Lessons of a Session from the Outside

From my previous time at the Assembly, I had learned that everything we learned in high school about how a bill becomes a law is, let's just say for the sake of being polite, "optimistic". After 6 months on the outside, it was confirmed to me that the process is, let's just say, again, for the sake of being polite, "wishful thinking", but I became much more cynical and hurtful/hateful about it all.

After months of pushing reasonable, common sense legislation - the low-hanging fruit of legislation, if you will - and coming up mostly empty-handed, I came away thinking, "Gee, if we can't agree on this stuff, can we ever get anywhere on the stuff that really matters."

There is more inertia in certain houses of the legislature than you can imagine. The coefficient of friction is high in this government, my friends. When is it a legitimate argument in opposition to say, "Well we oppose this because we've never done it before." Typical. But that's not even the best one I heard: "It's too difficult to explain that this is not actually bad." Wow. Stop the presses. This might be too intelligent. Can't have that now, it might make people think too much. True story. So in essense the legislative session went as such.

But it was not all bad - as every surely knows by now, at least every one of my readers, the state Senate passed marriage equality. It reminded me of this scene from Dumb and Dumber. Marriage equality is Harry and the state Senate is Lloyd (starting at :45).

My recurring fishing nightmare recurs

Many years ago, when we were visiting Argentina during Christmas break, my dad, sister, uncles and cousins went on a fishing trip at El Carrizal in Mendoza. Here's a summary of the trip - Luci caught 6 fish - more than anyone else. Nicolas caught 1 fish - and also the smallest of any of the many fish that were caught. This is my recurring nightmare - my little sister outfishing me badly.

Fast forward to yesterday. During my mom and Luci's visit, we went fishing at Schodack Island State Park. Of course on the way there we joyfully recalled the above referenced story and internally I thought how silly my sister would feel after I outfished her, especially since I had been fishing regularly and she probably has not fished since that trip many years ago (so long ago that we were both in K-12).

So there we were taking in the great sights of the Hudson River at Schodack Island. She had already brought in a bullhead catfish.

Then, she suddenly and calmly said, "I think I have something."


That was all she said and started reeling in. I was using a heavy sinker, so I thought she was probably feeling that, but she kept reeling and looking over the ledge into the river hoping to see something. And then I saw this 2 1/2 foot freshwater drum appear in the shallows.

I estimated that it weighed at least 10 lbs.

She caught this with a nightcrawler. I should mention, she caught it with my fishing pole, after I had cast and baited it. So, yeah, I still get no credit for it.

This was not unlike how she destroyed me in racquetball two Christmases ago, after my decade of domination. After a few years, I may get over this fishing incident. Then she'll crush my spirit once again. For the record, she ended up catching 9 fish yesterday, and although I reeled in 4, 3 of them were the smallest of the lot, and the other was a catfish.

New Hobby Pans Out, Mostly.

I have a tendency to take up hobbies quickly and many times without thinking them through entirely. I bought a guitar because somebody at camp played a killer rendition of Rocky Top. Couple of years later, I can sometimes play a decent Comfortably Numb or Heart of Gold, but that's about it. I bought a damn nice guitar, too, so it's a shame.

Then some guys opened up a skateboard shop down the street and I figured this was how I was going to get to work from now on. Couple of skateboard trips (a few falls) and the realization that it's incredibly hard to skateboard uphill and my skateboard sits under my bed, probably waiting for some lazy summer moment when I don't want to walk to the ATM.

Flight, of course, is my ultimate hobby, but I only have the one exploration flight under my cap - but that one's still a work in progress.

But for the first time since I picked up hockey a new hobby finally paid off - fishing.

I am obsessed with the show River Monsters. You may have seen it - a Brit named Jeremy Wade goes around the globe trying to catch - surprise - river monsters. There are some issues with the show. The premise is that he is trying to "investigate" mysterious events leading to death. So, it sensationalizes just a bit. But - it is incredibly entertaining and I watch it for hours.

Then, one day, it hit me. There are rivers near me. I need to go catch a river monster. I went out to a shop in Renssalaer and got set up to go fishing. So far, there has been some success. I caught this "monster" in the Hudson at Schodack Island, and I caught a smaller little guy at Lock 7.

Tale of Two Unions

In the span of a couple of days, headlines on the front page and sports page of your local newspaper were probably both heavy on union issues. On the front page, you read about how the governor of Wisconsin signed legislation to eliminate collective bargaining rights for certain unions; on the sports page, the news was about the NFL and its players not being able to reach an agreement on how to split the $9+ billion in revenue the league annually takes in.

So, on the one hand, we had a bunch of teachers and other public employees lose their right to negotiate salaries. On the other, we had a bunch of multi-millionaires willingly end collective bargaining negotiations with the most profitable sports league in the country - reportedly because both sides could not budge on $185 million.

Of all the problems inherent in this situation, there is only one I am going to focus on. With all the attention that the Wisconsin legislative proposal is getting, wouldn't it have been great if the NFL Players' Association had come out in full solidarity and support of Wisconsin public employees?

