Freak off his Leash

Bling is Bling...Even if it's on the Inside.

2011-07-26T20:26:00.000-05:00

Our dog Tyler has finally suffered his first major injury. It’s debatable exactly when this happened, but he has a complete tear of his Cranial Cruciate Ligament (doggie ACL). He’s had some intermittent problems with that leg since winter, but it was never very serious and nothing that a couple days of rest and NSAIDs completely fixed. So it’s possible that he ruptured it months ago and just did extremely well until recently, or he started a tear before and ruptured it last week at the park. Moo point, since either way he’s going under the knife.
He’ll be getting a procedure known as TTA. Tibial Tuberosity Advancement. It’s not a fun thing to look at the descriptions of, so I’m going to skip that. Suffice to say I’ll no longer be the only one in the house who’s had metal surgically implanted in their body.
His rehab will be much shorter than a person’s, but still not really fun for Hayley and me. From the vet’s brief intro and what I’ve read, it’ll be a couple weeks of minimal walking just to get outside and go to the bathroom. Maybe some short 5-minute walks outside if he seems to be okay. After that, each week he gets to move around more and more until about the 8 week mark when he can start getting back to normal activity levels. By 12 weeks he’s supposedly going to be back to 100%. And technically he should be better than he’s been in the prior months since his knee will be fixed instead of broken. Hopefully that means he can return to the dog park and run like a mad dog with all of his new doggie friends.
One important question we still have is whether or not he’ll really be back to normal afterwards. If you read the description of the surgery you’ll notice that they aren’t really restoring the joint’s full stability. They’re just changing the dynamics of the joint in order to hopefully not require the full stability. The vet and the majority of internet searches do confirm the fix, although I haven’t talked to anyone with 1st-hand experience (except the vet, but she’s got a vested interest in making me feel confident). I have a line on a lab that had this procedure done, so hopefully we’ll have some trusted words on what to expect in the coming years.
And why do they do this instead of just replacing the ligament? Seems that since you can’t get a dog to completely stop using their leg for the 6ish weeks it would require to let a replacement heal, they have to find other solutions. Using suture thread and other materials anchored to the bones to simulate the ligament works in smaller and/or less active dogs, but not for large dogs with high energy levels. Aka, our 70# wrecking ball. If he wasn’t so active he wouldn’t have done this in the first place.
So, now that I’ve calmly done the background on things, I’m going to shelve this for another day and finish up after the surgery. Why am I explaining that now instead of just doing it? If you’re asking that question you clearly don’t read many of these and really don’t know me.

And week 1 is coming to an end. He’s doing shockingly well, which I kinda expected. Yeah, that should make it not shocking, but here we are. The first couple days were pretty tough on all of us. He was all knocked out from the annestesia; we felt pretty bad watching our tough guy hobble around with his freshly shorn leg. But it was but a few days before he was starting to get his energy back and feel well enough to try to sneak onto the couches and play his old games. He’s still got very little energy, which works great for us. He’s got about 30 minutes where he wants to play with his Snoopy (kindly donated by the good people at MetLife) before he goes back to just laying around.
But he’s walking much, much better already and only chewed out 1 stitch. We’re not 100% sure he got 1 out, or when he would have done it, but it sure looks like 1 is missing. And since he sleeps without his cone of shame, he had plenty of opportunity.
He gets his 2 week check-up next week at which point I’ll try to get a copy of his x-rays showing his new inter-bling.
PEACE!

No Other Primate Takes Medicine, But That Doesn't Stop Anyone.

2011-07-12T13:49:00.002-05:00

So it's my final day of The Summer of Jarod. And as such I'm spending my afternoon watching the first half of the 2nd season of How I Met Your Mother. Granted I did some crunches and push-ups, but that doesn't count for much. The only other exercise I'll likely get today was Tyler and my walk down to Wissahickon Creek this morning.
Anyways...recently a couple friends watched a movie touting the benefits of living a vegan lifestyle. The movie even presents a few freak cases of people that can live normal non-protein-deficient life given the correct mix of expensive and exotic supplements and powders. And I have no problem with that decision. If that's how they want to spend their time and money, that's their call. I like expensive craft beer; they like expensive rice protein powders. Tomato; tomato.
However, one point that got made stuck with me. The remark that humans are the only adult animal that not only drinks milk, but also the milk of another animal. And that furthermore it's wrong. So because we're the only animal on the planet that does something it's wrong. Naturally that leads into all the other things that humans are either the only ones to do or not do.
Medical Sciences. What other animal on the planet can manufacture drugs like antibiotics, NSAIDs, antivirals, etc. What animal can perform life-saving surgeries? I don't think I've ever seen an ape performing a triple bypass, so we should probably give those up.
Cultivation of Crops. As much damage to the environment as we're doing with excessive fertilizer and proprietary seeds, it's still the foundation for our society. Without our ability to cultivate crops to feed our populations, we'd be down millions of people.
Written Language. Even see a jungle cat writing in their diary? Possibly a grizzly bear opening up a newspaper to catch up on current events? And while I have seen birds poop on a crossword puzzle in seemingly methodical fashion, that certainly doesn't count.
Cooking and Food Preservation. I'll admit that all other animals seem to be doing okay without cooking. However, since they have no means of preserving food or changing the nutritional content of their food to a more digestible form, they have to just accept what they can get when they can get it. It's partly tied to medical science, which is what you need when you eat old raw meat. Our expansion across the continent was fueled by our cultivation of crops and means of preservation and cooking of perishable meats and cheeses.
Not Resorting to Cannibalism. I'd wager a guess that most animals on the planet will readily resort to cannibalism given the chance. Monkeys and bears are well documented to do it. The great cats? Yup. Bugs? Constantly. Humans? It's really something we frown upon. There are remote tribes rumored to do it, and evidence that former colonies of humans have done it, but it's not something we accept. Clearly, that's a poor decision on our part as humans.

Alright, I think I've made my point. And I'm really running out of steam and need to refocus on my stories. Doesn't count as the Summer of Jarod if I'm putting in a non-trivial amount of work. And I need to go find some snacks.
The real point is that just because no other animal on earth has figured out a way to collect a nutrient and calorie packed food source does not mean it's wrong. I joked about it on facebook before, but I really do believe that if a monkey could figure out a way to collect milk from another animal they'd do it. Rock-hard starchy unripe fruit vs a delicious glass of lemur milk? That's a rhetorical question.
Mmmmm...lemur milk.
PEACE!!

New Town, Same Me

2011-07-11T14:50:00.003-05:00

So the move to Philadelphia is complete. It's been just over 2 weeks and we're already settling in nicely and learning the area. Helps that we're in a lively neighborhood with plenty of bars, restaurants, shops, etc within walking distance. And I already managed to find myself a job. 6-month contract gig at a medical company. Hopefully it goes well for both parties and we can make it permanent in '12.
Another upside is that this is an extremely dog-friendly area. There always seems to be people walking their dogs everywhere. Anyone with outdoor seating has no problem with dogs chillin' under the table while you eat/drink. In fact, most shops have bowls of water on the sidewalk and treats at the counters. It's great. Now we just need to get Tyler to realize he's a 70lb monster and can't act like a puppy when we're in public.
Now then, the bad side. Seems that every major city in the north-east and mid-atlantic has to have some terrible city planning thing going on. Boston had that maze of twisting 1-way streets combined with an apparent fear of signs. Our little neighborhood of Manayunk has an even better problem. For whatever reason, they decided that streets should maintain their names even if the street ends for 3 blocks before picking up again. Let me give you great example (Dexter St in 19128 if the link fails):
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=dexter+st+19128&hl=en&ll=40.026037,-75.215642&spn=0.005529,0.011362&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=46.543597,93.076172&z=17
Dexter street starts nearby at Green Lane, goes for 1 block to Lyceum, takes a heathly jog, continues to Monastery and takes another jog, then goes for 3 blocks before ending at Roxborough Ave. But wait, that's not the end. It resumes 5 blocks later at Shurs Lane. And that's not an isolated case. Most streets in this area seem to just stop and start randomly at some point. So combined with the frequent 1-way streets it makes navigating by car a bit of a challenge. And since it's built on a pretty steep hill, I get lots of clutch work.
And naturally there are annoying blue laws. Beer can only be purchased from authorized distributors and only by the case. Except that some bars can sell 6-packs at horribly inflated prices. Wine and liquor? Those have their own special stores. So not only do I have to abandon my habit of buying 6-packs of lots of things to try, if we're having a party we'll have to hit 3 different stores to get the required adult beverages.
Car titling and registering? That was outsourced to the private sector. So you go to the DMV to get your license, then head over to a private business in order to get your plates and PA title.
All in all it's been a great couple weeks. The bars here have an incredible array of microbrews from around the country and globe. (An especially great one is roughly 100 paces from my front door. And we're on a first-name basis with the manager already.) We met a great group of people that bring their dogs to the park every day for some off-leash play time. The array of trails along Wissahickon Creek is a short 5-minute drive from our place. That includes some serious mountain bike trails as well as some more tame cruising trails along with miles of walking trails.
So here's to hoping that my job goes well, that Hayley settles into her new hospital well, and that this is more than just a 3-year bump in the road for us.
Also, if anyone is in or from the Philly area feel free to pass on any tips on favorite places to visit, eat, drink, etc. There's only so much we can figure out on our own.
PEACE!!

I'M not welcome at YOUR party?!

2011-05-10T21:00:00.003-05:00

Let’s say you’re a group of people (a demographic, if you will) that have a history of being repressed and are looking for acceptance into the general public as equals. You decide to rent out some space at a popular bar and have a little celebration where people in your demographic can get together and support each other. With the support of your employer, you then hang up posters for the event on the bulletin boards around work to share the event with others. What’s something you probably shouldn’t do if you want other people/groups/demographics to accept you as equals? State that only members of your demographic are welcome to attend. So much for equality and acceptance.
That’s exactly what the LGBT group here at work has done. On multiple occasions, no less. Every time they have a meeting, party, gathering, etc, they state in no uncertain terms that only other LGBT people are welcome to attend. Straight folks? Sorry, you’re not one of them and can’t join in their reindeer games. But wait, if any other group organized a party and told the LGBT crowd that they weren’t invited there would be protests and lawsuits.
{picks up dictionary}

hyp•o•crite noun \ˈhi-pə-ˌkrit\: a person who acts in contradiction to his or her stated beliefs or feelings.

When they had their pride event here at work, in a conference room in the building, and stated that only LGBT people could attend, I was annoyed but was somewhat understanding. Maybe some of them didn’t want their straight coworkers knowing they were gay and it was the only way for them to make that first step. Even with that in mind, it’s still not really kosher to have an exclusive event for a group that’s asking for inclusion. The Asian pride event wasn’t exclusive. African American event? All were welcome. Every other pride event was open except for the LGBT event. (Insert closet jokes here)
And when you think about it, what other demographic can really have their own event at a local bar without it causing some problems? I haven’t seen the Chinese people here organizing a night out for their families. Black night at Tommy Doyle's? Guess what would happen if I put up posters for a straight white guy night at CBC? I can pretty much bet that HR would be giving me a call within minutes of staples hitting cork. And I’m sure the more vocal members of the LGBT group would have some choice words for me. Even though that would be well within my rights and exactly the same thing they did. It’s unfair, I tell ya.
I fully support repressed groups moving to organize and fight for their rights to be considered equal. But part of being an equal is letting everyone else play in your sandbox. It’s a tough step to take, going from your tightly-knit community with your personal identity to just being anonymous people among the masses, but that’s what you have to be if you want to be equal. If you don’t want me to act like it’s a big deal that you’re gay, then you have to act like it’s no big deal.
And to me, it isn’t a big deal. Do I necessarily want to see gay guys making out at a bar? Not really, but I also don’t want to see a lot of straight people making out either. Not ideal, but you need to be happy with what you get from me sometimes.
PEACE!! (and inclusion for all races, creeds, colors, and preferences)

Blackhawks Woes and Tyler Too

2011-04-16T21:19:00.004-05:00

The Blackhawks have dropped to first 2 games in their series against the Canucks. And it kills me to say that I'm not too surprised. The Canucks have watched the Hawks end their season the last 2 years and really really want to get that monkey off their backs. They're the top team in hockey (record-wise) while the Hawks snuck in the playoffs on the final day. But those issues aren't the key factor in the 2 losses. In my opinion things have been very close in all aspects of the game. The teams are well matched in terms of raw skill, experience, and goaltending. The Canucks, however, have something that the Hawks lack this year. A player or 2 that makes the game uncomfortable for the other team. For all their skill, the Hawks just don't have that pest this year that gets under peoples' skin as well as forcing them to always look over their shoulder. Last year we had guys like Versteeg, Byfuglien, Bolland, Eager, Burish, Ladd. They all...most of them...had good skill and were threats to score key goals, but most importantly they knew how to take the ice and get teams out of their game. Crushing hits, poking, proding, yapping, tough physical play, they just wore you out physically and mentally until you just didn't want to play any more. You couldn't focus on what you wanted to do in the game because you had to spend so much time and effort worrying about them. That not only keeps teams from getting into a groove against you but also frees up your top skill guys to get their work done.
This year it's the Canucks that have those guys. Guys like Elder that just keep coming at you all game long. That really strong forecheck that throws your break-outs off by just enough. That presence in front of the net to distract the goalie and get some cheap rebound goals. The Hawks don't have anyone that can get down low and piss off Luongo this year. Guys try, but it's too easy to move them out and they just don't have that instinct to piss people off.
Game 2 was much better than game 1 and we finally had some things working. Luckily Corey Crawford is proving to be the real deal and has made several monster saves. Newbie Ben Smith has really come on and is playing incredible hockey (for a rookie in the playoffs) right now. Hopefully a trip home is what they need to get the energy back and right the ship. This team has the skill to go as far as their heart wants to take them. Here's to hoping that's at least to the second round, sending the f'n Canucks home to clean their panties for a third straight year.

Hayley has officially begun her Jamaican vacation with her mom today. So far it just feels odd to have the house to myself for this long. I don't remember the last time that happened. I'm also realizing that talking to Tyler is actually more rewarding than talking to Hayley most nights. On most nights she's too buys and exhausted to even hear what I'm saying, let alone act like she cares. Quite often she doesn't even realize I'm talking to her. Tyler, on the other hand, acts like I'm unraveling the mysteries of the universe. Ears perk up, stops whatever he's doing, listens intently. So even though the comprehension is roughly the same, it just feels better. And if I'm talking details/strategy for hockey or baseball the comprehension is really about equal. Actually, Tyler might win this round. Anything new things Hayley does learn probably pushes something else out. Most of what's left in her head has to do with doctoring. So if she is able to absorb something hockey-related that I'm talking about she's probably walking away with a net drop in IQ. Since Tyler's head is only full of strategies on how to make the insides of all his toys end up on the outside and which of the dozen holes in the yard his good kong ball is currently in, he's not losing anything.
Okay, time to get back to my full night of Cubs and playoff hockey. Tyler is in his usual spot on the couch inches away from me. Apparently he can't nap unless he can touch me. I think he's trying to soak up my wealth of knowledge through doggie osmosis. That, or he knows that's a great place to lie in wait for food scraps.
PEACE!

Don't beat up the Ignorant

2011-04-07T18:57:00.003-05:00

So I've been watching alot of Californication recently. Really great show. I've been pleasantly surprised by the writing. Definitely not something I'd want my parents watching. Or something I'd watch with them if they did decide to watch. Or even something I want to think about them watching. But that's all besides the point.
A few times the main character, Hank Moody (David Duchovny), who is quite the ladies man, has found himself in more than his share of infidelity situations. Usually through no fault of his own. That naturally doesn't stop the scorned man from trying to take out his anger/frustration on Hank. This, I feel, is completely inappropriate. Especially in real-life situations. I know you're pissed and need some outlet, but before you throw down with some stranger for defiling your betroved, make sure he's done something wrong. If your girl picked him up at some bar without mentioning her boyfriend he's not wrong and doesn't deserve a beating.
I've actually been on the first half of this situation. Luckily not the 2nd half. Before I continue I'd like to mention that this all happens prior to any more-than-friends conversation with Hayley. Many years ago I was attending the fall party at a local brewery. Big outdoor event with good beer, bands, food, extra. As the night wore on our small band of merry makers ended up mingling with a group of female merry makers. Things between myself and a young lady started to head in a non-friendly direction. Flirting and...what not. A gentleman never kisses and tells. That seems like a safe policy so I will also adopt it. However, once the party was over and we were all exiting, things seemed to change. Didn't seem so eager to continue hang out, not really interested in getting together later, nothing. After consulting with her friend as to what was going on, it turned out she actually has a boyfriend. Obviously with some issues, but a boyfriend none the less. And while nothing really happened, had he showed up in the middle of the night and saw some of the events, he would have been none too pleased. And naturally I would have likely been the target of his displeasure. All's well that ends well and no one was hurt.
Obviously no one ever wants to discover that their one and only doesn't feel the same. And doesn't act the same. But take 30 seconds and find out what the real story is before you do something unjust. One of the very few morals I try to live by is never punishing the innocent. I've been punished as an innocent and it just sucks.
And now it's time to put this week, and myself, to bed. Tyler successfully stayed home all day by himself, with a lunchtime walk courtesy of Tail Waggerz, and didn't wreck the house. Encouraging sign for the next week when he needs to do this every day until his face gash heals up completely. He just walked himself upstairs for bed time and I shall follow.
PEACE!!

Fish Counts as Meat

2011-03-28T19:00:00.003-05:00

So recently I was sent into another of my cycles of anger at people who calls themselves vegetarian or vegan yet still eat things like fish and shellfish. Hell, some 'vegetarians' eat chicken from time to time.
I'm not a big fan of labels. I've never really fit any typical labels and never tried to. (No, sarcastic prick does not count as a label.) And I really don't care what other people decide to label themselves if they so choose. If you to make a life decision and put a label on it, that's your call. I will however get miffed if you don't actually live up to that label. The only thing worse that giving yourself a label is giving yourself a label that you're not. Do you see me walking around telling people I'm half black?
Back to my earlier beef (pun intended), fish and shellfish count as meat. There is no moral difference between a tilapia filet and a filet mignon. They are both the muscle tissue of something that used to have a brain and feelings. If the only meat you can bring yourself to eat is clams and mussels I have no problem with that. You just can't call yourself a vegetarian.
This time I did give it real thought and softened my stance a bit. Turns out pretty much everyone does this at least occasionally. Raise your hand if you call yourself Catholic and actually follow every letter of the laws set by the bible and Pope. Anyone? Thought so. Not even priests can claim that they do this. However, without getting into a discussion regarding my stance on the Catholic church and their slowly changing bible interpretations, I will say that it is different to bend the laws of one's religion than the details that determine a semi-arbitrary label. There is no central dogma of being a vegetarian. It's not ethical or no vegetarians would wear leather and suede. It's not about responsibility to the planet, since they don't make any concessions for locally and responsibly raised livestock. And it's definitely not because meat is icky, as you can turn most 'vegetarians' back to the good side with just a couple strips of delicious thick-cut smoked bacon. Mmmm...bacon.
And now that I'm thinking of some delicious grass-fed pasture-raised ribeye steaks from my meat guy I need to go. It's pretty much impossible to put together an intelligent thought when all I can think about is grilling a locally raised cow.
I will take a second to recommend that everyone take some time and check out www.epicmealtime.com It's absolutely incredible.
PEACE!

Friday Night Party!!

2011-03-11T22:23:00.002-05:00

So here it is; Friday night! Time to rip it up! Unless your wife is a doctor and you own a furry wrecking ball of a dog. Then you have to stay home alone managing this 70lb monster while the wife pulls a 24-hour shift. Yes, your Friday nights take on a whole new meaning.
Funny thing is, I revert back to college Jarod as soon as Hayley leaves me home alone on a Friday/Saturday night. Almost. In college we'd be over at the 406 spiking beers (whole 'nother story), throwing parking cones into a ceiling fan, and probably roaming campus looking for couches we can rip apart and throw into trees. But since I didn't want to come home to a ruined house, I was home around 7:30pm to start entertaining the monster. If it wasn't for Tyler I'd still be out enjoying our post-work wobbly pops instead of home doing this. But that's when the downsides started.
Dinner tonight was essentially a child's dinner. I had a hot dog sandwich and tater tots. That means 3 kosher beef hot dogs, a handful of shredded sharp cheddar, 2 slices of bread, and a toaster oven tray of tots. Yeah, that'll seem like a great idea tomorrow morning. How old am I again?
I do get to enjoy some truly bad action movies that I otherwise wouldn't be able to watch in peace. Hayley requires silly things like plots and acting skills in her movies. I'm plenty happy with good special effects, car chases, fight scenes, and scantily clothed actresses. Tonight's selection was Death Race. A quality flick that even gave me a topic for a future blog. Puppy wasn't as much of a fan as all the explosions and gun fire seemed to interrupt his sleeping. It was 2 hours of everything I love and Hayley hates.
And now it's only 10:45pm and I'm running out of energy and bad TV to watch. It's a little disturbing how little watchable TV is on for a Friday night. You'd think there would be some reasonably garbage on right now. And you'd think I'd be able to put something a bit more interesting/coherent together. But I guess that's what happens you drink delicious craft beer while watching bad movies and wrestling with a now snoring loudly dog.
PEACE!!

Selling our House

2011-03-09T09:17:00.003-05:00

So the process of selling our house is officially underway. 1 open house has been completed, we're listed on MLS as of last week, and our boy Phil Smith (Prudential Realty) is working his magic to get this thing sold.
I know it's clique-ic, but it's very true that your house never looks as good as it does right before you leave. In our case that's mostly due to laziness and scheduling. Hayley's schedule didn't leave her much time to paint and decorate and the like; my laziness did the same. I also don't really have the urge for decorating. I'm more of a fix-it and project guy. Painting rooms, hanging pictures, that's just not my thing. I personalize through things I build and the messes I make. And of course my TV rig and my butt-dent in the couch. Watching countless hours of college football and Cubs games teach you nothing if not how to properly set up your couch, tables, and remotes.
The other downside to selling is putting the glaring light on all of your house's flaws. What seem like quirks to you are issues that need fixing to someone else. The little patch of bad carpet in the landing from where I built that linen closet and moved the attic stairs? Hayley and I know exactly how awesome the new setup is and gladly overlook that spot. But not these strangers that are wandering around my house poking at everything. It's just another thing on their "this will have to get fixed" list. If they only knew what it used to be. Same with the yard. It's rough, I know it. But 4 years ago it was mostly crab grass with a touch of real grass mixed in. I've worked awfully hard to get it to where there is very little crab grass left.
But I'm not entirely sad about all these things. I'm proud of the jobs I did and I will miss finishing a few and not doing some others. But I'm glad to have had the experience. This being our first home I learned quite a bit. It's one thing to grow up helping your dad do all these projects. But once you're the big man with the tool belt and power saw it's a whole different ball game. Suddenly the phrase 'measure twice cut once' takes on a whole new meaning. Pads of graph paper left over from college once again have a use. The fine folks at Lowe's become your favorite people in the world. And the next time I get to do these things I'll be that much better at it.
Speaking of which, 1 big bummer is going back to renting for 3 years. While we initially wanted to buy in Philly, it's just not going to be cost effective. We'd have to close June 1st and hope the market doesn't drop just to break even. And then hope we like our new sight-unseen neighborhood. So no more ambitious house projects. No more randomly tearing things apart just because I can. And while we will still have a yard, it won't be as rewarding to spend all those hours working on it. I guess I'll just have to befriend people with homes I can work on when I'm bored.
In the interim, wish us luck in our selling efforts and our ability to find a nice house to rent in Philly. And of course keep your eyes and ears peeled for notice of our going-away party. Hayley will cry alot; I'll drink alot; all will be as it always was.
PEACE!

Tackling Drills

2011-01-15T20:45:00.002-05:00

Maybe it's just me, but it seems as if NFL defenders get worse and worse at tackling every year. I'd like to think that it's just the offensive players getting more and more elusive, but from the look of the terrible technique that isn't very likely. Everyone seems to be going for the giant highlight-reel hit instead of breaking down and making a solid form tackle.
I just watched Michael Turner run through 3 or 4 Packers defenders en route to a touchdown. And most of those guys were just throwing shoulders and arms trying to bring down a big powerful running back. That's just not going to happen. Does it look glamorous to have a guy bowl you over while making a tackle? No. But it's better than whiffing on the hit and watching him run down the field for big yards.
In high school you work on form tackling starting on day 1 and continuing until the very last day of the season. Every practice involves some type of tackling drill. You get trained on how to come in under control, get you head across their body, shoulder into the midsection, wrap up, and drive with your legs. You don't tuck in your arms and try to knock them down. You don't throw your body at their knees. You don't sprint in out of control so they only have to move by 12" to make you go flying by.
I remember my senior year playing on kick-off coverage. We were playing Palatine HS who had their stud (who was voted Mr. Illinois at the end of the year) returning kicks. The guy was a beast. 6-4 240lbs. And sure enough me, all of 5-9 180, had a shot at him on the opening kick. I'd love to say that I came in there and blew him up. Quite the opposite. Tackling him was like tackling a telephone pole. But it was a perfect form tackle. Shoulder to the gut, wrapped him up, and even though he ran through me, he only got a couple more yards before I had him on the ground. (And not for nothing, the coaches did single the play out in our video session on Monday.)
I'd love to see a return to some quality tackling in the NFL and college ranks. I love to see big crushing hits as much as anyone. But I only really respect the guys that did it with good technique. With the renewed focus on limiting shots to the head and dangerous hits, I think we may see a return of proper form. Players will finally be rewarded for tackling the correct way instead of glorifying the guys that don't.

Drunk Driving Overhaul

2010-10-12T20:26:00.003-05:00

I’m sure everyone has their opinion on the perfect way to spend your Columbus Day. Some people hit up parades and rallies in support of Columbus and what he did. Others go out in protest against the way our society praises him for what he did. Others have to go to work knowing they’re missing out on a free day of fun, however you decide to generate that fun. The one thing we can probably all agree on is that a poor choice for your Columbus Day would be rear-ending the chief of the Massachusetts State Police at a red light at 11:45am … while driving drunk … for the 5th documented time.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2010/10/12/driver_faces_oui_charge_after_hitting_cruiser/
This is now her 5th DUI charge. 5th!! They already suspended her license and probably have collected a pretty good pile of money in fees from her. If this was an isolated case I’d brush it off as just a random moron. No matter what you do, there’s always a moron that just refuses to obey the laws. However, this is far from an isolated case. You often see reports of people getting caught for driving drunk with previous DUIs. I don’t have any hard numbers, but it’s pretty common. This to me says the system is just not working. The punishment is clearly not serious enough to serve as a legitimate deterrent. And the potential effects of the crime are severe. If drunks would confine themselves to single-car crashes I wouldn’t really mind. Even if they had a passenger. If you get hammered, decide to drive your car, and wrap it around an oak tree and kill yourself, that’s none of my concern. If someone was foolish enough to get in the car with you while you were in that condition, that’s also none of my concern. The affected parties did something stupid and paid a price for it. However, that is not always the case. Drunks usually take an innocent person out with them when they go. I’m not saying that drunk drivers usually kill a person every time they drive. That’s stupid. I’m saying that when they do wreck their car while driving drunk, they rarely go solo.
Unless someone can think of a way to keep drunks from killing innocent people, we need to find a way to keep people from driving drunk. And find a way that actually works. I think Mark and I came up with a pretty good solution today. First step is really just taking the current penalties and harshening them up. After you first DUI, you lose your license for a year. After your second, you lose it for good. But now is where it gets fun, and where Mark and I diverge. Clearly just suspending a person’s license isn’t sufficient. The woman that triggered this story was driving on a suspend license. And you’re dealing with people who have no concern for the DUI law, so why would they care about the license laws?
Mark’s solution is for every time you get caught after your 2nd DUI you lose a finger. Feel free to keep doing it if you want; you’ll just want to have a good priority list so you know how many, and which ones, you can afford to lose. Eventually people will either lose too many fingers to keep driving or they’ll finally get down to the fingers they can’t afford to lose.
I’m okay with going the non-mutilation route. If you get caught driving on a suspended license, whatever car you were driving, and everything in it, is now the property of the state and will be sold at auction. Assuming of course that the car wasn’t stolen. But before your buddy tries to claim it stolen before you get busted, know that you’ll then be charged with grand theft auto and will be facing some additional prison time. The prison time for the DUI offense will go up exponentially every time you’re caught. 3rd time, 2 years; 4th time, 4 years; 5th time, 8 years. Etc, etc, etc. And if we can find a way to sneak an extra clause into the law, the cops each get to take 1 shot at you when they pull you over starting with offense #3. Anywhere except the head, and with anything they normally carry with them. The no-headshot part pretty much rules out pistol whipping, but taking a baton to the ribs ain’t no picnic. Butt of the gun to a kneecap? That stings a bit. Or just a good old fashioned kick to the gut. But I doubt there’s any legal way to get that in there. And since I’m not a total monster, the state would offer discounted home breathalyzers for a short time after the change was announced. That way everyone could just keep one in their car and check real fast before they drove off. It also removes the argument that people had no idea they were over the limit of 0.08%.
This solution fixes so many problems. First and foremost, I have to believe this would put a sizable dent in the number of people driving drunk. But it also would generate extra revenue when the state gets to sell off a bunch of cars full of stuff. Think of all the bonus goodies that are common in cars. After-market stereo equipment, GPS units, CDs, iPods, laptops, cell phones. Everything in the car becomes the state’s and gets sold for profit. Genius! I think we all should start lobbying our politicians now to get this reform put in place. The Chauncey Michaels Statutes are the new future!!

Camping 2008 Part 2

2010-10-09T10:50:00.002-05:00

Sorry for the delay. Seems even when I'm just copying and pasting someone else's work I still can't update this in a timely manner. Oh well, here's the 2nd installment of the '08 journal.

9-1-08. Monday.
To celebrate Labor Day, we had hot cocoa and pancakes for breakfast. It is so much faster when using the stove and the first cakes don’t turn out with a black hide on them. It was so warm that we slept with both ends of the tent open last night. With the new angle of the tent, the sun sets out the back and rises in the front. Now that is a dream house. I had a very restless night sleeping on the uneven ground. Getting enough restful sleep is a real trick.

The sun was hot but it was tolerable once we got in the wind. There were whitecaps all day, so that worked well for us. Alpha was the first stop of the trip. There was a new law that did not allow leaches and all hooks had to be barbless. Bending the existing barbs was allowed. Leaches were always the sure fire thing for all these years, so we were feeling very anxious without them. We brought a wide variety of Berkley Gulp to have scent on the hook and hoped for the best.

We got a few Walleye and smallies but not the fast action we looked forward to for the last 50 weeks. I did get a 19” smallie and Jarod got a 28” walleye. The slow action was the same on Beta and the south point to Fillet Island. Jarod hooked a sinker to his Rapala Fat Rap and worked it on the bottom. It did as well as jigging at several times. Adapt and survive. Later in the day Jarod also got a 28” pike.

We noticed right away that we were loosing hookups. This never happened in previous years. As much as we told ourselves that it wasn’t the barbless hooks, by the time the trip was over, we were sure of it. Even thought the TV commercials would never lie, we saw right away that the Gulp was no match for live leaches. We never did get into action as fast as previous years. If these two new rules were to slow down the fish catching, it was a big success.

In the morning one canoe came from the Wawiag and crossed over into McVicor bay. In the afternoon a canoe came from the south and crossed into a camp north of us. It may have been the same canoe. We had lunch on the cliff but moved into the shade rather than sit out in the sun. Without the wind, it was way too hot to enjoy sunbathing today. We came in early to cool off and planned on going out after supper when the sun and wind settled down. I washed my head, took a standing bath, and then just sat with my feet in the water to get my core temperature down where I felt comfortable.

A gull found our entrails and would follow us for the rest of the week. Alpha gave us nothing at sunset even though we threw stick baits, jigs, spoons, and anything else we had. We have never done well fishing on Alpha at sunset but we also never regretted trying. This night we stayed out late and watched the Milky Way from the middle of the lake. What a great experience.

One of the other new items we brought this year were LED headlamps. Jarod had high and low beam, I had white and red light. We laughed that his high beam was so bright we could almost see shore. The lights sure made it easy to get the canoe in after dark and we would use them around camp every night and in the tent. Hard to beat hands free light. We smoked cigars and went to bed about 10:30 PM. Both of us were very tired from fighting the sun and wind all day.

9-2-09. Tuesday.
The south wind blew all night and again today. This was the 3rd day like that but at least today was solid overcast. Hopefully it will be better fishing without the sun. While we ate breakfast, the canoe from the north camp settled on Alpha and stayed all morning. They must have known about it before they saw us on it yesterday.

