orange julius rosenberg

new blog

2010-01-26T15:27:00.000-08:00

Just in case anyone actually reads this blog, this a formal notice that I am temporarily closing this blog until the end of the 2010 Major League Baseball season. I will be running a different blog, on blogger.com, called baseballoxygen. It will be covering the Red Sox and touching on all of major league baseball.

New Signings

2010-01-08T21:05:00.000-08:00

Forgot I was running a blog.

There's a lot going on in the baseball world. The Mariners are suddenly spending money. The Angels suddenly aren't. The Yankees collected a few more big names, and the Sox have had a terrific off-season while actually saving money. They let Bay walk, which I was happy about considering the outrageous contract he was asking for, and signed John Lackey, Adrian Beltre, Marco Scutaro, and Mike Cameron. I am moderately happy with all these signings. I'm not a fan of long term contracts for pitchers, but they had to promise Lackey 4+ years or he wouldn't have batted an eyelash. My guess is Lackey will struggle initially with Boston, but have a great second half. I love the Beltre signing. He'll probably be the best defensive 3B the Sox have ever had. Here's a video compilation of Beltre plays I saw posted on facebook.

Scutaro I'm not sure about, but the fans will like him and he tends to have a knack for the dramatic hit. He may have the most walk-offs in baseball in the last 7 or 8 years, pretty good for a guys whose platooned half his career. He also hit a game winning HR off Mariano last year, probably didn't hurt his chances signing with the Sox. Cameron is a great fielder and will probably pop 20 HR, hit .265, and play excellent CF.

Anyway, I predict the Sox will go 99-63 this year. I know they haven't won 99 games since 1978, when they had Fisk, Dewey, Lynn, Yaz, and Rice won the MVP (not to mention a 23-year-old Dennis Eckersley won 20 games) but this 2010 team could be scary. I know people say they're lacking that big bat, but Jesus, they're going to have Beltre, Cameron, Scutaro, and Drew batting 6, 7, 8, and 9, most likely. I bet they'll score as many runs as last year, and save 50 in the field.

Grammar Crammer

2009-12-10T17:14:00.000-08:00

Despite my concentrated efforts to totally reinvent myself as a devoted college student, I still managed to slack off in one regard and save my research paper for Anatomy & Physiology for the last second. Though we were told about it on the first day of class, I waited till two days before it was due to: pick a topic, start compiling notes, and then organize the notes, and I waited until the night before to actually start writing it. I finished it this morning around 10am, 8 hours before it was due- though I had class all day up until 6 so I really got it down at the wire.
It turned out alright considering. The subject was induced pluripotent stem cells, which in a nutshell, are stem cells that don't require butchering a human embryo. They're actually extremely interesting and potentially groundbreaking. Regardless, I'm glad it's done. I have only a week left in the semester, though it's going to be a long week of studying and Spanish vocabulary/grammar cramming.

*spellcheck picked up the fact that I spelled grammar incorrectly, typing grammer. It's not as bad as misspelling spelling.

Olympic Summit this coming Saturday

2009-12-08T09:54:00.000-08:00

It's exactly 8 months till the next Olympics, so I'm scheduling an Olympic Summit this Saturday. It's a virtual summit, at 10 am this Saturday, on Gmail chat. I'm considering making it open to all Olympians, just waiting to hear what the rest of the committee thinks of the idea.
We have lots of stuff we need to figure out. The balloting is over, and there's no disputing the final top 10, but it's just a question of what's possible/probable.
Firstly, Manda and Greg selected a triathlon as their core event, which will be fun, but I imagine that it could be limiting. I think folks will be too exhausted to do anything else, and I also worry about someone drowning. Ethan is pushing for two separate triathlons- one men's, one women's- and I think it's it's the best idea. It also requires us to come up with only half as many bikes and helmets.
We also need to decide what events are plausible. Though I originally submitted Capture the Flag, and placed it high on the ballot, I'm beginning to think it's just not feasible on a day when you have to cram 5-8 other events in. I can recall Capture the Flag games from the past that took 4 or 5 hours for one team to come out on top. Also, apparently no one else has played the game before.
Several other things to discuss, I'll give a run down of the progress after the summit.

Beacon Comics

2009-11-09T10:04:00.000-08:00

I've been submitting comics to The Beacon, the SMCC paper, and unlike The Free Press at USM, they were not rejected by a one sentence email which basically said, "Go Fuck yourself." Oddly, no one at the paper told me that they liked them or had received them, so it wasn't until I actually saw them in the paper that I was certain I'd sent them to the right email. Not only that, but my name was listed on the staff for "Comics". So I guess I'm the comics guy for The Beacon. I've been submitted one or two new comics every Friday since then. The only one they haven't printed is the Jesus one. Understandable.
I'm a little worried about next weeks'. It depicts a man in a car, from a bird's eye view, driving down a highway. On the side of the road is a tall sign or billboard that reads "Historic Site of Donner Party" and there's a little symbol of a picnic table. This comic may be a stretch for two reasons.
1. Does everyone know that the little picnic table icon means that their are picnic tables/areas?
2. Does anyone know what the Donner Party was? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donner_Party
I'm worried it's something that people don't learn about it anymore, in school or elsewhere, though it had a profound affect on my imagination when I learned about it as a boy. Two out of three people I asked, all smart fellas, had never heard of it.

Here are the other comics I've finished

Olympic Balloting update

2009-11-09T09:49:00.000-08:00

Oh right, my blog. It's Olympic planning time again, which is that time of year when I annoy the Olympic faction of my friends with ballots. This year I upped the ante considerably, asking each Olympian to contribute 5 event ideas for the final ballot. I promised each competitor that at least 1 of their events would end up on the final ballot but I actually managed to squeeze at least two of every one's on there. I received event ideas from 14 out of 15 2009 competitors- much better than anticipated. Here are the 30 event ideas that were sent out on the final ballot:

Wrickle Badminton
Science Quiz (Bones and Periodic Table)
Flag Football
Root Beer Chug
8x100m Relay
Softball Game
Rollerblade Race
Capture the Flag
Soccer
Knife Throw
Team Crossword Puzzle
Kayak Race
Baseball Accuracy
Rope Climb
Water Polo
Underwater Headstands
Team Obstacle Course
Dock Jump
Karaoke
Hula Hoop
3-Point Contest
Guitar Hero/Rockband
Kan Jam
Blindfolded Canoe Race

I was bummed that I couldn't submit more because there were definitely more than 30 great ideas. Barbell curls, Rock Skipping, Texas Hold 'em, Three-legged swim, Nag Golf, and Wiffle ball were just a few of the creative submissions that had be cut for space and fairness.

Right now, Blindfolded Canoe Race is sailing away with the competition. I wasn't even intending to include it as I didn't think it would receive many votes. Only three ballots in so far though so nothings decided. Ballots are due by December 1st and I'll be announcing the final events by Christmas, so folks will have at least 8 months to prepare.

Exam week

2009-09-22T07:02:00.001-07:00

Been busy with school. I've got three exams this week, and possibly a quiz on Thursday if the Spanish teacher gets mad at us again. She has a tendency to get very irritated with the class almost spontaneously and unprovoked. There are a lot of whiners in the class for sure, but she has a habit of saying, "Oh my God, I've told you this a million times, and I won't say it again..." and proceeds to tell us something I'm certain she's never said even once. I take good notes; I would know.
My exams are in Anatomy & Physiology, the corresponding lab, and College Algebra. The A & P lab exam is on Epithelial and Connective tissue cells, and body regions, while the A & P lecture exam is on myriad facts from chapters 1 through 4. An unbelievable amount of information to cover but hopefully I'll do alright. The Algebra exam should be fairly easy- word problems. The only one's I have trouble with are mixture problems that involve percentages. We're supposed to use our calculators for those ones and I am not proficient with a calculator. I'm dreading the graphing chapters.

A real piece of bad news in the last 2 minutes. I went out to check my bike and my back tire was slack. It's letting air out around the valve, which is bad news. So I won't be riding her to school this morning, or Wednesday for that matter. I have a back up bike (World Sport) but I have too many books to carry to class and I can't put my basket on it. Plus it would probably break half way through the trip.

new comic

2009-09-22T06:57:00.000-07:00

New comic I came up with last night while fiddling with the radio.

Catching up with late August

2009-09-04T09:00:00.000-07:00

Shit. I've been really slacking off with the blogging. Lot's of exciting things have happened since my last blog, but I don't have the time or desire to attack each event with an in-depth rehashing. Instead, I'm going to write a blurb about a couple of the mildly exciting things that have happened in the last month or so since my previous blog entry.

1. Jacuzzi Park Wiffle Ball Party 3 - The third installment in the wiffle ball saga, possibly the best party yet. No karaoke, not an insane amount of intoxication, not the biggest numbers we've seen- but possibly the most fun. We had roughly 10 people there the whole day, and we all played in every game. We had some exciting matches, including a few grand slams and two shutouts. One shutout was actually in a slow-pitch game, in where the pitcher lobs the ball. It's designed for hitters. Oddly, Dan pitched a complete game (3 inn) shutout that way. Hard to figure. I pitched a CG shutout as well, in a fast-pitch, or standard game. I feel like mine should be recorded as being the 1st ever, but Dan's did happen earlier in the day. Dan also etched his name in the tablet of wiffle history by becoming the first player to homer into the tall grass in center field, formerly known as Gopherland. It is now officially known as Danland. Also, for the first time, we had an MVP that wasn't named Ethan. Nick Viti took home the honors with a, frankly, surprising performance which included multiple ground-rule doubles and a couple HRs. Dan and I also received honorable mention.
After the last game, we all went down to the beach and rode waves. It was foggy, the night before the incident at Thunderhole where the folks drowned, and it made for some astonishing waves. Which leads me to no.2...
2. Bodysurfing on a closed beach- We heard that the beaches in Maine were closed on Sunday, due to the tropical storms creating large waves and a fearsome undertow even in New England. Well, we went down anyway to check it out. People were in the water so Jesse, Breanne, and I decided we'd go in too. It was mind blowing. I'd never been so close to such large waves, and the undertow was literally like a rope of water yanking your feet out from under you. I rode several waves for what seemed like 100 ft, having to bail out a few times because I could no longer hold my breath. I was also caught in the undertow at one point, and pulled out beyond where the waves were breaking. I didn't panic, but remembered to swim parallel to the shore, and eventually I was hurled back in by some early breaking waves. It was all very invigorating. Sometimes if I didn't time the wave crests, I would be thrown like a rag doll back towards shore, without the strength to pull my arms and legs in and keep them from twisting and contorting. It's hard to explain how powerful the water was. After an hour or so, the lifeguards called everyone out of the water. We discovered that our bags and belongings, that we'd placed next to the dune grass furthest from the shore, was soaked, even though it was still an hour till high tide.
3. Red Sox game - I also went to a Red Sox game with Jordan. I went down to his house a bit early and we hit the batting cages near his house. It was a lot of fun, and more difficult than the cages at Schooner's in Old Orchard. The game was sort of a bust. Junichi Tazawa only last a few innings, giving up 9 runs to the White Sox after three. J.D. Drew hit two HRs, one that landed not too far from us out in right field. We were roughly half way between Pesky's pole and the visitor's bullpen. I watched Jenks and Contreras and few other guys warm up. Seems like I see the White Sox every time I go to Fenway. We did get to see David Cassidy butcher the national anthem, and the pitching debut of Nick Green. Green worked two innings, walked three batters, but gave up no hits. He cut right through the heart of the ChiSox order too. He threw all fastballs, 87-90 mph, and one "slider," according to the scoreboard operator. Looked more like a fastball in the dirt though.
4. School starts - School started this week. I had College Algebra, Spanish 101, Anatomy & Physiology, and the A & P lab. I now have lots of homework to do. I suppose I should get to that now.

I'm sure I'm forgetting a few things. I'll have lots of school related things to blog about soon, and if the new fall season of softball works out, I'll have that too.

Being in shape no longer cool

2009-08-15T08:38:00.000-07:00

I read this article today online about pot-bellies being "hip." I don't understand the article at all. At one point the author says that a flat stomach is "passé." How is that even possible?
Big sunglasses, off-kilter hats, skin-tight pants, etc. all these things I can understand. I don't understand how a pot-belly is stylish.
And the author refers to the look as the Ralph Kramden. Ralph Kramden, if you're not familiar, was Jackie Gleason's character on The Honeymooners. He did not have a pot-belly; He was a very fat man.

Walking through streets that are dead

2009-08-14T20:59:00.000-07:00

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090814/ap_en_ot/us_people_bob_dylan

Bob Dylan isn't recognized by two cops. He was probably glad to not be recognized- I'm guessing it doesn't happen terribly often.

2009 Maine Summer Olympics

2009-08-14T20:13:00.000-07:00

Olympic weekend was a success. Though we had several last second cancellations, it turned out for the best as 14-15 competitors was a perfect number. Any more and we wouldn't have had time to do events like the Home Run Derby and the badminton/ping pong.

