as my reasons are two fold. [1] I'm not good at writing reviews - my sword is definitely stronger than my pen, which is why I sleep on my left side so my sword hand is free - cornershop [2] I don't mind it, but most people don't like the ending and story given away before reading a book or watching a movie. |W|P|109033259896044108|W|P|Book: The Fountainhead|W|P|7/13/2004 09:19:00 AM|W|P|JP|W|P|By far the best course of the trip.  This place was awesome.  Everything was well manicured and the designers did things right.  Nice job Peter Jacobsen.    Scorecard: 4-3-5-4-4-3-4-5-4 = 36  4-5-4-4-3-4-3-4-5 = 36 == 72 My Score:  4-3-6-4-4-4-4-6-4 = 38  4-5-5-5-3-5-4-4-7 = 42 == 80   I started my round off hot and then fizzled the last 5 holes playing them at 4 over par.  I even doubled the last hole to ruin my chances at a sub-80 round. |W|P|109024340575541584|W|P|Black Horse GC North [Houston, TX]|W|P|7/12/2004 10:41:00 PM|W|P|JP|W|P|I've decided that since I don't play golf that often anymore I won't be playing regularly anymore. I think a limit of 18 holes per month is all I'll allow myself...maybe I'll hit some range balls here and there? I shot 82 today. I played horribly. The course was great. I saw a pamphlet that rated Black Horse as the 10th best public course under $100. I have to agree that it is a great track. There was plenty of rolling hills, trees, rough, DEEP bunkers, and challenging shots. My only complain was that much of the course was burnt out and brown. But that has to be tough to deal with in the Texas heat. Scorecard Course Par: 4-4-4-3-5-3-4-4-5= 36 4-4-4-3-4-5-4-3-5= 36 == 72 Josh Score: 5-5-4-3-7-3-5-4-6= 42 5-5-5-4-4-5-4-2-6= 40 == 82 You will notice that I had my first birdie of the year. I never make birdies anymore, only pars and higher...|W|P|108968685447972229|W|P|Black Horse GC South Course [Houston, TX]|W|P|7/11/2004 10:49:00 PM|W|P|JP|W|P|One more thing today is my birthday. I'm 25, which feels like I can no longer be irresponsible. I'm all grows up. Joel, my bro, got me the Fight Club DVD, which I'm pumped about. Just because you stuff feathers up your ass, does not make you a chicken|W|P|108968701635404439|W|P|25th birthday|W|P|7/11/2004 10:14:00 PM|W|P|JP|W|P|I made it to Houston rather uneventfully and my parents new home is incredible. Aside from the humidity, I really like Houston/Texas. Today, we played our first round of golf at Highland Meadow Ranch GC. It was a really nice layout and for only my second round of the year, I was able to hack it around and put together a decent score. The greens were a bit slow, but still very nice. I would have liked them to be more consistent, but I can't complain. Scorecard: Course Par: 4-5-4-5-3-4-4-4-3= 36 5-3-4-5-4-4-3-4-4= 36 == 72 My Score: 4-5-5-7-3-4-5-4-4= 41 5-4-5-5-4-5-3-4-5= 40 == 81 Like I said, not a bad round considering my swing felt like a folded lawn chair. For dinner we went to get my favorite food from Pappasitos. Jumbo shrimp stuffed with monteray jack cheese, jalepeno peppers, wrapped in bacon and grilled to perfection. They must serve these in heaven. Delicious.|W|P|108959899924097588|W|P|Highland Meadow Ranch GC [Houston, TX]|W|P|7/09/2004 10:16:00 AM|W|P|JP|W|P|Since this blog is called golfing scat, I'll be posting some golf-related content soon. I'm heading to Houston, TX tomorrow morning for 4 days of golf. I'll post scores and course info.|W|P|108938268316098024|W|P|Swinging|W|P|7/08/2004 11:19:00 AM|W|P|JP|W|P|I'd like to point out that the Detroit Tigers are on one of the best turn around seasons that any of my favorite teams have ever been a part of. Alan Trammel is bringing some of that '68 and '84 magic back to D-town. If anyone has been to Detroit, you know that some class is needed. Tradition is great. I bet Al Kaline, Ty Cobb, Kirk Gibson, and all the other Tiger greats are proud of the turnaround the organization is making.|W|P|108929998174395076|W|P|Tiggers|W|P|7/06/2004 12:41:00 PM|W|P|JP|W|P|Got to see the fire works over the Washington monument and Capitol building this year. I think the best thing about living in our nation's capital is having such history surrounding us. Oh, and well there is this place.|W|P|108913228916395705|W|P|Independence Day|W|P|