My two cents worth

10:26 AM   The football picks are back on track.
Season totals; NCAA: 17-13-2, NFL: 7-3-1

It is going to take a little time to get the NBA prediction tracker started.

11:06 AM   Terra Cotta Soldiers, (click image to enlarge)




Wild goose pagoda in Xian


Portion of the great wall





The birds nest, the new olympic stadium that is under construction

9:41 AM   I'm posting these even though they are not showing up on the website.
Season Totals: NCAA : 13-11-1, NFL 6-3-1
This Week:
NCAA: Ball St. +14, Colorado +13.5, Air Force +6, South Carolina +3, Auburn -17.5, Florida Atlantic -6, Wake Forest -6
NFL: Green Bay +3

2:30 PM   I didn't have a lot of internet on the trip to be able to post. It looks like I only posted after the first day. Day 2 was in Suzhou. There are a lot of famous gardens there. Chinese gardens are not flower gardens but are made up of water, rock and trees. We took a stroll through a food market area and had a boat ride through a canal. The next day was back to Shanghai. Shanghai seems ultra-modern with more skyscrapers than I have ever seen before. I wasn't expecting it to be but the highlight was a cruise on the river at night to see the riverfront lit up.
The more interesting stuff started the next day as we flew to Xian. Xian was the original capital and one of the oldest cities. It was very interesting, the city still has a wall with a moat around the original city. We were able to spend some time on a market street at night. That was interesting to see how the locals ate. Food venders were cooking right there on the street.
The next day was a visit to one of the 8th wonders of the world, the terra cotta soldiers. These were an army of clay soldiers that were made around 200 BC. They were made to guard the tomb of the emperor. They were only found about 30 years ago and are considered one of the greatest discoveries of the last century. They have only dug up about a quarter of the place so they are no where close to have the place completely excavated.
The next morning we flew to Beijing for the final 4 days. Beijing had a lot of old stuff that was very interesting but it began to look a lot a like by the end. The 2008 summer olympics are going to be held in Beijing so I think all of the historical sites are being renovated for all the crowds they are expecting. The results is everything looks new and freshly painted and all the same. I'm not sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing in that you couldn't tell what was original and what wasn't.
The first day there was a walk through the forbidden city and Tienanmen square.
The next day was a visit to another of the 8th wonders, the Great Wall. This was a little disappointing because of the section we went to. We went to a section that went up the mountain side. So as a result I saw more steps than anything else as I climbed all the way to the top and didn't have a lot of time to look around much. On the way back to Beijing we stopped at the Ming Tombs. It was a full day as we went to a chinese acrobat show in the evening. The next day we visited the Summer Palace and had a rickshaw ride through the hutong area. The night ended with a Peking roast duck dinner. Apparently we had it in a restaurant that is famous for it.
The final day we visited the panda zoo and Temple of Heaven before going to the airport. All of these placed in Beijing looked similar to me, same construction type and same color patterns.
So we saw a lot of stuff. We typically left the hotel around 8:30 in the morning and would get back between 7 and 8 at night.

11:37 AM   I'm back on a normal schedule but there is a lot of catching up to do.

8:10 AM   I made it home today. I didn't have internet access the last 4-5 days so I wasn't able to make any posts are clean up the prediction pages. I think my first task will be to get all the numbers for last week.

4:17 PM   It appears every meal is being served dim sum style. It was that way for both lunch and dinner yesterdey. 10-12 people sit at a round table and they bring out one dish at a time and you pass it around. Dinner was a little more spicy than lunch. The worst part is they only give you a very small drink to go with it.
Today we are taking a side trip to Suzhou. It's about 1.5-2 hour drive from Shanghai. (I'm glad I'm not driving, the streets are crazy. Streets are packed with people, bicyles, skooters, cars and buses. The rule is the biggest gets right of way, but it is usually just whoever gets there first)
The Suzhou trip will be all day and we are staying there over night so I'm not going to be taking the laptop. Then tomorrow will be back to Shanghai to see the sights here. The the next morning we fly to Xian.

There has been a few problems. I arrived at LAX only to find that my luggage didn't come with my on the flight. After waiting in line at the baggage claims desk invisioning what China was going to be like with only the clothes on my back and a backpack with a book, laptop, and my travel documents they told me that my luggage was put on a later flight. Thankfully I had a 6 hour layover so my bag got there before I needed to check in to the china flight.

Now the only problem is sleep. Being so tired from traveling I went to bet at 8 local time and have been up since 3:30 waiting for a 6:45 wake up call. It really is half way around the world, the time difference is 12 hours from Eastern time.

7:15 AM   It's Monday night in Shanghai and I am about to go the bed for the first time in 48 hours.
I have internet access tonight and the night after tomorrow but so far I have not been able to access the computer than runs the programs. It is possible it doesn't accept me incoming from China. Which means I probably won't be able to make updates. I'll try again next time I have access.
There are several people from Dallas on this trip so they were getting text messages this
morning as we at the Beijing airport waiting the flight to Shanghai. Sounds like it was a decent game until the end.

9:46 AM   Picks for this week:
NCAA: Purdue +5, Georgia Tech +2.5, South Florida -11.5, Akron -10.5, Cincinnati -10.5, Auburn +3, Connecticut +3
NFL: Kansas City +3, Tennessee +3

I am leaving tomorrow afternoon so here is how thing are going to work for next week.
Both the NCAA and NFL prediction pages will be automatically updated each morning until the first game of the week. There are a few systems that don't have websites. For these I am not able to automate so the predictions that you will see for these will be based on whatever ratings I have for them right now. If I have enough internet access and time then I will be able to fill these. If I have internet access everything may be the same as normal. That is obviously what I hope for.
One thing that may not get updated are the result pages for the next two weeks. They will be updated once I have all the data. Things will return to normal sometime towards the end of the week two weeks from now. Time and access permitting I will write here while I am away an put up a picture or two.

I'm not really looking forward to tomorrow, it is going to be a long day. Chicago to LA, sit another 6 hours before a 13 hour flight to Beijing, sit another 3 hours before another 2 hour flight to Shanghai. All in all, from the time I leave my house until I check into the first hotel will likely be around 34 hours.
I sure wish I could see the Cowboys-Patriots game. I'll probably be getting to the Beijing Airport around halftime. With any luck I'll be able to find a score.

12:01 PM   Updated records for picks: NCAA 9-8-1, NFL 5-3
NCAA early picks are 6-8-1

Just a reminder, I am leaving for China on Saturday. So at that point everything will get thrown up in the air. And I am not sure where and when it will be landing. I'll update more again before I go.

11:22 AM   Here are the picks for this week. I think they look promising.
NCAA: Stanford +39.5, Arizona St. -9, Cincinatti +4, Air Force -5, LSU -7, Auburn -7.5
NFL: Carolina +3, Houston -5.5, Green Bay -3

9:55 AM   Last week the early leanings were 2-0, raising the total to 3-6-1 due to starting on the week that everything went bad. Here are the early leanings for this week:
Georgia +2.5, Stanford +28.5, Arizona St. -8.5, Air Force -5.5, Auburn -7.5.
There hasn't been a lot of picks for the favorites so far this season, so these are a little unusual.

1:57 PM   The ncaa picks had another winning week. All winning weeks and except one terrible week.
Over in the NFL the computer adjusted line is now 16-3 against the spread.
Season Totals: NCAA 7-7-1, NFL 4-1