We split up into two teams, almost identical to the teams I had originally constructed, and they ended up being evenly matched. In fact, had Manda not injured her foot and sat out the mile run, we could have been tied going into the final event, World Geography. In the end though, Team B, comprised of Ethan, Jesse, Jon, Breanne, Andrea, Jane, Sarah-Jane, and myself, was victorious over Team A, which was Manda, Jake, Mary, Greg, Ryan, Matt, and Nick. Hopefully next year we can have an even number of competitors, but I was very happy with who showed up- it was a great group of Olympians.

The Meet 'n' Greet didn't go as well as planned as several people had trouble finding the place, Manda and Greg were running real late, and a couple of folks decided to come up in the morning. Jesse and Jon were the last to arrive on Friday night, at about 1:45, after Jon flew in from D.C. and Jesse got out of work around 11:30. Everyone was in bed by 2 and most everyone was up by 7:30 the next morning.

On Saturday, after breakfast, I read the Opening Ceremonies speech I wrote while eating half a bagel. Just before we left, Ryan and Sarah-Jane showed up and then Nick. We jumped in some vehicles and drove up to Farmingdale to do the Derby. The Derby took way too long, and as many people suggested later, we should have just played a shortened game of softball. Of course, then we wouldn't have witnessed the clinic Ethan put on. He hit 10 home runs, 6 more than everyone else combined. Jon and I each hit two, and I edged him in fence shots. Breanne took a lot of great pictures of everyone swinging.

Medals: Gold, Ethan. Silver, Luke. Bronze, Jon.

After the Derby we scooted over to the track at Hall-dale to do the 100m dash. It was a bit disorganized, with Ethan and I running back and forth trying to get the right people on the line and synchronizing the starts. Everyone got to run in at least two dashes, and it was an exhausting event. Team B had a bit more speed. I established the Maine Olympic record with a time of 12.6 in one of the heats. All the competition made me run quite a bit faster. The final heat was Jon, Greg, and me. I was told it was very close but I haven't seen any pictures yet.

Medals: Gold, Luke. Silver, Greg. Bronze, Jon.

A bit tired, we decided to head back to the house for lunch. We ate some sandwiches and prepared for badminton and ping pong, which went on concurrently. We eliminated the loser's round games to save time. Definitely the biggest upset of the Olympics, Manda beat Ethan in the semifinals and ended up taking Badminton. I think Ethan was exhausted from having to play Greg and then me in the first two rounds. Manda was also playing some mad badminton, getting to shuttlecocks that seemed out of her reach. Ping Pong wasn't as competitive as I didn't have to play Manda or Ethan, but faced Greg in the final. Greg's game, a tricky serve and overhand spike, are better suited against Manda, I believe. I tried to beat him 21-12 but it didn't work.

(B)Medals: Gold, Manda. Silver, Jon. Bronze, Ethan.

(PP)Medals: Gold, Luke. Silver, Greg. Bronze, Manda.

Before anyone could get too hungry, we hopped back in the cars and drove back to Hall-dale. Our first event was the premier event of the Olympics, the mile run. I had been dreading/anticipating the mile for a long time, but it went OK. I was bummed that Manda couldn't run because of her foot, and it made my medal feel unearned. With Manda running in the race I wasn't going to finish in the top 3. Greg and Jake busted out of the gate and nobody saw them again, except when they lapped most everyone. Greg pulled ahead after two laps but Jake still stayed well ahead of Nick and I. Nick stayed ahead of me for almost three full laps but I eventually overtook him and sped up over the last 200 to lose him. Jake correctly predicted his time, 5:30, while Greg ran an easy 5:02. It was clear he could have gone faster. I finished at 6:26, not a good time for me, but good enough for third. Nick was just 10 seconds behind me, and Ethan finished in 6:52, a very impressive time when you consider his past knee problems and the fact that he never ever runs. Breanne broke 8 minutes and beat Andrea, which was her goal.

Medals: Gold, Greg. Silver, Jake. Bronze, Luke.

Next was Wrickle and Disc golf. Team B did Wrickle while Team A played disc golf. Wrickle was a lot of fun. Andrea was the best soccer player in our group so we stuck her in the middle of the circle and she tried to bounce the ball to us. To get a "wrickle" everyone has to touch the ball before it hits the ground. We had 6 or 7, I can't remember. Jesse and Jon seemed to enjoy Wrickle the most. After about 10 minutes we were all so tired from having done the mile and everything else that our wrickling deteriorated.

Team A recorded more Wrickles than us but we did well in disc golf. I shot a -1 on the 5 hole, Par 3 course, and Ethan, Greg, and Jake tied at 17. All the players tied after 5 holes went into tie-breaker holes. Nick and Mary were the most evenly matched as they ended up playing the whole course again before the tie was broken. Ethan's skills eventually ousted both Jake and Greg.

(DG)Medals: Gold, Luke. Silver, Ethan. Bronze, Jake.

(W)Medals: Gold, Team A. Silver, Team B.

Back to the house, for burgers and the final event. Since we could only find a skinny shitty white rope, we opted to drop Tug-of-war. So that left World Geography. The teams score was actually 415-408 after 7 events, so Geography would decide it all. At that point I was confident we were going to win as Ethan, Breanne and I were three of the top Geo-athletes, Manda being the other one. I finished uncontested, 202 countries/regions in 12:46, but 2nd and 3rd place were extremely close. Breanne beat Ethan by 10 seconds, but he had actually finished filling in his maps and was checking over some answers. He heard Breanne shuffling and assumed she would check answers too but she didn't and registered her score before he could. Manda was just a few seconds later, but she mixed two countries up so wasn't in the running any way. Ethan, Breanne and I all had perfect scores. Jesse's and Greg's answers were some of the best, with several St. Jerome's and a Jupiter.

Medals: Gold, Luke. Silver, Breanne. Bronze, Ethan.

People were pretty pooped after that last event, but I did the medal ceremonies so people that were leaving could see it. Jake presented the Wrickle MVP's to Matt and Andrea and I handed out the rest of the awards. I won 1st individual overall, Ethan was second, and Greg was third, barely edging out Jon (by 1 point!). More importantly, Team B took home The Ouiji Cup, the chalice filled with candy.

It was an exhausting weekend but extremely fun. I wish we could have a winter Olympics but I'll probably just have to wait till next summer. Greg and Manda are hosting the next one in Gray, ME. They're thinking of having a triathlon.

Olympia

2009-08-05T21:08:00.000-07:00

The 2009 Maine Summer Olympics are this weekend. Hectic week preparing for one day of events. Ethan and I have been emailing back and forth all week with ideas, rules, brackets, etc. I spent most of the day at the kitchen table, painting and designing different medals. I'm designing the medals for Home Run Derby, Badminton, 100m Dash, and World Geography. I'm also decorating the chalice I found the other day, which goes to the winning team (see picture at the bottom).

Still a lot to do: find a rope for tug-0f-war, finish typing up rules for several events, come up with Opening ceremonies monologue, find a field to hold the Derby, hopefully find a referee shirt for my dad to wear.
Speaking of my dad, I spoke to him for the first time in our lives when we were both unemployed. He retired this week and for the first time in his life, he's taking it easy. He's leaning towards taking a job with a private company, but not right away. First he has to ref the Maine Olympics.

I'll have more pictures soon. Got the new camera in the mail today, just have to buy a bigger Memory card then I'll be uploading medal photos and hopefully some good shots of the Maine Olympics.

Mr. Perfect

2009-07-28T19:00:00.001-07:00

After throwing a perfect game last week against the Rays, Buehrle went 5 perfect innings in his next start against Minnesota. All together, 44 straight outs without a walk, hit, hbp, error- anything. Surfed the net for a bit to see if that was a record, 44 straight outs, or 14 consecutive perfect innings, but couldn't find anything. I'm betting it's a record for a starting pitcher. I know Vander Meer threw back-to-back no-hitters in the '30s. Considering Buehrle isn't a strikeout or power pitcher, it's an especially incredible feat.
Looked up some info on Johnny Vander Meer. In 1952, washed out of the majors and fourteen years removed from his no-no's, he threw a no-hitter in Tulsa in the Texas league.

More importantly, Breanne and I planned our trip to Cooperstown and the baseball Hall of Fame. We're going in August after the Olympics and staying at Glimmerglass Park, in Oprhp, New York.

*Again, I beat the beat reporters to the punch, by about 3 minutes. I was a little off on my numbers (43 straight outs) but who cares, here is the link.

En Fuego de Lugo

2009-07-26T14:12:00.000-07:00

Millions of Red Sox fans got their wish when Lugo was shipped off to the St. Louis Cardinals last week. As you might expect, Lugo has suddenly remembered how to play baseball.
Here's his stat line after three games with the red birds:

14 AB, 8 Hits, 2 Doubles, 2 Triples, 1 Home Run, 2 RBIs and a Stolen Base.

Granted, it's only three games into his Cardinals career, but it's a striking introduction when you look at his numbers with Boston. Though a career .272 hitter (and a .276 hitter before joining Boston) he batted only .251 in a Sox uniform, a 21 point difference. In 266 games with the Sox he managed three triples, or just one more than he's recorded in his first two games with St. Louis.
The homer isn't that surprising either. Before coming to Boston, Lugo had some power. While not wearing a Boston uniform, Lugo averages a HR every 49 AB. With Boston written across his chest, he hit a HR every 94 at bats, on average.
But what really made Lugo a hated man in Beantown was his defense. In 2008 and 2009, his fielding percentage was 20 and 40 points below his career average, respectively.

Fortunately, he made his first error for the Cardinals today, so at least that hasn't changed.

Doubleheader puts 5 Star Auto at 3-3 overall

2009-07-26T12:52:00.000-07:00

Just got back from Rotary Park in Biddeford where we had a doubleheader against Champions and Weave's team, Doc's Tavern. Lost both the games. I had a feeling we'd lose to Champions - we always do- but Weave's team looked very beatable. Corey and Heath, perhaps our two best hitters, were both absent. We never had the breakout innings we usually have at some point in the game. Usually said innings revolve around a big hit by either Heath or Corey, and our lineup was abnormally short today which resulted in more at bats for some of our weaker hitters.
I had an OK game, both at the plate and in the field. I made a lot of putouts in left but I also missed two balls I should have caught. I probably had 10 putouts combined in the two games. One ball I missed wasn't my fault. It was a hanging line drive that was knuckling like crazy. I ran in on it and tried to make a stabbing catch but it glanced off my glove. Not only did I not catch the ball but I sprained my finger on the play. I still can't bend the pinky finger of my right hand. The other missed play I had was on a pop near center. I sprinted, sort of in front of Megan in CF, but overran it and ended up having to lunge back to try and catch it. I still could have gotten a glove on it but I just flat out missed it. All in all I did make several good catches, one that I dove in on, so it wasn't too bad of a day in the field.
I was 4-5 at the plate with one FC. I thought Joe was going to beat the play to second because the SS had to dive to make the play on the hit but the throw beat the runner. I had one lucky hit in the second game when the ranging left fielder dropped a pop but my other hits were nice clean ones. I really like the blue Cyclone bat.
Breanne should probably get MVP for both games because she got up out of bed, after working back-to-back nights and being on the schedule for 4 or 5 hours tonight, and played both games of the doubleheader so we wouldn't be a player short. We would have had to take an automatic out for playing with three girls and been a player short in the OF. She also did pretty well at the plate. She struck out once on a high pitch, but had two hard ground outs to the right side, a BB, and a infield single. Most of her outs were in the 2nd game when it was clearly evident that she was running on fumes.
So now I'm hitting .750, which is surprising, but I can't bend my pinky finger. Hopefully it's just a sprain and I didn't break anything. It's as fat as a sausage but I don't care as long as it's healed in time for the Olympics.

Olymic meeting with Ethan

2009-07-26T12:43:00.000-07:00

Slacked off for a bit on the blogging. Not a whole lot to relate.
Went home on Saturday to train a bit with Ethan and work on Olympic related stuff. We met at the Hall-Dale track at 9 am and did a mile together. We both did better than we expected, but were too bushed to record good times in the 100m dash. We each did it twice but the times were slow. Individual heats and both lumbering from the 1600m.
Back at the house we worked out quite a few nagging details of the Olympics and developed a fair scoring system. We also figured out the teams, though I'm not going to announce them here in case anyone is reading this. The official teams won't be announced until the opening ceremonies, but we do know for sure that there will be only two teams rather than three or four this year. It makes it easier to make the brackets. And due to the handful of people who decided to cancel with less than two weeks before the events, it was becoming more and more difficult to divvy up fair teams. I'm still expecting about 15 for the Games, but I was hoping for closer to 20. I'm particularly bummed that Fed can't make it, but he double-booked the weekend and his other plans were made in advance.

I'm going to the track on Monday to work on either the mile or the 100m dash. Jesse and Breanne are both considering attending the practice session. Even though there are less than two weeks till the events, and it won't make that much difference in our overall times, a couple practices can't hurt.