We started on Beta but again didn’t do well so we moved to Filet south point where things were better. The constant wind blew in rain which started as a slow drizzle, then built to rain, and finally turned into a heavy downpour. The fishing was good, so we sat tight while the canoe began to fill up with rain water and things started to float inside the canoe. It poured so hard we couldn’t see shore for awhile. After about an hour it stopped and the canoe on Alpha was gone. Wimps. Several years ago we found Alpha in the rain; didn’t they know rain was good?

We fished a little while longer and then decided to have lunch at camp. Any shore lunch spots would be soaked which would require us to eat lunch in our rain suits. After sitting in the rain suits for the last few hours, we looked forward to getting out of them. Our camp was flooded but inside the tent was nice and dry. That was another new thing this year; a new ground cloth for inside the tent.

We took our time in camp and got a late start hoping the wind would go down; it didn’t. Alpha gave up fish for supper and we saw 2 gulls fight for the entrails. We hadn’t seen that in years. By the end of the day the wind shifted from the NW and cooler air was coming in. It cleared up enough for us to watch the stars for a short while before they were covered by clouds again.

By the time we went to bed, I was sleeping in my long johns with the tent flaps zipped up and I was inside the sleeping bag. Now that is more like it. Jarod woke me up at 4 AM concerned that the canoe needed to be tied down because the wind sounded awfully noisy in the trees. We got up, with our headlamps on, and satisfied ourselves that it didn’t need to be tied down. It was safely tucked into rocks and a tree, but it was better to be safe and check it out anyway. It started to rain again after we returned to the tent. It felt good to be inside and dry, out of the wind and water. All there was to do was sleep so we got busy doing it.

9-3-09. Wednesday.
We both slept about an hour later than usual and got up at 7 AM to a very wet campsite. Yesterday morning was warm, dry, and we were glad for overcast. Today was 60 degrees, wet, and we were hoping the clouds would go away. The heavy overcast slowly changed and by midmorning the sun came out and it was a beautiful day.

I was actually glad to have to put on a wool T-shirt, shirt, fleece jacket, wind breaker, long johns, and mittens. The wood was nice and dry under the tarp and a hot wood fire sure felt good on this cool morning. Our traditional roles were for Jarod to fix and care for the fire and for me to prepare and cook the food and wash the dishes. Today I noticed that Jarod was getting the food out of the packs, doing some mixing, and caring for the food while it was on the fire. If he saw it needed being done, he just did it. In all the years of camping, this was the first time he had done that. I could tell that being the cook at home had conditioned him to do those things out here. Once I was aware of it, I leaned back and thought how proud I was of him.

We stayed layered up all morning as we sat on Alpha and Beta in the north wind. The fishing was slow although we did catch several fish. Jarod got a 33” pike and I got a big walleye on Alpha. Jarod had several hook sets that were lost before he could get them to the canoe. I got bit off once and broke off the white helicopter jig. Wally caught a nice pike which when filleted for lunch, had a 10” smallie inside its stomach. We saw one canoe heading east and one canoe in the north bay.

Today was a perfect day for lunch on the cliff. It afforded us to get out of the constant wind and strip down to only two layers of clothes while we sat in the sun. We saw an eagle sitting on gull rock and earlier during breakfast another was in one of the tall trees above camp. They never did take the entrails while we were on the cliff. Even on Fillet Island, we had to be out of site before the eagles would come down to the ground.

Being out of the wind was nice so we fished the west bay next to gull rock. I paddled slowly as Jarod cast a spoon for pike as we did a slow counter clockwise circle around the bay. He had a few strikes and did catch a very nice pike. It was very enjoyable to just watch him cast knowing that every cast could be a fish. We were in no hurry, so we just savored the moment of working together in the canoe on such a perfect spot of the universe.

After supper, we cast from camp shore in the dead calm water. Once again Jarod caught something with his homemade perch topwater. That thing is a fish catching machine. I gave up on the jitterbug this year and bought a new Rapala Skitter Pop. On one of my casts, I stopped reeling about half way in and I saw a pike do a slow roll out of the water to swallow it. It is so exciting when the fish come out of the water to hit a topwater.

As we sat smoking our cigars, we noticed a thin line of white clouds directly to the north. It took a few minutes for us to realize that it was dark and we couldn’t see white clouds. This was the northern lights! Right on the horizon, one white spot appeared, then a couple more, until a continuous line was formed. Then they started to swirl and grow taller, then fall, then start over again. We sat speechless as we watched something that appeared so spectacular that it must be man made but we knew it was all natural.

Slowly the entire sky to the north lit up with a white, illuminating haze. The sky and lake to the left of us was black while the sky and lake to the right of us were bright white. Every 5 minutes something else developed that we had never seen before. Then the haze developed into several bands that stretched over us from the east horizon to the west horizon. Under them to the north were bands of northern lights. It was like watching a screen saver in slow motion as it kept morphing into different designs.

It was still going on when we went to bed an hour later. When I got up to pee about 1 AM, it was still dead calm with light spots in the north and a heavy white haze all around the sky.

9-4-08. Thursday.
This is the day that signals we are half way through the trip. It was only 45 degrees this morning as I loaded up with all the layers that I had before climbing out of the tent. Now we were camping! The heavy dew deposited tiny water drops on everything in sight. A solid overcast sky prevented the sun from burning off the fog which was rolling across to the west. There were dozens of thin white spikes of fog all the same height which gave the illusion of an army of fog soldiers slowly marching across the water. As the fog began to lift, a family of 12 mergansers left the rocks just north of camp and swam off across the open water to the east.

Our buddies were sitting on Alpha again so we decided to return the favor and fish by their campsite. We went to the rock pile that is in the middle of the north channel of the bay that leads to the Wawiag. Jigging 12 cranks deep, we got several walleye, pike, and small mouth. Jarod caught a pike with his big bucktail so it gets to come back next year.

Next we moved to Walleye Island. As we paddled past Alpha, our friends had moved up shallow close to the rock piles. The rest of the morning was spent catching walleye and smallies in the little bay behind Walleye Island. We had lunch on Suick Island at a little campsite on the very tip by the main channel. It was good to see that the whole island was full of 10-15 foot pine trees spaced about 4 feet apart. The branches were all touching each other which made it a small thick forest. Lunch was spent the usual way for a cool day; sitting in the sun, out of the breeze, watching the lake and the sky. In this case we had a great view of the SE end of Kawnipi and Suick Bay.

The afternoon was spent moving around Suick Bay catching dozens of pike and smallies. We started out in the deep main channel and slowly moved into the shallow back bay. The larger pike and small mouth were in the deeper channel water and the smaller pike were in the shallow weeds. I got a smallie on a Johnson minnow while trying to catch pike. Jarod did well with his homemade perch bait, as always. We laughed as a pike jumped completely out of the water trying to hit his bait. A little while later he pulled off a fishing first and had a hooked pike jump into the canoe. He reeled the fish in next to canoe when it made a predicted run. The water exploded, the pole bent, we heard the metal sound of the lure hitting the leader, and the next thing we knew the fish came over the side and into the canoe. By the time the action had stopped, that fish must have flopped a hundred times and the entire midsection of the canoe was coated with pike slime.

Camping 2008 Part 1

2010-09-25T13:31:00.002-05:00

Here we go, first few days of the camping journal. Nothing real exciting, but maybe that's the point. For us it is. Just a chill, relaxing trip into the woods. Oddly enough, this trip opens with probably our only competitive incident in a decade. I can only think of 2 times we've gotten into an unofficial race with a canoe. This was #2.

And to avoid confusion, "alpha" and "beta" refer to fishing spots and were spawned as jokes. We typically give our best spots nicknames so we can keep them straight. After finding alpha we went back and forth on names. After having most of mine rejected by Dad I jokingly said something about naming 'location alpha' and made some other Navy Seal joke. The name just kinda stuck. After that, beta was a pretty easy move. Yes, we get a bit strange after all that time in the woods. Might not come up in today's post, but I wanted it out there. I think I'll just do the travel days today and start next time with fishing/camping days.
Janice is the Quetico Park ranger who is almost always at the Cache Bay Station. She's only gone for 2 weeks when she gets her vacation.

A lot has happened since last year’s trip. Emily & Mike got married in October 2007, Emily and Mike bought a house in Arlington Heights, and Jarod and Hayley got married in July 2008. I felt privileged that Jarod was going to go camping with me before he even went on his own honeymoon.

9-29-08. Friday.
Jarod flew in at about 9:30 A.M. which gave us time to do some shopping. We bought a new metal gas bottle after going to several places. Last year our original plastic bottle started to leak after many years, so we replaced it with 2 new metal cans. That would give us enough fuel to cook breakfast with gas plus do our daily shore lunch. On cold days it was nice to have a fire in the morning to get warm, but if is warm or wet, using the gas sure sped up the process.

Emily got a new Boston terrier, Zinny, at the start of summer so that she could have it house broken before she went back to school in the fall. It is a high energy chewing machine and we looked after it all day. Needless to say, Zinny and Jarod got along well. We had everything packed and in the car before Mike and Emily came over for a pizza supper.

It has been very dry at home and I have been watering for several weeks. The park website said that there was no fire ban, but we never know what to expect when we actually set foot in the park.

8-30-08. Saturday.
We did the traditional up at 4 AM and on the road by 4:45 AM. The sky was clear all the way with the temperature in the 80’s. There was much more traffic than normal because Labor Day weekend was in full swing. Grand Marais was full of people as we just stopped for gas and kept on going to Clearwater. The help were all out working when we arrived at 3 PM, so we just went to BlackBear for supper a little early. It was good we did because the locals all started showing up between 4 and 5. When we got back to Clearwater, we checked in, got settled in the bunk house, and got the canoe. It was completely overgrown by wild raspberry bushes but in good shape. We noticed that the Clearwater people had been patching canoes on the back porch and left some Bondo. After Lynn gave us permission to use what was left, we mixed it up and put it on the front and back of our canoe to cover the exposed fabric. It worked very well and was dry before we put the canoe back on the car.

In the lodge we met a couple from just north of Louisville who were going to do a fly-in the next day. They had camped for years and now flew in and stayed in a cabin. No cold and wet camping for them anymore. It did sound nice. The night before entry is always an anxious time knowing that we were just sitting around killing time now but in a few hours we were going to have a huge amount of work to do. Everything in its own time and now all we could do was wait. It always seems like a treat to be in the bunk house. It has a solid roof, solid wood floors, windows, and indoor plumbing plus lots of room to walk around and a light switch. It started to get dark around 9 PM and so we got our pillows from the lodge and went to bed.

8-31-08. Sunday.
The night was dry and cool which made for good sleeping. I was already awake when the alarm rang at 5AM. Getting dressed we knew that this was the last time we would be so comfortable for quite a while. It was still dark as we walked to the lodge to use their milk with the cereal we brought with us. We left Clearwater by 6 AM and were at the landing by 6:45 in time for our 7AM pickup. We quickly loaded our gear into the tow boat and pushed off. The boat was newer than we were used to and even had a two way radio for the pilot. The radio was calling before we ever got more than 20 yards from the shore. When the pilot asked who we were, I knew what was up. We were on the wrong boat; this one was a Seagull boat and intended to take a different group. Our boat was just now coming into the bay. We circled around and unloaded all our gear just as a vehicle from Seagull came and unloaded a canoe and two people.

This was the first time anyone else had gone out the same time we had. They did not act gracious and let us get out first. They loaded their boat right next to ours with a sense of urgency that seemed they felt we were in their way. We got our gear loaded into the correct boat and left just seconds before they did. I felt very competitive at that point and found myself unhappy at the prospect that we got up in the dark, arrived at the landing 30 minutes before they did but yet they might leave first. My civilization ways hadn’t left me yet and for some reason it was important to be first.

We got to Hook Island and spent about 10 minutes talking to the pilot about good fishing spots and techniques he knew about on Kawnipi. I had to dig a hole and leave a present on the island before we started out for Janice. I knew that the other boat would be coming right behind us so we shouldn’t waist time, but our 3 packs were ready to just drop into the canoe as soon as they would pull into the bay. To our surprise, they didn’t pull into the bay but instead they stopped out in the opening, dropped their canoe into the water and loaded it from the tow boat. I was correct; they were deliberately trying to beat us to Janice. That hole was going to have to wait.

As we saw them start to paddle, it was our turn to just let them go first, or not. NOT. We jumped into our canoe and started after them. They were clearly trying to beat us and now it was an issue of honor. The west wind was picking up as they headed straight into it towards Janice. Although we were racing, I didn’t want to run them down in such an obvious fashion so I headed for the shoreline on the right. It was a longer course but we could get out of the wind and I knew that we could really fly on calm water.

Jarod knew what I was doing but expressed his belief that it wasn’t going to work. They were pulling away as we headed North rather than West. It was quite a dilemma to figure out the correct course. To just cut over and get into calmer water sooner, we would have to travel farther. To cut the angle and travel a shorter distance, we had to stay in the wind and intersect the shore farther up. I was determined to pay the distance price and work our way over sooner and get into the calm or else my plan had no advantage at all. By the time we were in the shelter of the shoreline, it seemed that we had managed to keep the distance between canoes about the same as when we started. Now we closed the gap and managed to get to the point entering Cache Bay in front of them. We were very careful to not make eye contact with them but they knew we were racing and we knew they were racing. I could see in my peripheral vision that once we got to the point their stroke count dropped and they knew they were beat.

It still was a couple miles in the wind to the ranger island and I always was wondering if they would try a last ditch effort and pass us. We kept paddling strong so as to not let them get any ideas of making a run for it. In the end, we were successful in getting to the dock first. It was a good feeling. These guys were not amateurs and we beat them.
Janice was on vacation for the week so we had a nice talk with Lisa. While we filled out the paperwork, the radio told Lisa that the forecast was for strong winds and the temperatures highs were going down to 50 later in the week. Yikes!

There was so much snow last winter and then so much spring rain that they had 50 year high water in the early summer. Only experienced people were allowed to go through the Falls Chain. First timers were not allowed to go through and had to change their trip plans. The water for us was only about two feet lower than the spring highs. The BWCA had a total fire ban but the Quetico had none although the fire danger was high.

The other canoe came in a short time after we did and they sat outside the ranger house while we finished with Lisa. I took the time to take advantage of the latrine behind the ranger cabin. It was long overdue and I knew that I couldn’t make it to Silver Falls without a stop. This way I got to sit on the throne of the victorious.

We pulled our canoe and gear over to the side of the Silver Falls portage and took time to rest. It is always fun to mix up the Gatorade, take 4 granola bars, and sit on the rocks right by the edge of the falls. It is the first time in the trip that getting wet or dirty doesn’t matter; we start to just do whatever feels right at the time. If we are tired, just sit on the dirty ground.

After about 20 minutes or so, we finished and walked back to our canoe. The other canoe was just coming into the portage as we were closing our pack. A couple minutes sooner and we would have hiked over the portage in front of them, but now we just stood there and watched them. They were very good and we were correct in thinking they were experienced. The first person got out, took a big pack, some gear, and started to portage. The other guy put the canoe on his shoulders while it was still in the water and he followed on the portage. No chance of passing them on their return trip, they were single portaging like us. That was the last time we ever saw them.

We had the wind at our backs all the way down Saganagons which really helped with our energy levels. It was hot and clear all day long; what a beautiful day. Jarod was so pleased with the BWJ pack I got him last year that he got me one this year. It did a really good job of getting the weight off my shoulders and onto my hips. Thanks son.

We mentioned to Lisa that we saw a green canoe last year in Canyon Falls when we were coming out. She told us that it had gotten away from a group of girls, nobody was hurt. After the high water washed it down in the spring, people had been breaking it up and carrying it out. We saw pieces of it on the campsite at the base of the falls as we passed by.

We were into a strong wind all the way down Wet Lake which always is very tiring by that point in the day. By the time we got the Kawnipi, there were white caps forming. We stayed close to the south shore but it took a real effort to cross the white caps to get to our camp. The water level was so high we just paddled right up to the front of camp. Jarod made the decision to move the tent to a small space just to the west of the normal spot. It worked out well as we avoided sleeping on a tree root and a rock.

I bought a new rain fly for camp and got the next larger size. It turned out to be huge. We laughed as we put it up and joked that if it were just a little bit bigger, we could move the tent under it. It was very nice to not have any leaks and it served us well the entire time we were there.

We used the gas stove to cook noodles for supper and then had our cigars while watching the night sky. There was no moon so we just watched stars and eventually were amazed at the size and brightness of the Milky Way. I had spent the summer cutting down at least a dozen trees buy hand and chopping them up into fire wood. My cardio was off the charts and it really helped me today. I was tired but not exhausted like some years.

I bought new portage shoes which worked out very well. They provided good traction, dried quickly, and offered good support. A couple weeks earlier Genelle had put a patch on the knees of my pants which she told me wouldn’t hold but I knew better. As I sat in camp at the end of the first day, both knees had already blown out. Man, I hate it when she is right like that. Now I have to go the whole trip with only one pair of pants.

Old Camping Journal

2010-09-18T11:59:00.004-05:00

Most of you probably don't know that every summer around Labor Day my dad and I head up into the Canadian wilderness for a 1.5-2 week camping trip in the Quetico Park. And no, this is nothing like Jellystone Park or other camp grounds you may be thinking of. It's pure, untouched wilderness that has been designated as a wilderness park to keep it that way. The little island we spend our time is here: 48.377713,-91.209903. The trek begins roughly 10 miles (as the eagle flies) south east in Saganaga Lake. There is a little island, Hook Island, on US-Canada boarder (48.225049,-90.963367). We get dropped off there at ~7:30am with our 3 packs and our canoe. These are packs weighing 70, 35, and 30 lbs each, along with an extra 65lbs for the canoe once the roads and other gear gets lashed in. From there we paddle out south west, around Cache Point, and into Cache Bay to stop at the ranger station for our camping and fishing permits and to catch up with Ranger Janice. She's been manning that station for 26 years now, and we've seen her all but 1 of our ~14 trips there. After that we head north and up what is known as the "Falls Chain" route into the park. It gets it's name from the 8 or so waterfalls/rapids that must be portaged around in order to make it to Kawnipi Lake. Portages are best described as poorly-maintained trails through the woods. They are rocky, rooty, marshy, terrible things. As long as you can physically get a canoe from start to finish, no maintenance is done. You often find downed trees you have to step over, creeks you need to leap across, along with some truly dangerous drops less than a foot off of the narrow portage. All while carrying over 100lbs of gear (2 packs or a pack and the canoe). All in all, we travel something like 20 miles of portages and paddling in a really long, 10-12 hour travel day. Much longer than any outfitter would recommend, but we want to get to our little island asap so we can set up for some fishing and only make camp once.
Lucky for us, that first day is the most energy we'll have to expend for quite awhile. We'll spend the next 5-8 days just chilling on Kawnipi and fishing. We've even cut down our exploring over the years as we find more and more great fishing spots in close proximity. Each one works better/worse in various weather conditions, so we just wake up and see what mother nature has in store for us and head out to the appropriate spot. Fish for a few hours keeping only enough for lunch, then pull off at any number of great spots for shore lunch of fresh fried fillets. You really can't get any better fish than what we have. Within about 30 minutes the fish for from swimming around on the stringer to being fried and on our plates. Typically we eat mainly walleye, but depending on what we get first it could also be smallmouth bass or northern pike. You never know what they day will bring, so we just keep the first 2-3 fish we catch. After lunch and the occasional short nap we repeat the sequence for dinner. 1 less fish and a side dish is really the only difference. It's the perfect life.
Dad wisely keeps a journal during the trips so we can actually remember what happened when afterwards. It's shocking how everything just blends together even after a couple days. And you see so many incredible things, it's easy to forget some of them. Everything including fishing highlights, weather conditions, wildlife seen gets written down. Dad will then type it all up in later in a more concise and flowing form. It's always interesting to see how many comments we make about the weather when we're there. Unlike home life, it really is the driving factor in everything you do. Where you fish, what you wear, even whether or not it's safe to even leave camp. We usually have at least 1 day every trip where a front moves in and the wind/waves prevent us from safely being out in the canoe. So the journal has constant references to temperature, cloud cover, wind speed and direction, etc.
So that's the gist of what we do. And for the first time, I'm going to start publishing the journal entries here. I'll start with the 2008 trip while dad assembles the official 2010 version. (We had to skip 2009 due to my shitty job working for hellish IQuum. Not that I'm bitter or anything...)
I'll start this week and put them out there in reasonable chunks with some edits made. I'm sure no one really wants to read every detail about the trip. Anyone that wants to hear more can just let me know and you can get the unedited version. And of course I can offer up many many stories from trips past.

Lessons Learned While Biking

2010-08-27T19:04:00.004-05:00

So I've been riding my bike to work for about 6 months now. Not every day; just 2-3 days a week. I won't ride in the rain and won't ride if I have a hockey game or something similar that night. I wouldn't say I've necessarily learned anything new about drivers, pedestrians, and other bikers during that time, but I've certainly clarified some things. Boston drivers not only are complete assholes, but they have a complete lack of respect for the 'right of way' rules.
First, the right-of-way issues. It's unexpected, but it's actually not drivers not yielding to someone else's right-of-way that pisses me off the most. It's morons stopping for absolutely no reason to let someone else go. Like when I'm waiting to cross a road and patiently for the cars that have green lights to just get out of the way so we can all move on with our lives in the most efficient way. Exactly the way that the traffic engineers that designed this system intended. But no, 1 moron decides that they should be nice to me and screw it up for everyone. 1) I'm probably not paying attention and instead taking in the scenery while I wait for their light to turn red. Meaning they sit there frustrated with me for not noticing their idiocy while other drivers do their best not to hit them. 2) I'm not going anywhere until I know everyone else on the road won't run me down. So even when I notice your stupidity, I still have to stand there until either the other drivers also stop or your light turns red. Even though it's technically a no-lose situation for me, it annoys the piss out of me. It makes other drivers hate bikers even though it's moron drivers that really caused the problem.
People talking on cell phones while driving terrify me. I see quite alot of bad driving now that I'm on the road a bit longer and really need to watch every car since they're not watching me. And while not every bad driving move I see involves a cell phone, the vast majority do. It's a simple fact of the human brain; you can't have an involved cell phone conversation and pay attention to your surroundings. Study after study has proved this out. Me watching people on their phones while driving proves this out. Yes, science has proven that roughly 2% of the US population can actually multitask. However, that means that 98% of everyone can't. Guess what...you're in that 98%!! Hang up the f'n phone and drive your car. Listen to the radio. Take in some sights and sounds. Pay f'n attention to what your doing. We all know that whatever conversation you're having can wait until you get to where you're going. I'm once again making my pledge to completely stop taking on the phone while driving. I already only do it at red lights and while stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic, but it's going back to a complete ban. It's comically dangerous and just unnecessary. It's also why God invented voice mail and satellite radio.

Travel "light"

2010-08-05T18:58:00.002-05:00

This is probably going to be the first time I'll be happy that Hayley never reads these. She always claims to, but the closest she ever really gets is running her eyes over it and not really reading it. As a side note, I'm getting myself in trouble twice in this one post. Efficiency people, it's what engineers do.
Hayley is off on another interview trip this weekend, which means another round of packing and trying to shoe-horn it all into a carry-on bag. As I have seen this process a dozen times, I'm well aware of the short-comings and weaknesses. Her achilles heel is her bag of liquids. And ever time I watch this process I ask the obvious question...{dramatic pause so you all can say it with me}...do you really need all of this shit? Moisturizers, creams, gels, sprays, soaps, pastes, tubes, cylinders, bottles, it's a boggling array of shapes and colors and textures.
Today I missed the packing show, but did talk to her post-security when her flight was delayed because of weather. (Oddly enough, she should have called after landing by now. Maybe I should check on her flight...) She claims she actually made it through with more than her allotted 3-1-1 bag. Which of course prompts me to resume my "do you really need all that shit" questioning. Naturally I start with logical questions like, "What would happen if you just used hotel soap instead of your face wash?" "What if you didn't use moisturizer for a couple days?" "Can't you just use hotel shampoo and conditioner for 2 days?" And so forth. And as expected the answers get more and more annoyed as I go. Turns out it's just not something you ask a girl. Who knew?! I've seen her spend 30 minutes or more trying to fit all her liquids into an array of 3oz bottles and fit them all into a quart ziploc bag. Sometimes she quits and just checks the bag; sometimes she hopes she can get away with a little extra. All because something terrible happens if she uses hotel conditioner for 2 days.
Not for nothing, apparently similar things happen if you don't have 2 pairs of shoes for every day along with your own hair drier. But hey, I'm a guy and what do I know.
And now just to round this out in the usual way, Tyler is doing quite well. He's up to 30lbs and showing no signs of slowing down. He even got his first real big-dog tooth. Top-left canine. He's been sans tooth for a few weeks, so it looks like I'm losing my tug-of-war advantage. He's also finally able to just jump up on the couch at will. A couch that he finds very comfortable. We don't always find him up there when he's alone, but it's up to about 50/50. He still can't get up on the bed, but we know that's just a matter of months at this point.
We also swung by the breeder's house over the weekend to see some prospective puppy-owners and let them see some dogs. He had a new litter that was just up to 8 weeks and ready to go to good homes. It was shocking to picture Tyler being that small. We look over the old pictures and see it, but it's just no match for live. It wasn't that long ago that he was all tiny and unsteady. Good times, good times.
And with that, it's time to enjoy some more international beers to celebrate International Beer Day.
Peace!!

15 Cars

2010-07-05T18:12:00.006-05:00

While we were doing some paint scraping over the weekend I had my Chumby rocking some Pandora Radio and had the misfortune of a Nickleback song sneaking onto my 'Halestorm' channel. (A channel intended to be only rock bands with chick singers. I have a thing for rock chicks.) Some generic song about wanted to be a rock star, just with new lyrics regarding the specifics of what he'd have. 1 item was 15 cars, which naturally got me thinking about what I would actually have if I could get any 15 cars in the world. So here's my list. And these are what I would pick if I had to do everything I do in my normal life with only these 15 vehicles. A garage full of Murciélagos is awesome...until I have to go play hockey or buy a new table saw. Or snowboarding. Or commuting to work on the shitty roads I have to use. You get the point.
1) 911 Turbo Cabriolet. If you know me, you know I lust after these cars like nothing else. I would gladly trade 1/2 my liver for one. Maybe even a kidney.
2) 1966 Mustang Fastback (4-speed, 289 Hi-Po of course). This is really the only car I would give up an organ for.
(for ease I'm continuing my Mustang list here.)
3) 1970 Boss 429. Sure, the 302 is the better all-around car, but there's just something about driving around with 7.2L of old-school Detroit muscle under the hood.
4) ~1990 Mustang 5.0 The fox chassis 'stangs were great looking rides at the end of the run. And pretty much as easy as a lego set to modify.
5) Shelby Cobra. This is a great car built by a great man. Take a little European car and jam an American V8 under the hood. While the 289 version would be plenty, I’m going to have to go with the 427 (and no, not one that actually has the 428). Big-block V8 in a tiny roadster. That’s fun.
6) 1959 Corvette. Another pretty perfect car. Or maybe it's just that I'm a sucker for chrome in the doors. I remember getting a 'vette poster when we drove through Bowling Green, Kentucky and falling in love with the late 50’s cars.
7) 2010 Corvette ZR1. If I’m going to own a classic ‘vette, might as well get the latest and greatest. Especially when it’s really the only shining example of raw American muscle out there.
8) Lotus Exige. This would perfectly fill my commuting needs. Something nice a small to tear-ass around city streets with, fit into into parking spot, all without any excess space or weight. Just enough room for my, Tyler, and my work shit.
9) Subaru WRX STi. Cause I need some AWD hauling capabilities for snowboarding trips. Get the 5-door hatchback with a roof rack and some studless snow tires I’m good to go. It’d be like Pike’s Peak every time I go to the hill.
10) Hummer H1. Sometimes you just need a vehicle that can go anywhere, anytime. Like if I need to run out for more beer in the middle of a blizzard. Or if a bridge collapses and I need to shuttle orphans safely to the other side of a river while getting more beer.
11) Lamborghini Diablo Spyder. The Diablos were quite possibly my favorite Lambos out there. Neck-and-neck with the Countachs at the end of their run. 12 cylinders of Italian power and a no roof? It can’t get much better than that.
12) Lamborghini Countach. The car inspired the wedge-shaped supercar design, cab-forward design, and the dreams of any male growing up in the 80s and 90s.
13) 80s-era Bronco. Don’t need any specific year, just not white. I need something to haul lumber, sheetrock, plywood, power tools, etc, as well as something to mess with. I could finally put those hours watching “Trucks” to good use…maybe. Or just pull it out the 3 times a year I actually work on the house instead of just talking about it.
14) 1996 Nissan 300ZX. With t-tops and the turbo, naturally. I still remember seeing a commercial with the car zipping around roads in race-fashion and ending with just a single typewriter stroke of the letter “Z” on white paper. The cars were awesome, too.
15) Last, but certainly not least, 2010 Nissan 370Z. This is a car that is constantly right on the edge of serious consideration for me. I could afford it if I really wanted to, could probably fit my hockey gear in there if I had to, and could maybe sell Hayley on the idea if I distracted her with something shiny. It’s so tantalizingly close, and yet so far away.
So there you have it; my list of 15 cars. I think I did a solid job of covering all of my needs while picking up all of my dream cars. Are there cars I would have liked to include? Of course. But like I knew, 15 cars is a tough number to work with. It’s enough where you can start getting into your 2nd-tier of dream cars, but not enough to just start throwing the kitchen sink at your garage. Enough to get some that only fill specific roles (Bronco, STi, Hummer), but not enough to fill every role (Rolls Royce, Veyron, More Mustangs). Naturally, if I didn't have to live with only these 15 cars some different choices could be made. But I'm pretty happy with my list even with that restriction. This is a pretty impressive stable of horses.
Feel free to share your own list, or even just a partial list, in the comments. Not that anyone actually ever comments. But if you don't dream, you can't achieve a dream. Or something else lame like that.
PEACE!

Puppy Update

2010-07-02T16:46:00.003-05:00

I've got an afternoon Cubs game on WGN to watch and Tyler is napping happily next to me, so this seems like a good time to post an update.
We've now had the little guy for 5 weeks and things really couldn't be going any better. He's had very few accidents in the house (knock on wood), loves going to daycare, and doesn't really chew anything besides his toys. Eats and drinks well and consistently gets a great bill of health and behavior from the vet.
We've got a bell by the back door for him to ring when he wants to go out and he's actually starting to get it. He knows that when we ring the bell it's time to go out, but he hasn't quite figured out how to ring it on his own to go out. I think he's bumped it a couple times, but not enough to really ring it. But it's only been a week or so with the bell, so he's actually picking it up very quickly.
I've also started working on some basic tricks. "Sit" and "come" being the first 2 that we're doing. Tough to tell if he's really getting it or not. He usually sits when he has to be in 1 spot for a long time, and will always come running if he sees you holding a treat. But this is how it does. Keep reinforcing the words with actions and eventually it becomes a habit. Soon I can start working on trickier things like getting me beer from the fridge and getting me beer from Gordon's. I figure if I get him a little cart, I can call in an order and my credit card # and have them load him up and cart it back.
So far daycare is going great. The people and facility at Tail Waggerz really couldn't be better. And I'm not just saying that because I know Robyn is going to be reading this. He gets lots of other dogs/puppies to play with and seems to love being there. He gets excited and runs to their gate every morning. Even better, Robyn often takes videos/pictures of him playing and texts them to me. Of course, a newer yellow lab puppy, Haley, has been a bit bitey with him. I've seen enough video to know he's not innocent in the situation. He starts plenty of shit on his own. And it's all part of puppies growing up. He needs to learn how to respond to play that's too rough just as she needs to learn not to be too rough.
Hmmm...this is pretty boring. But I really don't have anything fun or exciting yet. He's just the greatest puppy of all time. Handles stairs with no problems, loves to sit and chew his toys on his own when we're busy, sleeps through the nights, and is already housebroken. Now that summer is upon us and he's getting older we'll have some opportunities for hilarity. He's getting old enough to start taking walks and I know he won't be this well behaved for long. Soon enough he'll have the size and energy to start tearing up the house. He put on 8lbs in the first 4 weeks we had him (almost double!), so at this rate he'll be 25lbs by the end of July and over 30lbs before Labor Day. Should be a handful!
Speaking of putting on weight, it's time to get little man his dinner. That's one of the few things that'll break up a nap.
Hope everyone enjoys their holiday weekend!! Remember to shoot off plenty off fireworks!!
PEACE!

Blackhawks = Champions!!