For starters, the demonstrations in Madison already include members of FD and PD unions, both of which are not captured under the governor's radical proposal. Obviously, the NFL is not captured either, but their star power would likely have gone a long way towards furthering the cause of the demonstrators - especially since Wisconsin's Green Bay Packers are the current NFL champions.

Ironically, most NFL players are likely registered Republicans - and it is a Republican state government in Wisconsin that is curtailing the rights that they so vigorously seem to value. God forbid the NFLPA was eliminated - they would cry foul. They should have the footballs to stand up and fight for the collective bargaining rights of others as well.

UA @ MSG

I can already tell that the opportunity to travel is going to be one of the major upgrades at my new position. In the 6+ weeks since my transition, I have spent a 8 days in the big apple.

The second of those trips coincided with the UA Great Danes game at Madison Square Garden against BU. Diane's parents made th

e trip down to NYC, and since I was in town and close to the Garden, I was able to join them for the game.

I had never been to MSG before but I had heard the stories of

its grandeur. Those stories never resonated with me because, well, it's just an arena. After all, I've been to arenas before.

But this was different.

And I knew that immediately as I walked out into the place. I d

on't know exactly what made it spectacular, but it was. I mean, just the ceiling of the place was splendid.

Not only did we get to watch the Danes under the bright lights of the Garden, but we also got to take in the St. John's vs. UConn game, which turned out to be a St. John's upset over the then #9 Huskies.

So after taking in some real Big East men's hoops, we stuck

around for our main attraction and watched helplessly as the Danes got demolished by the Terriers. At least we were in the Garden. And at least we had incredible seats:

New government - for New York and for Spartacus

As you undoubtedly know, January brought enormous change to New York's state government. A new governor. A new Senate majority. A veto-proof-less majority in the Assembly.

And as you undoubtedly did not know, January also brought a new challenge for Spartacus. I accepted a job offer from New York City. So my glorious run at the Assembly came to an unexpected end.

And what a run it was.

2008 - worked on a law to fire forcible touchers.

2009 - mayoral control of New York City schools.

2010 - "Race to the Cock."

The hardest part of leaving the Assembly was not leaving the job itself - since I will continue to work on similar issues. What was really tough was leaving the people. When you work the hours that we do, you become more than acquaintances with your co-workers - you become family.

We have more family dinners at work than, well, family dinners at home. We know more about each other's lives than we know about most other people in our lives. We pick on each other - maybe even bully each other. But you take it - just like you would take such abuse from a sibling.

So while the Assembly gave me great experience, knowledge and skills, what I am really thankful for is the second family it gave me.

As a parting memento, my co-workers drafted and presented me with a resolution of my accomplishments and my, uh, less spectacular moments. I have read this document so many times that I can almost recite it from memory.

And while I firmly believe that most of the clauses in the resolution should (and will) remain between my family and me, there are others that I want to share so you get a feeling for the kind, intelligent and amazing people I worked with:

"WHEREAS, you proudly disregarded all fashion sense by routinely wearing a fish belt/or giant rodent belt and white, tatty jeans while somehow still maintaining your self-respect, manhood and honor; ...

"WHEREAS, though not due to lack of effort on your part, the esteemed Program and Counsel staff still does not know how to properly respect 'sexy airplanes,' ice hockey, and eating tuna fish out of a pouch for weeks at a time or completely understand the origins of Sho-shama Spanish, 'Bagheera,' and Steve Ammerman;...

"WHEREAS, you are terrible at monopoly and would never make it as a squirrel..."

I am now well into my next challenge. And, not surprisingly, part of overcoming this new career challenge will be to learn to enjoy going to work without the great familiar faces.

Who brought the 1970's goalie?

I am a bit disappointed that I have not kept hockey statistics this season because I have been tearing it up on the ice. I have a couple of hat trick games, a couple of four and five point games, and, if I do say so myself, some nasty, filthy goals mixed in. This is probably the best hockey I have played in my life.

And just to make it a bit more interesting, I also donned the goalie equipment for a game. Here's the proof:

Unfortunately, my goalkeeping was not as awesome as my goal scoring. My team lost the game I played in goal 6-5 and I did my share of the damage with what I considered 3 soft goals. It was nice to get back in the gear, though. I played goalie on the Colorado State University roller hockey back in the day and when I lived in Colorado and played both roller and ice on multiple teams (ah the joy of being a student) I mostly played in net.

When I got to Albany, my mom shipped out my equipment to me and I think I used it maybe once in the last four years. So, when Diane moved in, the equipment had to go - there just isn't enough space in my high-rise luxury condo for goalie equipment that is not being used.

However, when I was still an up and coming star with the Night Owls hockey club and did not have a permanent roster spot, I wanted to make myself as indispensible as possible. So, I told the manager that I could be an emergency goalie if someone else put up the equipment. I did not get that call until a few weeks ago - and since I didn't entirely embarrass myself, it looks like I may get it more regularly.