I am pleased to inform you from Friday to Tuesday I will be in California as a Visiting Professor at the University of California, Davis in their fine Program in Sports Medicine.


This Visiting Professorship was partially made possible by this blog. One of our regular commenters, Jeff L. Tanji, M.D., Associate Physician and Co-director of the UCDavis Sports Medicine Program, started reading this blog several months ago and we began communicating beyond the bounds of this blog.
We discovered several shared beliefs in healthcare and education and we will explore those thoughts in person during my visit.
Dr. Tanji posts insightful comments here under the codename “Jeff” and he has no blog to identify him so, in the interest of full disclosure, here is his beautiful face for international memorization:

I have also taken the liberty of using that delightful image to create the perfect 80×80 online Gravatar for Dr. Tanji if he chooses to join us in that visual endeavor. Please meet Mini-Tanji:

While our initial visit is brief, we believe there are several long term research and writing projects we can help create that will preserve and protect the dreams of young athletes. The anticipation and the excitement of this new alliance, created virtually, but touchstone real in every way, is a reckoning the world shall not soon forget!
I plan to check in here to reply to comments while I’m in California. WordPress is set to automatically publish a new post I wrote for you every day no matter what happens so you can carry on without me even though I’m always with you.
Congratulations on the Visiting Professorship appointment!
Even though it’s a short period of time, sometimes visits like that can be rewarding.
Whew, I thought for a minute there we might be without you for five whole days! 😯
I think I might have withdrawals! 😉
Congrats by the way, and I hope it leads to lots of great things for you and others!
Thank you, Chris! It’s short only because everyone’s schedules are so tight. It is the perfect window, though, for opportunity and preparation to leap through and offer significant and important changes on several levels.
Hi Carla!
Thanks for the sweet wishes. I, too, wondered about connectivity during the trip but I will have my laptop with me and the hotel has a fine internet connection and if that fails Jeff said I can use the UCDavis system.
If only the plane had internet access, well, I’d be having fun online with you the entire time I’m in the air! 🙂
I certainly plan to check in here during the trip with updates and to reply to any and all comments!
You’d have to be careful not to have too much fun. The other passengers would be giving you some weird looks! 😯
Hey Carla —
Yeah, it’s hard to find any fun on a plane so showing any kind of happiness would likely get me roundly pounded by my fellow passengers. It’s too bad there isn’t Wi-Fi on all domestic flights here in America. Most long haul foreign carriers have web access on board the plane. We’ll probably get in-cabin cellular service here before we get internet surfing. I’d rather listen to someone clacking away on a keyboard than be forced to overhear one side of a loud conversation.
I don’t know if there will ever be enough technology on a plane that will make me forget that I’m on a plane. I took my first plane trip ever last summer. That’s right, at age 32, I flew from Greenville to Chicago. I don’t like it one bit.
Hi Carla — I’m with you on the flying thing. It can be really terrifying and completely unnatural! 🙂 I’m glad you lived to tell your tale here. Wish me the same luck!

Dave — Thanks for the excellent information! That is all really good to know and I will remember him, and you, when it comes to future thoughts and needs.
All I know is that if I had eaten breakfast before stepping on that first flight, I would have totally lost it during takeoff. The return trip to Greenville wasn’t as bad, but I don’t really look forward to the experience when it has to happen again. We almost went back to Chicago this summer (I sell Pampered Chef, and our national conference is there each year.), but the funds didn’t allow it.
God help me if I ever go overseas. I might just have to have a tall glass of Long Island Iced Tea and a handful of sleeping pills.
Carla — Flying is an acquired taste. There are more people than you think who are medicated and purposefully tipsy to cope with the pressures of flying. The John Wayne Airport in Orange County has strict anti-noise requirements and take-offs from that airport of notoriously terrifying because the second you lift off the ground the pilot steers the airplane straight up into the air and the passengers are slammed back into their seats like they’re taking off on a rocket. People on the airplane screamed when that happened on my way back from a Toshiba conference in Irvine, California.
Yeah, one of those screamers would have definitely been me.
Wait a minute…. 😕 That didn’t sound right.
May the force be with you, Dave.
By the way, you don’t watch Lost do you?
Hee, I’m so 😈
This is true! 😆
Luckily that trip to Chicago came BEFORE Lost premiered. I don’t know if I would’ve gotten on the plane if I’d seen that crash!
(Adding very quickly) But I’m sure you’ll be fine!!!! No worries!!!
Dave — I’m sure you’ll be fine flying! Isn’t there some statistic that we’re more likely to get hit by lightning than die in a plane crash? Oh, and I forgot to answer your question about lecturing. No, I won’t be doing any lecturing, presenting, or teaching this trip. This visit is mainly about meeting people, setting strategies and creative visioning.
Carla — I’ve never seen Lost. It’s the one show I should probably be watching that I’ve never seen.
Dave, what a shame! The pizza stone is excellent for getting a perfectly crisp crust! (shameless plug)
David — Yes! You should definitely see Lost! Although, tonight might not be the best night to start. Someone bites the dust on tonight’s episode I’ve heard. You’d probably want to get caught up. Look into renting Season 1! 😀
Carla — That’s so funny! I just heard an ABC commercial for Lost saying if you haven’t seen the show, tonight’s the night to start! Ha! I will avoid it now, thanks!
Well then, I guess it’s who you talk to then! 😆
I’m with you, Dave! The weather here in New Jersey has been disturbingly warm lately. We’ve bee in the 60s-70s and we’re into November! Tonight and tomorrow we might touch the 40s but 10 years ago we’d be below 30 by now and have had at least two major snow storms. I don’t think this is a coincidence, either…
Where’s Mini-Jeff? 😀
Ugh, basketball…
What the others said.
Jeff! — I will make a note on the hair and try to think how I could Photoshop the image to be more reflective of the current you.
I’m sorry to hear the Kings are having a slow start at 1-3 but they have a better record than the Knicks at 0-3. I think Sunday’s game might be entertainingly ugly! 🙂
That’s ethical, right? 😉
Carla — If Jeff will not use the Mini-Tanji Gravatar, I am considering using it as my new Gravatar.
Dave — I think there is no doubt the world is getting warmer and it will take more than the business interests who created and perpetuate the problem to convince me otherwise. Go KnicKings! 😀
Frank — Nice to see you here! It’s too bad Robin couldn’t check in today. 😆
I was a little caught up in getting my new car today so I let Frank stop by instead. Congratulations and tell us all about it!
Thank you, Miss Robin! We enjoy Frank but we love you. 😉
You like me! You really like me! 😛