2010-06-16T19:57:00.000-05:00

The Blackhawks finally did it! They finally completed their turn-around and won sport’s greatest trophy; Lord Stanley’s Cup. The agony I felt in 1992 at the hands of Super Mario and Jagr (and immortalized by Jean-Claude Van Dame in “Sudden Death”) is also finally gone. That game 1 loss in ’92 is probably my first memory of sports heart-break. It has since been over-shadowed by roughly 15 Cubs moments, but it will always be the first.
Anyone who saw the videos of the parade and subsequent parties will realize that this is a long time coming for the fans. After 1992, the Hawks management seemed to do everything in their power to destroy the team and its fan base. Until just recently, home games were blacked out on TV. Any and all quality talent was promptly traded away or left unsigned at the end of contracts. Marketing was nonexistent. This was an Original Six franchise that was being left out to rot away to nothing. Over half of the teams in the NHL (16/30) make the playoffs, yet the Hawks continuously missed them. And worse, they weren’t parlaying those high draft picks into anything they could build on.
But fortunately that all changed in recent years when Rocky Wirtz took ownership of the team 2007. He brought in quality front-office guys that knew had to market the team and bring the fans back in. They put all the games back on TV. And most importantly they started locking up talent so they had a foundation to build on. And look how quickly those moves paid off! Suddenly the fans had a reason to care again and responded by filling the stadium for every game. Anyone who’s played sports knows how much of a difference a packed house can make. You’re a little quicker, a little more focused, a little more determined than you would be otherwise.

I also need to give credit where credit is also due; Tyler. I’m not saying the Hawks wouldn’t have won the cup without our puppy, but doesn’t it seem odd that they win it in his first weeks home with us after going 49 years without winning it? So let’s all give a quick stick-tap to Goal Puppy and his winning mojo.
In sadder hockey news, the Boston Sharpshooters did not fare so well in the championship tourney in Toronto last weekend. After cruising through the regular season to a 15-5 record, we hit a pot hole and went 1-2 in the opening games and failed to make the finals on Sunday. But it was still an incredible season and great weekend. And hopefully we can return with most of our roster intact and make another run at it this winter. If we can learn from our mistakes in Toronto, we stand a good chance of getting some hardware next year.
So now I can return to a long summer with the Cubs. And trying to convince myself that it’s not over as lost as it’s mathematically possible to still make the playoffs. And once it’s technically over being 100% sure that next year is the year. I mean, just look at all the young talent they had playing this year! And check out the prospects they’ll be bringing up next year! This shit is practically in the bag!

PEACE!

Puppy Day 2

2010-05-28T13:46:00.002-05:00

So the new puppy, Tyler, is finally home! Picked him up from the breeder last night. First evening was pretty uneventful. Peed on the rug a couple times before we figured out his "tell". Was pretty shy and tentative in his new home. And slept every chance he got. So pretty much what we expected. Oh yeah, and he cried himself to sleep and managed to poo all over his crate. I don't know how poo got where it did and I don't want to know.
However, he does seem to be getting better with the crate. I had him in there for a hour and change this morning so I could take a nap, and had him in there for a bit while I cleaned his shit-covered blankets/towels. So maybe he'll only poo or cry tonight. And maybe I'll win the lottery. Side note, we've got guests in from DC tonight, so they'll enjoy the yelping. Hopefully the a/c unit in that room can drone it out.
And to make today even more fun, the Cubs are playing an afternoon game against the Cards! So Tyler gets to watch (aka sleep soundly) a Cubs game on Day #2. Can't beat that. Although the game isn't going so good. The Cubs starter failed to record a single out while giving up something like 5 or 6 straight hits and dropped us in a 5-0 hole. So I guess Tyler is fortunate to be sleeping this one off so far.
Obviously I'm not going to give you a minute-by-minute or cute-action-by-cute action recap. That's just not my style. But he's growing pretty comfortable around the house and does seem to really love being out in the yard. I'd bet he could try to eat random tall grasses for hours. He also doesn't like to be more than a couple feet away from you, and spends 90% of his time within inches. So while it's nice to have him up in your lap now, I'm doing my best to turn him into an ankle dog. Having a 10lb puppy on top of you is cool. Having a 70+lb 1-year-old is not cool. And hopefully he get's more comfortable with some alone time as he gets used to being away from his litter-mates and whelping box.
So all-in-all, not much to report so far. Just working on crate training and getting him house-broken. Right now I can't trust him to be left alone for more than a minute or so, and he doesn't last long in the crate before he starts yelping a bit. Gotta get one of those 2 fixed asap. I need to hit True Value today for some garden stuff, but don't want to leave him here yelping and pooing while I'm gone. So I have to decide if letting f'n furry jerks eat my strawberries is worse than cleaning poo out of his crate for a 2nd time today. It's like Sophie's choice!

PEACE!!

Getting Ready for a Puppy

2010-05-12T19:37:00.002-05:00

Well, it's time to start documenting our road to puppy parenthood. We're but 2 weeks away from bringing little Tyler home, and now the "fun" begins. The list of things that need to be procured just keeps getting longer. Crate for home, crate for traveling, food & water bowls, beds, blankets, leash, collar, food, toys, toys, toys, toys, brush, nail clippers, it just never ends.
I'm also amused at how much of this I could remember from when we got our puppy as a kid and yet don't. I have no idea how many nights Buffy yelped herself to sleep at first. How long did it take to housebreak her? How long until we started introducing her to new people and dogs? How did we start training her? What kind of feeding schedule was she on? Part of this I blame on the fact I was probably in 4th grade when this was going on. Part of it is the fact that I've never had a stellar memory for stuff like this. I can still immitate Mark Grace's batting stance and many details of the Cubs-Giants 1-game playoff in 1998, yet I only remember 6f other peoples' birthdays.
On the plus side, we do have good friends with dogs that live nearby and would be happy to help out. And the breeder (Jerry Foti @ Watch City Bulldogges, if I may shamelessly plug him again) is a fantastic guy that would be more than happy to field calls from us every day while we figure it all out. Jerry's also a great resource for vets and pet supplies in the immediate area. And he's an officer of the Olde English Bulldogge Kennel Club (OEBKC). But enough about our puppy daddy.
The real fun begins when decisions need to be made. Biggest one so far; when to have him fixed. Breeder recommends 9-12 months to allow him to grow to a healthy size. Even the vet says 5-7 months for similar reasons, but also to allow their immune systems to get up to speed to aid in handling surgery. But that adds the fun of watching for any aggression or territorial/dominance issues, along with having to watch him like a hawk to keep him from making unauthorized puppies.
But all in all I'm pretty excited. I've wanted a dog pretty much since I left home and Buffy. Yeah, it's a ton of work and I'm sure I'll have days where I wonder what the hell I was thinking, but I know it's worth it. And it helps get me ready to make the jump to kids. Now THAT'S a frightening thought!

Why Are People so Afraid of the LHC Causing a Black Hole?

2010-03-30T19:52:00.003-05:00

In case you aren't a nerd or right-wing bible thumper, there is a new particle collider in town. The Large Hadron Collider in Geneva is officially smashing particles together at unheard of speeds. I'm sure it'll be years before we start getting any revolutionary results, but scientists are predicting some pretty important discoveries from this. Every time they make a better collider, we gain more knowledge about the structure of sub-atomic particles. We also gain more insight and verification for the latest in theories on how the universe works. All great things.
Well, not so great if you're a bible-thumper. I'm not saying we should all blindly believe science and discount the stories in the bible. Everyone has a right to believe whatever they want and express those beliefs. They can also do whatever they feel necessary to support and prove those beliefs. The problem I have with bible-thumpers is that they do whatever they can to stifle the progress of science. They seem to feel that because they take the bible as undeniable fact, everyone else should as well and that anyone doing any research on alternate theories is just doing the devil's work and must be stopped. Why? They don't stop you from trying to validate the info in the bible. In fact, the history and science communities often help to find proof to support the bible. They just want to find the truth about what happened in those years without passing judgement on the religious aspect of it.
But I digress...
The real fun is all the people that are so sure that the LHC will create a black hole that will destroy the planet and maybe beyond. There were actually protests and plenty of news coverage as the LHC was being finished on that very topic. Suddenly these people who have rejected all of science's work to this point can understand it better than these physics experts. Odd how that works. And it's really just a moot point. If the LHC does create a black hole that eats the planet, no one will even notice. There would be no apocalypse, no sulfur and brimstone raining down upon us, no locust invasion. Things would all end in a microsecond. If you were a bible-thumper and lived by The Book your whole life, you'll be up in heaven saying "I told you so". Probably standing right next to me while I just shrug my shoulders and say "wow, really didn't see that coming." So what's the big deal? If God really did create the world and everything in it, he granted us this insatiable curiosity and the intelligence to devise ways to slam protons together at ridiculous speeds. Wouldn't we be going against his will if we didn't do this?! Think about it.
Me, I tend to believe what some of the smartest people on the planet say. And they say the world won't end. I also want to know if string theory holds up to more findings or if quantum physics continues its reign on top. Do we really live in a universe of 10 or more dimensions instead of just the 4 we know of? And what's up with the Higgs boson? I want some answers, and the LHC may get me them.

Moving On, New Guilty Wastes of Time

2010-03-17T19:10:00.002-05:00

For those that don't know, I recently quit my last job (in one of the most happy days of my life) and took a new one. The job function on paper meant it was a slight step backwards, but we all know paper doesn't tell the story. That previous job was a terrible little medical device company that treated their people like disposable resources to be ridden hard, put away wet, then given to the glue factory once they stop being better than the next horse.
Doubts? When I joined in Feb 2009 the engineering group (HW, SW, Mechanical) was 11 people including managers. During my 1 year there I saw something like 13 people quit or be fired. Possibly more, it's hard to keep count when the turn-over is greater than 100%. They put an incredible value in the number of billable hours you logged each week as opposed to the work you did. If I was given a task and finished it flawlessly in 40 hours and went home, I was given a talking-to because I clearly had a "bad attitude". If I instead stayed an extra 2 hours every day and just goofed off during those extra hours, I'd then be praised for having a good attitude. Same amount of work, same quality. Any and all promotions and raises were based on that same attitude scale. It became clear pretty quickly that I'd never be judged on the quality or quantity of my work, but rather how willing I was to give up every other facet of my life to provide them with more hours to bill against their government grants. And so as soon as a better (meaning any) other offer showed up, I took it and ran.
And now that I have that better job, I finally have a life again. I can work a full day, hit the gym, and still be home before 6:30. And best yet, since work is no longer a soul-crushing exercise in survival I actually have the motivation to do other things! I'm sure everyone realizes that means watching more sports on TV and playing more Wii, but the point is that I now feel like doing it. And I plan on actually building all the various projects I've been cutting out of Popular Science and Mechanics. Persistence of Vision clock, solar cell phone charger, various wood-working projects, etc. Just look at today. I worked 7:30-4:30, hit the gym for an hour, hit the beer store to get some stouts and instead spent some time hanging with the beer guy enjoying some great, rare microbrews. Now I'm home with a belly full of grilled pork chops and I'm working my way through a 4-pack of Murphy's Stout.
And speaking of tonight...I have a new guilty waste of time. The show "Human Target". It's not good. It doesn't have alot of action, acting, or plot. But it's just good enough to hold my attention for an hour. Every time I say it's just not very good and I'm not watching it ever again. And yet every time I stumble across an episode I invariably end up watching it. As I'm doing right now. Fortunately they've added a rather attractive co-star to go with the roving hot girl of the day. And so even though I have new DVDs from Netflix for both Ghost in the Shell: 2nd gig and Gundam: The 8th MS Team, I'm here watching a show that's not nearly as good. Lucky for me, I still have some Murphy's in the fridge and a Blackhawks game coming up at 10pm. Giggity.
I'd also like to give some props to my buddy Javy, who seems to be the only person reading and commenting. Javy, next time you need someone to smack you in the head with a 9" pie tin, you just let me know.
And now, time for more Irish Stout!

Tough Sporting Stretch For Me

2010-03-02T20:14:00.002-05:00

This may be a pretty rough March and April for me. Typically I'm all pysched about the Cubs season getting ready to kick off and hoping Purdue can over-achieve and do well in the NCAA Tourney. However, this year looks to be very, very different. After the last few Cubs seasons I'm trying to temper my excitement to avoid the crash. Getting hyped up won't be a problem once games start showing up on TV. Purdue just took a gigantic hit when their top guy, Robbie Hummel, went down with an ACL tear. We went from being #3 in the nation to being more questions than answers.
Let's tackle the bad first. I didn't get to see the Purdue - Minnesota game where he tore said ACL, but I've seen the clip. And it wasn't pretty. You could pretty much tell that his season was down just by the amount of sideways flex in his knee. He really was the heart and soul of our team. He was the one guy we could pretty much always count on to make shots when we really needed it. Our offense was really based around getting the ball into his hands and seeing what happens. In the Michigan State game on Sunday, a loss which really hurt our BigTen Regular Season title hopes, it was clear the guys were still trying to do that. They just kept passing it around and hoping someone would get an open shot. But without Robbie out there to draw consistent coverage, no one was open. It was a painful scene. Now, we do have the talent to rebound and make a great March run. I don't see how we'll get as far as we would have with Robbie, but it doesn't help to think like that. We need the other juniors and seniors to step up their game, and we really need some of the kids to elevate and do their part. Even the freshmen have virtually a full season under their belts, so they can do it. We've got another huge game tomorrow night against IU (those dirty f'n SOBs), then Penn St on Saturday. After that is the BigTen Tourney. So we do have a decent chance to adjust to life without Robbie before the real tourney. I just hope it's enough time.
Now the Cubs. This is yet another year of big expectations. So even though we've haven't won it all in over a century (102 years), and haven't even been to the show in over 1/2 a century (55 years), we're picked by some outlets as a solid bet to do it this year. And that's all fine and good. It means we have the talent level and coaching to pull it off. But of course big expectations can also lead to big heartbreak. Anyone remember 2008 against the Dodgers? Or how about all the years we were supposed to be good and just shit the bed? Makes me almost long for the lean years. 1998 and 2003 were that much greater because we weren't supposed to do anything. So the huge rush at the end was incredible. This year we have a very similar roster to last year. We're just counting on guys to live up to their potential. Big Z needs to finally be the ace he can be. Sorianno needs to wake up and be the hitter he is instead of trying to be a lead-off guy. Aramis's shoulder needs to have healed up properly in winter. Derrick needs to have at least 1 more good year left. Soto needs to play like year 1 instead of year 2. Marmol needs to throw at least as many strikes as balls. And of course the usual new faces in the infield and outfield. I'm doing my best to focus on Purdue and the Blackhawks to avoid getting too wrapped up in the Cubs too early. With 6 months of season, I need to save up my energy.
Wait...spring training games start Thursday and WGN is showing 2 over the weekend. I got some research to do!
PEACE!!

Cheap Health Care Not Always Good

2010-01-03T12:50:00.002-05:00

All the rage right now is an overhaul of the health care system to make it cheaper for everyone involved. And while that would be good for some people, I have my doubts as to whether or not it'll be good for the US as a whole.
Case in point...there is an article in a recent Popular Science regarding some very popular drugs losing their patent rights this year. Lipitor being the most prominent. Lipitor made $12.4 billion in sales in '08. $12.4 billion!! On the surface, that seems exorbitant and a symbol of what's wrong. I mean, if we could reduce that by even 10%, we'd save over $1 billion in health care cost. And that is true. However, that means Pfizer has 10% less to invest in R&D to create the next generation of drugs. And that's exactly what's happening. Drug submittals to the FDA are down over 10% and likely going to continue to drop. Eli Lilly is slashing $1 billion from it's budget and cutting 5,000 jobs. If drug companies don't have the money to put into R&D, they can't create the next generation of drugs to treat emerging health issues. Depression, obesity, cancer treatments, etc. Drugs are insanely expensive to get to market. R&D costs to come up with them, years of work to prepare trials, years or decades of patient trials, FDA approval submissions, then if you're lucky, marketing and production costs. Factor in all the drugs that don't make it, and it's alot of money to market a drug that may never really sell.
Another big issue in slashing health care costs is the supply-and-demand problem with MDs. This is an issue that I've been forced to learn first-hand. I don't want to get into raw numbers, but when Hayley graduated from med school her student loan debt was more than our mortgage. Shocking, especially considering she had no undergrad debt. And as a resident, she's making only 5% more than what I made as a test engineer straight out of college back in January 2001. Meaning that without a substantial pay raise as a practicing MD, she'd still be paying off her student loans when she was in her 50s. If she was single, as many residents are, it'd be impossible to take on a mortgage of her own. And while home-ownership is a privaledge and not a right, a scant few will willingly decide to spend 12 years of schooling, the last 8 of which involve non-stop 80 hour or more work/study weeks, to spend their lives renting apartments. This will create a huge drop in the number of people that choose that career path; even less that go on to pursue specialties like surgery, cardiology, reproductive fields, etc. The likely immediate effect of this is what Massachusetts saw after they imposed mandatory health care. It become very hard to find a PCP (primary care physician) and even harder to get an appt. To make matters worse, with our current system only the best med students make it into residency programs and only the best residents make it out to secure jobs. But if you have less going in and the same number coming out, students that normally wouldn't survive make it all the way to being practicing physicians. So after waiting extra weeks/months to get an appt with your PCP, now you're getting sub-standard care from them. Sounds appealing, doesn't it?
I'm not saying all of this will necessarily come to pass. But it's something that needs to be considered before we all jump on the 'make health care cheaper' band-wagon. If people want the expensive exploratory tests they've come to expect, they have to pay for it. X-Rays, MRIs, CT scans, mammograms, EKGs, blood work, these aren't cheap. Surgeries aren't cheap. You can either have great doctors and great testing, or you can have cheap health care. You can't have it both ways. If anyone has a way to accomplish both, I'd love to hear it.

Bears - Eagles Musings

2009-11-22T21:04:00.005-05:00

Wow, I just realized that I wrote this up during the game a few weeks back and never posted it. I bet I was just so pissed at the end of the game that I just went bed as soon as the clock hit 0:00. Anyways, here it is, with an some additions at the end.

I wasn't going to do this, but I really need an outlet to vent...

So here's what I learned during the 1st quarter of play:
Faith Hill is hot when dressed up in a tight outfit with thigh-high boots and singing a rockish song.
The Bears defense has officially jumped the shark. They just can't stop anyone. Can't stop the run, can't stop the pass, can't stop Vick when he comes in at QB for 3rd-and-1 and everyone in the world knows he's not going to throw it. They still have some talented guys, but it's just not working.
We can't run the ball for shit. Everyone puts it on Forte, but it really does appear to the be the o-line. He's not Barry Sanders; you have to give him a hole to run through once in awhile. I think the RB is doing an admirable job given the garbage he has to work with. Plus, with as bad as Cutler's been everyone is playing run. No need to keep extra guys back in coverage.
Speaking of Cutler...he's not good. I'm not saying he can't get good, but he's not good right now. He just missed 2 wide-open guys for TDs to go with some additional poor throws. On the plus side we're mid-way into the 2nd-quarter and he hasn't throw a pick yet...knock on wood! And unless he suddenly gets good again, I'll never understand why he's any different from Grossman. High-risk QB is just not the right guy for this offense.
Okay, I feel better. Time to put the laptop away for a bit and re-focus on the game, my chips and salsa, and my tasty adult beverage(s).

Flash-forward to middle of the 4th...
Just watched Tillman force his 3rd fumble of the game; 2 of which the Bears recovered. The man is an absolute machine. And he's literally punching the ball out. Closed fist, throwing knuckles at the ball. It's horribly fun to watch.
Cutler is still pretty unfun to watch. Yeah, he was good on the TD drive, but he's been pretty bad every other time. He's just flat-out missing open guys, not hitting guys in stride so they can run after the catch, throwing into triple-covered receivers, etc. Same shit I used to watch with Grossman, just with the knowledge that he's been better with his former team. On the plus side, I have a whole bag of chips and a jar of hot salsa in my belly. My colon has taken quite the beating this weekend. Quite literally a trial by fire before the 3-day T-Day event.

And begin new material from 12/20:
So I think my PC has a bad hardware component. The last couple months it's been spontaneously rebooting itself when idle, and the last week or so it's been doing it even when you're using it. I could spend some time trying to figure out what's bad; probably a RAM module, but since I already wanted to rebuild it as a low-power machine I'll probably just do that. New processor, maybe a solid-state hard-drive, low-power video card, do it right. I just don't know if I want to put the time, effort, and $$ into that right now. I can reuse some of the parts, but not many. The case and disk drive will stay. I could just wipe the current hard-drive and use it again, but that would work against the low-power goal. Video card will be tricky. I need to figure out how much juice it's using and compare it to a newer one before I know if it can stay or go. But the motherboard, CPU, and RAM are all out.
If anyone has some experience building for low-power, let me know. You will be rewarded with beer and junk food for any help and/or advice you can give.
Okay, time to get ready for hockey. Should be a really good grudge match tonight b/t 2 teams that are developing some bad blood b/t them.
PEACE!!

Fox's New Commercial Strategy for a Venegful God

2009-11-22T19:33:00.004-05:00

I'm not sure how long this has been going on, and I'm not sure how many other networks are doing this, but I've noticed that Fox has a new sequence for their commercial breaks. They used to open with the credits, then go to a commercial break, followed by evenly-spaced breaks of equal length. Clearly they've picked up on the fact that people today have very short attention spans and will change channels pretty quickly during a commercial break if they aren't hooked on the show. And with so many channels available to us now, you know you can find something good to watch somewhere else. Not all of their shows do it, but it's very obvious if you watch "Fringe". No commercials after the opening credits, and the breaks start off quite short and get longer as the shows goes on. So as you get more and more hooked in the show, they know that you'll hang in longer and longer during the commercials. Very smart; but annoying when you have to wait longer and longer when you're hooked on the episode and don't want to wait.

And now for this blog's more serious thinking.
Anyone that's involved in the various Christian religions has been well versed in the notion that God doesn't punish you on Earth for any of your various sins. Naturally most of us that are also superstitious can think of many instances where that doesn't seem to be true. So that got me thinking about it. No one has every really talked to God. So all we have to go on is the bible. Which is a collection of letters and recountings that was edited by the Vatican and put into convenient book form. Are there letters in there from an apostle that talk about how God will punish you in short fashion for sinning? Could be! I mean, who knows how many things were edited out to make sure the story is being told correctly. If you've ever taken the time to read the entire new testament you'll have noticed how the story really breaks down in Revelations. Breaks down in disturbing fashion. Speculation is that it was a coded message about the current Roman rulers. If that's possible then it's totally reasonable to assume that the bible has been edited to tell the "God doesn't punish ye" story. Hard to say either way. And I'm not going to try to say. I'm just here to create discussion and get people thinking.
And now, just the way I planned this, the Bears - Eagles game is about to start. Just to make things interesting, if the Bears successfully hurt McNabb during the game I'll give anyone who shows up to Party T-Day and mentions this blog a dollar. (Hurt qualifies as missing a significant portion of the game due to something the Bears did to him.)
Done and done.

Terrible Sports Weekend

2009-11-15T16:06:00.002-05:00

Wow, this was most certainly a depressing sports "weekend" for me (including Thursday night, thus the quotes). Not only did a suffer some losses, but they were especially painful ones.
First, Bears - SF. This is definitely a game that the Bears should have been able to win. The 49ers are not a great team this year and the Bears should have been out to prove that they are a play-off team. Instead it was a sloppy, poorly played game in which both teams consistently squandered opportunities to take control. Well, mostly SF squandering all the opportunities the Bears were giving them. Watching our new "franchise" QB throw 5 INTs was brutal. 2 of which came in the end zone. Even worse, the 1st of those was to a large gentleman who was standing in plain sight. And even if he had missed it, there were 2 more defenders jumping in front of the receiver. So there was roughly a 0% chance of the pass not getting picked. Yeah, some were flukes with receivers falling down and running into refs, but even those looked like they could have been picked anyways. Even with all that, they still managed to bring it down to a last-second drive to possibly win it. A drive that ended in soul-crushing fashion with the 2nd INT in the end zone.
That brings us to yesterday's Purdue - Michigan State game. Purdue, even after so many brutal early-season losses was still in a position to get bowl eligible. All we had to do was Beat MSU and IU and we'd be set. First play of the game? Purdue fumbles a hand-off and MSU runs it in for a quick TD. 7 seconds; 7 points down. But they did rally back and were up by 11 in the 4th quarter before letting it slip away to lose 37-40. And thus a rough season of close losses and huge wins (Ohio State), yet another 2nd-half failure ends our run at a bowl game. Even though I'm excited about the direction the team is heading, and the young talent they have, it's tough to spend another year without a bowl.
And then came the Iowa-Ohio State game. I still had hopes that some family pride could be salvaged and have Iowa finish on top of the BigTen and head to the Rose Bowl. But it was not to be. The 3rd maddeningly close game of the weekend resulted in an Iowa loss. Luck for them they are still ranked #10 in the BCS and have a shot at moving up to at least #8 with a win next weekend and scoring a sweet BCS bowl.
And now I'm a short 2.5 hours away from my own hockey game, wondering if my luck will change just enough to get us a win. I don't ask for much; just a W.
Fingers crossed!!

A relaxing, lazy Saturday

2009-09-19T22:30:00.002-05:00

You know, it's a bit lonely here now that my parents are gone. And nothing gets magically fixed around the house while I'm at work either. As much work as I did with my dad together, he did at least that much on his own while I was at work. Together we tore down 1 shed and put up a new one; tore out the wooden trim in our bathroom window, repaired some water damage to the wall, then replaced it all with ceramic tile.
On his own...my dad replaced the light fixtures in the living room and dining room; did some minor painting in the hallway where I just built the linen closet, repaired the ceiling in the dining room around the new threshold, patched a couple other little things while he had the spackle out, and sealed and stained the deck out back. For a guy that doesn't get alot of sleep at night, he sure has alot of energy.
The only downside is that it made this weekend seem extremely lazy by comparison. All I did today was watch a bunch of football, make some pizza crust for tomorrow, and paint the trim around the 3 new basement windows. Normally that would be a pretty active Saturday.
Even better was that my car gave me a 3-day weekend. One of my ignition coils went bad, meaning I had to take it to the shop instead of going to work. It cost me $300 and a vacation day, but the mental health I gained is probably worth double that. Fridays have been pretty brutal lately. Whereas most companies push really hard to get things done by Thursday so you don't have to haul ass on Friday, we like to save 2 days worth of stuff to do on Fridays. Really takes the joy out of Fridays.

And Fox has finally added something to one of their chick shows to appease the guys that are forced to watch. As expected, Hayley loves "Glee". And I thought it was going to be another crap show that I avoid. And then they added cheerleaders who apparently wear their uniforms to school every day. And had a car wash while wearing knee socks, pleated skirts and bikini tops. Could be months before that scene works its way out of my memory.
Giggidy.

Thoughts on the Cubs

2009-06-26T20:40:00.003-05:00

So as I watch the Cubs today, through an appropriate haze of Budweiser, I've come up with a few thoughts. And as this has been a very trying year for the Cubs, thoughts are quite easy to come by.
First some congratulations are in order. Despite the best efforts of Sorianno and Marmol the Cubs beat the White Sux 5-4. Alfonso Sorianno is a very good hitter. However he is a terrible lead-off hitter. Sure he'll hit you the occasional lead-off home run, but he just doesn't do the this than an NL lead-off guy needs to be doing. Walks, OBP, making the pitcher throw lots of pitches, steals, etc. These are the things you need your lead-off hitter to be doing if you're to be consistently successful in the NL. He's also a marginal outfielder. He's never been good, nor is he really expected to be good. But it's amazing at times just how bad he is in the outfield. Take today's little gaff in the 8th inning. Pop fly to shallow left. He clearly doesn't see it. Blanco, the SS, does see it and charges out. As Blanco clearly is calling it and waving his arms Sorianno starts running frantically to try and catch up to it. What happens; Sorianno runs right into Blanco as he's about to catch it; 2 runs score to turn a 5-2 game into a 5-4 game.
Oh yes, but why were there so many runners on base in the bottom of the 8th in a 5-2 game? Mr. Marmol. Marmol and the strike zone are like me and syringes; he'll tolerate it when he absolutely has to, but not a second before. That explains why he's walked 38 guys in 34 1/3 innings. He throws mid-90s with a Bugs Bunny slider and still refuses to throw it in the zone. Incredible. And yet, every time out I'm so sure it'll be the time he just starts throwing strikes.
Based on the way this year is going, I'm wondering if last year was the exception instead of the rule. Previous years the Cubs had suffered from a severe lack of timely hitting. They'd either score 8 runs or 0 runs. Last year was different...before the playoffs. This year is back to untimely hitting and .500 baseball.

1 more quick thing. I was watching Uncle Buck after the Cubs game (the magic of DVR and "media black-out".) and was reminded of a college memory. This night was 1 of 2 reasons I have boycotted Miller Lite Ice. And no, neither of these reasons involve the fact it tastes like shit. More the fact that both times I drank it things took a turn for the worse for Jarod. This particular time involve a girl I was pursuing, another couple, and a night of drinking at her apt. She was in a long-distance relationship that she wasn't so hot about. We had really hit it off in our many group activities but never really talked about if anything was really happening. Anyways...we'd all spent the night hanging out, drinking, and watching a big of college hockey at one point (featuring an ex-Bison named Bubba Berenzweig who would later play in the NHL). At one point the ladies wander away to talk. After a short time I decide that I need to know what they're talking about and creep up to the door. Turns out they were discussing her situation and whether or not she should dump him for me. This then led to a very awkward drunken conversation once the other couple left. One that I ultimately ended up on the wrong side of. Naturally things were rather weird after that and we drifted apart as friends. Damn shame. Obviously I'm glancing over the painful details. But suffice to say it wasn't a great night in the history of Jarod.

And now I'm watching Quentin Tarantino drink whiskey off of Catherine Zeta-Jones' foot. What a strange and wonderful night this is.

Superman Syndrome

2009-06-07T13:30:00.002-05:00

There is a well-documented and often mentioned phenomenon with the old-school Superman. It's been covered hundreds of times by bad comedians so I'll be short. In the old black-and-white superman shows he would invariably get in a situation where bullets would be fired at him. And seemingly every time he'd stand there and grin while deflecting said bullets off of his chest. Yet when the bad guy finished his 6 shots and threw the empty gun at Superman he'd duck out of the way of it.
You would think that such faux pas would be gone from today's cinema. And yet, while watching "Matrix Reloaded" Friday night I saw it yet again. Just so fellow film buffs can follow along, it's the fight scene against the Merovingian's goons while Morpheus and Trinity chase down the Key Maker. A dozen or so guys with automatic weapons open up at Neo, naturally in slow motion. All Neo has to do is hold up his hand and he can effortlessly stop all the rounds in mid-air. Nicely done in deed. And yet, when guys come at him with swords and spears he has to duck and dodge every attempt. Where did his magic safety bubble go?! If he can stop a bullet in mid-flight why can't he stop people and other objects? I'm sure I'm not the first person to notice this, so feel free to fill me in with any info.
I'd love to continue my musing from the movie and the various curiosities I noticed, but I'm too tired and a bit too warm to muster the effort. Non-air conditioned Sunday afternoons tend to do that to me.

And just because I remembered all the polls I used to include and wanted to start that up again...

Conspiracy Theories are a Cop-Out

2009-05-19T19:14:00.002-05:00

Jesse Ventura has officially let me down. I used to admire the guy a little bit. Pro wrestler that successfully became an action "star" and managed to springboard that into a real political office. I mean, I was never a fan or anything, but it was pretty impressive. He didn't really do anything in office to back that up, but that's not that important.
However, he killed that today during his appearance on the Opie and Anthony show (O&A). He apparently is a gigantic 9/11 conspiracy theorist. And I just don't have any respect for conspiracists. Their entire argument is based completely on speculation and a lack of facts. Every time a "fact" is presented it's quickly shot down by concrete scientific evidence. "Look at that round hole in the Pentagon! No way a 757 caused that! It was a missile!" Sure, until the fire department shows up and says that they in fact cut that big round hole to gain access to the buildings. "Why was Bush allowed to just sit in a school where all the terrorist knew he was for 7 minutes?!" Because they had locked down the area and had fighters scrambled and blanketing the air around them.
It may be because I'm an engineer and live a painfully anal life based solely on facts and evidence. Or maybe I just like to use common sense. But if you've gone almost 10 years and still don't have any real proof of your theory you may want to consider the fact that it's wrong. If it was true you would have something more than just conjecture and guessing to back you up.
Whatever.
Getting back to more important news...
I'm on a big fat craving week so far this week. This loaf of garlic bread I picked up from Stop & Shop was just so buttery and delicious I couldn't stop eating it sunday and monday nights. Tonight I made a beef and bean burrito that was loaded with delicious sharp cheddar and sour cream. I don't normally go on fat kicks like this and I'm not sure what's triggering this one. And who cares! If my body wants some extra delicious fat who am I to deny it?! I may have to hit the gime a bit extra to compensate and that's a chore I'm more than willing to undertake.
Last but of course not least are the mighty Chicago Blackhawks. Surprising everyone they've advanced all the way to the Western Conference Finals against heated division rival Detroit. Unfortunately things aren't going as well as I'd hoped through 1.66666667 games. We lost game 1 and find ourselves down 2-1 after 2 periods in game 2. The good news is the play of our kids. I've talked about them before and they continue to impress me. Patrick Kane is seemingly getting niftier and slipperier in every game. It's creepy how well he knifes through traffic at times. More impressive has been Kris Versteeg. He brings some serious offensive skills and some good hard physical play. He bring a kind of sneaky offensive skill to his game. He doesn't look like he's doing much until he's suddenly past everyone and ripping off a great shot. Next minute he's forechecking hard in the corner; throwing his body around and disrupting plays. So regardless of how this series ends I see some really great years ahead. Here's to hoping we can prolong this season another few weeks and provide for more June hockey in the years to come!!
PEACE!!