Wiscasset Trip

2009-07-21T16:00:00.000-07:00

Breanne and I finally made the trip to Wiscasset and Red's Eats. We'd been wanting to go there for a few years. Last summer we actually drove up to eat there but after waiting in line for about 30 minutes and hardly moving, we opted to eat at Sara's, across the street. Sara's is a nice place, I've eaten there several times, but it was usually a fallback.
The wait at Red's wasn't too long, probably about half an hour. There was an annoying old guy in a floral hat that was breathing over my shoulder and standing right next to me instead of behind me the whole time but it was uneventful for the most part. We each got a lobster roll and we split some fries and iced tea. The rolls were $15 bucks a piece, but they advertise that you get more the a pound of lobster in each one. Didn't feel like a pound to me, but it was tremendously good. Probably the best lobster roll I've ever had, and I've had lots. They gave us two cups of butter and we were dipping the rolls into the cups. I dropped a few pieces of lobster in and let them saturate over the course of the meal, much like my brother does on lobster day every August when my family gets together and eats lobster.
Breanne got some chocolate ice cream at the shop next door and then we headed back. We were going to stop at the Family Dollar store but then we saw Big Al's in Wiscasset. I recalled seeing commercials for the store as a kid, something about a guy in glasses and a gorilla suit, maybe standing on the roof, but whatever, we stopped in. It was a fortuitous change in plans as we found some great stuff for the Olympics. Globes in glass squares, bats that actually say Home Run Derby on them, some shuttle cocks, and several other cool things, all for really cheap.
We also stopped at a music store in Brunswick and got Breanne some strings for her guitar. She's learning "Redemption Song" and "Running Down a Dream" along with some Dylan songs. She had trouble playing bar chords but she picks up on all things musical quickly.

16-9, Five Star Auto over Champs

2009-07-19T06:36:00.001-07:00

Had a softball game at 8am this morning. I didn't get much sleep last night but I didn't feel too tired this morning, and my sore throat felt a bit better. We won, 16-9, against a good team. I had a good game, at least at the plate. While in the field, there was a long fly ball that I may have been able to catch had I taken off in the correct direction immediately but it went well over center fielder's head and I was playing left. I should have dove for it but I can't seem to dive backwards, or away from home plate. I need to work on it. I did stab one looping line drive in the 5th or 6th inning.
I went 3-3 at the plate with three doubles. I didn't hit the ball particularly hard, I just tried to hit it where they ain't, or weren't. I also used a new bat for the first time today. I ditched the green Easton and tried the blue Cyclone. I only did it because Joe always bats before or after me and we both liked having the bat in hand while we were on deck. The Cyclone weighs the same and it's the same length, so it's pretty much the same bat. It felt lighter though.
I only remember recording that one put out in the field, which was odd considering we were playing one girl short, thus three outfielders instead of four. As an outfield battery we didn't play too well today, but the infield was great. Gannon made several great plays at shortstop.

Track Training

2009-07-18T13:44:00.000-07:00

Went to the track today to do some much needed Olympic training. I brought a stop watch and did a few 100 metre dashes and ran one timed mile. My mile was 6:12, which isn't too bad if you consider how little running I've done since moving back to Maine. I was around 1:30 after one lap so I didn't stray too far from my initial pace.

My first 100m dash was 11.98 and my second was 12.66, and my third one was 0.00 because I forgot to push the start button. Though the times weren't official, I was happy with them. Considering I wasn't running against anyone and I had to carry the stop watch myself I think those are good times. I looked up the Maine High School track and field records and my first 100m time would be good enough for a state record- for girls.

I don't feel like I'm any slower than I was 10 years ago but I'm certain I am. I watched several instructional videos online today about proper motion, conditioning, and speed exercises. I also copied and pasted a lot of info that I'm going to use to train over the next 20 days. I need to improve my starting speed- breaking out of the blocks. I should have started months ago but oh well, it will just give me a head start on next year.

Here's another cool Olympic emblem:

Olympic Emblems

2009-07-16T16:02:00.000-07:00

The 2009 Maine Summer Olympics are only 23 days away. It's hard to believe. There is a lot that needs to be done but at the moment I'm working on the official emblem. It's not as if we need an official emblem, but Jake had the idea of ironing Olympic pictures on t-shirts, so I figured I'd come up with a few people could choose from.
I've come up with more than a few. At the moment I've designed 15 emblems, though I only really like a few of them. Here is a sneak preview of a few of the emblems that will make an appearance at the shirt ironing exhibition of the 2009 games.

Glowing All-Stars

2009-07-14T20:51:00.000-07:00

Watched the All-star game at JMR's. He wasn't there but in Washington D.C. He made me a floor plan of the apartment with all the emergency escape routes in case of a fire. Fortunately, there was no fire, the American League won, and I was able to leave through the front door.

I read an article on The Onion the other day, a piece titled, "Report: 90% of Waking Hours Spent Staring at Glowing Rectangles." Very funny, here it is. And though this is an exaggeration for most people (I think) the premise is still shockingly true.
So, while I stared, dazed, at the glowing rectangle tonight watching AL and NL hitters swing impatiently at first pitch after first pitch, and listened to Joe Buck flatulate out of his mouth into Tim McCarver's hair, I decided it's time to curb my wasted computer time. I still intend to write in my blog- daily if I can keep at it- but I'm going to limit my internet time to either 45 min or 30 min a day.
I purposely used the word internet and not computer. Since I write a lot, I almost have to use the computer more than 30-45 minutes daily. I often prefer typing to writing with a pencil. I once only wrote in notebooks but that started bothering my wrist so now I try to divide it up evenly between tapping the old keys and scrawling away with a pencil or pen.
I don't know how I'll do with this. I like to keep up with fantasy baseball news and Ricky Gervais's blog, so I guess I'll just have to read fast and pass on aimlessly signing into Gmail and Facebook so often. Since I have so few followers, I'm going to wish myself luck.

By the way, Carl Crawford was All-Star game MVP, deservedly so. He robbed a HR, with Papelbon on the mound, to preserve a 3-3 ball game. He also went 1-3 at the plate, but it was nice to see the Ted Williams award (All-Star MVP) go to a player for his defense. If you'll recall, before the season began I predicted Carl Crawford for AL MVP. Well, that's pretty close.

The Hibbing Excelsiors!

2009-07-13T21:26:00.000-07:00

Tonight Joe and Jesse came over to do the baseball packs draft. This is the second one that Jesse and I have done, but it feels more official this time with a third party involved. We had Donruss '88 and Score '90 to choose from. Each participant was given one pack of Donruss and one of Score, and was able to decide whether they wanted Score or Donruss for their third and final pack. Joe and I both did two Donruss packs and Jesse opted for two of the 1990 Score.

Just like last time, a few doubles popped up, and when that happens, both managers have to exclude the card involved. Most of the time it's crap players but we had some big names knocked out. I drew Clemens in my first pack. 1987 being one of his better early seasons, he had a 2.97 ERA, struck out 256 batters in 282 innings, went 20-9, had 7 shutouts and an unbelievable 18 complete games. Unfortunately, Joe drew him later on and I had to drop him.

Later, I pulled a Tim Raines Diamond King after Joe had gotten one, and I took what was easily his best player. In 1987 Tim Raines hit .330, stole 50 bases and cracked 18 homers. He'd be a fantasy stud today.

I'm real happy with my team overall. I named them The Hibbing Excelsiors, in honor of the former Brooklyn Excelsiors and Hibbing, Minnesota, the town where Robert Zimmerman grew up. The Excelsiors are strong considering the roster was produced entirely from only three packs.

I've got 1987 Mike Stanley behind the plate, '87 Jack Clark and Alvin Dark will split time between DH and 1B, and a great outfield with 1987 Willie Wilson, 1987 Kal Daniels and a platoon of 1989 Jose Canseco and 1987 Mike Young.

My pitching is arguably better than my offense. With Clemens out of the picture, my ace is 1987 Mark Langston (19 wins, 262 K, 14 complete games). 1989 Chris Bosio is a very solid no.2 starter (15 W, 2.95 ERA in 234 IP, and 8 complete games) and my third starter is a young 1989 Rob Dibble and his 12.8 K/9. 1987 Dave Stieb and fresh faced 1987 Jamie Moyer (still in the big leagues 22 years later!) round out my rotation. 1989 Eric King is my long relief man or spot starter, and I suppose 1987 Bruce Ruffin is too. Seeing as how I had so few good options in the IF and for bench spots on offense, I decided to load up on pitchers. My closer, Mike Schooler, has surprisingly good numbers for a guy I don't remember: 2.81 ERA, 33 Saves, and a 69/19 strike out to walk ratio. 33 saves in 1989 was a lot. A young relief '89 David Wells, slim and mustached, 1987 John Smiley, and '87 Jeff Russell are my final relievers. I was excited when I pulled Wells, but it was before he became the big time, perfect game pitcher he was in the '90s.

Now we're going to pop in our teams at whatifsports.com, set up in a pre-existing league (probably the 1988 American League) and see how are teams fare.

Softball and Penises

2009-07-12T20:00:00.000-07:00

An eventful day, for my life.

This morning I woke up around 8 and walked around looking for Breanne. She showed up about 30 minutes later, having gone for a walk to the beach with her dad, Tim. Popped online and discovered that the softball game at 10:30 had been cancelled and so I called Jesse for the scoop. He told me in so many words that the league commissioner made his decision to cancel the morning games at 6am, when it was pouring. Well, by 10:30, game time, the weather was beautiful and we definitely could have played, but cest la vie, the game was off so we went out the breakfast at Becky's diner in Portland.

We met Breanne's sister Andrea and ate on the porch upstairs. I didn't even realize there was an upstairs before this morning. When the waiter came to take our order, I changed my mind at the less second and ordered french toast. Usually when I change my mind extemporaneously at restaurants it results in a terrible meal, as I order something I absolutely hate. Well this time I lucked out as the french toast was great. It was one of the best breakfasts I've ever had in a restaurant. They make great f-toast.

We drove back to OOB, I watched the rest of "The Man Who Knew Too Little," which was surprisingly funny after the poor review Jesse gave it, and sat out in the sun. Around 2:40 I took off for Biddeford on my bike to go to the ball field. What was supposed to be the second game of our double header was at 3:30 at Rotary Park. Breanne wasn't feeling good so she opted out of the bike ride and met me there a little before game time.

The game was an interesting one. Neither team scored until the 4th inning when Ball Busters scored two runs on a botched play in the field. We answered with three runs of our own in the bottom of the fourth. After grounding into a force out in my first at bat, I hit a hard grounder to third that the third baseman bobbled. It should have been another force out but every one was safe so in our generous scoring system it went as a single. With the bases loaded and two outs, Heath hit a high fly ball to right field. I was running on contact as there were two outs and the right field ended up bobbling the ball. I scored from first, and Heath stopped at third or second with a bases clearing hit.

In the sixth I came up again with two runners on. I hit a shallow pop over the second baseman's head, a real cheap hit, the ended up finding grass between him and the outfielders. I noticed nobody was covering second base so I took off for second. The pitcher and second baseman noticed, hurried a play, but I eluded the tag and slid face first and hugged the bag. While I was doing this, Melissa took off for home and the pitcher rushed a bad throw to the catcher that ended up getting by her. Joe sprinted home from 3rd and I took third base. So, again, generous scoring gives me a triple on the play (though with a good fielding team I would have gone 0-3 rather than 2-3). I was just lucky.

Going into the top of the 7th (which is the equivalent of the ninth in rec. softball) we were leading 10-5, so we had to hold them. We gave up a soft single, then Dan struck out a girl, then I made a running catch in the outfield. I got a good jump on the ball and ran back and to my left to catch it, which is the easiest way to catch a fly ball if you're a lefty. Dan got another girl to go down swinging, inexplicably, and we won the game. So that's back to back 10-5 wins. It was too bad we didn't get both games in, but Ball Busters was the better of the two teams so it was an important victory. Here's a picture of the catch. I'm the one running with my arm up in the air.

I rode my bike home and Jesse came over for burritos. Breanne made a delicious meal. The burritos had corn, sweet potato, tomatoes, rice, and lots of herbs and spices and a pepper from our garden.

Jesse and I played a game of scrabble later on. It was a standard game until near the end I spotted the word PENISES on my tray. Probably the coolest bingo I've ever had. Here's a picture of it.

Tomorrow we're doing the Donruss/Score fantasy baseball draft. That should be fun. I'll blog about it.

Jason Bay votes for Philly

2009-07-09T13:53:00.000-07:00

The other night at Jimmy The Greeks, taking a drubbing in trivia while the Sox took one from the A's and rookie pitcher Brett Anderson, Jason Bay made a catch in left field that we all agreed would be a play of the week. Not the case, on MLB.com at least. I looked for it today, and though I agree Carlos Gomez's over-the-fence rob of A-Rod's would be grand slam deserved the top spot, Bay's play was a close second. See for yourself.