Swine Flu; Load of Hogwash?

2009-05-07T18:52:00.002-05:00

So it's been what, 3 weeks since the fear-mongering media first uttered swine flu? And how has their eminent world-wide pandemic turned out so far? 2 total deaths in the USA; both immunocompromised people. An infant and a woman who had just undergone a C-section. Worldwide deaths are a fraction of what we see every year during the normal flu season. Even the CDC has started to back-pedal and admit that things aren't nearly as bad as they were initially yelling about.
As Hayley can attest, I'm getting really really pissed about shit like this. Every year of so there is a new disease that's about to become the next Black Plague and Spanish Flu wrapped up in one. Bird Flu. West Nile Disease. EEE (eastern equine encephalitis). SARS. And while they weren't good, none of them came even close to living up to the hype the media gave them.
The first question that you might have is why people would over-hype this kinda stuff. The media obviously has something to gain. They realize that no one watches the news much any more so they result to blatant teasing and fear mongering to scare you into watching. "Oh dear God! A common household item could kill me tonight?! I have to tune in at 10pm to find out what it could be and if I have any!!" But now, what does the CDC have to gain by crying wolf at every turn? As you may have noticed, gov't cash. Various disease fighting groups were giving quite a lofty sum of money to help fight the upcoming pandemic. Flu vaccine companies were flooded with orders and hence money. So everyone seems to have something to gain. Except the rest of us.
I've officially started to ignore the CDC and their warnings. They've cried wolf too many times for me to pay attention. And I know that I"m not the only one. So if we ever actually run into a pandemic that does deserve our attention many people are going to be grossly unprepared. And that's what's really going to hurt us. Those of us that became desensitized and took no action are going to be great vehicles for the pathogen to spread. I truly hope that day never comes, but I'm pretty sure it's going to be inevitable. Damn shame it will be.

Amazed and Freaked Out

2009-04-28T22:01:00.002-05:00

So I'm sitting here watching the Cubs and suddenly I'm amazed and freaked out by my TV all at the same time. Probably not surprising for anyone that knows me. First, I'm literally sitting here wondering how I ever watched baseball without HD. Keep in mind that I've had HD for over a year now. So it's not like I'm back in the first month with HD where I was amazed at everything. But for the first time in months I'm once again amazed. Defects in the stitching in the jerseys are clear. All the small nuances of the infield dirt. Is that a cleat mark? Nope, just a clearly visible clump. Not the most useful things to notice, but that's what always gets me. That pile of things that I never noticed and never thought about.
The freaking out comes via the orientation of the speakers in our living room. I don't know if it's intentional on Philips' part or not, but I will often get odd reflections from the area of our front door/front window in the female-voice range. So it's like there's a woman in our vestibule talking loudly at times. And even though I know this happens quite frequently it typically gets me on high-alert. Especially at times like this when it's normally random background crowd noise from the stadium where suddenly only a specific voice starts reflecting. And it's only the higher frequency human voices that reflect. Just a fun acoustic quirk of the living room.

BLACKHAWKS WIN!! BLACKHAWKS WIN!! For the first time in a loooonnnggg time the Blackhawks have won a playoff series; beating Calgary 4-1 in game 6 last night. It was pretty great to see our young stars step up and really play well. Usually you just hope they can hold their own and lean on the veterans to get it done. For us it was the exact opposite. The vets were mainly there to be "on-ice coaches" while the kids took control of most games. And by kids, I mean kids. Our captain Toews and his line-mate and 2007-08 Rookie of the Year Patrick Kane are both only 20 years old. And the pile of young stars continues from there.

I'll close by raving about 1 of the beers we received as a part of our final beer-of-the-month pack. Abita's Jockamo IPA. It's not overly bitter but comes with a fantastic array of hop florals. I'm not sure what availablity they have around the nation, but I highly recommend that you pick up some if you see it. Even people that avoid IPAs because of the bitterness should find this quite agreeable.
And with that...PEACE!!

They Can't Drive...55!!

2009-04-07T20:23:00.002-05:00

I've found the silver lining to my little tire incident. So today and at least tomorrow I'll be driving around on my spare tire. And since I'm fairly conscientious as to the manufacturer's instructions, I cap my speed at 55mph (tire says 50mph) when I'm on the Pike. The first little chunk is a 55mph zone so it's not a big deal. But then I get to the wide-open stretches where it's a 65mph and people love to do closer to 80mph. I be nice and stick to the right lane and just set the cruise control right at 55mph. What happens? People just start piling up right on my ass, ride me for a few miles, then decide to whip past me and give me a dirty look. For what? Obeying the proper convention by staying exclusively in the right lane and driving a very legal speed? And it's not like I'm erratically going from 80-55-80. I'm doing exactly the same speed the entire time. They just somehow think that if they ride me long enough I'll just move out of their way instead of letting them pass me. It's good times. I'd rather have my real tire, but at least this gives me some entertainment on the drive.
Speaking of entertaining, I watched a girl come flying up behind me in her Subaru Outback, decide at the last second to swerve to the middle lane, realize someone was in it after starting her move and swerve back onto the right shoulder a little bit and almost rear-end me. It's was a great scene to watch in my rear-view. Although I think I would have preferred it if she'd hit me. I highly doubt I would have lost control and would have gotten some free parts for my car and a great rental car for probably a week.

The Wheels on my Car go Flat Flat Flat

2009-04-06T21:47:00.002-05:00

So I just had yet another problem with my right front tire. On my way to hockey, coming down an unlighted street, in a pretty steady rain, at night, I found my way into a pretty wicked pothole and blew out the tire. Didn't even see it coming. Just thought it was your average puddle and paid it no mind. Nothing beats changing a tire in the rain on a dark side-street. Fortunately I've become old hat at this kinda thing and took less than 10 minutes from the time I pulled over til the time I was pulling away.
Yes, this is the very same wheel that had the flat tire not 3 weeks ago. I'm hoping they rotated the tires so I didn't just kill the brand new tire, but who knows. And yes, this is the wheel and tire that were bent and slashed, respectively, in the infamous bumper incident in CT.
So after I take a little morning detour to DirectTire to get yet another tire fixed, I'll be calling up the town of Watertown and giving them a piece of my mind. Our roads are straight up shitty. And several have been shitty for over a year now, so it's not like this is a new phenomenon in these tough times. I'm not expecting them to pay me back (mostly because I wisely buy the road hazard package on my tires knowing I have nothing but trouble). I really just want to give them shit for not fixing the roads. Maybe hear some weak-ass excuses as to why they just can't repave the roads or even patch the giant f'n holes in a timely fashion.

In better news, it's finally Cubs opening day!! I'm sitting here watching the DVRed ESPN broadcast from earlier, so no one call me and tell me how it ends. It's just so great to have baseball back. And RCN added WGN-HD in the offseason so I'll now be able to get about 1/2 of the games in HD this year. Glorious.
And on that note, I will now get back to my chips, salsa, beers, and Cubs in HD. Cause right now that's just about all that's going well for me tonight and about all I can hope to go well for me.

I'm Starting With the Man in the Mirror

2009-03-02T21:50:00.003-05:00

No, the title isn't meant to be a lead-in to any deep and meaningful changes I plan on making to myself. I've just had that Michael Jackson song stuck in my head for the past 15 minutes and wanted to share.
It's always funny to me the little things that I notice from living with Hayley. Most of it stems from my tendency for habits and routines. Occasionally it's from my minorly OCD things. This one occurred to me as I was telling Hayley what I wanted from the grocery store. After years of doing my own shopping and shopping only for me, I've developed specific tastes for certain items. For instance I only eat Fuji apples; preferably organic fujis. I've found a brand of bread that I like best. I've also developed short-hand on my own shopping list. (Yes, I use a list cause I've proven many many times that I'm incapable of remembering everything I want without it.) So I can just write "lunch" and I know exactly what 4 things that means. Bread, deli meat, apples, bananas. Other things I want to check out before I get them. If the peaches are good I get a few; if not I get extra apples.
So while I know all of these things it's tough to quickly pass on this knowledge to Hayley on a week to week basis. So anytime I try to make a list for her, it's full of all these weird verbal directions. Most of which she doesn't understand. "Only get peaches if they're ripe and a good weight for their size." If you don't normally buy fruit, how the hell do you know what that means? "Get either buffalo chicken or regular roast beef from the deli. Whatever you think I'd like better." Right, that's real helpful. While that is how I do it, that doesn't help her very much.
Wow, could this be any more boring? This is why I don't normally do this on a lazy Saturday afternoon. But I'm in the midst of my Blackhawks-Cubs double header on TV and figured it was a good time. Naturally the Hawks just lost to the Bruins in a tough game, so hopefully the Cubs can pick me up here.
In more car news, I noticed today that my car antenna was broken off at some point. I'm not sure exactly when. I very rarely use the FM tuner, and I still get decent reception in town without it, so it's hard to say. But it was clearly broken off, not just unscrewed. I did glue it on after I had a previous one stolen, so that's not surprising. The best I can figure is that it snapped off the other day as I was pushing a foot of wet, heavy snow off of my hood. Of course I'm hoping it met a better end than that. My best-case scenario is that it was snapped off of my car while it was sitting outside either DirectTire or Nissan and used to whip the shit out of some punk. Hopefully I'll see some jerk walking down the sidewalk with the pattern of my former antenna welted across his face. That would rule.

Follow-up to Dealership Post

2009-03-01T15:26:00.002-05:00

So I'm sure some of you have been sitting around thinking to yourself, "But Jarod, what happened with Herb Chambers?!" I'm happy to report that Hayley was able to successfully get her registration, inspection, and corrected odometer statement without trouble. And everyone was very nice and helpful, as well. Pretty much a complete 180 from the week leading up to it. Shocking!
Now what could have possibly caused this turn-about? Seems that the corporate office of HCH has joined my readership and sent a copy of Wednesday's post over to the GM at the dealership. As I actually thought possible, I'm betting they occasionally Google their name and see what comes up. Make sure no one is trashing them without reason. Or maybe I have a fan over there and never knew it!
To me, that sort of tainted their about-face. I was impressed and glad that the GM finally got involved and people stepped up to correct the problems that salesman Ron was causing. A big part of my frustration and anger with them was the fact that even as we explained what had been going on and were getting more and more jerked around, no one else showed any urgency to help us. Not even the sales manager seemed to care at all. Hell, no one even knew who was in the building on a day-to-day basis. We waited for 10 minutes on Wednesday while they paged Ron, who wasn't even working. We then witnessed a debate as to whether or not the finance guy was there. Way to be organized and know what the hell is going on around you.
Anyways...the fact that the corporate office called and probably read them the riot act means that they probably still could give 2 shits about us and their terrible service. They did what they did because their respective bosses told them to. So while the saga is finally over, neither of us ever wants to step foot in their dealership again. And I still can't recommend that anyone goes there. I've had dealing with 5 car dealerships in my life and this was the worst experience ever. And I haven't exactly had some good ones prior to this.
Whatever. I'm sure at least one person has had the same experience at every car dealership in the country. I guess it was just our turn to take one for the team.

Worst. Car Dealer. Ever.

2009-02-25T20:57:00.002-05:00

Okay, time to vent a bit. So last week the wife buys a 2007 Honda Civic from Herb Chambers Honda here in Boston. Thursday night, to be exact. Even though they have a good reputation from people that have bought there, things were pretty bad from the start. Our salesman, Ron, was constantly dealing with other customers and/or issues while trying to sell us a car. And he either lied or was totally clueless about how the extended warranty works. But whatever, it was the right car at a good price and we shouldn't have to really deal with him much after that night. Right? Wrong. So she traded in her old car and wanted to just transfer the plates. On Friday when she picked up the car he said that they'd take care of all of it by Tuesday, Wednesday at the latest. The odometer statement was also wrong, but he said they'd have that fixed by Monday. Well here we are at 9pm on Wednesday night and guess what hasn't happened. We have no registration, inspection, odometer statement, insurance, etc, etc, etc. Ron has continued to lie to us and has yet to come through on anything commitment he's made. Doesn't matter what he said he'd do and by when, none of it has happened as promised. And yes, he totally hung us out to dry tonight again. Apparently by telling my wife "stop by this evening and we'll get everything straightened out and get you your registration" means that he'll be nowhere to be found and no one else in the dealership will have any idea of what's going on. Completely normal, right? It's been the most painful experience I've ever had with a car dealership, and I had a pretty bad one with a Subaru dealer a few years back. I thought watching those morons struggle to find the right paperwork and get it submitted correctly was pretty bad. These guys at Herb Chambers have blown them out of the water.
Right now I'm doing my best to not just step in front of Hayley and let them have it. She's on the mound right now and I will respect that. Until we get the car and we're done with them. Then I'll step up and make sure they know exactly how I feel about the events that have transpired. And since we're still not done there might be yet another chapter! But if it's not done by the time I get to volleyball tomorrow evening I am going to call them and rip someone a new asshole. So they have until about 6:30pm to do what they said they'd have done days ago before I lose it. Hayley won't launch into a profanity-filled tirade because she's a good person. I am not handicapped with such restraints.

Big Bargains on Idocy

2009-01-09T22:45:00.002-05:00

So today I decided that with all my free time during the day I'd hit Costco when no one should be there. Turns out that I'm wrong. Not only are there lots of people there at 2pm on a Friday, but it attracts a ... certain kind of person. The idiots. And the old, but that's not their fault. And instead of most situations where they slowly sneak up on you when you least expect it and most require competency, this hit me right in the parking lot. It's amazing how many people can turn the simple act of guiding a car doing 10mph and putting it between 2 parallel lines into what seems like a Mensa quiz. Waiting for spots while someone loads their shit for 10 minutes instead of just parking 10 yards further from the door. Parking at some terrible angle and thus taking up 2 spots. Driving around aimlessly at 5mph looking for some mythical spot that whisks you instantly away to the inside of the store. Pretty aggravating. And it just got worse from there. Big shopping carts, endless choices and deals and things to consider, it's all way too much. So no, 2pm on a Friday is not a good time to go to Costco.

On a quick side note, watching "The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift" is another poor choice I've made so far today. And yet...here I am still watching it. Why? It's on, and Hayley's already in bed so I have to find quick ways to entertain myself. This is perfectly mind-numbing and can easily be done with little to no volume. I mean, this movie really is terrible. And I watch alot of terrible movies.

Quick show of hands; how many females watch the show "Two and a Half Men." Can't be many. So why are there so many commercials for feminine hygiene products and other distinctly female advertisements? I mean, really. There should be nothing more than beer and sports commercials.

Update: the movie just added a 67 Mustang fastback, almost my dream car. Right now I'm ignoring the fact that they dropped a Skyline engine in it and transformed it from a shell to a show-worthy race car in what couldn't have been more than a day and just enjoying it. What I wouldn't give to hear a tricked-out 289 with straight pipes under the hood instead.

Yeah, that's enough rambling for 1 night.
PEACE!!

"Game Changing Play" misnomer

2009-01-05T21:26:00.002-05:00

Anyone that's been watching as much of the college bowl season as I have will have surely seen the promos for the Pontiac "Game Changing Play" contest. They list 5 plays to vote on and the popular winner wins. Here's my problem with it; all 5 plays were Touchdowns in the final seconds to win games. So while technically those plays changed the game in the sense that the game was decidedly different after the play, they're really game winning plays. Game changing plays are plays that happen in the middle of a game to dramatically shift the momentum. Usually no one scores on the play, but sometimes it's a pick-6, punt return, or huge offensive play. But it's not in the final seconds of a game; it's in the middle. Thus, you have both game winning and game changing plays.
But, understandably, true game changing plays are far less dramatic. It could be something as simple as a really big hit by a defender that turns a game around. That isn't nearly as media friendly as a miraculous TD pass to win a game as time expires.

I'm sure many of you have heard me complain about the companies in the world that have managed to reach into my brain and steal my unpublished ideas for their own benefit. Like how George Foreman made serious cash on my idea of using the top of a toaster oven to toast bread while I'm cooking a chicken breast in it. Tostitos has managed to do it again. As Hayley constantly kids me about, I have a tendancy to create elaborate imaginary scenarios after coming up with a humorous observation. I won't go into any examples right now, mostly cause I can't think of any. So in the commercial you see a guy standing in the chip aisle looking at bags of Tostitos scoops while we hear his internal dialog. After determining that the chips are like food luggage, he then creates a situation where he has an imaginary conversation with an imaginary person about his "food luggage". Normally I'd just see it as a funny commercial. But after having Hayley kid me about my little habit so much and make me hyper-aware of it, I can know clearly see that They have stolen my ideas once again. Who are "They"? I'm not real sure. But someone is clearly tapping into my inner thoughts and using them for profit without sharing a dime with me. Are they using satelites? Maybe they implanted a transmitter into my body during my last surgery which can tap into my brain signals and relay them to a transmission tower. I'm not sure. But what I am sure about is that I need to start sending them false thoughts. Throw them off in directions they don't want to be in. Like...hamburger earmuffs!

My new full-time job

2008-12-29T22:07:00.002-05:00

I know, I know. It's been even longer this time than normal. But I have a good excuse! For those that don't know (which is probably 90% of you since I'm apparently very bad at informing people of stuff), I got laid-off from Teradyne back in mid-November. After surviving some 15 or so lay offs, including 2 earlier in 2008, I finally ended up on the wrong project at the wrong time. So instead of spending a few hours a week trying to look for a better job and having to make up excuses as to what I'm doing on interview trips, TER is now paying me to stay home and do it full time! And as a bonus, I have plenty of time to work on projects around the house and goof off every day.
However, while it didn't really bother me at first, turns out it did. While I wanted to leave anyways, it's a bit insulting to have a company that's leeching money so quickly to tell you you're not good enough to work for them any more. Especially with some of the jerks that got kept (No, not you, Tom)! I know that this wasn't a performance-based layoff, but it still hurt. Couple that with the fact that no one is hiring in December this year, and it sucked. Tough to keep your head up when you can't even get interviews anywhere.
But like a Christmas gift from the universe, things seem to finally be turning around. Got a couple interviews and know of a few things that should be opening up in January/February. Not sure if anything is going to end up being the job I'm looking for, but at least things are happening finally.

In brighter news, we're well in the heart of bowl season. I'm watching Northwestern take on Mizzou right now. Not a power-house match up here, but it's been a pretty good game. And because Northwestern is not only a fellow BigTen school, but also the home-town college for me, I have a vested interest in the game.
And with bowl season comes my week+ of horrible eating. For dinner tonight I've so far had 8 buffalo wings, a bowl of New York Cheddar and Herb Kettle Cooked potato chips (no that isn't unnecessary detail!), and now I'm eating chips and salsa. And a "few" beers. And tomorrow I have 3 more excuses to keep doing it! Not until 4pm, so I'll have to be productive in the morning and afternoon.

Now I'm sure everyone is reading this and wondering what I got for Christmas. I am the center of y'all's universe for crap sake! While there were many awesome gifts, the cornerstone of this year's crop is Rock Band 2 for our Wii. Unfortunately I haven't quite rocked out here at home. The drums are being UPS'ed as we speak, and I had a job interview this afternoon. I pretty much knew that there was a non-zero chance of me calling to reschedule the interview if I started rocking out today. So instead I'll just wait until Hayley goes to bed shortly and set it all up. Seems to be the perfect activity to try and do quietly while getting drunk. Am I right, people?!!

So until next time I'll just be sitting here at home living off of my fairly generous severance package and unemployment insurance. Have fun at work suckers!

Man vs Survivorman

2008-11-02T12:04:00.003-05:00

Most people are at least aware of the 2 major survival shows on televsion; "Survivorman" and "Man vs. Wild". Many of those have watched at least an episode or 2 of either of them. Most of you that read this are also aware that my father and I do a remote wilderness camping trip in Canada every summer for 2 weeks. So you'd think that I'd be over-joyed that there are 2 shows that could be covering some important skills for us. But in the words of the immortal Lee Corso: "Not so fast!!"
Let me quickly get the non-viewers up to speed, while also prepping for where this is going. Survivorman is done by Les Stroud. He takes a few cameras and a couple basic things like a Leatherman tool and heads to remote areas around the globe with the intention of surviving for 7 days. Essentially he's mimicking the infamous "worst case scenario" of any trip to a remote locale. But he's out there all alone with his cameras and no help. "Man vs. Wild" is done by Bear Grylls. Bear takes a camera crew with him to remote locations and does incredible stunts and has wild adventures for a day or 2.
In 2004 when I first saw the trailer for Survivorman I was pysched. Here was a survival expert heading to a similar area and a similar time to when we do our camping trips. And it lived up to it's billing. I picked up quite a few little tricks we could use in the event of an accident. How to start fires correctly with just bark and sticks, what types of things you can eat, how to correctly set up shelter, etc. But the best part to me was that it was realistic. He's not doing anything you wouldn't really do if you were in a life-and-death situation. Namely, no unnecessary risks.
Bear does his show in the exact opposite way. While he's also trying to survive an extreme situation, he does non-stop risky things to create drama. Some things he does are good, but it's not realistic overall. But when you have a camera crew following you around and you're only out for 1 or 2 days you can do that. I know, Les apparently has a crew nearby that he checks in with every day, but they do not intervene in anyway during his week.
We've been very fortunate to have never gotten into any bad situations, although not without some pretty close calls. And there's only so much you can do to avoid that. What you can do is listen to the ranger when you go in and do what they tell you to. (Quick primer: We go into the Quetico Park. You stop at 1 of 6 entry stations to pay your fees and check-in and get some quick updates. What are the water levels like, any new dangers, accidents, fires, etc. We've then proceeded to go 7 days without seeing another human being on some trips. Typically it's 2 or 3 days b/t sightings, and even then it's typically just the glint of the sun off a canoe on the other side of the lake.) And yes, people that don't follow basic safety instructions don't always come back. ~4 years ago a guy drowned not 2 miles from where we typically camp. So I do know that if Bear actually tried to do most of things he does in a real survive situation he wouldn't last long. There are times when extreme measures are required, but certainly not on day 1 or 2. Climbing a rocky waterfall instead of hiking for an hour to get around it? Wreckless and stupid. Swimming under a log jam of unknown size in a canyon? Also stupid. These are the types of stunts that get people killed. When you're out there all alone a badly sprained ankle could be all it takes. Or a deep cut. A concussion. Any number of seemingly small injuries suddenly become a situation. And with all the dangers we face on our trips, that's what scares us most. Bears, violent thunderstorms, high winds, all have nothing on a simple sprain or infection.
In short, anyone that does outdoor activities should take the time to watch at least a few episodes of Survivorman. While the specific situation may not apply every time, the skills he uses are typically the same. Stay dry, stay warm, find food and water. The more ways you know how to do those things, the better your odds of survival are.

Winter Doth Approach

2008-10-30T20:45:00.004-05:00

This year's World Series was actually pretty enjoyable for me. But still nowhere near the WS's of yore. I did really enjoy seeing a couple teams play small-ball and do the fundamentals in order to win. And every games except for 1 was right down to the wire. But I really just didn't care all that much about who won. I'm thrilled to see the title come back to the NL where it belongs, but I had no real connection to the Phillies. Good or bad. And nothing for the Rays except the knowledge that it's good for baseball to see a small market team full of kids make it to the show. Each of the last 5 years or so I've had either a team I liked, a team I hated, or some other great sub-plot to draw me in. Something at stake. This one? Not so much. So while I did enjoy watching the games, I felt no compulsion to stay up late to see who won each game and now I have kind of an empty feeling inside. Couple this with the fact that Purdue's football team is getting beat pretty much every week and not being able to watch hardly any Bears games, and I'm hitting a lull. The teams that are doing well I can't see; the teams that aren't I can. It's not fair.

In happier news, last weekend I finally used a 2-year old birthday gift from Hayley and went up for my "Discovery Flight" in a Cessna. It was really cool. I show up at the airport and spend a few minutes talking to the pilot about my background in regards to flying, what I want to do, and how the day will go. Then we stroll out to the plane and hop in. It was surprisingly cramped. Turns out a Cessna 172 doesn't have much room in the cockpit. Who knew?! I then got to taxi pretty much all the way from the hanger to the runway. It's actually a bit tricky to do. You can't use the steering wheel to do anything. It's all done by the foot pedals and a bit hard to get the hang of. Then pretty much as soon as we were off the ground he turned the controls over to me again. He guided me out to a safe area where we wouldn't interfere with planes coming and going and just tooled around a bit. I was much less aggressive than I thought I'd be. We had quite a bit of turbulence to deal with and the plane was quite responsive. So all the jostling and bouncing around took away a bit of my eagerness to really play around. He then let me bring it almost all the way in before taking control just long enough to touch it down. All in all, pretty awesome. And now I'm thinking seriously about getting my license. Trouble is it'd cost about $10k over the span of a couple months to get it. That's a tough pill to swallow right now. Even so, I've already thought about the possibilities of renting a plane to fly to Chicago for trips instead of relying on the major carriers. Or when we have to go to Long Island, that's just a 45-minute flight instead of a 4+ hour drive! Nice.
And with that, time to drift off to bed.
PEACE!!

2008 Campaign

2008-10-17T16:29:00.000-05:00

I think something good has happened this election season. As much as I hate the election process we have in this country, I wanted to point it out. After having to sit through 2 elections where the republicans were forced to dance around every issue to protect Bush, we finally seem to be getting into real national-level issues in the debates. Talk on how we’re going to handle the 2 non-wars we’re involved in. Foreign relations with our current enemies and countries liable to become enemies if they aren’t handled appropriately. Details on the 2 candidates proposed tax systems. Turning around our sputtering economy.
During both of Bush’s campaigns it appeared that they had to talk about random crap to try and get an edge. Bush couldn’t speak intelligently on the standard things like the economy and foreign relations, so they had to fight about stem cell research and the place of God in schools. Essentially, moral issues that only affect a small population. And while I feel that some of those things are issues that could be used to select a candidate, they most certainly should not be the key issues.
Everyone has their own personal reasons for voting a certain way. We all have key points that we want reflected in our President. But there comes a time when you have to ask yourself if your reasons are selfish. You have to look at all the things a candidate stands for and decide where you need to make your compromises, and hopefully those compromises are the selfish reasons. The republicans have been very effective at getting people to do the opposite. They really convince people that you need to vote based on personal, moral issues instead of what’s best for our country. Hell, they got people to elect a President that crippled our economy and indirectly caused thousands of people to be brutally killed in the name of some petty moral issues.
So fortunately this election has so far been mostly free of that crap. Joe the Plumber was hopefully nothing more than a flash-in-the-pan hot button McCain used to avoid going 0-3 in the debates. The talk of the candidates’ former associates has been touched on here and there, but has been over-shadowed by more legit issues.
Living in Massachusetts comes with some ups and downs during these elections. One of the more frustrating issues comes from this being a clear Democrat state. There is no way a Republican could ever take the state. Therefore, my vote doesn’t really count here. I can’t really influence who wins, just pad numbers one way or the other. That sucks. As empowering as voting can be, it’s taken away when you know you can’t make a real difference. However, the up side is that I don’t have to put the same level of thought into my vote as I would in a swing state. And this year appears to be one where some thought would be required. I’m 75% sure of who would be the better President, but both sides have some policies that I really don’t like.
Obama’s tax plan is starting to worry me more and more. It sounds awesome on paper. 95% of the population won’t see an increase in tax (35% of which aren’t paying any to begin with). I probably stand to make out a bit better under his plan. And yes, the rich make more so they could be asked to chip in more. But is that really right? Some of those people fought and struggled to get where they are and deserve what they now have. Why should we take away a greater percentage of what they earn? Was America really founded on the idea that we all share everything we make? Hells no!! The founding fathers were all rich white guys that horded their money and never dreamed of having to give 50% of every dollar back to government. Shit, they would have left Britain in control if they knew that’s where we’d be today.
And why should Joe the plumber have to chip in more when he’s only making a quarter of a million dollars a year?! I mean, how can he afford to eat on only $250k/yr?!!

Ahh, that familiar sting of defeat

2008-10-05T19:02:00.002-05:00

I had a venting write-up of games 1 and 2 of the Cubs NLDS all ready to go, but I never posted it and now it's pretty much a moo point. (no that's not a typo, figure it out if you want.) The Cubs completely fell apart and were swept by the Dodgers. And not in competitive fashion. They got beat like a red-headed step child riding a rented mule. They got Rodney King beat. They got...you get the picture.
Right now it's more shock for me. I'm mostly through my newly formed traditional bottle of champagne, which is taking the sting out of things tonight. After feeling like I jinxed the Cubs in 2003 by buying a bottle of champagne mid-playoffs, I decided that I'll now buy a bottle at the start of every season, then consume said bottle after the final out is recorded. If we win, it's a celebratory bottle. If not, I get what I have right now. Something tasty and bubbly to let the healing begin. And this is no sparkling white wine. I only want the best no matter how the season goes down.
Quite frankly, the Cubs got beat in every facet of the game. They allowed their starting pitching to lose game 1, their defense to lose game 2, and their (lack of) timely hitting to lose game 3. It's almost poetic in it's futility. And in some ways, the non-competitiveness of the games made them easier to take. It's not like game 6 of the 2003 NLCS where we were cruising along 5-outs away from our first World Series appearance since 1945 and then collapsed. No no, we were never really in the first 2 games. We were winning for a couple innings in game 1, but that was quickly fixed and the Dodgers never looked back. The last lead we had was the going into the top of the 5th in game 1. That's it. Last time. Not even close in game 2, and while we were close on the scoreboard in game 3, you could tell that it wasn't close on the field. We wasted every opportunity given to us. Any brief flicker of hope was extinguished by our futility. The Dodgers didn't beat us; we beat ourselves. In spectacular fashion.
I can't believe we actually hit 100 years. And I really thought this would be the year we did it. I allowed myself to believe again. All year long I thought that this would be it. And now I have to admit I'm not sure that we'll ever win it all again. I really hurts enough that I'm doubting things that much. It's even hard to blame it on the curse this time. There wasn't 1 or 2 moments that you can look back on and say that the curse got us. Maybe the curse was especially strong this year and forced the entire system to fail. I don't know.
And as far as I can tell, this whole October baseball thing is very over-rated. It's been nothing but pain for me in my life. Swept in the 1st round this year and last year. The painful and well-documented collapse in 2003. The beating from Atlanta in 1998. Luckily I don't remember 1984 and 1989, or this would be even worse! I guess it comes down the great debate: Is it better to have loved and lost or to have never loved at all? And while I can't answer that right now, I should be able to give a good answer in about 56 weeks. I mean, we've got most of our starting rotation returning, some great young hitters coming up through the system, and lots of great young arms that gained experience this year. Next year, baby. Next year is going to be the one. I can feel it already.

I scream, you scream, we all scream for....breast milk?

2008-09-26T07:06:00.006-05:00

This article consumed me for the first hour or so yesterday at work. I was just so flabbergasted that I couldn't function for a bit. I'm sure by now everyone's already heard and read about this, but just in case:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/odd_breast_milk_ice_cream
It's hard to even know where to start with this one. There are so many obvious problems here that it's hard to focus and write something coherent.
I'll start with some simple fact-based things. The article points out that you need 1.5 gallons of milk to make 1 gallon of ice cream. Ben & Jerry's FAQ section reports that they make and sell 18 million gallons of ice cream every year, thus requiring 27 million gallons of cow's milk every year. That's alot of milk! Now then, how many cows do you need to do that? I don't know anyone in the dairy business, so I had to fall back on my good buddy The Internet. Seems that an average cow can produce about 8 gallons a day of milk. At 27mil gallons a year, B&J needs just under 74,000 gallons each day. Therefore, they need to get the milk of 9,250 cows every day to make ice cream. Alot of cows, but not unreasonable.
You'd think that being married to an OB-Gyn resident would give me an inside track on finding out how much breast milk a woman can produce each day. In the words of my boy Lee Corso, "Not so fast!". So I had to once again fall back on my good buddy. I'm guess you could get 32oz (2 pints) from a lactating woman every day. So if B&J really wanted to make a switch they'd need to get 296,000 women to provide their breast milk in order to make ice cream. Or put another way, it'll take 1 woman 6 days to produce enough breast milk to make a single gallon of ice cream.
So clearly this just cannot work from a logistics stand-point. But let's move on from that. Let's say they decided to do a small-batch run and could get the volume required. One thing you can count on from cow's milk is a consistent taste and nutritional quality (more or less). They are fed a very consistent diet and said diet doesn't vary much from farm-to-farm. That's not true with women. You can't control what they eat and therefore the quality of their milk. So you'll have a problem making each gallon taste similar and getting a good manufacturing process. If the fat content changes enough from batch to batch you're going to have problems. Women also haven't been bred for a good-tasting milk. So it's not like they can just swap it out and no one will known the difference.
Personally I'd eat it at least once. I'll try damn near anything once for shits and giggles. But most people wouldn't touch this stuff with a 10-foot pole. The mere thought of consuming breast milk disgusts most people. PETA was clearly just looking for a way to get themselves back in the spotlight in a less negative way. They've been beaten up a bit lately and needed something to change perceptions and get some support again. And they likely did it.
Not surprisingly, Opie & Anthony actually made some breast milk ice cream yesterday morning. Apparently an intern has a sister who's lactating and want kind enough to donate some. Not sure how good the interns are at making ice cream, but it was described as 'gamey' with a pretty terrible after-taste. But initially it tasted just like regular vanilla ice cream. So maybe there's hope that we'll see a special edition in the future. Of course, if Hayley and I ever spawn an offspring, you never know what could happen....

Why all the Negativity?

2008-09-21T19:00:00.002-05:00

I finally reached a boiling-over point regarding this political campaign. I'm used to each party attacking each other, but I don't recall regular people and bloggers being so aggressive in attacking a candidate. Maybe it's just my friends, but I've been seeing a pretty steady stream of anti-McCain videos, blogs, articles, etc. These are the same people that will talk about how the republicans are being un-fair when they attack Barack for his policies and personal issues. If you say anything bad about him you're either a racist or you think he's a terrorist. But somehow it's perfectly fine to create a YouTube video that goes on for 5 minutes about how McCain is a war mongering monster that's just out to kill everyone else in the world.
I'm certainly not a fan of McCain, but I really don't hear people say much about what Barack is going to do besides "not what that facist McCain would do!". What's his plan to get us out of this economic funk? How does he plan to handle aggressive rogue nations like North Korea, Iran? What is he going to do about the health care situation? Medicare, health insurance, required or not? Can we get an accurate read on how many of his announced initiatives he'd actually be able to get through Congress and the Senate? I never hear any Obama supporters bragging about that. Or bragging on what he's accomplished in his political career so far. Really you only hear about what he did in college. And he did do some great things. But they didn't involve judging what your supporters really wanted and what compromises would be required to make it happen. Didn't involve dealing with other countries that really didn't like you.
"Luckily" for me my vote really doesn't matter so I don't need to get too involved. Massachusetts is so overwhelmingly democratic that it doesn't matter who you vote for. But the fact that Obama's supporters have been so negative and ruthless in their attacking of McCain has me worried. I think we may be getting into to situation where people will support him because they get sick of the relentless attacking of him on a personal and professional level. And not that they have Palin to take shots at it's getting even worse. It's pretty clear that she's horribly unqualified to be the VP of this county. You don't need to go out of your way to attack her and point it out. Maybe you should take that energy and use it to spread positive messages about Obama and Biden. Educate people on their policies and what they plan to do. Tell us about their history and how that should convince us that they are just blowing smoke up our asses right now.
So here's what I plan on doing; next time I hear anyone bad-mouthing McCain/Plain I'm going start drilling them on Obama/Biden's politics. See if they acually have real reasons for their choices and aren't just toeing the party line and picking the guys that "aren't Bush".

Couple Camping Stories

2008-09-15T21:05:00.003-05:00

I know you're all eagerly awaiting to some most excellent stories from the camping trip. Trouble is, I need to wait for my dad to type up and send out this year's journal before I can really re-tell most of them. Yes, we keep a journal while we're there. It's amazing how much each day just blends right into the next when you don't. Since we stay in the same base camp for the entire trip, we don't have any geography references to date our memories. And even if we did, you tend to just forget alot of really great little things after a week. We've got hundreds of things that we both totally forgot about until we read through the journal. And it's usually the little things that really make me smile.
But I do have a couple bones I can throw out there today.
1) I know alot of people out there are probably dying to get their hands on a new and unique thigh workout. And I've got a great one you can do at home with $5 in equipment. Here's what you do...go get a small garden trowel (little shovel for those that don't know) and a roll of toilet paper (or some napkins that you "stole" from Hardees when you stopped for breakfast on the drive up to the Boundry Waters). Then just wait around until the next time you have to take a crap. When you finally do, go dig yourself a small hole in the yard and take a crap in it. This works even better if the ground is dirty and full of pine needles, there are mosquitos buzzing around, and you really have to go. Nothing is more fun then frantically trying to dig a hole deep enough for this job in an area with very little soil and, in the words of my dad, "mosquitos big enough to rape turkeys".
2) We actually saw the end of a rainbow and there most certainly didn't appear to be a pot of gold anywhere to be found. It was our last day in the Quetico and we were just chilling in camp while a collection of drizzly little clouds broke up an otherwise sunny day. While standing under the rain fly waiting one out we looked up and saw a quite magnificent rainbow arching right down to the water's edge on the other side of the lake. As the drizzle moved by the end moved out more towards the middle of the lake, then retreated back into the trees and beyond. We've seen some pretty amazing displays by nature up there, but that was definitely unique. I didn't even know it was possible to see the end of a rainbow. I figured it was just another part of the myth. But there it was, clear as day and landing right on the water. And as we joked about where the gold might be, the same guy that said that great line about the mosquitos says, "maybe this is just nature's way of telling us that this whole area right here is our pot of gold." Fortunately I've yet to see any crazy Leprechans chasing after me to get any of it back.

Back in Black!

2008-09-11T21:57:00.002-05:00

Well, I'm finally back from the woods. It's really amazing what 10 days in a canoe completely removed from everything except nature will do for you. Strip away all the pressures and problems of your life, and everything is just perfect.
Granted it'd be considerably harder if we were living there full-time and all. We go up there with enough food and clothes for 10 days, not 10 years. We don't have to worry about caching food for the winter. Or somehow making and repairing our clothes. But that's not my point. When the sun comes up, we got up. When it went down, we went to sleep. The only thing we really had to decide on a daily basis was where we were going to fish and where we wanted to have shore lunch. Everything else just took care of itself. Rain, wind, cold, you can't control any of it. You just wake up, see what the day has given you, and go about your business doing what you need to do. If it's too windy to safely go out in the canoe, you try to fish from shore and find something else to do. Take a nap, read some of the newspaper we bring to start fires, explore the island (again). Once you stop trying to force yourself to do things that clearly can't be done, life gets pretty simple.
And once you stop running around so fast you start to notice all the great things around you. When was the last time you just took some time to watch the clouds go by? Or check out a storm front as it moves in or out? How about just watching another animal go about it's day? It's amazing what you can learn about the world around you once you start watching it and paying attention to how you fit in it.
Yeah, I'm going to be all mellow and reflective for at least the next 4 or 5 days. I come back all idealistic about what I want to do with my life, people I need to get back in touch with, changes I need to make, etc. And it all inevitably falls apart as soon as I get back to work. Probably by Wednesday of next week it'll all be over and done. But you never know. Sometimes these changes and thoughts stick with me.
And of course I'll be posting various stories and events from the trip as time goes on. And once Dad gets the pictures developed, I'll post some of those. I know, analog film! But when you have to travel 20 miles to get where you want to get, every pound counts. And neither of us wants to carry in extra batteries to power a digital camera for 10 days when analog works just fine. Pictures can't even capture 1% of the actual image, so we don't need it. The photo just serves as a way to remind ourselves and jog our memory. That's where the real image is. The sights, smells, sounds, etc all together.
But it is good to be back. No more crapping in a hole in the woods. No more wearing the same dirty clothes for 4 days in a row. No more having to slice up ~5 fish every day for lunch and dinner. Every normal activity becomes so much easier to do. Kinda like this! Sure beats trying to send smoke signals over the horizon to try and communicate with someone else.

Spinal Tap and Spiny Chicks

2008-08-23T11:16:00.003-05:00

I think the guys from Spinal Tap designed the window fan we have in our bedroom. You may recall that they have amps that go to 11, so when they're at 10 and need some extra kick they have somewhere to go. We can do the same thing with our fan. If we go from 'low' to 'high' and that's still not enough, we can go all the way to 'super'! That's right, baby. Super!
Of course they skipped over 'medium' in the process. And that's what I find a little odd.
It's not like the cheap window fan market is so competitive and ruthless that you need to pull out all the stops to make a sale. So when you have only 3 settings, why go for low/high/super? Especially when 'super' isn't really all that spectacular. It's not like it's blowing us out of the bed when we go there. Shit, it barely even flutters the blankets. Still a great fan, though. Spins both ways, quiet, fits perfectly in the window. I just wish they hadn't pulled that Spinal Tap move.

Has anyone else watched the womens 10m platform diving? Anyone else a little sickened by those Chinese divers? They're like flesh-colored skeletons! All bony and scrawny. And of course they don't make any splash when they hit the water, it's like dropping a pointy steel rod from the platform! I don't want to take anything away from their skill at spinning and twirling in the air, but their size should be considered when the judges are grading their entry. Of course, you really can't start taking away from people just because they have a physical gift. Every Olympic-level athlete has been given a physical gift in some manner. Maybe it's a higher percentage of quick-twitch muscles for sprinters, Phelps' short legs/long torso/long arms, or extra flexibility for a gymnast. But still, these 15-y-o girls have such an advantage given that they have no shoulders and no soft tissue that it's not really fair.
And can we finally say that there is a conspiracy going on this time around? The Chinese have been involved in WAY too many controversies and have gotten too many breaks on the judged events. I'm not saying that the US is getting cheated. I think we've made legit mistakes that cost us medals and opened the door for controversies to be introduced. If we'd executed the way we should have, it wouldn't have been a factor. But the fact is that the Chinese are killing everyone when judging is involved and getting smoked when it's not. That just seems pretty fishy to me. And the Olympic committee is wisely not going to touch it with a 10-foot pole. Too much money is at stake for them and every future host country to seriously entertain the possibility of unethical behavior. They'll just sweep it under the rug and wait for it to go away on its own in 2 months.

Nuclear Bombs and Automatic Wipers

2008-08-18T20:32:00.001-05:00

As I was reading through some tiny articles in Popular Mechanics covering some noteworthy breakthroughs, I hit one regarding the new IBM Roadrunner super computer that proves a point I’ve been making for a couple of years now. The Roadrunner is the first computer to break the petaflop barrier. That means it can do more than 1 quadrillion calculations every second. While it’s hard to get comparative info on consumer CPUs (meaning it takes more than 1 minute of google searching), that’s about 100,000 times faster than any computer you own.

But guess what its main job is going to be. It will be simulating testing of nuclear weapons. It was built for the Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratory to simulate the effects of something we hope to never use. I guess it’s nice that they won’t be doing any live testing of nukes, but there has to be a better use of the most powerful computer on the planet.

And that is what proves my point. Everyone complains about how much money we spend on the military in this country. But some of the greatest inventions in our modern history have come out of it. No other organization, be it public or private, has the money to fund these incredible risky and financially unsound programs. No one except the Department of Defense. Jet engines, supercomputers, communication technology, artificial intelligence, control systems, etc. Sure, some of the technologies weren’t created by the military alone, but they were sure funded by it. The Darpa robotic vehicle challenge? It may be public and private companies doing the bulk of the work, but only because tax money is footing the prizes and forming the competition and doing the prep work.

But naturally, there is a flip side to our modern world of computer automation. Not 2 pages later there was a 1-page synopsis of the recent B2 (stealth bomber) crash at an airbase in Guam. These are aircraft that wouldn’t even be able to get off the ground without the advanced computer power they have on-board. That’s not a new concept for today’s jets, but it is allowing more and more aerodynamically unstable aircraft to fly. And taking more and more control away from the pilots, so that in the event of a computer malfunction there is less and less they can do to recover.

And that’s exactly what happened to the most expensive aircraft we have. You can check out the full piece here if you like:

B2 Crash And... Crash Read #2

In short, water got in 3 of the 24 air data sensors that tell the computer things like air speed and altitude and caused a malfunction. Techs on the ground “fixed” it by recalibrating the sensors and everything checked out. When the sensors’ heaters were turned on the water evaporated and returned the sensors to a pre-cal working state. But now they were reporting bad data because of the new calibration settings. This confused the computer, it reacted incorrectly as soon as they were off of the runway, the plane stalled out and crashed. There was nothing the pilot could do to stop it with so little time to react.

I personally don’t even like my car to automatically do anything outside of engine tuning, let alone take over major driving functions. Automatic wipers, lights, traction control, steering ratio adjustment, suspension adjustments, it’s not for me. I prefer to be in control of what my car is doing, not the other way around. Does that make me old? (Anyone that answered ‘yes’, get ready to have my orthopedic back pillow jammed up your ass!!)

Learning Curve to Rock to.

2008-07-14T19:00:00.003-05:00

While many people probably think this isn't true, I've learned something important in the past year of living with Hayley (in sin!). I've learned that we like to learn things in 2 very different ways. I like to try to figure things out with as little outside help as possible. She likes to have her questions answered so she doesn't have to figure things out.
I get this from my dad. Any time I had to ask him a question about something, he'd typically reply with something like "how do you think you should do it?", "how do you think it works?", and the like. He'd guide me along the way, but he really wanted to make sure I was using my brain to figure it out on my own. And I'm very thankful he did it. I learned quite a bit about how to figure things out and how to reason things. Probably the reason I became an engineer.
However, Hayley doesn't appreciate that. If she asks how something works, she wants to be told how it works. She doesn't want to spend time thinking it through and making guesses and what not. And no, she doesn't appreciate guessing incorrectly. (yes, I've officially crossed a line here and probably won't walk away unscathed at this point. So I might as well just finish the job...) My feeling is this comes from her desire to not be wrong. I'm not saying she's a no-it-all that always has to be right. Far from it. But she does enjoy being right and doesn't like being wrong. It's hard to get her to guess at anything for fear that she'll be horribly wrong in her estimation. Oh, she claims that's not the answer, but we both know it is.
Hmmm...I thought I had somewhere I was going with all of this. Learning...different styles... I don't know.
I've been giving the task of assembling the CDs to be used during our cocktail hour and the band's breaks. Hayley has given me some songs she wants to be on it, and does have veto power, but I feel I'm putting together one hell of a great set. I want to bring the rock for the cocktail hour, mellow it out during the breaks. No, that doesn't mean I'm bringing any metal to the party, although some Chimaira would really kick things up a notch. Some of my choices will seem a bit odd, but that's because I do have some random songs that I wanted to get in. Songs that are meaningful to me and I want played. I might be the only person who'll look up at the speaker and say "awesome" when they come on, and that's fine with me. It's my f'n wedding and I can do what I want to. Our wedding. It's ourwedding. My bad. And I've never been one to go with convention at any point in my life. Why should I stop just because I've been saddled with a ball & chain?! Pssshhh, that thing can't stop me; it can only hope to slow me down a little bit. And yes, I'll have copies available to anyone who'd like one.
Man, 12 days from right now I'll be married and partying down at the reception. At least I hope so!! I feel like I should be doing something more single-like than blogging and watching "Two and a Half Men". I have 12 days to go and I'm not putting it to any kind of good use. Kinda sad. Eh, whatever.
Oh right, I remember where the learning thing was going to go. I've also learned that we both fall prey to the game of "(S)he Said/(S)he Heard". Case in point...Friday afternoon I did something to my lower back, which is apparently made of some kind of cracker, and couldn't really walk so good all weekend. Yet the lawn really needed to be mowed. Hayley said, "Do you need me to mow the lawn for you?" I heard, "Would you like me to rip off your testicles and give them a quick spin in this food processor?" It hurt, but I mowed it. And then I laid down for a bit. Not cause it hurt alot, because I was tired. That's all. Just tired.
And no, I don't really want to know what Hayley is hearing as she's reading this. I should probably start working on an apology...

When 97 is Better than 117

2008-07-11T12:25:00.000-05:00

I came to some good pondering yesterday while taking a shit and consoling myself after a brutal Cubs loss (12-7 to the Reds). I uttered to myself, “oh well, you can’t win ‘em all and it’s not like we’re going after 116.” 116 being the MLB records for wins in a season, set originally by the 1906 Cubs and tied by the 2001 Mariners. This then got me thinking about how those teams have done. I remember the Mariners getting bounced quickly by the Yankees in ’01 (4-1 after going to 5 games in round one vs. the Indians) and remember other teams in other sports get embarrassed in the play-offs after waltzing through the regular season. In fact, of the 14 best MLB season records of all time, only 5 ended up champions. So it would appear to be a detriment to walk through your regular season without any real challenges.

Even though at first that seems counter-intuitive, that makes perfect sense to me. I’m going through a similar thing right now with hockey. After not playing any live, competitive games for 11 months due to my surgery, it’s hard to stoke that competitive fire right away. It’s like you forget how to really focus and buckle down. In the case of baseball, when you’ve been a lock for the division for a month, you don’t really go balls-out in a losing game. Why risk hurting yourself when the only thing you’re chasing is a record that doesn’t mean much? So when you’ve got your back put against the wall suddenly in the play-offs, you struggle to really get moving and do something. You get sloppy and make mistakes. You get over-matched by players with ½ the talent.

In fact, you see a similar effect when teams have a long lay-off b/t playoff series. If you sweep in team in 4 games, then have to wait a week while the other guys go 7 games, teams are often noticeably sloppier in that first game. Some teams are affected more than others, but you can see it in pretty much everyone if you know to look for it.

On the flip side, you don’t want to have to scratch and claw your way into the playoffs right up until the last day. While your players are well versed in playing under pressure and finding ways to win, that’s a lot of stress on everyone and you start to wear down. In addition, you can’t take a week to get your pitching rotation. And that becomes very important in a 5-game series. If you have to use your ace in game 162 just to make the playoffs, you may only get to use him 1 time in your opening series. And all of your bullpen guys and position players are going to be tired and stressed from the race to the finish. Ideally you like to give your big guys a day or 2 off in that last week so they’re fresh. Not too many days, which should be obvious by now. (Re-read the previous paragraph if you don’t know why.) You want fresh arms, fresh legs, and fresh minds going into the playoffs. Fresh, but still knowing what it means to battle for a close game and win.

In case you’re wondering, as I was, how dominating the ’08 Cubs would need to be to tie their franchise’s own record…they’d have to go 61-9 the rest of the way to get to 116. So after winning at a 0.598 clip thus far (on pace for 97 wins), they’d have to jump to a .871 clip to tie their record. I don’t see that happening. Nor do I want that to happen. I want them to cruise to a comfortable NL-best record for the #1 seed, allowing them to give guys some needed rest, without losing their drive. I really don’t need a repeat of last year, and this year the playoffs won’t coincide with my sister’s wedding. That gave me a welcome distraction from the agony last year.

And everyone mark October 14 on their calendars. That’s the official 100 year anniversary of the last Cubs World Series Victory. I can’t give you an exact time yet, but I’m working on it. Seems they didn’t keep highly detailed box scores back in aught-8.

AL Pitchers Aren't Men

2008-06-18T18:21:00.002-05:00

Nope, AL pitchers are apparently not real men. And while I've always pretty much believed that, it's finally been confirmed by an AL owner. Hank's Rant. And since reading is for suckers, let me be a bit more specific. Hank's feelings on the NL not using the designated hitter (DH):

"I've got my pitchers running the bases, and one of them gets hurt. He's going to be out. I don't like that, and it's about time they address it. That was a rule from the 1800s."

5-year-olds playing t-ball can run the bases without getting hurt. Position players do it thousands of times a year without getting hurt. Do some suffer freak injuries doing it? Sure. But it's a very small percentage. Like 1 guy every couple years.
And to his "rule from the 1800s" jab, the vast majority of baseball's rules are from the 1800s. Let's see if we can examine a few from the original rules published in 1845:

The ball must be pitched, and not thrown, for the bat.
A ball knocked out of the field, or outside the range of first or third base, is foul.
Three balls being struck at and missed and the last one caught is a hand out; if not caught is considered fair, and a striker is bound to run.
A player running the base shall be out, if the ball is in the hands of an adversary on the base, or the runner is touched with it before he makes his base; it being understood, however, that in no instance is a ball to be thrown at him.
Players must take their strike in a regular turn.

Those are all rules that are from the 1800s and haven't changed a bit. Have you ever heard Hank complain about the "3 strikes, you're out" rules after someone Ks to lose a big game? Or if someone is out at first on a routine ground ball because of rule #4? So why target the lack of a DH in the National League when the DH is the latest rules change to baseball, and put in to address the "dead ball era" and generate more offense. That was addressed via a change to the height of the mound in 1969, and through modern advances in strength training and bat technology. Batters today work out year-round to work on their baseball skills, as opposed to having normal jobs in the off-season as in days of yore. Modern bats are lighter and stronger than ever before, meaning they can swing faster and the ball jumps off of the bat like never before.
I've never liked the DH rule. It just seems silly that 1 player on a team is allowed to become a 1-trick pony.
It's not football; you don't have a 2-platoon methodology. I recently heard it put even better: "No player should be allowed to show up to the ballpark and not even need a mitt." Yeah, these guys can hit. And yes, most pitchers can't. But some are actually pretty good hitters. And the majority of the rest enjoy going up there and doing what every other player on the team gets to do, even if they aren't so good.
It also adds a whole new level of managerial skills to the game. If it's a close game in the 7th and the pitcher's spot is coming up, do you pinch-hit for him and go to the bullpen? Or how about when you bring a reliever in mid-inning. If you know the 9-spot is coming up your next time at bat, you could insert the relief pitcher somewhere else, substitute for a position player in the 9th spot to replace whomever was in the spot the pitcher is now. For you AL guys, it's what's referred to as the double switch.
I understand Hank is frustrated at losing one of his best pitchers. But don't shit on what amounts to baseball ethics because your players are girl. Check that, even girls can run the bases without getting hurt. I guess he feels his pitchers all deserve to be in the Special Olympics. Those are really the only people I can see regularly hurting themselves jogging on flat, manicured ground. But hey, who am I to criticize someone who's put together far and away the highest payroll in baseball to build a 3rd place team.
Done and done.

Men are from Mars, Lesbians are from Lesbos.

2008-06-11T20:32:00.002-05:00

Seriously. There is a Greek island, Lesbos.
I first heard about this via Opie & Anthony a few weeks ago when the citizens of said island were complaining about the direction their name has gone. How about you feel if your nationality shared a name with the potentially hot homosexual pairing?! But alas, my memory doesn't really work yet when I'm driving to work so I forgot all about it. Until today! I forget when and where it came up, maybe lunch, but it did.

Since I know most of you only read enough of the wiki page to figure out if I was full of shit or not, I'll fill you in with some details. To try and keep things clear, I will use the good English practice of capitalizing Lesbian when talking about the nationality and won't capitalize lesbian when talking about the sexual preference. Yes, this is just so I can make the easy jokes.

Now it's not a completely random association between the island and female homosexuality. Seems like quite a few of the poems penned by Sappho, who was a Lesbian, showed some strong sexual feelings towards other women. This Lesbian might have been a lesbian!! And so the link b/t Lesbos and woman-on-woman action was formed. Much to the demise of the Lesbos' current residents! Seems they're getting a little tired of it. The pilgrimages by lesbian couples, the laughs and taunts, the mocking from the other Aegean islands.
In fact, they're so sick of it, they've decided to sue lesbians to stop them from using their name! Lesbians vs. lesbians They claim that allowing gay women to use their nationality to reference themselves is insulting to their identity. Even worse, how do you explain that to a small child? I'm sure most children are going to get curious about why all those strange, non-Greek women are calling themselves Lesbians. Or is it lesbians? To quote one of the Lesbians involved in the trial:

"I have a hard time explaining to my daughter that we Lesbians are not homosexuals. My mother, my sister and my daughter are all Lesbians and it's incredible the amount of ridicule they suffer because of this,"

So true! So very true.
Lucky for everyone involved the court is committed to getting us a verdict within 2 months. Which then creates a pretty sizable problem of policing their decision, should it go against the lesbians. How do you stop the rest of the world from using it? I still say WWF when talking about the wrestling organization, and that's much less entertaining than thinking about young, sexy lesbians! Do you walk around handing out tickets to everyone that uses lesbians? Will people still click on spam emails advertising hot, soapy, Lesbians? I'm sure the island does have some lookers, but probably not what they need to have to support a porn business. Anna, you reading this? What is the legal precedent here?
And what's next? Is someone going to go after NAMBLA next? How would you even find members to sue? They aren't exactly an "out-there" group.
But don't fret people. I'll be sure to keep everyone updated on how it goes. Is anyone interesting in creating a Lesbian vs lebian betting pool?

Wrong on so Many Levels

2008-06-09T18:27:00.003-05:00

I'm finally ready to share a disturbing event I was a part of last week. It was early in the day. I had just gotten to work and went to my yahoo home page. There was a headline of a story that implied there were pictures of the Pussycat Dolls dressed inappropriately. How could I resist?! So I go there to check it out and sure enough there was. But right next to them in the gallery was a picture of a...portly girl clearly taking her turn on the 'red carpet' at some event. She is apparently some big name in rock, yet I'd never seen her. Beth Ditto.
I proceed to do what any normal person would do and I see if wikipedia can help me out at all. Of course it does. Singer of a band Gossip. Lesbian and outspoken activist for gay rights. In a relationship with a "transman". At this point my brain realizes that we may be in trouble. Yet in my pre-coffee daze I stupidly keep reading. Mark isn't on GoogleTalk yet, so what else can I do?! Until I get to this mind-stopping quote:
"Ditto posed nude for On Our Backs, a women-run lesbian erotica magazine. "It was a big moment in my life," she told Curve magazine. "It was kind of a radical thing to do. I got my period just 10 minutes before we got there, and I was totally bleeding. I was doing it with my tranny boyfriend, who I’m in love with, and I was totally bleeding — how radical is that? — and I’m a fat person, and I’m a femme. It felt really good."
After recoiling in hour at what I had just read, Mark finally showed up and said 'hi' at the exact wrong moment. And after I share that lovely quote with him, he decided to fire back a shot of his own. This:

Touche. I proceeded to stare blankly at my screen for a good 30 seconds while my brain rebooted enough for me to get that awful image off my monitor.
Oh, did I mention that she also doesn't shave her pits or wear deodorant? Cause somehow not wearing deodorant is a feminist thing. Smelling like a bum in summer when you're out in public is her way of showing that she won't be oppressed by men.
And of course there's the issue of her weight. I'm thrilled she can be confident and happy even those she's at an unhealthy weight. That's just awesome. And she smokes. Even better! Why she needs to flaunt that, I really don't know. If I were to put on my psychology pants, I'd say she was over-compensating or she realizes that without doing that no one is going to give 2 shits about her, save for her friends and family. But certainly no media coverage for her activism. But maybe that's just the pants talking. They are known to do that. Why she can't maintain a healthy weight and still maintain her identity, I'll never care. But here we are. I'm no model, nor do I want to be. There's no way I can eat and drink the things I love and pull it off. Not until I can score a high-paying job that let's me work out and play sports all day. While those do exist, I'm horribly under-qualified for them. But what I can do is eat well and exercise and not keep myself at an unhealthy weight. But I think we've covered that ad nausem already.
So yeah, that was the opening to a morning last week. What morning I'm not sure. I've really tried to forget as much as I can. But alas, enough lingered that I had to find alternate outlets. I'm a wizard when it comes to ignoring and burying bad emotions. (does Jack ring a bell to anyone?) Why am I sharing this now? Cause I like to spread the pain around. You hurt me, I'll hurt a bunch of my friends.
ENJOY!!

Cubs-Dodgers Musings

2008-06-07T10:48:00.003-05:00

So I made a few observations last night while watching the Cubs game (10:40p start) and having a few...adult beverages.
Juan Pierre, ex-Cubs CF, current Dodgers LF, is built like a human version of a Cheetah. Seriously. He's got a tiny head, long skinny body, and he's fast as all hell. All he really needs is to grow a tail and start chasing down and eating live gazelles. Wouldn't that be some funny shit to see on the field.
Bob Brenley, in all his wisdom, right after watching some defensive high-lights from the previous game: "Cubs are in the low middle in the league in fielding %, but they make lots of high-light reel plays. " That's typically the way it goes for both players and teams. Alot of the guys that win gold gloves and make SportsCenter all the time just tank some easy plays. Their raw numbers are usually not that great. But everyone lets them off the hook because 'they try to make plays on balls that the average fielder can't even get to." Same things with teams in general. The ones you see making tons of amazing plays are never the ones leading the league in percentages. And they usually blow a bunch of games when they boot some easy plays or make an error trying to make some hero play.
Cubs pitcher Sean Gallagher's name is a palendrome with 'her' on the end. Just something I noticed.
Jeff Kent looks like he'd be a terrible hitter. Stands there pretty much straight up, standing virtually still. Just an old white guy with a mustache standing in the batter's box like he couldn't hit a little league fastball. And then next thing you know he cranks one over 400ft away. It's eerie. He's the opposite of Ken Griffey Jr.'s sweet graceful swing, and yet the results are pretty much the same.
Len, after a replay of the BoSox-Rays fight: "Looks like Crisp was getting pounded by more than just 1 Ray!" Same thing was probably true later that night. Just swap "Ray" for something more...masculine.
Later in the night when Jeff Kent came up, the stadium guys played Santana's "Oye Como Va". This for a guy has been accused quite a few times of being a racist. Bonds did it back in the day, other team-mates have made the same hints. Seems like an odd choice of music choice for him. I'm not saying he is or isn't, just that maybe they should have thought that out a little bit better. Maybe they could have gone with some Skynard, or maybe a little country-western piece. Just saying.
But alas, the Cubs ended up losing the game 3-0. Not a great showing, but the LA pitcher did seem to be really on his game. Made our guys look pretty bad. But hey, even the best team in baseball has to lose a game once in awhile. When you're riding a 9-1 streak, you're bound to drop to 8-2 at some point. But today is a new day and should be another win. We've got Zambrano going against Lowe today so I feel pretty good.
Done and done.

Rain, rain don't go away!

2008-06-04T19:50:00.002-05:00

You know what's weird? Now that I'm trying to grow grass I find myself rooting for rain. If I had my way it'd rain pretty much every day during the week. Not the weekends, cause I've got baseball to play every Sunday! But I was sitting at work and looking out the window watching it rain and actually said to myself, "Huh, this should be real good for the grass. Nice long, slow rain." Hopefully it'll keep this up from time to time so I don't have to water so often to keep the new grass from getting burned up. Summer is going to be a real challenge.

In the words of Mark: "Never trust anyone driving a ZipCar." Why not? cause these are people that don't drive very often and are typically REALLY bad drivers. Bad even when compared to the rest of the drivers here in Boston! I bring this up after almost being hit by a damn moron in a ZipCar SUV on my way to Target today. They were in the left-turn only lane but apparently didn't really want to be there. Oh yeah, and they got really deep into the intersection, even on a red arrow, before deciding that they needed to be in a straight lane. So what do they do? They just decided to floor it and try to squeeze in b/t me and the UPS truck in front of me. And yes, there was a median on the other side they had to dodge. Putting themselves in a position to hit either me or the median doing about 30mph. If I hadn't swerved over towards the right lane a bit at the end, they would have clipped my left-rear quarter panel pretty solidly. And of course they act like I'm the jerk. They don't know how to drive and follow really simple traffic signals, and clearly can't just wait for 30 seconds when there's an opening to change lanes into and I'm the jerk. But that's just kinda how it goes out here. People are just entitled and self-absorbed and just can't be expected to show any respect or consideration for their fellow man. But what can you do.

What I'm going to do is drink a few (dozen) beers and watch game 6 of the Stanley Cup finals! Featuring a fellow Bison , Bret Lebda. Well, 1/2 Bison since he only was there for 2 years before moving to Ann Arbor. The NW suburbs of Chicago isn't exactly a hot-bed of hockey, so that was a good move. Former NHL-er Bubba Berenzweig made a similar choice our sophomore year and moved to CT to attend a hockey-based prep school. Paid off well after he was later a captain at UMich, won the Ken McKenzie trophy in 2000 as the best American-born player in the IHL, and played a few years in the NHL. So now I've got 2 reasons to root for Detroit to win. Lebda and ex-Blackhawk Chris Chelios. 3 reasons if you include what the Penguins did to the Hawks in 1992, which I do.