Not only was it a great catch, but he doubled up the runner on second.

Additionally, trivia was a bust. We were rolling until we got a question we'd had at trivia a few months ago. "What was the first capital of the United States?" In February or March, when we'd had the same question, I guessed Philadelphia. I'd picked it up somewhere and was fairly confident it was correct. Nope, it was New York City. So naturally this time I said New York City. The same frigging guy is still running trivia and he asks the same frigging question but this time the answer was Philadelphia! Nobody said anything either. I wish Jesse had been there because he would have been 2 beers deep, drunk, and likely would have raised one finger into the air and shouted, "I demand an explanation!" After that we missed a big bonus question and didn't have a shot.

Hornets

2009-07-09T09:33:00.000-07:00

While organizing the recyclables this morning, I was stung by a hornet. I may have been bitten as well. I didn't realize this until conducting a little online research, but a hornet can sting and bite multiple times. It got me real good on the inside of the elbow and then I smashed it with a wine bottle while I yelled "eye for an eye you bitch!" I was worked up because the stung still stung.

It was the first time I'd been stung by a hornet in years. I had a skylight window in my room as a kid and there was a hornet's nest under the frame. I'd get stung occasionally while opening/closing the window or adjusting the screen. I also once had my bed under the window and a hornet fell onto my bed and died from the fall. I think it must have been sick, or maybe another hornet pushed it. Murder.

Wiffle Ball Card Movie

2009-07-08T19:08:00.000-07:00

I made my first movie using the Windows Movie Maker program tonight. I think it turned out OK for my first try. I didn't put too much time into it as I took a giant swig of Nyquil before starting in. The song is a theme I wrote for a video game a friend is making, and the pictures are all cards from the first wiffle ball party. The colors on the cards aren't nearly as bright as they're supposed to be but I don't think it makes much difference.

Charles Barkley sized reptile once stalked Brazilian forests

2009-07-08T18:27:00.000-07:00

Found this article online today about an Armadillo-like crocodile that once roamed the area now known as Sao Paulo, Brazil. 6 1/2-feet-long and roughly 265-lbs, this Charles Barkley sized reptile lived during the Cretaceous period. The article states that the animal was "armadillo-like" but doesn't say whether it could role itself up into a ball and hide in it's carapace. Imagine a crocodile that could roll itself into a ball!

Ken Burns to release 10th inning of BASEBALL

2009-07-08T17:16:00.000-07:00

Ken Burns was Joe Castiglione's guest on the radio tonight during the 4th inning. The big news is he's coming out with a new documentary. It's actually a sequel of sorts to his grand Baseball series. He felt he had to do a follow up with all the stuff that's happened in Major league baseball since his original documentary was released ( before the 1994 season). The strike of 1994, the home run race of 1998, the Subway Series of 2000, the steroids scandal, Bonds hitting 73 and eventually breaking Aaron's all-time record, the Sox ending their 86 year drought, the creation of the World Baseball Classic- an incredible collection of events for a period of just 15 years. Due to the myriad subjects to cover, Burns has decided to make it a 4 hour special comprised of two parts- a top of the 10th and a bottom. It's due to come out in September of 2010.

The original Ken Burns' Baseball was 9 parts, each part referred to as an inning, and I've seen it a few times all the way through, though I'm not sure I've ever watched the whole thing with sound. What I once often did was put it on at the video store and plug my Ipod into the stereo system and watch the early color footage from the 60s and 70s and listen to Van Morrison and Paul Simon, specifically The Rhythm of the Saints. It would often hypnotize both myself and customers.

On a side note, Wakefield has 8 Ks through 6 innings against the A's, and the score is 1-1. Drew led of the bottom inning with a bomb into the Oakland bullpen and Pedroia just got on base with no outs. The wind is blowing straight in from center, which seems to be helping Wakefield, though it's said that the exact opposite conditions help him most.

Ken Griffey honors MJ

2009-07-08T14:14:00.000-07:00

Ken Griffey Jr. sported only one batting glove yesterday in honor of Michael Jackson. I attached a clip from MLB tv. (0:39 mark). I recommend watching it without the audio as the commentator is speaking with more affectation than Will Ferrell doing Harry Caray.

Recent Olympic Newsletter

2009-07-08T13:29:00.000-07:00

Sent out the final big Olympic email today. The 2009 Games are exactly a month away. Unfortunately, I've yet to finish the theme song, plan the opening and closing ceremonies, pick teams, design the emblem, find a second location, or write up the rules for all the events. Other than that everything is ready to roll.

I sent the email out to about 25 people, and though I'm hoping they all come, I'm guessing it will be closer to 15. Not what I was hoping for, but people are getting older and are less inclined to play games. One of the main reasons I started the Olympics (and Ethan said it was my idea but I seem to remember it being Manda's) was to stay active and in shape. The Olymps are a great way to improve yourself year to year, both physically and mentally.

The email touched on several subjects. I finally released the weekend schedule, with everything beginning on Friday, from 7 to 11 pm, for the Meet and Greet, which is optional. Most people will recognize each other from wiffle ball games, but there will be a handful of people that have never met. I'm hoping most people show up on Friday to watch the Sox game and hang out. It would be a shame to have someone drive all the way up to Gardiner on Saturday morning just to discover they've missed the first event or two.

On Saturday, the opening ceremony is scheduled for 9 AM and events start, at an unknown location, at 10. We'll be finished events by 8 PM on Saturday, perhaps earlier, and the first event on Sunday will be the 1 mile run, at 10 AM. We'll be missing a few people on Sunday due to softball and other engagements, but I hope we'll have a good turnout for the medal ceremony.

The email also introduced the Mystery Event idea, the absence of Beer Pong and Pictionary, and what countries, territories, and administrative regions Olympians are expected to know. Chances are most people won't even read the email so I'll probably have to message everyone a couple times again before 8/08.

It would have been so cool if we'd had the Olympics on the 8th last year: 08/08/08. Oh well.

I've also drawn up some core teams, which are are not to be known by anyone outside of the committee until Opening Ceremonies, but there's got to be some reward for reading my blog. Right now, the core teams are as follows:

Team A: Ethan, Jake, Mary

Team B: Greg, Amanda, Jane

Team C: Breanne, Luke, Federico

I tried to make the teams as even as possible without putting Manda, Ethan, and myself on the same team. Some year, I'd like us all to be on the same team, but not this year. Clearly Team B has the advantage in running events, while Team A has my brother, who is my pick to win the individual gold. I like Team C, my team, so far. I'm hoping Federico is the dark horse of the Olympics. If he's half the athlete he was in high school we should be fine.

1 YEAR ANNIVERSARY!

2009-07-08T11:21:00.000-07:00

It's the 1 year anniversary of my blog!
Officially, it was yesterday, but due to a debilitating case of the flu, all I was able to do yesterday was sleep, watch The Fugitive, Chasing Amy, and The Manchurian Candidate (1962 version), eat a little soup, and cancel dinner plans with Breanne, Federico, and Jen. I was very excited about going to Pastas. That's the name of new restaurant in Gardiner owned by Fed's parents, Roxanne and Tony. Seeing as how both Fed and Jen have kids under two years old, I figured I shouldn't risk passing on a virus to one of them, so I cancelled (even though it's a pet peeve of mine).
As for the movies, it was a fairly successful batch.
The Fugitive I'd seen before, and it's one of my favorite action movies. I love the part when Tommy Lee Jones says, "Our fugitive has been on the run for ninety minutes. Average foot speed over uneven ground barring injuries is 4 miles-per-hour. That gives us a radius of six miles." Nothing that cool will ever escape my mouth. I watched it for the first time a couple years ago when I went on a Harrison Ford binge while working at the Videostop.
I didn't like Chasing Amy much. I've tried hard to enjoy Kevin Smith movies but they're just not my thing. I don't understand the fixation on sex. Maybe I should have seen it when it came out but the conversations and overall premise just seems trite to me. I really like the Jay character in this movie, and I liked the conversation Ben Affleck has with Jay and Bob in the coffee shop, but all in all the movie had no emotional affect on me.
The Manchurian Candidate was super. One thing that's always bothered me in movies and television shows is how people act when they're being hypnotized. It never seems believable, and only works in a purely comical way. Not the case with Manchurian. The protagonist, Laurence Harvey, truly looked hypnotized, or my brain tells me it's supposed to look like. When Frank Sinatra was having him play solitaire with the stacked deck, Harvey really showed his acting chops. Good movie, great idea for a story, and I'm excited to see the remake. Also, Angela Landsbury is amazing in this movie. I'd never seen her in anything but Murder She Wrote. She played the most evil villain.
I feel like I'm on the rebound right now. I've still got achy joints and a hacking cough, and my head is still soupy and heavy, but my snot isn't quite as green and I had the energy to send out an Olympic email today. That will be the next blog.
In case any one is curious, this is my 149th published post. Sometimes I don't finish an entry then forget to publish it, but even so that's the equivalent of writing one, roughly, every 2.5 days. Not bad considering all the internet-less traveling I did in the last year. I intend to do better in the coming year. Maybe I'll try to average one a day.

the Fourth

2009-07-04T06:27:00.000-07:00

Going to Gray to visit Manda and Greg today- the 4th of July. I'm bringing my notes for the Olympics and hoping we can figure out the most important details for 08/08, the day of the first ever Maine Summer Olympics. I'm also bringing fireworks and some beer pong equipment.
Also, I went to the Sea Dog's game yesterday. We had shit seats but it was a good game. They won 8-5, I think. Went to Margarita's and had some shit burrito for way too much money. I hate their food.

Bullpen? More like Shitpen.

2009-06-30T20:43:00.000-07:00

I just listened to the worst game I've ever heard on the radio. The Sox had a nine run lead going into the bottom of the 7th and lost 11-10. Terrible. The bullpen allowed 10 runs! Easily the worst game I've ever heard or seen. Makes me sick to my stomach. Nothing else to say about it.

Pride's Corner

2009-06-30T20:26:00.000-07:00

Went to the drive in again with Breanne last weekend, this time to the one in Westbrook. It was 7 bucks a person, which ended up being the same as Saco, which is 14 dollars a car. Saco was showing UP! and The Hangover while Pride's Corner in Westbrook was showing Transformers 2 and Star Trek, so we opted for Westbrook.
Transformers 2 was about as bad as you'd expect. There were some confusing fight scenes that involved bright flashes of medal and explosions. What I noticed most about the beginning was the gaping plot holes and bad acting. One moment there was a robot fight in Los Angeles and somewhere in a big city and Asia, and the next second the government was denying it. But that didn't matter once John Turturro stepped on to the screen. He's one of my favorite actors. I guess I started getting more interested at that point- they went to the Smithsonian, then the pyramids in Giza- and then the movie was upside down. The whole picture was flipped and the audio was crackly. The motorists/viewers, parked on their grass moguls, started laying on their horns and yelling out windows. It was literally at the climax of the film that the reel got flipped.
We turned the radio off so we couldn't hear the audio and started watching the shouting and gesticulating people milling around the concession stand. We walked over after a while and discovered that there was nothing that could be done; the reel had to play out until the next movie started. The guy running the place was a bit worked up, understandably, but he gave everyone free passes for their trouble.
We went back to the car and waited to see if Star Trek would be upside down.
It was not. And the best part is enough people left that we were able to move our car up a couple of rows right into the center, literally the best spot in the parking lot.
And it was a good movie. I was never much of a Star Trek fan, and I've never seen any of the other movies, but I liked this one a lot. The actor who played Spock was particularly good. The story was interesting too. It reminded me of an episode of the show my brother used to have on tape. I think that was Star Trek: the Next Generation though, because Patrick Stewart was the captain and the last line of the episode was "Five card stud, joker's wild, the sky is the limit." Not sure why I remember that but it seemed important at one time.
Breanne seemed captivated with the movie too, actually staying awake till the end of the movie.

Miracles

2009-06-24T16:44:00.000-07:00

I read this article today on a "miracle" that happened in Witchita, KS. The article is about both Chase Kear's recovery and the canonization of Father Emil Kapaun.
Kear suffered a very serious head injury after falling on his head during pole vaulting practice for his college team. His skull was cracked from "ear to ear," and his chance of pulling through was slim. His family "frantically" started praying for his recovery, specifically praying in the name of Father Emil Kapaun, a former Army chaplain and war hero.
We hear about miracles all the time. They're so common it's silly to call them miracles. What makes this story interesting is that the Vatican is sending a postulate to Witchita to investigate. I guess the postulate is going to look at medical records, X-rays, other things he/she probably knows nothing about, in an attempt to determine whether a miracle happened or not.

"There is no doubt in anyone's mind in our family that Father Kapaun helped save our son," Paula Kear said of Chase, who is making a full recovery.

This type of reaction upsets me. Faith, though often misdirected, can play an important role in recovery. The power of positive thinking can help in the healing process. It cannot, however, perform the surgery that was needed to save their son. If there's anyone this family should be celebrating and praising it's the doctors and nurses, those who actually did the saving.
Incidentally, the head surgeon, Dr. Grundmeyer, also mentioned that he viewed it "a miracle." I wonder if he means it in the same way that the family does. It doesn't say.
I'm interested to see what comes of the investigation.