Ken McKenzie Trophy

2008-06-01T16:46:00.003-05:00

Okay, just something short and quick cause this article kinda pissed me off:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24920462/

And people wonder why it's so easy to fool the average American consumer. I'm not saying people have unlimited amounts of money to pay for gas. But anything you put in 1 week and don't use will be just sitting there in the tank for you next week. It doesn't magically expire Sunday night and go back to empty. So come on, take the extra $4 hit and buy an extra gallon. If you don't use, you can just buy 1 less gallon next week and save $4 then. The article mentions the potential damage to your fuel system if you're running dry. What they don't mention is the fees that AAA charges to come out with a tank of gas. Not only do you have to pay a premium for the gas they're putting in (probably $5-$6/gal), but you also have to pay their service fee for driving out there. So while you may think you're saving money, you're just royally screwing yourself by taking the risk. And a seemingly silly risk for the reason above regarding roll-over gas (for all you people that only understand cell phone-speak).
{Jarod decides to skip roughly 18 comments that all center around properly budgeting your money. But since they're all things that have been said already in previous posts, he just walks away to start working on dinner.}

Home Ownership Year 1...Part 2

2008-05-31T10:29:00.002-05:00

One of the biggest things I've learned is that there is a constant list of things that need to get done. And if anything is going to get done you have to do it yourself. There's no landlord you can call and no maintenance guy that's going to come do it. I personally like that. I've been waiting for a long time to start doing the things I watched my dad do growing up. I just didn't realize how long the list would be. Since we own the place, we can do whatever we want. So all those times I walk around thinking, "Gee, I really wish we had xxxx," means anything item just got added to the list. We didn't have a water spigot on the outside of the house. 1 trip to TrueValue, some masonry work, some copper pipe work, and several hours of sweaty work later we do. We don't like the size of our bedroom closet, that's on the list. No electrical outlet outside? List it. We don't like where the attic entrance is and the fact that we don't have a linen closet. List it. Cable TV wiring upstairs sucks. List it. The soundproofing b/t us and the neighbors isn't as good as we'd like. List it. The front and back yards don't look so good. List it. It just goes on and on like that. All the time. It's great that I get to do home improvement projects, I just wish the list wasn't growing so quickly. I just can't keep up. Granted I'm not the most motivated home improver you'll ever meet, so it's not like I'm killing myself everything weekend to knock things off the list. I like to use my weekend to relax, not busting my hump building closets over the stairwell.
I also suddenly feel like I'm a part of the community instead of just living somewhere. I want to get to know the neighbors. I follow the local town news. I make wild claims of becoming a fan of the high school football team (which I will do this coming fall!). I know stores and buildings and can notice when subtle things change and comment on it to myself. I'm not in the 'have you seen what they did to the old Davidson place' league yet, but maybe someday.
But all in all it's been great. It was just a great feeling to sign those papers and take those keys to your first house. It's a crushing blow when I look at the monthly mortgage statement and actually think about the number on it. It's big and it's only gets a wee bit less big every month.
Hmmm...this didn't end as insightful and memorable as I hoped it would. Oh well. Besides, I should probably get Hayley to help me label the circuit breakers while she's home and not doing anything work-related. Aka, cross something off of my list.
Done and done.

Home Ownership Year 1

2008-05-28T15:28:00.000-05:00

Hayley and I are nearing our 1-year anniversary of buying our condo and I’ve been reflecting on everything I’ve learned over the course of that first year. Everything from failed projects to stunning victories, and there’s been plenty of both. So it’s time to start sharing some of those, probably over a few posts so none get too long. We’ll see. My short attention span might kill it after just 1.

Now that I have an actual yard (front AND back), I have a new appreciation for what goes into growing a nice carpet of green grass. As in, I haven’t quite gotten there even after all of my work to date. I’m far from a yard pro and didn’t really know anything about growing a decent yard when I started. And the former owner didn’t do me any favors by letting the entire front yard become nothing but crabgrass and the backyard become very thin and patchy (with a good dose of crabgrass). I have managed to significantly improve the backyard with constant re-seeding and watering, but resigned to just re-starting in the front. I raked out all of last year’s dead crabgrass, turned over the soil, and started from scratch. Now I’ve got a patchy collection of grass going up there, but at least it’s a start. It’ll probably be another year or 2 before it’s filled out and ready to battle weeds on its own. The back yard is slowly but surely getting better. There are still quite a few thing spots, but those are filling in little by little. I still need to rake out some dead weeds from last year to give the new grass a better shot at growing. Poor seeds can’t see any sun! And of course I spend lots of time pulling new weeds. Until the grass thickens up a bunch more it won’t be able to choke out weeds before they can get a foot-hold. But that gives me a great excuse to go outside and play in the grass on a sunny weekend afternoon. And I just scored a free electric lawnmower! Thanks again, FreeCycle Watertown! So now the taller weeds that could evade the “reel mower” don’t stand a chance. That means I’m much better equipped to prevent this year’s crop of crabgrass from going to seed.

The biggest thing I’ve learned is that every project takes at least twice as long as I/we think it will. Some of that is due to inexperience-driven estimation problems. Some is due to my still-growing pool of tools and skills. Growing up my dad instilled in me pretty much everything I needed, tool and knowledge, to tackle minor repair jobs and basic things. How to properly use pretty much any tool, painting, drywall repair, etc. But being able to apply those basic skills as a part of a much larger job is trickier. And many of those skills are a bit rusty from not needing them in years, or even decades. So while I know how to do various things, it takes longer than normal because I haven’t done it in so long. However, a very important factor I’ve picked up is that spending a little extra time planning and thinking beforehand pays of in triplicate later. Sometimes it’s hard to go slow and it seems like you’d be better off doing instead of planning, but you never regret that later. I learned that when my dad helped with the dishwasher install, and applied that with the hardwood floor install. Being very diligent about cutting and planning each row of flooring definitely paid off in the end. And it came in handy last weekend when I installed the water line to the fridge for the ice maker/filtered water output. No leaks, no mistakes, no extra holes in the floor, no busted pipes, nothing. Just clean, cold water and ice comin’ out the front of the fridge.

So until a possible next time….done and done.

Washington Just Wasting Time

2008-05-22T19:55:00.003-05:00

So once again the House of Reps and the Senate are just wasting our money and everyone's time. Seems like they only things they do is go after sports teams/players and try to break our economic mold. They have no business getting involved in the sports/entertainment industry, so I'll just walk away and save that for another day. I'll stick to a better topic; high gas prices.
They decided that it would be a good use of tax payer money to make the oil execs fly in to Washington to explain why they are simply following the laws of supply and demand. Why are oil companies making record profits? Because Americans, and the world in general, are using more oil every day than ever before. The supply hasn't even come close to keeping up with the demand. Therefore the price of oil will just keep climbing further and further until we stop using so much f'n oil. And those that provide an increasingly rare commodity will keep getting richer and richer all the while. But of course that's not good enough for Washington. They expect the oil companies to just be happy with meager profits so Joe Schmo can fill up his giant, fuel-wasting truck at a reasonable cost while he drives alone on the 50 mile drive to work. And actually, if said oil companies were to intentionally lower their prices and make less money in order to help people, they would be sued by their shareholders. All those CEOs have a board of directors, shareholders, employees, and their own families to answer to. They can't give their employees nice raises if they slash in their profits. The board of directors has to answer to angry shareholders when the stock price and dividends start dropping because they wanted to be nice.
I understand that the problem goes beyond fuel for cars, trucks, semis, etc. Heating oil has seen the same price increases as fuel because of the jump in crude prices. However, being a free-market commodity it faces the same laws of supply and demand. Heating oil and gasoline are coming from the same $130 barrel of crude oil. If the government if so concerned about home heating oil prices they need to make that a government-regulated commodity like water, sewer, and electricity. That's the only way you can ensure that heating oil prices are kept at a reasonable level. Just wait and see what happens to those prices as we get closer to the infamous Peak Oil. Then we'll really have some fun. (No, I'm not saying we're on that doorstep. We've clearly got some room to go, as we do keep pumping an ever-increasing amount of oil every day.)
I've said it before and I'll say it again. If people want to get the price of gas to go down they need to use less of it. Lower the demand and the price will follow. Since we clearly aren't going to drive less or drive more fuel efficient cars, we should focus more effort to alternative fuels. Ethanol, why delivering less energy per gallon and requiring quite a bit of energy to create, is a good start. But even there we would need some extremely expensive upgrades to our current pipelines and gas stations in order to safely dispense alcohol. That shit would eat right through the current infrastructure. But it would be a step in the right direction and demonstrate that people are serious about finding alternatives to gas. Hybrids are another good movement. And as more and more get built, the auto companies learn more about how to make them cheaper and better. Better batteries, more efficient ways of delivering power to the road, more efficient ways of capturing kinetic energy during braking, etc. So there are some positives on the horizon.
If you're hurting from your gasoline bill and need something you can do right now, slow down. Every mph faster you go your mileage drops. In fact, you can estimate that for every 5mph over 60mph you go you're mileage drops enough to effectively cost you an extra $0.20/gal. So if you pay $3.80/gal and drive 70mph, you can instead drive 60mph and effectively pay $3.40/gal. But I'm sure that 10 minutes you shave off your commute by doing 70mph is worth it, right? If that's not good enough, carpool. That'd be a quick way to cut your gas bill in half or more. If you've got 2, 3, 4 people splitting the tab, that's less money than you're all paying today. Not as convenient, but at some point the cost of gas will exceed the convenience fee you're willing to pay to all drive alone. You could also use public transportation. Not a station close enough? Buy a bike to bridge the gap. That also requires some sacrifices, but every inconvenience has a price tag. What's it cost to not ride a bike and shower at work? $100/wk? $200/wk? At some point the cost of gas will make it worth it.
Oh, and that gas tax holiday they're proposing will just make things worse. Lower prices = higher demand = even higher prices when the holiday ends. So if they do it, enjoy your $3 gas or whatever it ends up. Cause you'll be paying $5/gal when that holiday ends and everyone's demand is above what it is right now. Simply economics. How about we show Washington that we do know basic economics and pressure them to stop wasting our times with crap that doesn't actually solve the problem.
Done and done.

Compression Short and Digital Music

2008-05-13T22:07:00.000-05:00

I’m just going to put this out there; I love wearing compression shorts. (For those that don’t know what I mean, essentially spandex shorts.) While I’ll gladly wear any pair, I like the heavier grade stuff. No thin, wimpy spandex for me. If it wasn’t for the fact they…how should I put this…have a negative effect on the comfort of the man bits after awhile, I’d wear them every day instead of boxers! Just so you don’t’ think this is more than just quasi-random, I changed into my hockey undergarments at work tonight, since I head straight from work to the rink (via the batting cage). So I was strolling around work for ~30 minutes in my baggy shorts and compression shorts. It was great. And now I finally can confirm that Tiffany was right. Heaven really is a place on Earth, and today that place was in my pants. Giddy up.

Okay, moving on to things that don’t directly involve my genitalia.

I’m finally converting all of my CDs to digital. WMA files, to be exact. I thought about doing mp3, but from everything I can gather WMA rips at a noticeably better sound quality at the same file size. It’s a long, arduous process consider I have something like 230 CDs. But I’m trying to do at least a few every night, more when I have some down time, and eventually I’ll get through it.

This started as me just burning a few so I’d have new material to get on my non-Ipod for the gym. But as I’ve been meaning to do this to keep a backup, it quickly blossomed. Now I’m protected against the next time someone steals my car, takes all my shit, and burns the car. I lost some CDs that just can’t be replaced and that kills me. Of all the things I lost in that ordeal, probably 3 CDs were the worst. A good chunk of really good college memories were lost for good.

Now that won’t be an issue. If someone steals all my shit, I’ll just burn some CD-Rs and motor along like nothing happened. And I have a virtually unlimited amount of stuff to put on my gym mix. A 2GB digital player will hold a lot of shit. 333 songs at the rate I’ve been ripping them, more if I didn’t crank up the sampling rate to the max.

It’s also serving as a great stress test for my CD drive. I wonder if it’ll make it through all the CDs, or crap out before I get there. My money is that it won’t even bat an eye at this, but who knows. Either way, combo drives are a dime a dozen nowadays, so it’s no biggie even if it does crap out.

Apparently I’m more wiped out from hockey than I thought, so I’m just stopping here. Seem remembering things that happened 30 minutes ago is too much for me, so it’s time to just call it a night. And yes, its hockey and not the scotch I had when I got home.

Done and done.

Really Annoying Commercial

2008-05-12T21:58:00.001-05:00

I’m really starting to get annoyed by a commercial that plays quite often during Cubs games on WGN. (Not sure if this speaks very highly of the demographic they expect to be watching!) It’s a new weight-loss pill that’s on the OTC market. The annoying part is all the testimonials they show and one in particular. They have a middle-aged black woman (with golden blonde hair for good measure) talk about how easy it was to lose weight on their product. Her big closing sentence: “You just…can’t…do it…alone!” Shit like that is like nails on a chalkboard to me. No, you CAN do it alone; you’re just too lazy to do it. Losing weight is simple math. If you burn more calories than you put in you lose weight. If not, you gain weight. Doesn’t matter what diet you go on, the caloric math is identical. If you go on Atkins and eat 3000 calories of chicken breast and only burn off 2500 calories a day, you’ll gain about 1 lb each week. If you eat instead ate 2000 calories of pure carbs every day, you’ll lose about 1 lb each week. People that can’t lose weight are either too lazy to increase their caloric burn through exercise or too undisciplined to limit their eating. Period. Bad knees and can’t run? Stop eating double portions and/or work with a trainer to find exercises you can do. Don’t want to give up your fatty, salty, fast food? Better become good friends with a treadmill.

Maybe my annoyance is partly due to the fact I usually under-estimate my achievements. I figure that if I could do something it really can’t be that hard. So the fact that I could lose about 20lbs in 1 year without doing anything drastic tells me that really anyone should be able to do it. Given that, I get really annoyed when people are convinced they just can’t do something that looks pretty easy to do to me.

It’s really just another sad commentary on our society. People have this strange desire to have a pill that fixes everything. Why put forth even minimal effort when they can do less and just pay a bunch of money for a pill?! Don’t worry about the cost, the side effects from short- and long-term use, or the fact that the pill is probably worthless at best. Just like herbal supplements, a lot of these infomercial-type products don’t require FDA approval. Thus, they don’t have to back up any of their claims. They don’t have to contain any of the active ingredients they site, or prove that the form the ingredients are in can be digested and absorbed by the body.

I grew up being taught the notion that you didn’t really need a pill for anything. That includes minor aches and pains. Obviously I don’t strictly adhere to this, and there are always exceptions for more extreme situations, but I try to avoid taking any medicine for as long as I can. If you see me taking some Advil you can bet that something really hurts. Hayley had to fight with me to get me to take some Tylenol when I had a fever of only 103F. Had she not been at work at the time and becoming very worried about me, I wouldn’t have done it. But that’s just me. My sister is the exact opposite. Anytime she’s less than 100%, she tries to find something she can take to reverse it.

Anyways, I got nothing better to post and I’ve tried unsuccessfully for a couple days to rewrite this to be interesting, so I’m just going to post it. I’ll see if I can do better next time. Just don’t hold your breath hoping.

Movie Review: Last King of Scotland

2008-05-04T17:57:00.000-05:00

Here is my official movie review of “Last King of Scotland”. Mind you, I’m not trying to be anything like a real, quality reviewer. But I figured I might as well start doing movie reviews here as well as just blathering on like normal. Keep in mind, I do give away various things in this review, so don’t read if you want everything to be a perfect surprise. Maybe I’ll learn to give a non-spoiler review in the future. But today is not that day. So without further ado…

I liked the movie. But I didn’t love it. Nor did I like it as much as everyone else apparently did. The acting was phenomenal. Forest Whitaker was simply amazing as Idi Amin. I can’t remember any scene in the movie when I wasn’t 100% sold on the character. It never seemed like he was acting, but that you were watching the real person on the screen. James McAvoy was almost equally good as Dr. Nicholas Garrigan. It possible he was just as good, but just had a less challenging roll with which to work from.

My problem with the movie is the way they end up glazing over a few of the seemingly important plot elements. The first 15 minutes of the movie really moves fast; but not in a good way. The director, Kevin MacDonald, for some reason chose to just give you a small taste of various plot pieces before moving on to something else. I’m sure that it was done to save time for more important scenes, but it left me a bit unfulfilled. The dinner scene with his family, why didn’t they spend more time getting into the relationship between him and his dad? I’m sure there is some important insights that we could have used later to explain his choices. Then there was the relationship between Dr. Garrigan and Sarah Merrit (Gillian Anderson). MacDonald touches on this for 30 seconds, enough for you to realize something is going on, before tossing it away like a hot potato. In fact, the entire aspect with the free clinic was really underdeveloped. This clearly is an important element as he turns his back on them to take the job with Amin. I really think some extra time spent letting the viewers get involved with his relationship with his Dad and the commitment to the clinic would have made the middle portion of the movie better. At the very least it would have helped to better understand his thinking as he’s making the tough decision. The viewer would have had a more emotional connection with his actions instead of just watching and seeing it.

I also felt the end comes rather quickly. Just when things start to pick up and get exciting, they speed right to the conclusion. There is no prolonged tenseness and suspense the way I would have liked to have. Once minute everything is fine, the next minute he’s hanging up by his pectorals in the gift shop.

In the end, the acting really saved this movie for me. To be perfectly honest, Whitaker saved the movie. Without his performance I would have walked away from this movie very disappointed. So kudos to him. He deserved every last bit of praise he received for his work, and every last accolade. Would I recommend that everyone sees this movie? Yes. But not because the movie is great, just to see Whitaker. I now officially release him from my private dungeon due to his involvement in “The Crying Game”.

C-Scars and Friendly Refs

2008-05-01T12:17:00.001-05:00

Because of Hayley’s chosen profession, I’m often sucked into conversations that I really have no desire to be in. However, I have learned that my dry, sarcastic wit and lack of thinking before speaking would make me a poor doctor. Case in point: Hayley and a friend were discussing how often they get women in the delivery room requesting that their cesarean scar be placed such that you can’t see it when they’re wearing a bikini. To them this is a no-brainer. Of course you want to do that! My first thought? That it would be funny to tell a certain group of these women that it’s not going to matter where the scar is since they really won’t have any business wearing a bikini ever again. And no, not just because they’re having kids. Lots of women return to their former shape after popping out a kid or 2. But clearly some of the women requesting this consideration are not going to fall into that category. Most probably didn’t have a bikini body before getting knocked-up and it’s all just wishful thinking. Or some other women mentioned it as something they need to request. Like when guys make sure their cars can be lowered, the trunk can fit a large subwoofer, and the wheel wells can hold 22s before they buy it. You’ll never do that stuff, but you like to make believe that you will. Anyways, I doubt that the patient in question would find that quip very amusing and instead of laughing would file some kind of lawsuit the very next day.

(Some of you may remember my suggestion that any time Hayley does a natural child-birth that she treat it like a QB going under center. Don’t just look under the curtain and give encouragement, bark out some pre-snap checks and go into a snap count! “Green 15! Green 15! Topper! Topper! hut HUT!” I think that’d be awesome, but apparently would just lead to a malpractice suit.)

I’ve identified another silver lining to my shoulder surgery rehab. While I couldn’t play hockey and do much at the gym and had plenty of free time, I started working as a scorekeeper for HNA (the hockey league I play in). You work the clock and fill out the score sheet (goals, penalties, shots, rosters, etc) and get $20 league credit for each game you do. One of the rinks is literally 5 minutes from my house, so it was a pretty easy gig. But this isn’t just about piling up nearly $1000 in league credit. There was something more important that should come out of this. I’m now on friendly terms with most of the referees that do HNA games, especially with 2 of the guys that do most of the games at the nearby rink. This should lead to some favorable calls for me and hopefully our team. Any questionable penalties should go my way and maybe even a question goal here or there. I’m not positive that the refs will tilt a game towards guys they’re friendly with but it really can’t hurt. They have to be less likely to call a ticky-tack penalty on someone they know. I’m looking forward to seeing how this all shakes out in July when the summer season starts up. I’ll have to start paying attention to what refs are calling what things for/against us. See if there is any difference in the calls depending on how well I got to know that set of refs. Don’t worry, there’ll be updates. I’d consider doing write-ups of the games, but I really don’t pay close enough attention to remember what happened the next day. I may offer to keep track of stats since the league does such a terrible job of that.

Done and Done.

Fat People Gots to Drink, too!

2008-04-24T20:33:00.004-05:00

I've recently had a change of heart, which doesn't happen very often. Just like every hack comedian out there I used to take shots at obese people that would go to McDs and order a double BigMac with cheese and extra mayo, a super-size fries, but then get a tub of diet coke. I mean, do you really need to get diet at that point?!
But after thinking about it, every little bit counts. And I personally do the same thing, albeit on a much smaller scale. I eat extremely healthy 5 days out of the week so I can let loose guilt-free all weekend. I eat mostly natural foods, tons of fruit and veggies, proper portions, the works. But once I leave work on Friday all bets are off. Maybe there is a 12-pack of Bud that needs to be drank. And that large pizza sure ain't gonna eat itself! Nor will that bag of chips and jar of salsa. But but Sunday night when it's all tallied up, it all works out. I actually lost about 20lbs in a year doing that. Granted I kept my weekend binging to a minimum as well, but that's not the point.
I was talking to someone about how even the smallest change can make a big deal. Drinking iced tea (unsweetened) instead of 1 can of coke every week will shave 2lbs off your weight every year. Not much weight, but also a pretty minimal effort. Bumping that up to 3 cans per week and you've lost 6lbs. Or at least, that's 6 less pounds than you'd have gained otherwise. So by swapping out for the super-sized diet coke, our obese person just cut out about a 1/2 pound of fat they otherwise would have put on. That's a 1/2 pound per super-size coke. Non trivial when you think about how often they're doing it every year.
So there you have it. An official change of opinion. I'm now fully supporting anyone and everyone who's doing at least something to be healthier. It'd be nice if you didn't swap out high fructose corn syrup for potential carcinogens, but I guess we'll all have to settle for baby steps.

I also got to thinking about how far I'd go for a friend while watching House tonight. In short, he's making his friends and co-workers choose b/t lying to the cops and putting themselves at risk or telling the truth and putting him in jail. So I started thinking about who I'd lie to the cops for and how big of a lie I'd tell. I didn't really like what I found out. In short, I ain't going to ruin my life to cover for someone else's screw up. I might tell little lies and make some 'inaccurate' statements, but I'm not getting myself in any serious trouble to protect you from reaping what you sowed.
I'd more readily sacrifice my life for someone than screw it up. If I do actually sacrifice it, I'm not around to regret anything. And I essentially die a hero. If I come real close to sacrificing it but live, I still know that I did something good. But if you screwed yourself and I take the rap to protect you, I'll have the rest of my life to think about how you're out free and clear while I'm paying for what you did. Uh uh, ain't gonna happen.
So if anyone out there is thinking about using me as an alibi or including me in some felony-type activity, think about that. I'll help, but not at the expense of my own safety. If you kill someone, don't tell me about it. I can't lie about something I don't know about. Stole a new car? Just don't tell me where it came from. You have it now, that's all I need to know. Cause if I'm facing possible jail time and/or a felony charge, I'm singing like a birdie. And to hell with what people might think. I'll be too busy living up my life to care about them.
Don't get me wrong, I'll happily help you cover up little stuff. I just draw the line at things I have to write down on job applications.

Done and done.

Random Baseball-Related Goodness

2008-04-21T17:32:00.000-05:00

I finally feel like a whole person again. Yesterday I was able to successfully play in an entire baseball game pain-free. I can’t pitch yet, or really throw for that matter, but I can hit and catch like always. Playing hockey was a great first step, but playing baseball really seals it up. So with that spirit in mind, let me pound out some random baseball-related thoughts today.

I actually found a silver lining to not being medically cleared to pitch for at least a few more months. I’m no longer comically sore after throwing 5+ innings every Sunday morning. So my Sunday afternoon and evenings won’t be spent in pain on the couch, and I can move freely on Mondays. I loved pitching every week last year, it just put a physical beating on me. Of course, if my shoulder wasn’t messed up, there’s always the chance that it wouldn’t have hurt so badly on Monday. But my back, legs, and obliques would have still been shot, meaning the end result was the same.

I had another “Jack” moment while watching SportsCenter last week. (If you don’t know who Jack is or why this is mentionable, read here: http://criminaleyes.blogspot.com/2006/07/tribute-to-jack.html) Any time the Sox played the Indians we’d constantly refer to Travis Hafner as ‘Ogre’ and make random ogre-like comments. Me hit ball! Ball go far! Ogre not like ump when ump call Ogre out! Things like that. While we had nick-names and little things for many guys (ZAAAAHHHHHNNNN!!!), that was one of our favorites. So imagine my surprise when the anchor, while calling a highlight featuring a Hafner home run, used the line “…and in the morning, I’m making waffles!” Yeah, I almost missed that too so don’t feel bad. That was an obscure quote from the movie Shrek. Shrek was…drum roll please…an ogre. Now I don’t know for sure that the anchor was using that intentionally because of his own ogre connection, or just because it’s a funny line that involves waffles. Either way, I promptly gave props to Jack even though I don’t actually think he had anything to do with it. Hayley, however, is not purely kidding when she says that it’s Jack speaking to me from beyond. I got a good chuckle out of it and that’s all I care about.

I know a lot of people have been made fun of for this practice, but I don’t understand why more people don’t bring a baseball mitt to a baseball game. Even if you’re in the way back sections, you never know when I ball is going to come your way. And to me there is no shame in using a mitt to snare it. Those balls f’n hurt if they hit a bone! Maybe it’s just because I grew up sitting in the bleachers in Wrigley Field and always showed up early enough to watch BP. Trust me, you don’t want to be out there trying to catch home runs with your bare hands. If a ball just traveled 400ft on the fly, it’s moving pretty quickly when it arrives to your hand. And missing a sweet memento because you wanted to ‘man up’ and not use a mitt is just silly. Besides, when you’re not using it to catch balls, it makes a great bowl for peanuts.

I’m not sure where this trend started, but I first noticed it out here during baseball season a couple years ago. They make these window stickers that make it look like a baseball hit your windshield is and lodged in the glass. It’s just a ½ of a baseball complete with a circle of faux-shattered glass around it. It was kinda clever. Baseballs often do hit cars and could get stuck there. But then people started making them for other sports. Is it possible for the same thing to happen with a hockey puck? Maybe if you parked your car too close to a pond, but the odds are pretty low. But it was still possible and this is a fairly big hockey area. Understandable. But yesterday I saw one on a station wagon that was a mini football. 1) No one over the age of 4 is playing football with a ball that small. 2) No one under the age of 4 could throw that ball hard enough to have it bust a windshield. 3) It’s a football and wouldn’t come through a windshield even if thrown by John Elway himself. You can break a windshield with a non-hard object, but you’re not penetrating (he he he, I said penetrate) a windshield with it. I declare that those stickers have officially jumped the shark. Just like putting fake bullet holes on your Grand Caravan. You’re not fooling anyone and it doesn’t give your ride more street cred. You just look stupid.

Done and done.

Oldie but Goodie

2008-04-20T21:33:00.003-05:00

I just found this while cleaning up one of my flash drives. Not sure if I posted this before and didn't move it off the drive like normal, or just didn't post it. So I"ll do it now. Besides, no one that reads now was reading then, so it's all good! Enjoy.

I was in Queens for a wedding last night and didn’t get home til 2am, so this is going to be rather short and crappy. I’m just not fully functional upstairs, but still feel the need to write about stuff. Why? Because I still have a couple hours of day to kill off here at work and have 1 topic that I’ve been meaning to rant about for a couple weeks now. As I can’t put together anything better today, here it is:

I’m not sure if everyone else has this same pet peeve, but I cannot stand cell phone conversations when either person is having reception problems. If I have to repeat myself more than once, you can be pretty sure I’m just going to hang up. If it’s a vital conversation that can’t happen later, then I’ll hang around. But if it’s just a social call with someone I’m going to talk to/see later I’m just not having it. It’s like nails on a chalk board to me. It usually goes something like this:

“Dude, I had some awesome waffles for breakfast today. I said I had some great waffles. Can you hear me now? Wait, what? Waffles!! I had fucking waffles today! Alright, I’m hanging up. Call me when you have decent reception.”

Puts me in an instant bad mood and it takes me a good 15 minutes to shake it. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t hate cell phones. I just refuse to turn my phone into the centerpiece of my life. If someone calls and I’m doing something else, I’ll often just miss the call and check my messages later. I’m notoriously hard to get a hold of at times because of it. I’m just not going to drop everything else in my life because my phone is ringing. Especially if the person on the other end has bad reception. If you really want to talk to me, at least call me from somewhere where we can talk. Calling from a bar is equally as annoying, as the conversations are very similar. The other person trying to shout over the noise at the bar and then not being able to hear a single word you’re saying. How about next time you go outside before you call me?

Maybe I’m just old-fashioned. Or maybe I just feel a need to have other people respect my time if they want to get some of it. I hate to break it to people, but I’m not so in need of your attention that I’m willing to do whatever it takes to talk to you. I know other people are fine with these conversations. I over-hear them all the time and laugh. I find it so sad that people are so in need of outside entertainment that they’re willing to go through all that to talk to someone they’ll likely see in a few hours. How about they open up a book or a magazine? Or maybe just look around at the world around them. It’s a wonderful place we live in at times. Just take some time to soak in the people and places around you. One of the first things I noticed when I moved out here to Boston was that people on the streets just seemed so unhappy and focused on their little world. They just couldn’t slow down even a bit to take in the scenes around them. And Boston really is a great city in places. The architecture, the historical landmarks, old neighborhoods, it’s all quite nice. When I’m downtown I love to just walk around instead of taking the T for that very reason. Do a little people-watching and gather my own thoughts. I don’t need other people to entertain me; I’ve got plenty going on in my own head to keep me busy. And it’s just so much fun to observe other people going about their days. I really do think it’s sad that people can no longer find enjoyment in the simple things in life. And I really don’t envy them and their vast social network. Some people would (and have) call me easily amused. I prefer to think of it as being content and comfortable with my own life.

Dragons vs. FoxNews. Who is the bigger joke?

2008-04-17T07:35:00.001-05:00

A guy called into Opie & Anthony (heretofore known only as O&A) this morning and politely asked them to stop using the Lord’s name in vain. Now, anyone that’s listened to their show, or has any knowledge about them, can probably guess where this went. They proceeded to goad him into a lengthy argument over science vs. religion. (I believe it started when Anthony referred to Jesus as ‘the zombie god’.)

The caller was a very rare Catholic extremist. They don’t recognize the ‘new church’, any pope after Pius XII (died in 1958), or believe in science. In fact, he constantly referred to scientists as ‘scientist priests’; an obvious attempt to bring science to the same faith-based level of religion. The entire basis of his argument against science was “have you ever personally seen someone do that?” He believes the Earth is only 6000 years old, because that’s as far back as written records go. His counter-argument to carbon dating of rocks in the millions of years was “have you done the carbon dating yourself?” Even better was his answer to the presence of dinosaur bones. Clearly dinosaurs weren’t in the bible. If the Earth is really only 6000 years old, how does one explain all those bones we’re digging up?! Dragons. Those bones are nothing more than dragon bones from as recent as the middle ages. Never mind the fact that dragons are nowhere to be found in the bible, nowhere to be found now, and really were only mentioned in Medieval times. And even then they were really only in stories that were loosely based on actual history. Nothing gets a morning started better than someone claiming that the prehistoric bones we find are really dragon bones. Simply awesome. And really, how can you listen to someone and even attempt to believe what they have to say after they claimed dragons were not only real, but were the true source of what we call “dinosaur bones”? I want dragons to be real as much as the next guy, but come on.

Regardless, the entire thing got me thinking about the faith we do put in scientist. Science isn’t a religion, but we are trusting people we don’t know that are doing experiments and research we can’t understand. Kind of like going to the doctor. I can’t actually interpret the results from my blood work. I don’t know what a healthy heart sounds like. I’m just semi-blindly trusting the person that’s telling me what it all means. A stretch to say it, but not that dissimilar from religion. The main difference is that at the very core, someone can prove the basis of the scientific facts. I can find a scientist who can show me the equipment and how it works and let me prove these things myself.

No one can definitely prove the existence of God or any of the miracles that are written in the bible. It all needs to be taken by faith and faith alone. I choose to make that leap of faith, but I recognize that for what it is. I can never go to a church and tell a priest to prove any of it to me. All they have is a collection of writings that were chosen by some people hundreds of years ago to be the best representation of the religion.

FoxNews in Boston is trying to get me to freak out. Not only do they practice rampant shock journalism in order to get viewers, not only do they use scare tactics to get viewers, but now they are putting on segments that aren’t even news. When you start discussing and recapping American Idol during your “news” broadcast, you’ve officially crossed a line. The term ‘newsertainment’ has never been more accurate. It sickens me to think that people are still using these same broadcasters as their main source of information on world events! But why wouldn’t I believe the 5 minute reporting on the Iraq conflict when it’s presented immediately after a 15 minute piece on the favorite foods of each Idol contestant?! I’m sure there aren’t any biases and the reporting must be top-notch. It’s disgusting.

Good Bigots vs Bad Bigots

2008-04-13T19:27:00.003-05:00

Hayley and I had pre-cana (marriage prep for Catholic weddings) on Saturday and I heard a story that made me realize something; there are 2 kinds out there and one is better than the other.
The story was told by a Philippino woman and was about having to tell her mother that she was marrying a Jewish guy. Her mom's reply: "You know they don't eat meat, right?" And that's what got me thinking. Her mom obviously didn't think very highly of Jews, but it was based on misconceptions and untruths. So you would think that if you educated her about some things, that she would be able to change her view. Maybe I'm just being optimistic, but you stand a much better chance of changing the bigotry of someone like that than someone who just hates a group for no good reason.
Think of your average southern racist. While they also have their little problem with black people based on misconceptions, it's a much different story. It's not based on some strange rumor they heard from someone they knew. They were raised to believe certain things; things that you can't just tell them otherwise to disprove. You can't just sit down with them and say "No, blacks are actually exactly the same as you and me, they just have more melatonin in their skin," and expect them to accept that and change.
Of course, sometimes you can use racist to your advantage. Being white, I should be slow. Slower than a black guy, at least. Back in college we had a co-rec flag football team from our dorm. We had a game against a team from the all-black frat on campus. Knowing this little racist quirk about white speed, and knowing that it wasn't true in my case, I decided to use it to our advantage. Whoever was covering me was not planning on being out-raced so I told the QB that I was going deep on the first play. Ball is snapped and I just take off up the field; no move, no juke, just a simple go route and an easy touchdown pass. This kid wasn't anywhere near me. Naturally he then had to take shit from everyone else on his team for getting torched deep by a white kid. But now for the rest of the game I was open for short passes because he was playing off of me to avoid getting beat deep again. If he did play tight, they had to put someone over to top for when I did beat him deep, meaning that someone else should be open. All-in-all, a good time.
PEACE!

Your house is ruining my economy!

2008-04-10T13:51:00.002-05:00

Let’s get a show of hands here real quick. Who thinks it is right for the government to step in and bail out people that got into a car loan they couldn’t really support and now face the bank taking back their Porsche? How about if Best Buy comes to foreclose on that 60” plasma TV someone bought and now can’t pay for? Anyone? Anyone at all? So why do so many people feel the federal government has a duty to step in and protect anyone and everyone that’s having trouble with their mortgage?! I’m not saying that we should all turn a blind eye to the problem. But saying that we need to bail out everyone so that no one loses their house is ridiculous!

Where in the constitution does it say that as Americans we are granted to right to own a house? Nowhere. It’s a dream that most people have and something that almost everyone wants, but it’s clearly not a right. While you do have the right to pursue your dream, you don’t have a right to achieve it. Therefore, not everyone gets to own a house. More importantly, not everyone gets to own the house they dream of in the small area of the country that they’d like it to be in. The reality of making such a large purchase is that the house you want may not be affordable in the place you want it. If your dream is to own your own home, one of the sacrifices you may need to make is location. We would have loved to be living closer to downtown Boston, but the reality was that it would have involved too many sacrifices. We couldn’t find the condo we wanted with some of the required features we wanted in our price range. We could have gotten into a questionable mortgage that we weren’t sure we could support. But we instead did the responsible thing and only signed our names to something we knew was reasonable. Yes, a bank would have floated us an interest-only mortgage with very little down that would have allowed us to buy something better and more convenient for us. But guess what, we wouldn’t have been able to pay that thing off once we had to start paying the principle! That is exactly the situation a lot of people find themselves in right now. They got themselves into a mortgage with very high risks and no plan on how to deal with them. They got so caught up in the excitement of being able to actually achieve their dream that they completely ignored the realities of whether or not they should achieve that dream.

I have a dream of being a stay-at-home dad. That sure as hell doesn’t mean I’m swapping out Hayley’s pills for placebos and getting ready to quit my job. I could do that, but it’d be a very stupid thing to do right now. Instead I choose to act like a responsible adult {waits for the laughing to cease} and wait until the time is right and we can support that dream before I choose to go for it.

The real reason this is a problem is that housing prices sharply pulled back from their peaks. That means that if the banks foreclose on your house, they can’t turn around and sell it for anything close to what you owe them. Cause see, people aren’t the only ones that can act in a very irresponsible way. Suddenly all those interest-only and low-down payment mortgages to risky people are coming around to bite them in the ass. That’s the reason the government needs to step in to save the economy. People losing their houses puts a big squeeze on the economy. Combine that with the lending sector losing billions of dollars, and you get a recession. That’s bad for everyone, including the rest of us that acting responsibly when we bought our homes.

The best way out of this is not a bail-out. We don’t give people money and we don’t give the banks money. The government pays a more modest sum to help people refinance their current mortgages into something they can better afford. This keeps money flowing into the banks as people make payments and lets people keep their houses. Will this save everyone? No, but it doesn’t need to. People are still going to lose their homes. If you got in WAY over your head, you’re still screwed. But if you stretched yourself just a bit too far, or had some unforeseen circumstance come up that you’re recovering from, then you should be okay. The punishment should fit the crime.

Still, it kills me that the responsible people out there get punished for doing the right thing, same as always. We either lose a ton of tax money or have to suffer through a recession. Shouldn’t we be rewarded? Hell, I’d take a simple ‘thanks for not being a jerk and ruining things for everyone else’. Maybe our lender should buy me a cup of coffee or a dinner or something. Something! But alas, no good deed goes unpunished.

God Bless the Coyote

2008-04-04T07:48:00.001-05:00

For some reason I had the song “God Bless the USA” stuck in my head the other night. Okay, it was because I saw some commercial about a CD of gospel music done by country bands, but that’s not the point. The point is that the song was stuck in my head and I couldn’t get it out. And after the 50^th time I sang the lines “And I’m proud to be an American, where at least I know I’m free. And I won’t forget the men who died, who gave that right to me.” I started thinking about those men and women and when the last time we actually had to fight for our freedom was.

Don’t get me wrong; I fully support our troops all over the world and respect them for what they’re doing. I have several friends and coworkers that have spent time/are currently/will be spending more time in Iraq. And I’m not about to start another debate over the merits, or lack thereof, of the current conflicts. My point is that when Lee Greenwood released that song in 1984 we were pretty much done fighting for our freedom. WWII would be the last time I figure we fought for any form of freedom. The Nazis were actively taking over Europe and committing genocide. There’s no guarantee that they would have tried to cross the pond and invade us, but it’s best to not wait for that to happen.

Vietnam and Korea? We were fighting for other peoples’ freedom, not ours. As much as the government wanted you to think so, communism was not a virus that would spread across the globe unchecked. You may have a few countries go communist, but who’s to say that’s bad for them? It’s not like our republic (constitutional federal republic to be exact) government over here created a paradise for all US citizens.

And once again we’re involved in wars to protect other countries’ freedoms. Iraq had no credible involvement in the terrorism of 9/11, had no credible weapons of mass destruction, and no plans to come over here and take our freedoms. Nor did any of the terrorist that attacked us on 9/11. They could give 2 shits if we’re free; they just got sick of our constant meddling in their affairs and our funding of their enemy’s army.

I think we can all admit that the Middle East conflict is about securing a steady supply of oil and settling a family grudge against Saddam Hussein. We did go after some terrorist cells in Afghanistan early on, but those days are long gone. Now we’re stuck in a ‘You break it; you buy it’ situation in Iraq. But whatever.

The good news in all of this is that American soldiers haven’t had any reason to fight for our freedom in 50 years. That’s awesome. It’s a nice feeling to know that no one has the means and/or desire to take that away from you. And an even better feeling to be able to ignore your manipulative government and sensationalist media when they try to convince you otherwise.

And now for some cheery miscellany:

I think I saw a woman walking a pet coyote the other morning on the way to work. I’m not 100% sure it was, as I was driving past at ~45mph, but it sure looked like a coyote. Skinny, right height, same coat coloration, long narrow snout. I’m sure it was just a mutt of some kind, but it sure looked like it had some coyote in it. She’d be wise to keep it away from road runners and large wig-based rockets.

The other, other white meat?

2008-03-30T00:06:00.000-05:00

The other night while I was carving up the last slab of my spiral-sliced ham I had an… interesting thought. What if people taste as delicious as pigs?!

I know, I know. That’s just not right to even be thinking. But just bear with me a minute while we go through the chain of thought that ended there.
Anyone who’s cut up a spiral-sliced ham before knows that at some point the spiral stops and you have to manually cut off the remaining portions of ham. Seeing as I’d reached that point, I’d pulled out my knife and starting cutting out the leg bone and most of the fat. That’s when I realized that what I’m assuming was the pig’s knee looks remarkably similar to a human knee. (While I should have called Hayley down to verify that conclusion, I was in the middle of a feeding frenzy and was too busy stuffing small hunks of ham in my mouth to slow down.) I even made the joke to myself that I should carefully cut out the cartilage so I could donate it to StudBoy so he’d have a little bit in his thrice-repaired knee.

While wondering if that’d even be possible, I recalled hearing some bit of info that humans and pigs are not all that different. That the organs, tissues, and the like were quite similar in function and design. Here are a few links that back up my memory:

http://www.goshen.edu/bio/PigBook/humanpigcomparison.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xenotransplantation

But if pigs and humans are so closely related from an anatomy stand-point, so far as even having the same muscle groups with similar functions, wouldn’t it stand to reason that people would taste just as delicious as pigs? And even if we’re just ½ as delicious as pigs, that’s still pretty tasty. Pigs are possibly the most delicious animal out there. Bacon, ham, and pork chops are all meat all-stars.

No, I’m not going to start eating people for dinner. I still have a moral issue with that. But this does possibly change the odds, and the timing, of whether or not I’d eat a friend in a life-or-death situation. If I’m trapped somewhere and haven’t eating anything in a week and I know that the person sitting next to me tastes like pork chops…they’ve got a very real problem on their hands. If I was able to somehow fashion a pan suitable for bacon, they’ve got a huge problem. They’d be wise to either redouble their efforts to find food, or be very careful about sleeping.

But clearly this can’t be the case. If people really did taste like pigs, we’d have been wiped out before we were able to think our way out of the middle of the food pyramid. I’m sure we’ve all heard the rumor that humans only survived because we taste like crap and other animals just didn’t want to eat us. While I don’t really believe that to be the only reason, maybe there really is something to that theory.

I guess there really is only 1 way to settle this. Anyone care to be slow-roasted and smoked in the name of science? I promise to use only the very best in sauces and glazes.

I'm back, baby!

2008-03-25T21:24:00.002-05:00

I finally grew tired of Myspace and just stopped going there to do much of anything, let alone do any blogging there. In fact, I really just didn't have much time and/or motivation to blog at all recently. Not only did I take a new position at work that required much more time and effort there, but now I also just bought a condo with Hayley. Doesn't really leave a whole lot of free time during the day or in the evenings/nights to do any ranting.
But the time has once again returned. Why? Boredom probably. Hayley is busy enough that she's never really around to do any good venting to or share most of my "great" thoughts. So once again things are just backing up inside my brain and need to get out.
I tried using facebook to do it, but I just didn't like the interface and didn't want to keep all my eggs in 1 basket.
But alas, tis already late and time for me to call it a night. We still have some work to do on the floor, so I need to get my rest so I can knock out a bunch tomorrow after work.
So until next time...

Moved!

2006-11-08T11:49:00.000-05:00

In case you didn't know, I officially moved my retarded rantings here:
http://blog.myspace.com/offensive_j

So feel free to jump over and read up. Don't worry, the material is just as bad as ever.

What's the Story, Morning Glory

2006-08-03T07:37:00.000-05:00

Here's a little something from the obvious file:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14165243/
Fat people are at a higher risk during anything. Hot, cold, emergencies, not causing an airplane to crash from being over-loaded. Of course you're at a higher risk of heat stroke if you have a thicker layer of insulating fat on your body. Common sence. Not sure why we needed some doctors to tell us about that, but whatever. Gotta keep those that didn't do so well in med school doing something. At least they aren't trying to work on people and have instead focused their energy on common-sence studies and endorsing infomercial products.

Peanut Alergy in Schools
I actually slightly changed my point of view on the topic yesterday while 'discussing' this with Hayley. I have a huge problem with our current society and its focus on making everyone happy all of the time. God forbid 1 person out of 100 is uncomfortable while growing up. It's a concept that I really hate. And nowhere is this more displayed than with public schools. Dodgeball is banned because it singles out the weak kids. Christmas is outlawed because the jewish kids might be offended. I'm surprised they don't stop offering advantaced classes for the smart kids because it'll make the dumb ones feel dumber. Guess what kids, it's a horrible world out there. The weak and dumb get punished and made fun of. And not just in grade school, for the rest of your life. You get shitty jobs, you work shitty hours, live in a shitty apartment, and are the butt of jokes for everyone else. It's not fair, but neither is real life. So why should we pamper them at a young age instead of getting them ready for real life?
So Hayley and I got into over banning nuts in schools if 1 kid at the school has an alergy. I get all pissed off at the concept and get all worked up. Hayley sees the other side and likes everyone to be happy and safe. I don't see why an entire school of children should be punished and prevented from having any nut-based product because 1 child has an alergy? What if peanut butter is their favorite food? What if that's all their parents can reasonably provide for them? What if they just don't think it's fair? I'm all for creating a peanut-free area of the lunchroom. Designate 1 table that no nuts can be eaten. Even go as far as making sure no one in their specific class eats a nut product. But if you're a 6th grader and suddenly can't eat peanuts because some 1st grader that you'll never come within 100 yards of is mildly alergic to peanuts, how is that fair?!
Hayley did make 1 point that made me think. Kids of that age aren't aware enough to be safe. They don't constantly think about what they are touching and whether or not it's safe to be around it. So the alergic child isn't going to be thinking about that when playing with the other kids. And the other kids aren't going to think about whether or not they should touch the alergic kid based on what else they've been doing. But... If you are so alergic that merely touching a peanut will send you into a potential fatal reaction, you should not be in a public school. These are schools, not hospitals. Just like being out in public at restaurants, bars, movie theaters, etc, you can't keep things 100% nut-free. Therefore it's just not safe for that kid to be there.
So it's a sticky point for me. There is a point where kids just can't comprehend what's going on and you have to account for that. But there is another point where you need to just take the alergic kids out of the school for their own safety. There is a limit to the restrictions you can reasonably place on the other kids.

Breakfast
I know it's silly, but I'm chaging up my breakfast routine now. Normally I'll eat a bowl of cereal pretty much as soon as I'm out of the shower. I wake up hungry and need to eat right away. But then I'm hungry again by like 10am, cause it's 6:30 when I eat. So now I'm going to start trying to wait til I get in to work before eating. I go to the cafe every morning with Jake, why not just push breakfast back til then. So I can get a bagel w/ peanut butter for $0.90 in the cafe, which is pretty good. Probably about the same cost as the cereal and milk I'm having now. If all goes well, I may step it up to my own bagels and PB.
Right now Hayley is laughing her ass of cause she knows how stupidly anal I get about my little routines. I get into ruts for certain things I hate changing them. I'm free and loose for most of the day, but I have some routines that I'll be damned if I'm going to break. Breakfast used to be one of them.
Speaking of which, time to eat some damn food. Where the hell is Jake?!
PEACE!!

Israel vs. Hezbolla, Trades

2006-07-31T19:39:00.000-05:00

War in Middle East #2
I happened to flip past Geraldo's terrible show this evening while looking for something else to watch. And I heard him make some comment regarding Hezbollah using civilians as shields to prevent Israel from retaliating. You know what I think? I think Israel should bomb the hell out of any building that rockets or missiles are launched from. If Hezbollah is going to use civilians as shields and hide behind them, then those civilians are going to pay for it. I feel awful saying that, but if the civilians choose to stay there and let the militants operate from their buildings and home, then they take on that risk. We need to send the message that the militants using innocent people to hide behind are the monsters, not the other way around. But it's really just a shitty situation no matter how you cut it. Either Israel sits back and gets hit with rockets and can't do much to fight back, or they do fight back and innocent people die. Either way it's lose-lose. Funny how most wars are really a lose-lose proposition.

Baseball Trades
The deadline has passed and all the deals are done. The biggest headline was the Yankess, as usual. They picked up Bobby Abreu and Corey Liddle for just some minor leaguers. That really puts the heat on the RedSox and the rest of the AL wild-card teams. Yet the Sox really did nothing. A little surprisingly considering the holes they have in thier team. They are a very good team, but I'm not sure they are good enough to win it all this year. Too many teams got better this year.
The Cubs have once again parted ways with Greg "Mad Dog" Maddux. At least this time it was on his terms and ended well for both parties. He had the option of turning down any trade, giving him the final say in the deal. He was dealt for a guy that looks like a pretty decent SS. Not sure exactly what they're going to do with him and Ronny Cedeno, but I'm sure they have something in mind.
To complete the day, the Cubs also dealt Todd Walker to the Padres for a minor league pitcher. He'd better be a great prospect to be trading away a guy like Muzzle. Only time will tell. And that move clears the way for the speculation that Cedeno will be asked to play 2B and Isturez SS. All things that I'm sure will be cleared up in the coming days. I'm expecting there to be a release from managment tomorrow telling us what the plan is.

Well, I just don't have it tonight. So I'm going to be just sit back and watch some baseball and Shark Week, then hit the sack. I tell ya, nothing is more fun than watching sharks. Amazing and magnificent animals. Ruthlessly efficient in what they do. Perfect for what they do. Truely an example of what nature can do when you just leave it alone.
PEACE!!

Cubs, Movie Trashing, etc

2006-07-27T19:31:00.000-05:00

I'm typing this as I'm watching the Cubs vs. Cards game on ESPN (and enjoying a few adult beverages) so I may drift pretty far off topic at times, and they'll be game comments laced in here. And for those that are worried about my healthy with all this drinking tonight, do not fear. I get up to do stomach crunches at least b/t every inning, sometimes every 1/2 inning if I'm feeling fresh.
And to update.....GET UP GET OUT! Muzzle and Catfish went back-to-back in the first inning to give us a 2-0 lead. Rookie Rich Hill is back up from AAA tonight to see if he can duplicate his outstanding work in the minors. And as I was typing, he gave up a 2-run HR. Great. This kid is lights-out in the minors, but can't figure out how to pitch up here. It's pretty rough. But as soon as he figures it out he's going to make a very good starter.

John Tucker Must Die
I know that every movie requires some level of "Suspention of Disbelief". The Matrix trilogy, Star Wars, any comedy movie, Lord of the Rings. Even romantic movies require that you blindly believe that miracles do happen all the time. But his movie is asking too much. We're to believe that the most popular guy in high school can be dating 3 girls without anyone knowing?! Think back to high school. If anyone in the clique starting dating someone new, even if they were just hooking up with someone, everyone knew about it. Even the kids that hated the cliques and rejected everything about them knew about it. That's how high school works. You have no secrets if you're popular enough. And if you're the top dog, forget about it.
(Luna just cranked a double off of the wall to put the Cubs down 2-3)
But, the movie does feature Jenny McCarthy. So there's a better than zero chance that I'll rent it at some point on a lazy night. Maybe curl up with the lil lady for a bad movie and some beers.
Oh, and I'm sorry but there's no way a fellow white kid is going to be able to do a front summersault slam dunk. Especially a high school white boy. To be honest, no one in the world can do that. But it's just funnier to point out that he's a white kid.

Floyd Landis
I'm not a cycling fan. Never have been, probably never will be. But I do have friends that are. So I wind up having a mild interest in the Tour de France. Mostly just so I'll understand what the hell they're talking about. So it came as only a minor surprise that Tour winner Floyd Landis failed a drug test for elevated testosterone levels. With all the doping rumors and issues that have flown around this year it's just no surprise. And when you include all of the issues with Lance....
What I haven't heard is exactly what failed. I do know that the olympic drug tests are only concerned with the ratio of testosterone to epitestosterone, not the raw levels. So if you're juicing you'll commonly take some epitestosterone to help cover it up. Both levels will be higher than normal, but the ratio will be right where it should be. I don't know if the Tour drug tests employ a similar thinking or if they check for the raw levels of both. Either way, it's a damn shame. Just when things seemed to be okay in the Tour, this happens. It's just such a shame that the sport has to be bogged down so heavily in all of this controversy. Baseball gets somewhat of an easier ride because MLB doesn't really want to mess with it. From the top down they want nothing more than to just act like they're doing something. As long as people keep filling seats they don't really intend to do anything.
Cycling is 100% different. They go as far as they can to rid their sport of doping. Tests after every stage of the race. Tests for pretty much every substance you can think of. Tests for tons of various body chemical levels. It's really the way it should be. I'd love to see them test players after every game. It'd be expensive and players would do their fair share of bitching. But until they prove that everyone is clean and they only need to do random occational drug tests it needs to be done.

And another great scoring chance in the process of being wasted by the Cubs. Runners on 1st and 2nd with 1 out, DeCaf up. Putting the ball in play pretty much anywhere will get a run home. What does he do? Bounces back to the pitcher. Pathetic. Now we have to hope that Muzzle can come through...
And he doesn't. Grounder to 2nd. Had Pierre hit that grounder we'd have a run and be tied at 3. F'n A.

Hayley Updates
I know she'll be pissed if I don't talk about her a little bit today. Why? Cause that's just how she is. But she will finally be up here for a long period of time. She's got back-to-back rotations up here in Boston coming up! So she'll be living here with me for all of September and October. Should be a great time. At the very least, it'll be the first time in 2.5 years that we'll be together for an extended period of time. So we're about to find out exactly how good things are b/t us. I'm not worried, but maybe I should be...

Well, I need to really focus on the Cubs game. This may be the last game I get to watch on normal TV, so I should focus. Some of that will depend on the TV provider I pick when I move. Cable or Satellite. I hate Comcast like poison, but they would be cheaper for the combo of TV and internet. I'll have to do a little analysis of what I gain the other way vs how much more it'll cost. Put a price tag on the channels and see if it's really worth it. So until next time:
PEACE!!!

War! Huh. What is it good for?!

2006-07-25T20:47:00.000-05:00

So the middle east is at war again. At least time it's only indirectly our fault. We're not actively in it, we don't have soldiers over there, and we didn't really have anything to do with it starting. But considering how much military aid we sell to Israel, we can't claim to be completely innocent. And the thing that really worries me is the all the other countries that could get involved. What we really don't need is an all-out Arab vs. Others war over there. There's plenty of tension in that region due to the religious differences, and some of those countries would appear to have zero reservations at just unleashing everything they have. Suicide bombs, terrorist attacks (but if they are in a war, is it really terrorism?), on top of conventional attacks. It could get really ugly and would really be the start of WW3. Not cool.
And while I have lots of complaints and views on the subject, I really don't have any answers. We really do need to get out of the area and stop meddling in their business just to get some oil. But since we did take out Saddam, we do have to shoulder the load to rebuild and get a new government in place. The trouble there is the fact Iraq is nothing but civil wars and unrest right now. And since they didn't start the uprising they aren't in any shape to fix it themselves. So it's quite the pickle we're in.
As for Israel vs. Lebanon/Hezbollah, that's a tough one. There really isn't an easy way to ease all those tensions quickly. Obviously the first step would be a cease-fire, but if we're being realistic that's just not going to happen. Or if it did happen it wouldn't last. This may be a case where you just need to let the 2 countries fight it out and settle it themselves. NATO and the rest of the world needs to just stand by and step in when it's really over. Kinda like a schoolyard fight. Everyone stands around just to watch and to make sure things don't get out of hand. But that's not a great idea for the people that have to live there. I wish I was a master at diplomatic relations, but I'm not.

Hockey
Well, the summer season is off to a rocky start for both myself and the team. We got beat up in our first 2 games. And I seem to have lost the ability to it the puck past the goalie. My shots are good, they just aren't getting past. I've got good speed on my wrister, it's getting up off the ice to about mid-goal, but I either hit the goalie in the chest or they make a slick save. And there's no rebounds for someone else to pick up. So it just sucks all around.
However, in game #3 I finally broke the cherry. After getting into a little arguement with a ref....
I pick off a bad pass at about our blue line and start to head up ice at full speed. I'm looking down cause I don't quite have a handle on the puck. I end up running over one of their guys who was just standing in the way. I didn't see him, so I had no chance to avoid him. I then get called for an interference penalty and just lose it. 2.5 games of frustration come out and I just start jawing at the ref. Every time he came within earshot I had something to say. Until he finally told me "One more word out of you and you're going to the lockerroom". He was really pissed at me, I was really pissed at him.
So then in the 3rd I get another break, cut hard around a slow defender, and lift it top shelf from a really bad angle. I was 10ft from the net and almost right on the side of it. I'm not sure how it went in, but it did. Hopefully now I can settle down and start playing better offensively. I need to just relax and check out my options. If the pass is there, dump it off. If not, aim for the corners of the net, not the middle.

Okay, it's late and I'm tired. So I'm cutting it off here and heading to bed. I'll see if I can't throw up something tomorrow while I'm at work. I'm just doing stupid data analysis this week, so I get bored pretty quickly.
PEACE!!!

Tribute to Jack

2006-07-21T10:17:00.000-05:00

As I'm sure most of you reading this (assuming people read this is a stretch, but one I'm willing to make) don't realize that yesterday was the 1-year anniversary of the death of my former friend/roommate Jack. 1 year ago yesterday I was sitting in the waiting room in the emergency room of Mass General hosptial, waiting to hear if they could revive the guy that I found dying in our hallway. I spent most of 7/20/05 in complete shock about what happened, along with bouts of uncontrolled sobbing. Yes, I do have real feelings and emotions.
I won't re-document the events of that night here, as no one needs to read about that. And the rest of this will likely be rather gay, so you may want to just back out now.
So those of us that remained had a small gathering as a tribute to him and a way for us to get together and cope. We all met up at Anna's mom's house in Natick and spent the evening telling stories, listening to his old iPod mixes, and of course enjoying various fine whiskeys. It's always great to hear the stories from the people that knew him for much longer than I did. I only really knew him for the 1 year that he lived with us, but he definately made an impression on me. It was one of those friendships that instantly clicks. Sure, my liver is convinced that he was around for more like 10 years, but what the hell do livers know?! Anyways, because of him I was able to find some great anime to watch, gained a better appreciation for good whiskeys, saw that not all bird watchers were reclusive wackos, and developed a couple more bad habits. One of which was being required to drink Bud while watching either a Cubs or Red Sox game. The other was our friday night usual. That consisted of picking up a 30 of Bud and spending the next 10 hours playing MarioKart and watching anime. Then at some point around 4am we'd stumble off to bed after littering the floor with empty cans. It got to the point where we couldn't play 'Kart without Bud. If we randomly decided to play a few rounds one of us would just get up and get some beers without even thinking. Sad, and probably a sign of a problem, but that's just how it was.
We also had a large "Pedestrain X-ing" road sign hung up in the hallway near the coach. Every empty can would be thrown at the sign. Thus leaving a trail of beer on the wall, ceiling, and anything else b/t the couch and the wall. Funny to us, but not so funny to Anna when she noticed it. She also was not always assumed to come home on a saturday morning to find the apartment reeking of beer and the living room full of garbage. But such is life.
So in honor of that I'm going to be staging my own Tribute to The Usual tonight. I intend to make this a yearly tradition on the first friday after 7/19 11:45pm. That's the likely time that he actually died, so that's what I'm going with. And it's my holiday, so I can set it however I want.
I'll have my 30 of Bud, my video games, and hopefully some bad anime to watch. That part is still up in the air, as I'd have to rent some, but I'll find something suitable to watch if no anime is to be found. It's a tribute, not a reinactment. That gives me some wiggle room as to the details. And I probably won't make it til 4am.
Anyone in the Boston area that happens to read this today is welcome to give me a call and stop by. I'll have plenty of extra beer with Jack not around to drink his share.
I'd considering pouring one out in his honor, but I don't really think Jack would appreciate me wasting beer like that. Unless his ghost can find a way to drink it before it hits the ground. But then if were to see that going down it may freak me out a little bit. So unless he informs me of his desire to freak me out tonight, there will not be any 'pouring 1 out for my dead hommie'.
Well, I guess that's all I really need to say right now. I didn't realize this day was here so quickly until Anna mentioned in wedneday night, so I'm just now really coming to terms with it. I really haven't given my brain enough time to really figure out how we're going to deal with the whole thing until today. So far I'm just somber and tired. Just going over the various good memories I have, and the events of that last night. Hopefully I'll perk up later today when work is done. That usually cheers me up on a friday afternoon. And I"ll get to see Hayley saturday night, so I got that going for me. Which is nice.
So until next time....
PEACE!!

Stupid Sports News....and Morons

2006-07-18T07:07:00.000-05:00

While I'm listening to a guy eating 50+ hard-boiled eggs on Opie & Anthony in 30 minutes to win $1000, I figure I can go off on a few things that got me all riled up this morning.

Barbaro
Is anyone else sick to f'n death about hearing news about this horse? It's a horse that broke his leg in a race. He's not an athlete. He's not a person. It's a horse that is worth a small fortune in stud fees and the owners are going to do whatever it takes to keep him alive long enough to knock up a couple mares. They don't care about what's best for the horse, they just care about what's best for their wallets. They didn't win their triple crown so they need some way to recoup the cost of raising and training the horse. I'm not a strong animal rights activist. I'm just sick of hearing about its recovery. If they keep the stupid horse and its reports off of my TV and off of ESPN's website I'll stop caring. They can really do whatever they want to the horse, as long as I don't have to hear about it. Especially not on ESPN, a network that is supposed to be dedicated to sports. Horse racing is not a sport, it's entertainment. The horses don't know they're competing in a race. They just know that if they don't run really fast the jockey will whip them more. It's all they've been conditioned to do since the time they fell out of the back end of a mare. They were immediately strapped with a saddle and tape on their ankles and the training began. Kinda sad, but whatever.

Terrell Owens
Apparently Terrell not only found his way back into the news, but also found a way to make himself seem like a victim. He claims he has no idea why the media likes to keep talking to him and making him seem like he's so selfish and that he's the problem. Let's see...maybe doing sit-ups and bicept curls in front of a collection of reporters was an accident then. Or all the all-field antics you do are simply accidents (sharpie, spiking the ball on the Cowboys' mid-field star, the rest of the TD celebrations). The fact that every team you play for eventually dumps you because you cause nothing but problems. If it was just 1 team and you seemed like a normal person on and off the field, okay. Maybe it was the team and not you. But when every single team and most of your former teammates say that you are a problem, it's you. And then when you combine that with your behavior in front of the cameras, no doubt it's you. He's an attention whore, plain and simple. And yes, this is exactly what he wants. People talking and bringing more attention to his newly published book. But I still had to vent a little bit.

Vacationing in Israel
There seems to be a new trend in summer vacations this year: Going to Israel. Apparently people don't see any problem with intentionally flying to a country that is actively in a war. This isn't the usually suicide bombs and the like, this is a real war. Missiles and rockets being fired by another country. Soldiers crossing borders and shooting people. I don't care what your reason is, it's a stupid move. If you're going there to support any family you might have over there, why don't you fly them out here instead? Holy Sites? I think God will let you slide this year given that you may be hit by a bomb while you're there. God wants you to follow his teachings, but also survive. You're not breaking any commandments or edicts by living to see 2007. Already had a trip planned and don't want to pay the cancellation fees? No fee is so large that it's worth risking your life to save it. Hmmm....my family's life or $1000. Which is more valuable...
And while you're out there, why not swing by Iraq to take in a little extra culture. I hear it's beautiful this time of year. The gunfire and explosions really highlight the local flora.