Movie List

2009-06-24T11:27:00.000-07:00

While organizing my CDs, trying to make room for my newest purchases, I came across a flurescent green sticky note with a list of movies on it. I recognized it immediately as a sticky note from Videostop, the movie store I worked at in Lebanon, NH. I had created a couple of fake accounts to keep track of movies I wanted to see. You see, each account would have a "comments box" that I would fill with movie titles. When one filled up, I'd start a new account. I could have just kept the list on paper, but paper is easily and often thrown away.
I made a few of these lists, so I'm hoping the other ones will pop up some time.
These were the movies on the list:
Crash, Fitzgeraldo, Powder, Jonestown, Volver, Lenny, The Wrong Guy, Reds, The French Connection, Strawberry and Chocolate, The Insider, Doc Hollywood, Factotum, Cube, Hoop Dreams, the Ladykillers, White Noise, Little Man Tate, Platoon, The Sting, Princess Mononoke, The Birdcage, Natural Born Killers, Passengers, Alexander, Tennants, The Killing Fields, The Office (American Version)
In the two years or so since making this list, I've seen The Insider, The Sting, The Ladykillers, and most of the American Office. That's 4 out of 28, 1/7, not bad. Once I get Netflix back I'll knock off a few more of these.

Facebook works!

2009-06-24T07:39:00.000-07:00

I hate to do it, but this will be the 2nd straight Facebook related blog entry.
The reason? Facebook has finally provided me with a service- it's actually done something of value! On a whim, I searched for my friend Joseba, who lived with me for a summer in high school through an exchange program. He was from a town near Barcelona, and spoke little English when he arrived. I recall the first night staying up late with my sister and Joseba trying to determine what his high school's mascot was. We figured out that it was a type of squirrel, only to late discover it was a type of badger.
I grew close with him over the course of the summer. We hung out pretty much every day and was very sad to see him go.
Well, after not speaking to him for 11 years, I found him on Facebook and we've been messaging each other. It's truly great. So, for once, I'm happy I signed up with Facebook.

Funny Comment

2009-06-21T17:19:00.001-07:00

Recently read the funniest comment I've ever seen on facebook.
Alex Steed, a guy I met in college, shared a comment that he was disappointed in the lack of respect displayed by a certain friend leaving a comment on a note/picture of his. Alex is a good guy- he wasn't trying to make anyone feel guilty or stupid, just lamenting the typical result of trying to post something serious on facebook. What he basically wrote was he thought his facebook friends would be more grown-up.

His friend's comment:
"If you can't trust your closest 1,425 friends, who can you trust?"

Alex has 1,425 friends (I checked).
This post is by no means a shot at Alex. He's one of the most honest and hard working people I've ever met, but I just couldn't resist sharing the humor in this conversation of comments.
I have several friends that have thousands of "friends" on facebook. It's all a matter of putting in the time, or bothering to, of adding each person you encounter. I think of friends differently than most people. I don't believe a person can have 1,400+ friends, not in the real world, and not by my definition of the word friend. Some people accumulate "friends" for show, others in a forthright attempt to keep in touch with every person they meet, even fleetingly. As my dad likes to say, To each his own. Of course, when he says it he means "I don't like the way you think."

Wiffle 2

2009-06-21T17:04:00.001-07:00

Had the 2nd wiffle party last night. Went pretty well. Not nearly as good a turn out as the first one but we had 18-20 people there at it's height. Less people had it's advantages- few sat out any of the games, unlike last month when certain party goers had to wait out a couple games to get any playing time.
It was a fun day. Jordan showed up around noon bearing gifts. "Birthday" presents, he got Breanne a book called "Signspotting" that was a collection of photos of funny and nonsense signs collected all over the world. Some very funny stuff in it. Jordan got me a few records, Jazz mostly. He's burned me a few CDs over the years trying to introduce me to Jazz. 5 or 6 records, I'm listening to one now.
Anyhow, my brother was the only other person here by 1 (the start time). A few people cancelled last second, but every one else was just plain late. Lots of folks didn't show up till 2 or later. The Reardons came, Jesse and Joe, and Jess instantly got drunk on one Bud Lime Light and made the day especially entertaining. Chrismike, Zack, The Wings, the Vitis, Manda and Greg, and obviously Breanne, and Carrie and Matt showed up as wiffle ball was winding down. I'm probably forgetting some people, sorry if you're reading this now and I forgot about you.
We probably got 5 games or so in, with my brother being the obvious MVP, hitting multiple home runs and pitching and playing the field exceptionally. I couldn't hit a lick for some reason but I made some good plays in the field. Jesse also put in an MVP effort, lining a home run off of me and tattooing a double off the right field foul pole, thus granting himself the right to name it. He was leaning towards JM pole or something like that but I'm not sure what he went with. Ethan hit a HR off the left field pole, not long after Jesse hit the other one. It was generally accepted that he'd do it eventually, lining multiple balls down the first base line. I think I'm going to call his pole "Lucky's Pole" after his dream sobriquet, Lucky Corneo.
Everyone was pooped after 7 hours of wiffle so after a few Karaoke songs the party sort of dissipated till it was over.
I'm excited to see the pictures taken with Jesse's camera. I tried to snap some cool shots during the first game while I was umping.

PETA at it again

2009-06-18T08:04:00.000-07:00

Give me a break

What if?

2009-06-16T19:26:00.000-07:00

Jesse introduced me to a new website the other day, whatifsports.com. It's a site dedicated to fantasy predictions and projections. It allows you to created dream teams and fantasy rosters and pit them against each other.

At the moment, we're each creating a fantasy team with an $80mil salary cap. Here's the team I've got so far (25 man roster)

STARTERS

C - 1992 Chris Hoiles

1B - 1987 Will Clark

2B - 2007 Dustin Pedroia

3B - 1974 Brooks Robinson

SS - 1961 Maury Wills

LF - 1953 Ted Williams

CF - 1956 Roberto Clemente

RF - 1996 Juan Gonzalez

BENCH

SS - 1994 Omar Vizquel

1B - 2006 Howie Kendrick

OF - 1991 Dwight Evans

C - 1987 Mike Stanley

OF - 1982 Brett Butler

ROTATION

SP - 1964 Sandy Koufax

SP - 1991 Randy Johnson

SP - 1967 Luis Tiant

SP - 2007 Felix Hernandez

SP - 2000 Javier Vazquez

RP - 1973 Frank Tanana

RP - 2008 John Smoltz

RP - 1997 Chad Fox

RP - 2000 Bob Wickman

RP - 1965 Steve Carlton

RP - 1885 Unknown Palmer

RP - 2002 Troy Percival (closer)

Now if this team were somehow compiled in real life, no existing team, from any year, would beat them. The rotation is better than the '93 Braves and the offense is better than the '75 Reds. I think the defense it better than what the Reds had too.

Naturally, I made a little collage of some of the best players on the team.

Dumb Behaviour

2009-06-16T18:55:00.000-07:00

The only way I'm going to get this terrible incident out of my head is to put it down in words.
Breanne and I were walking back to the house from Rite Aid yesterday- she was picking out some graduation cards for her cousins. I'd been feeling sick the last couple of days, sleeping a lot and not eating much, so I went with her to get some fresh air. As we're strolling down the sidewalk, a truck speeds by and someone in the vehicle screams out the window at us in what I assume is an attempt to scare. Being in a bad mood, I flipped the truck off. The driver slammed on his brakes, turned around in a driveway and came flying back towards us. The truck, teal green, screeches to a stop in the middle of the lane going the other way and the driver gets out of the truck.
It's a guy with a buzz cut, roughly my age, glasses, in full army fatigues and steel toed boots. In the street, the camouflage suit does the opposite that it's intended to, making him very visible and clownish looking. His name tag says Thompson. He instantly challenges me to a fight.
He is clearly worked up and gets right in my face, hoping I take the bait and retaliate.
I explain to him why I flipped him off and that I considered what he did a rude thing to do. In his defense, he claims "it's a free country." I think that's just about the stupidest thing I've ever heard, and I hadn't heard it since elementary school. I argued that obviously I wouldn't have flipped him off if he hadn't screamed out the window at us.
"It was my brother who screamed, not me," he says.
"Well why are you the one out here threatening me then?"
"My brother could kick your ass too."
It was at this moment that I recognized him. About three months ago, we were both hired on the same day to work at Interstate Brands in Biddeford. We sat through a two hour orientation together, and I recall talking with him for a while. I remember him being mousy and polite. And at that moment, I'm certain it's him.
I tell him I know him. That we had orientation together at Interstate Brands.
He starts to stutter and says, "I've been gone the last month."
I tell him it was about three months ago. Then I ask him what his name is.
He sheepishly tells me it's Shawn.
He pretended not to remember me and starts heading back to his truck. He can't resist throwing a parting shot and yells, "I'd kick your ass but I don't want to go to jail."
Still suffering from my fight/flight adrenaline, I say, "Then why did you get out of the truck?" Breanne pulls my arm and says let's go and so I start walking back to the house.
Shawn and his brother, and a girl sandwiched between them in the truck cab, whiz by us, revving the engine, going at least 50 past the 25 speed limit sign. They didn't scream this time and I didn't flip them off.

The conversation was longer than that. I'm sure I've forgotten a few things he said and a few things I said. I wasn't as calm as I made myself out to be, but I was more practical than the ape in the army pants was. The problem with this whole encounter though isn't that there are stupid people like Shawn out there, dressing up in his fighting suit and tooling around looking for a confrontation. I was the problem.
I encouraged Shawn by flipping him off. I didn't have to do that. I certainly shouldn't have done it with Breanne at my side. Shawn could have been some maniac that was actually looking for a fist fight, and not just some sorry soldier trying to look tough in front of his little brother. Perhaps if I hadn't recognized him he wouldn't have gotten uncomfortable and walked away. Any number of things could have happened.
The point is, I feel embarrassed for my behaviour. I should be wiser than that, and though it's a cliche, I'm really too old for that sort of thing. Everyone gets worked up and overexcited sometimes, but I feel ashamed that Breanne had to see me arguing with some loser, looking just as stupid as he did.

Star Wars

2009-06-15T07:58:00.000-07:00

Breanne dropped another unforgettable line the other day. I just purchased a 2002 Movie Guide, for $1, the other day and we were quizzing each other about actors and Oscars and the such. I was flipping through the cast index and asking her to tell me 3 or 5 or 10 movies that so-and-so was in. I asked her to name me 3 movies that Mark Hamill appeared in. She said Who is that? and I told her it was Luke Skywalker. She's not terribly familiar with the Star Wars movies but she knew all she had to do was name the three titles in the trilogy.
Her answers:

1. Star Wars
2. Dark Force
3. The Next Generation

Piazza

2009-06-15T07:06:00.000-07:00

Found this article on Mike Piazza. I always knew he was taken late in the draft but I didn't realize he was such a long shot. Piazza