The Big Dig
Not sure if everyone in the country hears about this or not, so I'll give a quick refresher. The Big Dig is a giant underground expressway system that replaced the above-ground nightmare that had be built here. It was a hugely ambitious project that was way over budget and way late. But it was quite the improvement over the old network so it was okay. Even with all the battles over the political corruptions, shady contractors, lawsuits over sub-par work, etc, etc, etc. It worked, it improved everyone's commute, and it was done.
But now it's killed. A 3 ton ceiling panel fell and crushed a car. No that's not a typo. They actually had an entire section of tunnel with 3 ton cement panels suspended over the road. All held in place by an epoxy system. You drill a hole in the ceiling, squirt in this industrial epoxy, screw in your bolt, and let it cure. The problem is that there is a very specific and precise way this all has to happen. The hole must be dry and free of all debris. That means using a wire brush and air hose to completely clean it out. You have to use the precise amount of epoxy. You have to make sure it's mixed properly by the bolt you're installing and within a given time frame. Then you have to let it cure for a specific time before you can apply any load to it. The curing time all depends on the temperature. These were installed in winter, meaning the curing time would have been longer than in summer when the concrete and epoxy would be warmer. This is all done by workers who were caught on camera getting drunk at lunch before heading back to work. Fox News (I know, quality programming) used to do shock journalism on The Big Dig all the time. Filming the workers getting drunk before returning to the job. Documenting all of the violations in the contruction, talking to former workers who would list off all of the violations they were told to make by their supervisors, etc. So there is no way this exopy system should have been expected to work as advertised. And sure enough, they've found over 1200 additional bolts that are not up to code. 1200!!!! Thousands of people drive through this tunnel every week. Possibly thousands every day. And because of the rampant corruption in this state all of those lives were put at risk.
Many questions are being asked at this point. Why did you need 6,000lb panels here, when similar sections only needed 700lb panels? Why was construction allowed to continue even after a number of failures were found during the initial inspections in 1999? Why weren't better inspections done before opening the tunnel? And so on. The governer has officially taken over the over-site of the tunnel system and seems to be doing a good job. He's going to use this as a public relations example for his run for the White House, so he's really got to do it well. Good for us. There is also likely going to be a federal manslaughter case brought against the contractor, builder, and possibly the inspectors involved. Someone died because of negligence, so someone should go to jail for it.
So now we wait for a fix to the current problems and cross our fingers and hope they don't find more horrible problems. I still use several sections of the tunnel, as there is no good way around it now. But not the sections that use this style of ceiling panels. I don't want to be the guy that finds the next failure before the inspectors can get it. They've so far closed other sections to inspect them and have found problems every time. And it's really a shame. Everyone involved in this project had a golden opportunity to put their names on something great. They'd be able to use this for decades as a reason to use their contractors and construction companies. But because they wanted to cut corners and save a little money they'll now be associated with one of the biggest fuck ups in history. You can't use your involement with the Big Dig as a good thing. It's nothing but bad PR. Pretty embarassing for a city that constantly tries to get out of NYC's shadow. We're out, but is it really a good thing?

Weekend!!

2006-07-14T13:35:00.000-05:00

Weekend, weekend, weekEND!!
God bless Fridays. There is just no better feeling than friday afternoon when you know you'll be done with work shortly and won't have to be back for 2.5 days.
And it's even better today since we have some guy's retirement party at 3pm. Don't know him, never really worked, with him, but we'll be damned if we don't show up to get some free food. Which is what we're doing. Hopefully we'll be able to just slide in and slide out unnoticed. I'd hate to have another incident like we had for Cinco de Mayo.

God's Music
I was reminded yesterday of a great out-the-cuff remark I made to myself last fall. It was right after buying Chimaira's latest CD (which is awesome). I pop it in for the drive back from Strawberry's. No more than 30 seconds into the first song I actually say outloud to myself "Whoa, this is what God would listen to if he was angry!". It was that good. And the rest of the album completely backs it up. Fantastic piece of metal work if you're into that kinda thing.

Protein Powder
So a couple weeks ago I decide that it's worth looking into taking protein suppliments or other such things. I no longer get to the gym as much as I'd like, and don't really go as hard as I used to. So I wanted to look into what I could do to get the most out of my workouts. And maybe find something for before hockey games to give me a little boost.
I left with just a new multivitamin and a tub of whey protein powder. While I haven't noticed any big gains in strength, I have noticed 1 big factor. If I have a quick protein drink right when I get home from the gym, I'm significantly less sore the next day. I can usually tell during a work-out if I'm going to be sore. For example...The last time I did any squats was likely last week on thursday (7/6). After having a couple days off early in the week due to soreness from my baseball/hockey double-header and looking for a new apt I got back to doing squats on wednesday. Hit it pretty hard, too. And followed it up with some leg extention. Normally I'd be pretty much regretting it by the next afternoon. But yesterday I was hardly even sore. A little bit, but not nearly what I used to get after a work-out like that.
I'm still waiting to see if I get any noticable gains in strenth or size. I don't really want any increase in size, as that can cut down on your flexibility and range of motion. Not something condusive to pitching and playing hockey. But you can't really avoid some gain if you're lifting weights.
As for a pick-me-up before hockey, I passed. There are some pretty scary products out there for legal performance enhancement. The whole NOX line you'll hear about if you watch enough UFC, various other stimulants and such. You know you're taking something dangerous if they tell you to use it for no more than 12 weeks in a row then stop using it for at least 4 weeks. Yikes! Not really something I'd like to try at this point in my life. Maybe if I was trying to get a college sports scholarship or a semi-pro athelete and it was my life to be at peak performance. But not for pick-up baseball and C-level hockey. It's kinda fun to browse over all the various things out there. But most are just too dangerous to consider using.

Baseball
Thank God the all-star break is over. It was killing me not having highlights and box score to pour over while at work. And fantasy stats to evaluate and roster moves to think about. It was really making work seem much longer. I had no daily distractions! And it was even worse when the Cubs were given an off-day yesterday. So I had 4 days away from my Cubs. But they are back at it and I'm currently sitting here at my desk watching the game on mlb.tv. So no one rat me out to my boss. It's friday afternoon and he hasn't given me anything interesting or challenging to work on in probably 3 years. I deserve the occational break to watch the Cubs and relax.

Okay, time to hit that retirement party and head home before Hayley gets here. Then we'll be off for some sushi for dinner. Now that I know the place just north of me is good, I can go out for sushi much more often. So I hope you all have a great weekend. Those in New England, get out there and enjoy this nice weather.
PEACE!

Long and Eventful Weekend

2006-07-10T20:21:00.000-05:00

Last weekend, in my opinion, completely balances out my extreme laziness on the weekend of the 4th. Party, baseball game, hockey game. All in about 28 hours.
I'll break it down day-by-day, just cause that seems like it'll be the most fun for me right now. And that's what it's all about kids.
Friday night - Leave work, hit the gym, head home. Nothing exciting. Normal friday night gym, too. So pretty empty and the only people that are there are just peeps getting in a quick work-out before the weekend. I then proceeded to stay up til about 2am with a mix of GameCube (Bond - Agent Under Fire) and bad TV. There's not much on normal cable on friday night, so it was tough. When we had paid-for Comcast we had the Action Channel, which had a good set of anime on Friday nights. But alas, no good anime for me.

Saturday - Wake up around 10 or 10:30. Proceed to lay in bed watching TV til about 11:30ish. Exact time are vague. And then I begin the waiting game for my buddy Mark and his crew to head back from Crane Beach so we can go get some sushi. So I hopped on PartyPoker.net to try my luck and see if I've learned anything from watching poker on tv. Turns out I had learned something and did pretty well. Of course the free version (.net) is full of other people that don't really know what they're doing, so it's hard to say exactly how good I did. Did that for about an hour, then got the call. And it turns out the sushi place up in Saugus is actually pretty good. Not the greatest sushi ever, but it was very good. So we load up on sushi, get some booze, and head back to Mark's to begin the party. And what a party. Stud Boy was there to whip up some margaritas. Paul from work definately has a work and non-work side. Got into a heated politcal/societal arguement with a gay guy for quite awhile on the porch. And just general merriment. No real fiascos, no real awful moments, just a great gathering.
So I head home at 2:15 to try and get some sleep before getting up at 7:30am for baseball.

Sunday - Arise at 7:30 and wonder if it's really worth getting up. I do have a hockey game sunday night, so maybe I should just get a good sleep. The decision was really made when I had to pee. And while I was already up to pee, might as well go to baseball. Glad I did. One of the regulars just recently bought a batting cage nearby and donated a dozen balls to the game. With Raised Seems. For those that don't know, that will hugely help any breaking pitch you throw. More friction to generate force to generate a break. So my ordinarily good overhand curveball was a monster. You could really hear the seems buzzing when it left my hand. Needless to say it was pretty much untouchable. I had guys swinging at balls that were bouncing off the plate. A few were WAY out in front. A couple were just frozen as what they thought was a high fastball broke right down the middle. It was filthy. 6 innings pitched, probably 10Ks. I don't really count, but at least 1/2 of those innings I K'ed 2 of 3 outs. So a great day.
Eat my turkey sandwhich when I get home, climb back into bed for a little nap/World Cup. I make it through the first 1/2 drifting in and out of napping. But then at half time I decide to try to sleep for a little bit. Turns out 'little bit' meant the entire second half and the first 3 minutes of OT. Luckily I was awake and ready when Zidane pulled his idiotic move. I don't care what the Italian player said, it's the f'n World Cup final game. The last World Cup game of your life. You're the captain of the French team and one of the best players in the world. What do you do? Act like a complete moron and get yourself tossed from the game with only a few minutes left. Meaning that not only do you miss the rest of OT but also the PKs. Stupid. And maybe because of that Italy gets the trophy instead of France.
Then it was off to hockey. First hockey I've played in probably 3 months. It felt great to get back out there. At least it did in the first period. Then my poor cardio conditioning kicked in and made it a bit of a struggle. I did verify that the extra stregth work I've been doing has gotten me my speed back. My endurance is down, but I've got most of my old burst back and my top speed is back up to where it needs to be. Feels good to be the fastest man on the ice again. I also had a couple great defensive plays hustling back down the ice. Broke up a couple runs by just muscling the puck away from guys in the corner and made a sweet diving play on a break-away. Their guy had beat the defence and was streaking down the boards. I cut just inside of them both and just lay out from about the face-off circle, cutting him off from the net. So to get there, he'll have to either somehow get the puck and himself over me, or slow up and try to go around me as a slide along. There's no way he's going over, and if he slows down the defender on his heels and everyone else has a chance to get there anyway. He pretty much trips over me when he made his move to the net, break-away over. I get bruised ribs, he gets NO GOAL!! Worth it every time.
But alas, we still lose 7-4. The other team clearly had better players and were much more fundamentally sound. We kept it interesting the entire game, but just didn't have the skill or luck to win this one. But it was still very encouraging for the rest of the summer and next season. If we can get 10+ guys to show up and play like that every game we'll do really well.
So for now, maybe it's time for bed, maybe it's time for more partypoker.net. Only time will tell....
PEACE!!!

Looonnnnggg weekend

2006-07-05T13:20:00.000-05:00

Ahhh, you gotta love these long weekends and short work-weeks. When you only have to work 3/7 days, that's not bad.
And I really had 2 weekends this time around. I was down in NYC for friday night-sunday, then sunday night-tuesday night of just laying around being lazy. No one around to bother me or nothing. So I was finally able to do some of the crap I've been putting off. Cleaned all my hockey gear, which was getting pretty nasty. Everything besides the should pads, shin guards, and pants went into the washer. Gloves and elbow pads included. Early indications are that most of the awful glove-stink is out of my gloves. But I'll find out for sure on sunday night when the summer season kicks off.
I also cleaned out most of the dust around/under my bed. There was a pretty heavy layer under there. Surprisingly thick layer as it turned out. But after changing the filter on the vacuum, it made quick work of it all. Got all of that and all of the dust that had built up on the shelving unit at the head of my bed. Not sure if all of this will make any differencein anything, but it can't hurt to be breathing cleaner air at night.
I know what you're thinking. I had the greatest 4th of July weekend in the history of this fine country. I can't help that my life is so glamorous. It's just part of being Chauncey.
New Addiction
I've developed another problem. The game "007, Agent Under Fire" for GameCube. I started playing it monday morning for something to do to kill some time and got quickly hooked. You start playing and suddenly hours are just gone. Plus, with the way the game is setup, your frame of reference gets all messed up. You can look up and down, spin, etc, so you get used to that. Always walking around looking for things. Made it a bit fun when I'd jump up out of the chair to go get a snack or something. And then for the rest of monday and tuesday I'd either be playing the game, or thinking about things I could have done better. "Hmmm....in that level if I would have jumped out of the ventilation duct and used the Golden Gun...." Shit like that. It's kinda sad, but whatever.
But this is exactly the reason I don't really want to get Warcraft for my PC. I loved that game in college. A little too much if you look at my grades in a couple semesters. And now that I have a kick-ass PC to play it on I have the urge again. But I know that it'll start sucking up my life just like in college. And now that I have a job, I have less free time for it to suck up. Soon I'd be staying up all night to play, then going to work exhausted from not sleeping enough. It's a slippery slope that I don't even want to start. But yet the urge remains....

Ooooh, I also cleaned the K&N air filter I bought for my car last summer. It really wasn't all that dirty, but it was one of the things I wanted to do. Turns out the entire process is really not that hard. Spray on the cleaner, let it sit for 10 minutes, rince it out real good with water, let it dry, then re-apply the oil and you're done. The drying was what took all the time. The rest is easy. I think after 2 more years I'm money ahead. And that's without any milage gains that I'm getting with it, so who knows. But even if it's just even-money at this point, still worth it.

Cubs: Now the Fun Begins
Well, it's about to be interesting for the Cubs. The GM, Jim Hendry, said that he'll be taking the long weekend to evaluate where the Cubs are at and what needs to be done. Dusty's job, the players we have, everything. I'm expecting Dusty gets canned first. He's just not doing a good job here these last 2 years. Yes, there has been a lot of injuries. But the players that remained just didn't play well. So it's not like he did the best he could with what he had. He had plenty to work with and just didn't get it done.
There should also be alot of great trades. Something like 1/2 of MLB is still in the race for play-off spots. So there should be plenty of teams looking to add a few pieces to get them over the hump. And we've got plenty of guys we'd like to dump. Plenty.
And the kids should start popping up any day now. Time to call them all up from AA and AAA and see who can play and who can't. Who needs more time, who just doesn't have the tools to make it. We have alot of guys that may be ready right now, and the rest are about to get some great experience. Nothing teaches you your weaknesses like a trip up to the big club. Then you really find out what you need to work on and what you do well.

Okay, I'm spent. I'm uber lazy today from the time off and being up til midnight waiting for people to stop lighting off large fireworks. But at least the weekend is only 2 day, 2 hours away. So I got that going for me. Which is nice.
PEACE!!

Long time!

2006-06-29T08:43:00.000-05:00

Ooooof, it's been awhile. Good thing no one really cares, or I'd have an angry readership pounding down my door.
Hopefully I can make ammends today, but probably not.
Worst. Championship. Ever.
So I'm flipping through the channels the other day around 5:45pm. I was too lazy to go to the gym, so I just came strait home. Leaving me with some extra time to kill. But I figure that either ESPN or ESPN2 will have something awful that I can watch to amuse myself long enough for the good evening TV to come on. Turns out I was right about 1/2 of that. ESPN2 is apparently so out of ideas for programming that they're willing to show anything they can find that seems to be vaguely related to sports. Things that you never would have guessed there would be a championship for. Today's wonderful selection: The 2005 Dominoes Championship. That's right, dominoes. That game you see old men playing in the barber shop while waxing romantic about how much better things were when they were young. And these guys were really getting into it. They were focused and had strategies. It was 2 on 2, with your partner across the table from you. They had a graphic on the screen showing what each player started with and they'd gray out the ones they'd already played. In case you wanted to follow along with their stratagy and better your own game. And in case you couldn't keep up, they had 2 announcers (yes, you need 2 guys to properly cover an event of this magnitude) giving a play-by-play. I made it for about 1 game before I started shouting "BUT IT'S JUST DOMINOES!!" at the TV. 1 minute later I had to turn off the TV in disgust and walk away. ESPN had finally let me down. And then repeated the feat on Friday. It was a sad period of time. And now I'm constantly afraid of turning on ESPN2 if I'm home early from work, worried I'll lose even more respect for them.

Random Realization
In case people are wondering what it's like to be in my head, here's something I spent 5 minutes thinking about last week.
We have a picture up in the bathroom of a dog dressed up in a tux and sitting at a nice dinner table. He's got some wine and a full table setting. And there's an arm reaching in from the side, presumably from his butler, setting down a nice plate of steak. The caption: "Every Dog Has His Day". I see it a couple times a day and never think about it. Until last week. Then I started thinking about that phrase. We use it like it's a good thing. You see a guy having a great day out of nowhere and drop that line. But is it really a good thing? No. What you're saying is, "He's a worthless idiot and doesn't deserve anything, but at least he's got this one day." It's clearly a way to completely rain on someone's good day. The nicer way of saying 'The sun shines on even a dog's ass once in awhile." Interesting, isn't it.

Gym Rats
So I'm at the gym on Tuesday and I'm not having one of my better work-outs. I just didn't seem to have it. So as I was starting to wind down things, I decide it's not worth staying to get those few extra sets in. Better to just walk away from a marginal work-out and head home. Put in the extra work when I'm having a better day. My last set of triceps extentions is going to be last set of the day. And just as I'm thinking this, BAM, power goes out. Emergency lights kick on, radio is off, treadmills are off, the works. The only sound that's left: the clanging of weights as people don't even bat at eye about it. Most people just looked around for a second to confirm that the power wasn't coming right back on, then continued on with their workouts. I was no different. Finished up that last set like nothing was wrong. Luckily I was done anyways, or that would have gotten annoying. I just found it really amusing that no one stopped. And there was absolutely nothing said from the staff. No one came out to say that maybe we should stop using the weights now that it was pretty dark so no one gets hurt. Nothing.

Funny comments from Hayley
Hayley has now started making some great comments, completely unaware that she's doing it. Which is probably why they're great. 2 stand out from last week.
1) In the middle of talking to her on the phone she just tosses in "Ohhh, there's blood on my shoes." Not upset, not alarmed, just like it was a normal occurrance. Like a normal person would talk about stepping in gum, or getting a little bit of mud on their shoes. Like it's just a perfectly normal thing to be walking around with someone else's blood on your shoes. Hell, I do it all the time!
2) Not as good, and more of a follow-up to #1. A couple days later I ask if she got any more blood on her shoes. She responds with an annoyed-sounding "Yeah." Like it was rediculous that I was even asking that questions. And then with, "Well, maybe that's just ambiotic fluid."
This may only be funny if you know Hayley. She's really not one to be dropping comments like that out of nowhere. It's probably the same reaction people have when I suddenly show empathy and compation. Or care about the feelings of a stranger.

In case I don't write again before Tuesday, everyone have a great 4th of July. Light off plenty of fireworks and drink plenty of booze. I'll be out trying to score with some shady Winthrop high school sluts during the bonfire/fireworks on the beach.

2006-06-22T13:36:00.000-05:00

Whose car is worth less?
I got into a spirited bout of 'Whose car is worth less' the other day on the way to work. For those that don't know, that's the game you play when 2 people are going after the same piece of road. Merges, lane changes in traffic, etc. If you have a shitty car and they have a nice car, they'll likely back off first. Other way around and you should yield.
So there is a section of the drive to work where people exiting out of a rotary merge onto the road from the right. It's a long, slow merge lane, so you often get into conflicts with the people not yielding like they should. It's fun at 40mph at times. But when there's bad traffic and it's backed up past the merge it's even more fun. You get 2 lanes of people in the merge lane trying to get into only 1 right-hand lane. All while creeping slowly along. And because this is Boston and most drivers are horribly impatient and feel they should never have to be put out, regardless of who has the right-of-way, it's even better. So it came down to me vs. a merger inching along behind a truck. Neither of us wanting to budge. I just didn't want to give up cause I was bored and this is how I get my thrills on the way to work. I know all the little confusing parts of the drive and like to punish others for not knowing them. Yes, I have a problem.
Anyways, I was up against a guy in an early-90s minivan with a banged up front corner. So when it really got down to the point where we were running out of room to be 2-wide, I had to give up. He was clearly going to take it to the point of collision, and had nothing to lose. I had an un-smashed body panel to lose. Thus, I lost the battle of Whose Car is Worth Less. Not really a bad thing when you really think about it.

Armageddon
So while I was in Minneapolis for a wedding (not sure if I mentioned it already, probably not. But I was there with Hayley for her roommate's wedding. Good enough?) I had alot of time to kill. Hayley was in the wedding and her friends were hung over. So I got to just lay around and watch bad TV. And Armageddon falls into this category. It's a great movie to watch, but not of the highest quality. The movie ends and I suddenly have the greatest idea for a terrible ending. So you see NASA and everyone celebrating their victory over the space rock. Jumping around, high-5s, the works. Then suddenly some nerdy tech shouts out "Hey guys! There's a 2nd meteor behind it!!" A 2nd rock hiding in the tail of the first rock is discovered, which then slams into the Earth and kills everyone. It's mean, it's sick, but it's also funny. And a terrible way to end a movie. But wouldn't it be awesome if a movie studio had the balls to do something like that?! That suddenly the 2 hours of movie you just watched, all the trials and heroism you just witnessed, it was all for nothing. People would definately leave that movie feeling awful.

Northwest Airlines
This may be the most ghetto airline I've ever flown. Granted I don't take many non-major airline flights, but I've been on a couple. For starters, they are shoehorned into a tiny little gate area in the corner of Logan. It's an oddly shaped area with things layed out pretty poorly. They obviously didn't have the sway to get a good area. But whatever, I'm not here to judge their gate area. I'm there to fly on the plane.
Then boarding begins. Most airlines like to board in small sections from back-to-front to make things go quickly. You don't want the people in the first few rows blocking the aisle so the people in the back have to wait. Not NWest! The attendant just grabs the mic and says "You may begin boarding." Everyone just heads for the door at the same time. So you get a huge back-up at the door to get in. Then you get another back-up as people fight to get down the aisle while people are loading their bags into the over-head. So then boarding takes at least double what it should.
But wait, there's more. I settle in and notice that all of the armrests still have ashtrays in them. Which takes a few seconds to really click home. These planes are so old that they still have ashtraps in every seat. Then I notice how flimsy the seats are. If anyone in your row moves, you can feel the whole assembly flex. You can see the frame of the seats in front of you and it's not good. It's all fine and good while you're flying along nicely, but if anything happens during take-off or landing, we're all screwed. Luckily nothing happens and I don't get a chance to see if I was right or not.

2 New Cubs Nick-Names
I came up with 2 new nick-names for Cubs players the other week.
Juan Pierre --> Juan --> Juan Valdez --> coffee. But since Pierre has been having an awful season, even with all the tools he has, he becomes....De-Caf!! Cause he looks like he should be great, but then by the time you're done watching the game you wonder what the point was.
Freddie Bynum. This is a bit of a stretch, so bear with me. Bynum --> Barnum --> Barnum and Bailey's circus --> 3-ring circus --> cockring --> which show up often in bad...PORNO! So he's now Porno.
I really like De-Caf, but Porno is clearly not my best work. But I still like it, cause it's funny.

And on that note....
PEACE!!!

Summer is here!

2006-06-19T14:28:00.000-05:00

Well well, summer finally decided to rear it's ugly head around these parts. We went from 70s last week to mid-90s over the weekend. While I don't necessarily mind the hot weather, I'd appreciate it if it could be a slow build up next time. Jumping 10 degrees in a couple days just isn't cool. And it's supposed to go right back to 70s starting tomorrow.

Baseball
But at least it was sunny and clear for baseball yesterday. Hot, but no rain. And given the long lay-off, my body actually felt pretty good. My shoulder wasn't all pissed off, back didn't hurt, knee felt fine. It was like I wasn't all banged up! I proceeded to go out and pitch 6 strong innings, which is definately rare for me. But there was a down side. Here's me yesterday: "Man, I just pitched 6 innings and my arm doesn't even feel tired. Doesn't hurt or nothing!" Here's me this morning when I reached over to silence my alarm: "AHHHHHHH!!!! What have I done?!!"
Needless to say my right arm isn't moving so well today. I'm quite sore today, and quite surprised. I figured I'd be a little sore after not throwing for so long, but not like this. Hopefully it'll get better quickly and I'll feel even better this weekend. I'd hate to start the nagging injury series before hockey starts. Cause it's only getting worse once the hockey season starts up.

Cubs and CDs
I recently took a page out of my buddy Tom's book regarding my music collection. Seems Tom has the nice idea of playing every CD he has alphabetically once every few years. Takes him a few months to do it, but you occationally find something that you forgot you had. So I started this up at work the other week. I'd do it in the car as well, but I'd rather listen to XM on the drive to/from work to help me get through my day.
Anyways, right now I'm at the tail end of my Tori Amos section. Yes, one of my dirty little secrets is being a Tori fan. I'm not so big into her right now, as I'm not miserable. But when you're down, that's the way to go. But it is quite nice to be listening to Tori when you read the recap and box scores from the Cubs games. Cause you'll feel like total shit when that's going on and really need that help. I mean, could this season BE any more depressing for us?! We had 1 chance at temporary bliss over the weekend: Mark Prior's return. And then he goes out there and shits the bed. When you have more HRs allowed than innings pitched, that's a bad day (4 HRs in 3.2 innings). And Prior wasn't the only one that could make that claim. Novoa gave up 4 in only 3.1 innings of work. A terrible day that will likely kill the last of the hope for this season. I think at this point I have to be realistic about it. While still mathematically possible, the odds are pretty bad. We'd have to win over 2/3 of our remaining games just to get to 90 wins, the assumed mark for making the playoffs. We have a .382 winning % now, and would need to jump that by .300 to .680 to get to 90. With a team that is still without it's best hitter and 2 best pitchers. I'm not counting Prior as being back, as he still sucks and we're almost better off not having him right now. Maybe in a couple weeks I'll count him as being back. Needless to say, it's time to start working out some trades. Dump the veterans we no longer need to get some kids to restock the minors with.

Cereal
In a surprising move, I'd jumped to eating Kashi cereals. And I have to admit that it's not too bad. Right now I'm working the Go Lean Crunch. It's kinda like eating a cinnamon-spiced rice cake in a bowl with milk. But better than that sounds. I'm going to give it a couple more boxes before I finalize an opinion, but things are looking good so far. Plus, it would appear that it gives me alot of gas in the afternoon. I'm still not sure if it's something else doing that, but that's the only thing that's been common since last thursday. While not the best thing to have it work, as long as it's stink-free gas I can rip as many silent ones as I want. Which I do. Yes, I'm aware that I can be a rather discusting human at times. But at least I've tightened my criteria on eating food that I've dropped on the floor after the deodorant incident. Yikes!

Okay, times up kids. I'm outta' here.
PEACE!!!

Back in rainy, stupid Boston

2006-06-14T14:24:00.000-05:00

Well, I'm back home after my nice long weekend in Chicago. The land of milk and honey if you like the Cubs and real pizza. Oh yeah, and sun. Cause we get nothing but rain out here this summer. It's like I'm living in Seattle! It was raining when I left, spent 4 days in sunny warm Chicago, only to come back here to more thunderstorms. I really hope Anna closed up some of the windows in our apt...
Dad's Status
Dad was finally out of the hospital as of tuesday night. The 2nd operation seems to have been successful at cleaning out the last of the infection. And they hooked him up with a PICC thing, so he can remain on IV antibiotics at home/work. Essentially he has 2 tubes sticking out of his arm on the under-side of his bicept. Both tubes have a little fitting that connects to a pump that he'll wear on his waist. He'll load in a new batch of penicilin in the morning and receive the programmed dose all day long. He's thrilled to be out of the hospital. But not so thrilled to have this thing running for the next 4-6 weeks.
And now we'll start working on camping trip try #2. Depending on how the infection dies down, we should be able to go in September like we normally do. But we're going to have to play this one by ear. We definately can't rush this and go if he's not 100% healed up. Had we been out in the woods when the infection flared up, it would have definately been a life or death situation. We would have been at least 2 days away from any medical care while the infection was spreading up his arm and heading for his heart. And 2 days assumes that the weather is favorably for traveling with only me paddling and we're able to find someone else to head back to the ranger for us so they can send in a float plane. So it could have been a few more days. Definately a scary situation and he honestly could have died up there. It's the downside to camping in such a remote and wonderful place. We should have a good idea in the next couple of weeks.
The Pizza Boycott: Worth it?
Yes, every bite. It was even longer than expected, as we went strait from the airport to the hospital. But that first slice of pizza and first bag of fries was worth every minute of waiting. So was slice/bag #2. Naturally it really only whetted my appetite for pizza, so I'm still dying for more. So I'll likely have to dial up some marginal east-coast style for dinner on friday. Or saturday. We'll see how the week plays out.
But you just can't match the joy of chicago style pizza. It was made for heartier individuals like myself. None of this floppy crust, thin layer of cheese crap they serve out here. Thick crust, loads of cheese. That's how it's supposed to be. As much cheese as the oven can melt.
Moving
My parents are finally moving out of their house into a new one. Brand new, as it turns out. So even though I wasn't camping I was still there over the weekend to pack up what's left of my stuff there. Not much, but things I clearly would like to keep. And as I was leaving I realized that if things go well it'll be the last time I'm in that house. They move in late August, and I see no reason why I would be there before then. If we go camping right after Labor Day, they'll be all moved into the new house. Kinda sad, but I've been moved out and in Boston for 5.5 years now. So I've been slowly cutting the mental ties to that house for a long time. My sister isn't taking it as well, but she never really got herself set up anywhere else. So that's still home to her. But she'll be fine. She's a big girl. Literally, too. She's like a giant. 6' tall. And able to kick the ass out of anyone who stands in her way.
The new house looks like it'll be very nice, too. They just started putting up the sheetrock inside, but you can still get a good idea. And from the details I've heard, it'll be really classy. Oak floors, granite counters, tall ceilings, the works. Working fireplace, too. And plenty of room on the first floor for having groups of people over. SuperBowl, cutglass organization, Christmas and T-Day, etc. Which was really what they were after. And a larger master suite.
It'll be tough to get back and forth to Pat's house when we're both home, but we'll get by. Nothing is going to stop us when it's time to get it on! We did lose our good football field, but we can just set up shop down at his parents' house in the future.
That's enough.
PEACE!!

Well, at least it's Friday!

2006-06-09T10:54:00.000-05:00

It's been a rough week again. I'm not sure if I mentioned it, but I was supposed to be heading out on my father and I's annual camping trip to the Quetico on monday. Fly home saturday, pack up, then drive up the the BWCA on monday, get in the canoe and head into Quetico on Tuesday. 10 days of solitude and fishing. No permanent structures are allowed, no motors, and strict limits on how many people can enter the area each day. It's heaven if you love sleeping in a tent and fishing. And trying to avoid even laying eyes on another human being.
But alas, the trip is off. My Dad came down with a very nasty infection in his hand on tuesday. He spent a couple days in the hospital on IV antibiotics, surgery, the works. It was starting to spread up his arm, heading for his heart. He's fine and the infection is receding, but the trip is off. There's no way he'd be ready to go by Tuesday. There are 1000 ways to get an infection up there, and we're 2-3 days away from medical care. Not worth the risk, so we're just doing to have to postpone it.
So instead of getting a nice 2-week break from this hell I call work, I'll be here suffering. It'll be like Dante in Clerks. "I'm not even supposed to BE here today!" For 2 weeks.
And it continues to rain rain rain here. I'll be in Chicago from saturday to tuesday so I'll be missing baseball anyway, but I wouldn't be surprised if it's rained out. The fields must be soaked from all the rain we're getting, and it's not going to be sunny and windy out. There's just no chance for the fields to dry out. It's cloudy and drizzly every day. Too much rain is better than not enough rain, but this is getting comical.
First Comment
Ladies and Gentlemen! We finally have someone that could pony up and comment.

SkupDogg said...

here are some more of Pat and Skup's nicknames:

Derrik Lee = "The Destroyer" ; cuz he destroys the chances of the other team winning

Aramis Ramirez = "The RazMan"

Neifi Perez = "Louie Bag of Donuts" ; compliments of Dirt Bag Kevin, NYC

See, if you comment, you get referenced in here without having to do something stupid!

Pizza Boycott
Hayley didn't seem to get this concept, so let me see if others can. I love pizza. I love Chicago-style pizza more than anything else in the world. I can't get it out here, though. So whenever I go back home, I have to stock up on good pizza to hold me over til the next trip. Now then, I'm sure we've all experienced the phenomenon of your craving of something going up the longer you've gone between having it. So if I havne't had any pizza in like 2 weeks, the next pizza I eat is going to be awesome. Just based on the simple fact that I was craving it so much. So if I simultaneously build up a craving from not having pizza, then travel back to my pizza mecca, what do you think will happen? Exactly!! That first slice of good chicag0-style pizza is going to seem like the greatest pizza I've ever eaten! Which is my plan. I've been doing my damnest to avoid eating any pizza for 2 weeks now. It's been rough, yes, but it'll all be worth it on saturday when I get home. Hit up Tony V's for a slice of cheese and a jumbo fries. My blood with thicken and I'll take a year off of my life, but it'll be awesome.
Everyone get it? Good.
That's it! I'm outta' here! Enjoy your weekend folks! Drink lots of beer and watch lots of Anime. And once in awhile shake your fist at the sky and yell "Damn you, Jack!!" He'll appreciate it.
PEACE!!!