Breanne's Vacation

2009-06-14T16:44:00.001-07:00

Breanne had vacation this week so on Monday morning we headed north. We played a couple rounds of minigolf at Deb's in Randolph and chatted with Jen for a while then ate dinner with my parents and stayed the night in Gardiner.
Early the next morning we headed up to The Forks, despite the bad weather. We got there around 11 am and soon decided to push our bike ride up a day and make the trip to Greenville. We'd been planning to do the trip at some point during the week and it wasn't raining and reasonably warm so we figured it was as good a time as any.
We left the car at the east end of Brochu road. The weather was pretty nice, little bits of rainfall here and there. It's a fairly hard ride, with several long hills and loose soil which makes it harder for the tires to find purchase and ascend. Breanne is just learning to use the gears on her bikes and she's picking up quickly. I had to wait for her at the top of a lot of the hills but she never gave up even on the biggest, steepest ones.
At one point in the trip I feared I'd taken a wrong turn. I remembered coasting by a small "Y" in the road and the more I thought about it the bigger the Y grew until I was convinced I'd chosen the wrong arm. Eventually I saw the Greenville dump sign though and knew we were only a few miles from Greenville and the southern tip of Moosehead lake. We finally got into town, hit tar, and rolled under the railroad bridge and up to Kelly's Landing in Greenville.
We both had the seafood chowder for an appetizer while a Michael McDonald song played on the radio. Breanne didn't like her meal, something deep fried, but I enjoyed my clam strips. At one point we heard "Break my Stride" by Matthew Wilder. We split an enormous ice cream sundae, which is what I think didn't agree with Breanne. Ice cream and seafood don't usually mix well.
It started to rain the second we started on the return trip, and then an absolute flood started falling on us. It poured the entire road back which made the riding difficult and a bit dangerous at times, but in time we rounded the last corner and saw the CRV waiting for us in a puddle. We were both drenched to the core. I forgot to mention it, but we saw two moose on the trip- one on the way there, one on the way back. I almost hit the one on the way there as I didn't see it because I was looking over my shoulder at Breanne. The moose was looking at Breanne too and it wasn't until she screamed that the beast and I saw each other and averted a collision.
Back at the camp I started a fire and we ate some pizza that Breanne cooked on top of the wood stove. We played some cribbage and listened to the Sox beat up on Burnett and the Yankees and we both fell asleep quickly. I was awoken in the night by the radio suddenly blaring on but it was fortunate because I was able to stoke the fire and get it roaring again.
We woke up to more rain the next day and decided to go kayaking. The water was rough and again we got wet but it was a good time. We paddled out to the widest and deepest part of the lake, beyond the narrowest spot which lies just to the left of our dock. The water was choppy and extremely black and the sky was thick with clouds, no sunshine passing through. We fed some ducks off the dock too. A mother and 9 ducklings. One duckling was distant from the rest, didn't go for the bread unless you landed it at it's feet and didn't seem to take to the water like the rest of them. I thought it might be blind or dim.
We decided to cut the trip short after going inside. The rain showed no sign of stopping and Breanne was anxious to get to Hodgdon and see her family. We packed everything up, cleaned up the camp, and hit the road by 1 or so. We took the back way to Bingham, following the Troutdale road, and took route 2 out Skowhegan towards Newport, where we got on 95. We found out the next day that about an hour or so before we passed through Skowhegan there had been an armed robbery at a bank downtown. Ski masks, motorcycles and rifles and we'd missed the whole thing.
It was 6:45 when we pulled in the driveway in Hodgdon. It was nice to see Tim and Kathy again and we all watched the Sox defeat the Yanks before hitting the hay.
Did all sorts of stuff up in Hodgdon: visited her Memere and Pepe, checked out Shin falls east of Patten, went to an Amish store, went to Volumes where I bought a thick Movie Guide book (info on most every film released up until 2002) and Forrest Gump- I've always wanted to read that, made a shoe shelf with much help from Breanne's dad, played a lot of bullshit and other card games, ran around with her dog Bella and the neighbor's dog Abby, annoyed their cat Spike with a Casio keyboard, ate a lot of Moxie floats, and watched the Penguins win the Stanley cup.
On the way home we met my mom in Augusta and Breanne bought a bike helmet and my mom got me some cleats for softball. She owed me a pair because she donated mine without asking me while I was in California. I was going to use them today (Sunday) but the double-header got rained out.

Champions 12, Five Star 2

2009-06-07T10:10:00.001-07:00

Trounced? Yes. Demoralized? No.
We lost 12 to 2 this morning to Champions, the perenial champion of the Biddeford Softball league. It wasn't nearly as bad as we thought it would be. A couple bad innings that were prolonged by errors in the field made the difference, and our sleeping bats. I have to give it to the other pitcher though. He was throwing some nasty stuff, as far as slow pitch softball goes. Lots of back spin and coming at you from odd angles. He kept inducing ground balls. Seems like that's all anybody could do today: hit ground balls. We must have grounded out 15 times.
I grounded out twice, once into a fielders choice and once to second though I somehow beat the throw to first. I ran hard the first time but a little harder in my next at bat. I was trying to hit a line drive to right, over the second baseman's head but I was plagued by the same disease that seemed to affect everyone in the yellow and blue today (those are our colors).
The last year I played, 2005, we started the season against Champions as well. They beat us 22-1 that year; I suffered that loss on the mound. Though we lost by 10 runs, it wasn't by the mercy rule and it was closer than it sounds. We made a few errors in both the infield and outfield.
I had an OK game all around. I was hoping to put a charge into one of the pitches but it didn't happen. I'm hitting .500 though. In my second at bat, I took the first pitch and it was a strike. Since we begin each at bat with a 1-1 count (a ball and a strike) I was already behind 1-2. I took the next pitch because it almost hit me then hit the infield single to 2nd. In the field I was more consistent. I took over for Reynoldo in Left in the fourth inning on the first play caught a sinking line drive about chest high. I played a couple on hops, the first one I may have tried for with two outs, and caught towering pop up that took forever to come down. I barely had to take a step for that one but the anticipation was brutal. I hate real high ones. I much prefer an incoming ball which gives me less time to react or is hit way over my head or in front of me. I like to run balls down.
Heath, one of Corey's friends, had the best hit of the day. With Kelly on first, he ripped a triple to right field over the OF's heads. He probably would have had a HR if Kelly hadn't been on. Tim then hit what I thought would be a routine ground out to short stop but the guy bobbled it and Heath scored. Those were our only two runs, back to back. I'm going to work on hitting more line drives.
I rode my bike to and from Doran Field in Biddeford. It wasn't too bad, flat most of the way. I passed Jesse on the way to the field. 7.1 miles, 14.2 in all. I'm going to start biking to most of the games. I felt warmed up when I got there. And next week the new jerseys we ordered will be in. I'm wearing 42 this year in honor of Jackie Robinson.

Microfiction

2009-06-07T06:45:00.000-07:00

Microfiction is a hobby of mine. Microfiction can be best defined as really short stories. It's easier than writing a standard short story, but it can still be challenging to get a story across in about 250 words. Someone lent me a book of microfiction in high school and I ended up loaning my copy to someone else. I found another one at a big book sale in San Francisco.
I've tried to write several pieces of microfiction. Here's one I wrote a week ago or so. I posted on a "microfiction salon" page on facebook that one of my friends created. It's called Aquamarine.

Susan couldn’t tolerate him any longer. His reaction on leaving the theatre was always the same: “They certainly got what was comin’ to ‘em!”
A Passage to India. Terminator 2. Passion of the Christ. Gorillas in the Mist. The Diary of Anne Frank. Always the same reaction.

The next morning his breakfast was gone in roughly 45 seconds. Under a minute for 2 eggs, 4 strips of bacon, toast, and an indiscernible amount of home fries. Inhaled, like miscellaneous fuselage being sucked into a giant jet engine before the plane explodes. But he didn’t explode. He just burped and shot both hands into the air and shouted, “Ladies and Gentleman, a new World record!”

With Charles and Rose off to college in completely opposite directions (this was a fact she had verified by use of a ruler on three separate occasions) she couldn’t very well leave. The children were still children and though they would never say it out loud, they still needed their mommy. Susan couldn’t tolerate him but would have to.

And tonight, pen locked in her teeth, knees bent and reading glasses on, she’d asked him for an eight-letter word for “greenish blue” and his answer was aquamarine

Saco Drive-in

2009-06-05T20:27:00.000-07:00

Went to my first drive-in tonight. It was in Saco, only a few miles from my house. Breanne and I were buying some plants today and going to Martel's and we happened by the Saco Drive-In and remembered we'd planned to go there some time. Tonight they were playing Land of the Lost and one of the Fast and Furious movies. I'd been wanting to see Land of the Lost as it was a favorite TV show of mine when I was little so we decided to go.
We bought some kettle corn and a couple of Arnie Palmers at Hannaford and headed over. It cost 14 bucks to get in (that's for a car of two, it's 3 dollars for each extra human) and the guy in the booth told us we had to park beyond the 3rd row because we had four-wheel drive.
The parking area was grass moguls slashed with gravel paths for driving on. There were already 40 or so cars in the lot and we picked a spot near the middle of the fourth row from the screen.
After 30 minutes of so, listening to Ian Kinsler wallop a ball into the Monster seats for a 3-run homer, it was dark enough to start the movie and we tuned our radio to 88.1 to get the audio signal.
The movie was OK. It had some funny lines and Will Ferrell was amusing. I thought his trailer trash sidekick, I forget his name, was funny. I think he was in Tropic Thunder. The special effects were pretty fantastic though I wish we'd had 3-D glasses. It looked like some of the dinosaurs and maybe the giant crab were in 3-D. I remember liking the TV show more, though chances are it wasn't any good. My poor eyesight made it difficult at times and Breanne and I decided next time we'd drive the PT over and park closer to the screen.
After the movie Breanne walked over to the concessions and found a bathroom. She said the restrooms were clean and the concessions had a lot of choices. We didn't stick around for the Fast and Furious movie. We're hoping that soon they have a double feature which includes two movies we wouldn't mind seeing. All in all it was a cool experience and I wish they'd had one in Gardiner when I was growing up.

John Denver Rambo

2009-06-05T14:45:00.000-07:00

In the Rite Aid parking lot, Breanne and I were laughing at her behaviour earlier in the day when she thought someone had swiped our havahart trap. She thought it was missing from the back of the garden and took off into the bamboo thicket, spade in hand, with some harebrained intention of catching a thief. After coming up with several possible, though not plausible, possibilities, I looked in the back of the PT Cruiser and saw the trap sitting on the blue tarp, right where I'd left it.

Back at Rite Aid, we were laughing as Breanne backed up the CRV and mocked herself running into the bamboo, "I was like John Denver!"
I didn't understand the analogy. "What?"
"Wait, I meant Rambo."

That's probably the strangest slip of the tongue I've ever heard.

Kung Fu Kotzwarraism

2009-06-05T07:14:00.000-07:00

David Carradine died two days ago. He was 72.
Carradine was famous for his role of Kwai Chang Caine on the 70s TV show Kung Fu, though most people probably recognize him from the Kill Bill movies and numerous under-produced TV karate episodes.
When his death was first announced two days ago, Bangkok papers did not release the cause of death out of respect for his family. So I figured he either killed himself or had a heart attack while sodomizing a 10-year-old Chinese boy.
Today, Thai papers released a report that Carradine was found naked hanging in a closet of a luxury suite at a swanky hotel. He had a rope tied around his neck and a rope around his genitals.
Though it's painfully obvious, Thai police and reporters are ignoring the fact that he died performing autoerotic asphyxiation, or kotzwarraism in the Far East. Authorities claim that the official cause of death won't be known for a few weeks until the autopsy is done, because everything "is still unclear." Yeah, sure.
Even Carradine's family and friends are coming out and saying they know David would never kill himself. For one, that's a stupid thing to say. Anyone is capable of killing themselves and I'm confident a vast majority of septuagenarians have considered it at one time in their 70+ years. But since they're eliminating the possibility of suicide, we're left with two options: "scarfing" or a freaky murder by some sexual avant garde artist/killer. I guess the latter is possible.
If indeed he did die of autoerotic asphyxiation, I feel bad for the guy. I think people should be able to perform whatever odd and fetishist sexual acts they want as long as they're not hurting others. The few articles I read lead me to believe he wasn't suicidal, but that's a moot hypothesis.
The manager of the Swissotel Nai Lert Park Hotel, where Carradine's body was found, said that the night before he was found he had played piano for guests in the lobby and even a flute solo. Suicides don't play the flute. He was also working on several movie projects at the time, one of which the director said "he was very excited to be working on."
He's not the first celebrity to die this way. The last one I can recall was Michael Hutchence, lead singer of INXS. In the case if Hutchence's death, it was ultimately ruled a suicide, but I don't believe that. He was found naked too, and as is often the case, someone probably "sanitized" the scene. That's the official term when friends or family members remove sex toys or drug paraphernalia before police/reporters arrive.

ADDED NOTE: Associated Press writer Michael Casey just released an article suggesting that Carradine may have died from autoerotic asphyxiation. For the record, his announcement comes 10 hours after mine.

Dazed and Confused

2009-06-04T17:57:00.000-07:00

Just finished watching Dazed and Confused for the first time. I'm not sure what took me so long. It's likely the only movie from the famous "favorites" section at Lebanon Videostop that I hadn't seen.
I laughed. It was definitely entertaining and there were some great lines, like:
"That's what I love about these high school girls, man. I get older, they stay the same age."
I'd heard people say that before but never knew what they were quoting. It's a disgusting thing to say but very funny. Parker Posey was great as the bitchy vengeful senior, as was the kid who played the pothead- Ron Slater. I usually hate pot jokes, references, or characters but he was a spot on pothead.
But my reason for writing about the movie is that I noticed something extremely odd about it. Nothing really happened. There was no rising action, conflict, resolution- nothing. When the movie ended I couldn't believe it. I honestly am blown away that the movie has such a high rating on IMDB (Internet Movie Database). Which is not to say I didn't like it. I definitely give it a thumbs up as I was drawn in the whole time to the characters and conversations and was happy to let my mind drift back to my days in high school- but still, nobody changed. Mitch Kramer, the freshman who tags along to the senior party at Moon Tower, I suppose he goes through some type of metamorphosis, though it's hard to say because we don't really know him at all till he's cruising around with Randy Pink and buying booze for the one black guy in the film (who incidentally can't dance or act). Then this got me thinking, maybe that was the point. Perhaps writer/director Richard Linklater is just trying to give us a glimpse of the average dazed and confused and pointless night of some high school students during the mid-70s. And though we meet them and hear them and watch them, it's all from afar, nothing too specific, just something to watch, in an act of voyeurism, the unfolding of a regular summer night for seniors. Maybe the whole decision whether to play football or not (which is never even decided!) is supposed to be the conflict.
OR maybe, he was so high he forgot to include a plot.

No no-no

2009-06-03T17:59:00.000-07:00

Beckett had a no-no going through 6 2/3 and Curtis "Party Pooper" Granderson had to hit a single off him. What a bitch that Granderson is.

Trivia at Jimmy's

2009-06-03T07:40:00.000-07:00

We finally won trivia at Jimmy the Greeks. Took us long enough. After joining forces with Jesse's team 4 or 5 or 6 or 7 weeks ago- who can say for sure- I thought we'd be rolling into first place every Monday. Not the case. We had a rough stretch, often not even finishing in the top 3. Well this week was different.

It began in unique fashion. Coming straight from practice, we arrived around 6:50, 10 minutes before trivia begins. Tim was the only one there, and he'd been there for 20 minutes without being served. The place was packed and heavy with customers, particularly little kids, all of whom seemed to be under and on tables. Not your typical quiet night at Jimmy's. Tim said that Mrs. Maine was standing behind me and I turned to see a heavily made up 35 yr old trying to look 20. I guess she was alright but I wouldn't have assumed she won any type of pageant. I thought it would be witty to call our team (as we change the name most every time we don't win) Mr. Maine that night, both suggestive and immature. We went with it.
We had a couple of problems fitting two teams at our table, but after moving a section from another table, we were all set. Jesse, his brother Joe, and David arrived a little after 7.
The early rounds were typical, missed a few here and there, someone always says the answer at some point but you go with something else, same old, same old. The major difference between this Monday night and most was Breanne taking charge. She normally will whisper an answer or two in my ear or sheepishly render an answer, but not this Monday. She announced several answers with authority, disagreed with the answers of others and even laid out anecdotes to back up her answers. It was all very impressive. There were a few occasions, when we didn't end up going with her answer, that she was right just the same.
It was her night.
Going into the final question, which allows you to bet all your points if you feel so bold, we were in fourth or fifth place, 30 points or so behind the leaders. The question was something along the lines of: What do bartenders say is the most common complaint they hear from patrons at the bar? Wasn't worded like that exactly, but that's the gist. And most importantly, this "poll" was taken in 2008, not 2009. We threw out all sorts of ideas: marriage, jobs, money, politics, sports, cost of beer, etc. After much debate, we went with "jobs," as regardless of the year, state of the economy, anything; people always complain about their jobs. David was adamantly behind politics being the answer, and I believe it was Joe who wanted marriage. Breanne was on fire that night so we went with her answer. Jesse had scrawled the points race down on a napkin and calculated how much we should wager. We weren't terribly confident with our answer so we bet 10 points- not enough to bury us if we were wrong.
Caleb, the trivia MC, suspensefully read off several wrong answers and climactically announced the final two: it was either Politics or Jobs. We held our breaths and bugged out our eyes and Caleb announced: "All of you who said Politics, you were...... WRONG. The final answer was Jobs." We joined in with a reserved cheer, knowing we weren't the only teams to answer correctly. There were several groans and "ah fuck it" gesticulations around the bar, but everyone waited for the final scores.
First, he announced third place, which lifted our spirits when we heard a total score that we lower than our calculated total, and then the name of the 3rd place team. Then, he announced second place and we cheered to not hear him utter our own name. We had won.
It's the first time I'd ever won trivia in a bar. I'd come in 2nd countless times at numerous bars but had never finished first. It felt good. We had our choice of first place prizes:

$40 gift card to split between the 6 of us (not even 7 bucks a person)
or
4 tickets to the Portland Sea Dogs.

Had there been four of us, I would have argued all night to keep the baseball tickets. But, everyone seemed to want the gift card and I didn't really care. For me, the biggest prize was finally finishing first at Jimmy the Greeks.

Puny like a Rose

2009-06-03T07:06:00.000-07:00

Before I start crying about bad luck and fantasy baseball stuff that doesn't matter in the slightest bit yet exudes pathos, take a look at how awesome, on paper, my fantasy baseball team is. Keep in mind this is an AL only league with 12 teams. I didn't include everyone, just the "big" stars. After the pictures, the griping.

Do to the image size, you may have to click on them to find out who they are. Actually, that won't tell you either unless you're a baseball fan. It's, from left to right: Miguel Cabrera, Ian Kinsler, Alex Rodriguez, David Ortiz, Josh Hamilton, Grady Sizemore, J.D. Drew, Francisco Liriano, Eric Bedard, Joakim Soria, Felix Hernandez, and Kevin Slowey. I could have included Orlando Cabrera but I'm mad at him.

So, the losing streak has reached a month now. For the fourth consecutive week, Mighty Like a Rose, my team of superstars in my fantasy baseball league, The Barnstorming Union, has lost. Few sane managers would argue against my team being the strongest, but at the moment I'm slumping listlessly in a tie for 2nd place in my four team division. That puts me at 5th overall.
This week, I'm playing my brother, Manchester Torants (Torants is short for Expectorants) but I'm not confident. On Sunday, Grady Sizemore, one of my star outfielders, went on the DL (disabled list) with elbow inflammation which could require arthroscopic surgery, which would put him out for at least 2 months. And Josh Hamilton, fantasy darling and rehabilitation poster boy, went on the DL last night with a strained abdomen, and the team is presently performing an MRI to determine whether he'll need surgery to correct it. And guess how long he'd be out if surgery is indeed required? Yep, two months. Two MONTHS! That's a third of the baseball season, of which 1/3 is already gone!
Yes, I have A-Rod, Miguel Cabrera, and Ian Kinsler. And my offense is still better than that of most teams, but my pitching has struggled and my offense, due to injuries and slumping, has not been there to pick up the slack. Felix Hernandez and Francisco Liriano have combined for 1 win in the last month! Joakim Soria hasn't pitched in the majors since Cinco de Mayo and he's my only closer! Chris Ray has done nothing to get himself promoted to a closer position. At least Kevin Slowey has been great. That Slowey and Kinsler trade is looking like it may win Bo Jackson 5 (Colin) the Cavalier Lavaliere, a medal that is awarded to the team that, in the eyes of the commissioner, made the worst trade of the season. It's a shoe in if Matt Holliday (the major component of my trade offer) gets shipped to the NL at the trade deadline.
But it's a long season and injuries heal and paint fades and chainsaws rattle with flesh and cattle, so it's too early to panic. For now.

Patents

2009-06-02T10:54:00.000-07:00

Just found this article about the earliest sound recording

Edourd blah blah de Martinville was recording shit twenty years before The Wizard of Menlo Park and nobody has heard of the guy. He gave his invention a much cooler name to: the Phonoautograph. But it just goes to show you though that it's all about being the first to get the patent.

In the famous case of Elisha Gray and Alexander Graham Bell, Bell beat her to the patent office by a few hours, literally, and is now famously known as the inventor of the telephone. It's universally accepted now that he stole the idea from Gray, but history will probably always remember Bell as the father of the phone.

Same story with Gutenberg and his moveable print (that's Johannes not Steve). He probably didn't invent the printing press, rather stole it from his apprentice who had likely stolen it from his previous mentor. History uses a lot of white out though, and if you're on a quiz show or playing trivial pursuit, you're better off going with the likes of Bell and Gutenberg, respectively.

Another example is roller shoes- how many people came up with that idea before it surfaced 10 years ago or so? I'm talking about the mini wheels on kid's shoes, not roller blades. At least I invented "The Helping Hand," and no one can deny that.

Titanic Wig

2009-05-31T18:36:00.000-07:00

The last survivor from the Titanic, Millvina Dean, died today. She was 400 years old.

I'm willing to be that there were a few survivors that they lost track of in the wreckage that may still be alive. As advertised, the Titanic was a huge ship, and the official number of passengers aboard has been debated.

I bet she doesn't even remember being on the boat. She was two when they slammed into the iceberg. I read an AP article and it doesn't really explain how she survived. Chances are, her parents were rich and they had a boat to themselves, with leg room and seat cushions, while Leonardo DiCaprio and the other bums sank into the icy blue water.

Last Weekend in May

2009-05-30T18:50:00.001-07:00

Stayed over at Nick and Erin Viti's last night. I met them a few weeks ago at Jesse's wedding and they came to the wiffle ball party last week. Jesse Rowe and his wife, Sarah, were up visiting too and we all went over to the Viti house in South Portland and ate burritos, listened to music and played some beirut. They have a nice house- lots of unique pieces of art and framed photos, a fireplace, and lots of good pieces of furniture. Their kitchen was particularly cool with bench seats next to a slab of mica-looking table.
Breanne was there for dinner but had to work at 7 in the morning so didn't stay terribly late. The burritos had lots of veggies in them and also sweet potato, which I didn't imagine would taste good with burrito fillings but it did.
When beirut started, instead of switching partners, I played as if Breanne were there, throwing with my left hand for myself and my right hand for her. She actually may have had a better night than me, sinking several game clinching shots. I decided not to tell them that I'm slightly ambidextrous.
We played some Wi boxing, bowling and baseball, and I read some Calvin and Hobbes comics after everyone had drifted off to sleep. I slept on a futon and had some strange dreams about Manchester Elementary and a man with a jacket made of gardening gloves but I've lost the plot of the dream.
In the morning we ate breakfast at a place up the road then played some croquet and disc golf. The course was called "Boom Field" and it was on Boom Rd. The family running it were nice- sitting in the giant doorway of the lawn barbecuing with a little blond haired boy in a Varitek shirt running around. It was 5 dollars, flat fee, which is better than what was advertised online (4 for 1 round, 8 for the day). The course was OK, not terribly challenging, but we got a good deal of walking in and only Nick found a tic on himself. He slowly pulled it off completely. I shot -4, but I didn't play very well- it had been a while since I'd gone.
Nick and Erin are game for the next wiffle party, and it sounds like Jesse is, though I'm not sure whether Sarah can make it. I think it will be a good turnout again.

Weather Stick

2009-05-29T08:54:00.000-07:00

So I was out there yesterday, in the pouring rain, pulling bamboo stalks from the garden and it got me thinking of the weather stick that Breanne's grandmother got for me. It's sometimes called a Maine weather stick, or a Vermont weather stick, but they're all the same. It's a small switch carved from a balsam fir branch and it is extremely sensitive to moisture. Some Native American tribe used the balsam branches to determine what the weather would be like, can't remember which tribe.
Well Breanne's parents brought us the stick a few weeks ago, and the first 6 days we had it were long days of endless rain. The weather stick, in predicting rainy and moist days, points almost directly to the ground like a skinny, flaccid penis. Preceding a warmer, rainless day, the stick will stand erect and curl up towards the sky. It's nailed to the front of the house with a tiny golden nail that came with a picture framing set.
As I mentioned, Breanne's grandmother bought it for me. I barely new the lady. I met her a few times but she seemed a bit senile and the family told me she was a heavy drinker. She let us borrow her car a few months ago because her doctor told her she was unfit to drive, and a couple weeks later, she was dead. So, Breanne's uncle put the car in Breanne's name and now it's ours. A PT cruiser. I remember the day she said we could use it, we were visiting her in the hospital in Houlton. Houlton Regional. We went up to her room and chatted with her quietly for 30 minutes or so. She talked about her garden, what Breanne was doing, local happenings. We talked about President Bush for a little while, and I mentioned that he was smug. She thought I said smart, and seemed taken aback that I would consider him so. It happened in a flash and I didn't have the chance to correct her and as I mentioned, I never did.
That's what makes it so strange that she bought me a weather stick. I'm told she wasn't a very generous person with her money, at least not concerning her family. She told Breanne's parent's she thought the stick was something I'd like, and she was right, I do think it's a cool ornament, whether it predicts weather or not.
I've tried to be as friendly and involved with Breanne's grandparents as I can because I regret not knowing my own better before they passed. I think I would have liked her Grandmother- she seemed to have a lot of moxie. Breanne still has her other set of Grandparents, her dad's parents, which she's always been closest with. Meme (ma-MAY) and Pepe (pa-PAY), old French catholics.

Anyway, it's raining again; 5 days in a row this time. And the garden looks like it might just float away, with moats between the rows of plants and some Burpee seedling clumps have had all the soil washed away from them and were just sitting atop the rows like shipwrecked vessels yesterday. I replanted them, a little deeper than I had originally but it's pouring again.

On a side note, I just found out Pepe was brought to the hospital with a fever of 103, and they determined that he had pneumonia, but I guess he's OK now. He saw a guy he knew in the waiting room and when the guy left he called him a "peckerhead", which is very uncharacteristic of him.

Rain

2009-05-28T10:16:00.000-07:00

For the third consecutive day I've gotten up with the intention of doing some morning weeding and it's been pouring. I decided that today I would go out this afternoon no matter how hard it was raining but then an absolute downpour started. A monsoon I think. Every day I wait the bamboo gains leverage on the other plants in the garden. I looked at the extended forecast and it's supposed to rain even harder tomorrow so I'll probably be going out and braving it this afternoon.

Here's another card I made that I'm particularly proud of.

Wiffle Cards

2009-05-27T00:02:00.000-07:00

Made some wiffle ball cards with Microsoft paint. These are a few of them.

The first one is a 1990 Topps. Awesome Blacks isn't a racist name but a combination of two team names, Team Awesome and Black Velvet.

This one is a 1988 Score. I put little Stars of David in the corner instead of the traditional 5 pointed stars. Doubt anyone will notice. I kind of wish Nick Viti wasn't running in from the outfield on this one. It would make it look more like Jake was trotting home after a homer.

I like this card a lot. It's a great picture, though I'm not sure whether I connected or not. I like the strip of tiny gray wiffle balls (instead of baseballs) and I made sure to include the beer sitting behind me on the ground. Come to think of it, I think I hit a ground rule double on this swing then called timeout to walk back to the plate and get my beer.

There's another version of this card with the Black Velvet logo in the corner but I'm not happy with how it turned out. I wish these cards were real so I could give them to people.

A Strange Coincidence

2009-05-26T07:33:00.000-07:00

When I was picking up the piano in Standish, I was looking for the screwdriver in the truck so I could lower the tailgate. It's an old truck so it has quirks like that. Well I'd forgotten that my dad leaves it in the door compartment so I reached blindly under the front seat to look for it. I immediately pulled out a tan Levi's wallet, which I had lost in college. It had all sorts of junk in it, the newest thing being a tiny paper from a funeral for a friend dated to February 2002. I also found the following: A blockbuster membership card, a credit union debit card, an old orange Bullmoose card, a tattered copy of my social security card, a ticket from a 2001 Bruins game, my ID, which expired in 2002- which tells me I lost the wallet sometime in 2002- and some senior photos. One of Breanne, Ethan (from 1990), Jen, Kate Holzinger, and Jesse Rowe. There was also a key on a keyring, it looks like the front door key to the old house in West Gardiner. The craziest part, is what was in the money pocket of the wallet. Naturally, there was no money, but there was a pink slip of paper with a to-do list on it. Write this, go here, so on, but at the bottom of the list was "Move piano down to Bre's." That was my old piano I was talking about, and I was referring to Breanne's apartment in downtown Gorham. And I happened to find it on the day I was moving a new piano for Breanne. Oddly enough, we drove by her old place in Gorham on the way back to Old Orchard with the piano in the back.

It was nice to see the old photos of Jen and Kate and I hadn't seen Breanne's senior picture in years.

The Upright arrives

2009-05-26T07:13:00.000-07:00

Went and got the new piano on Monday morning. Ethan and Breanne and I left Gardiner around 9:30 and pulled into David and Julie Roberts's driveway around quarter to 11. We introduced ourselves and went inside to look at the piano and figure out the best way to move it. David and his oldest son soon arrived in cub scout uniforms, scarfs around their necks, and we worked on rolling the beast from the living room to the kitchen to the porch to the truck. David had to take the screen door off and it was a bit heavy getting it on to the wood ramp my dad made but eventually we had it in the truck bed. We secured it with some nylon rope and said thanks and were off. Breanne felt bad about taking the piano, you could tell the wife didn't want to get rid of it, but we experienced the same thing years ago when we had to get rid of our old piano I'd purchased from the Frink family in high school. Sometimes there's just no room for stuff.

We drove slowly and carefully from Standish through Gorham and eventually pulled onto the lawn in Old Orchard. Jesse met us at the house and helped us get the piano through the door on the front of the house that's rarely used. It was a bit of a task- we stripped some paint off the door and roughed up one of the back corners of the upright but at least we got it inside.

We treated Ethan and Jesse to italians at Shelley's and watched the Memorial Day parade from the sidewalk while we ate. Bagpipers, Shriners on mopeds, baton twirlers, antique cars, military men, a few weirdos with push lawnmowers.

It's nice to have a real piano again. It's an upright Packard, though I don't know the year yet. It's a bit ugly at the moment- looks like the Roberts family took an introductory art course in Impressionism and tried to get fancy with the paint job. The detailing on the face of it and the carvings on the legs, like the capital of a column, are a nice flourish. We're going to strip off the paint and redo it, probably something darker and simpler. We'll have to have it looked at: the D in the highest register doesn't pop back up when you hit it and a C-sharp is a bit flat.

Wiffle Ball Party

2009-05-26T06:29:00.000-07:00

The grand opening of Jacuzzi Park was a home run. We had a good turn out, 30-35 people at one time or another, which made for lots of good games of wiff.

People started filtering in around quarter of 2, Jesse Rowe being the first arrival, and the games probably started around 2:30. We drew cards to pick the teams of four and I rolled a 20-sided dice to determine which teams would play first. The games were exciting but lasted a little longer than I'd hoped, even though I cut them down to 3 inning matches. I think it's because the teams weren't big enough. I'm thinking of making it 7 on 7 next time, which would give each team 3 outfielders, a pitcher, and 3 infielders. 2nd base is close enough to the pitching mound that an active pitcher can act as a second baseman. There are no catchers.

Ethan's team was probably the best. It was him, Jake, Erin V., and Anna. No real weakness on that team. My team was OK, but my pitching was a little wild in the first few innings. Ethan hit the first home run in Jacuzzi Park history. It was a bomb to left field, clearing the pine trees, and I was the pitcher. So now I'm another footnote in sports history. Ethan also had two or three home runs to right field when he switched sides and batted lefty, his natural side. One of Tim's friends Justin hit the first grand slam in park history, and I hit another one later that game. At one point I hit back-2-back-2-back home runs and no one even noticed. That is also a record at Jacuzzi park.

We also had some good pitching. Manda struck me out once looking, Ethan and I both collected a lot of strike outs, and JMR (Jesse Reardon) got in a pitching groove at one point. A few people complained about the size of the strike zone, which is 21"x 25". I admit that it's difficult to throw strikes as the ball is carried by the slightest breeze and the target is small. However, 21x25 is the official wiffle ball strike zone target size, and it wouldn't improve anyones pitching skills if I simply enlarged the target. The field measurements are official, and that's what makes it so hard. I'm sure we'd struggle just as much if we were throwing on an official baseball diamond. Pracitce- that's the solution.

There were several reasonable complaints about the field though. As I'd never had any games here, I didn't really know what types of problems would come up. The major discrepancy was plays at the plate. The way I designed it, you had to throw the ball and hit the target behind home plate to get a runner out at home. The target acts as a catcher, and you must throw a strike to nab the runner, just as it takes a good accurate throw to get a base runner in real baseball. Problem is, a player can be going for home, see that the ball hits the target, and then retreat to third. That's obviously not fair. So Ethan came up with the idea of a point of no return line, or I prefer line of no return, which gives us the cool little acronym, LONR or loner, so I'm calling it "The Loner line." We'll try that next time.

Other notes of interest, Jesse Rowe acted as a drunk and occasionally distracted, but definitely amusing, umpire for several of the games. There was a collision in center field between my sister and Sally. The impact shot Manda's sneaker 10 ft up in the air but she held on to the ball. Though I didn't tell anyone at the time, I injured my shoulder trying to make three plays at once. I landed on it funny and failed to throw my sister out at home and now I can't lift my arm so well. JMR hit what I believe was the first and only triple in Jacuzzi Park history. Nick Vitti made all three outs in one inning (two pop ups and a tag out) and one was an unassisted double play. Ethan remains the only person to hit a home run over the trash bag fence in right field. Tim's girlfriend Erin did two or three splits while sliding into first and second base. Ethan threw out the first and only runner at home plate. And if you couldn't tell, he was the MVP of the day. Pretty hard to argue otherwise. Though next time, we'll be keeping stats and scores and be able to pick one more accurately.

The night ended on a good note too. We all went inside and Kelly, one of Breanne's friends from work, had brought a karaoke machine. Naturally, we picked three judges to act as Simon, Paula and the black guy and had an American Idol contest. It was a lot of fun. Ethan gave some good critiques as Simon, and Greg had a lot of feedback that didn't have much to do with music. Manda butchered some songs, Jake picked some strange ones and even though he clearly out sang Manda, he failed to make the final four. Chrismike screamed through a couple tunes including the crowd pleasing Ballroom Blitz, and Jesse Rowe nailed Taking Care of Business. Manda and I made the final two but she beat me in a sing off of Sonny and Cher's I Got You, Babe.

I had an excellent time and I'd do it again next weekend if it was possible, but against my wishes, I'm going to hold off on scheduling the next wiffle party. I'm thinking of making it 6 weeks from now, one of the first weekend of July. That will give people some time to miss it and for me to improve the field and rulebook.

Finished Field

2009-05-23T08:11:00.000-07:00

Finally finished the field, officially, at 11am this morning. Raked and weeded the warning track. Spray painted the foul lines and the batters boxes and the "fair-play" line. I also used a mini ping pong net to distinguish the Home Run level in left field. It looks great.
(phone rings)
And my brother found out he doesn't have to work this weekend so he's coming down and bringing a watermelon.
I had trouble sleeping last night- it was a lot like Christmas eve.

Also, Breanne just reminded me NOT to wear my jogging pants today. She actually referred to them as "jog-arounds," which I found hilarious even though she was trying to be serious.

cat's out of the bag

2009-05-21T20:08:00.001-07:00

Breanne found out about the piano. I'm not sure if someone told her or she read my blog or what. She actually denied knowing what it was but I can see right through her white lies. So, it's no longer a surprise but she seems excited about having a piano in the house again. It's been 4 or 5 years since we had one- the last time being when she lived in the Cressy apartments in Gorham. Our new plan is to pick it up, together, on Monday, hopefully with some help from friends and/or family members.
Also, I finished the right field wall last night. I hit some line drives over it today, and unfortunately under it, but it looks like it home runs will be challenging to come by in a game setting, what with outfielders and pitchers actually trying to strike you out. The wiffle ball party is in two days and I'm pretty excited about it. Bought some spray paint today to draw the foul lines.

New fence in right field

2009-05-19T14:41:00.001-07:00

I'm 27 years old so I thought tonight I'd make a right field wall for my wiffle ball field. I'm making it out of some type of trash bag material designed for covering a garden in the winter and a couple rolls of yellow duct tape and a few switches of skinny, tough bamboo. It sounds like it's going to suck but it actually looks good so far. I'm estimating that the wall will be between 3 and 3 1/2 feet tall, which will be beneficial to any left-handed hitters this Saturday at the wiffle ball party. My brother is the only lefty I know of. He should be happy when he sees the wall on Saturday.
It will still be tough to hit one out as there is a tree just to the right of 1st base, in foul territory, and it's branches hang over the field and throw a shadow in deep right. To hit a home run to right you've got to hit a line drive that goes no higher than 8 ft or so and no lower than 3 ft and it's got to travel 70 ft- no easy task. I'm betting we see a few get over the wall though.
To go with the theme of the last few blogs, not sure what Breanne will think of a trash bag wall on the lawn. I'll find out in about 20 minutes.

Community Breast

2009-05-19T09:44:00.000-07:00

The other night at trivia I blew a Monopoly question. It's not often that we get a category dropped in our laps like that, but I just blanked. The question was, "How much do you win for coming in second place in a Beauty contest?" Were the question about anything else at all concerning the game of Monopoly, I probably would have known it. I narrowed it down to either $11 or $14, but I couldn't remember which one. I was leaning towards $11, and Jesse, one of my teammates, agreed that in my version of the game, it was $11. The problem was, we were almost certain that in the updated version of the game, it was no longer eleven. Turned out the answer was $10. I was annoyed, so when I got home, I opened up my Monopoly box and shuffled through the stack of yellow Community Chest cards (or as I called it as a kid, Community Breast) and sure enough, my card said $11.

Which got my thinking: What type of beauty contest only rewards 10 or 11 dollars for 2nd place? So I decided I would go through all the Community Chest and Chance cards and come up with some improvements.

1. You have won 2nd prize in a Beauty Contest, collect $11. I would make it at least $25. If second place only received 11 dollars, I can't imagine first place getting anymore than 30. And when I came in 2nd place at the mini golf tournament years ago, I got $25 bucks and free golf for two years. And that was just for tapping a ball around, not being beautiful.

2. Bank Error in your favor, collect $200. I love to turn over this card, but honestly it makes no sense. What bank is going to hand you $200 for something you would never even know about? If they see they made a $200 mistake, it's probably electronic anyway. Peck a few buttons, bingo.

3. A Collection has been taken up and Everyone must donate 10% of his (sic) holding to you (cash). A collection has been taken up? By whom? The picture on the card depicts a man holding an upside down bowler hat and people dropping in bills. Wouldn't happen.

4. Grand Opera Opening. Collect $50 from every player for Opening Night seats. I understand the draw of the opera. I'm sure it's very entertaining. But why does someone else have to pay for your opera seats? Because it's opening night? Why not just make it a pay $50 for Opening night opera seats instead of making a total stranger pay for your tickets.

5. Get out of Jail free card. I don't need to explain why this makes no sense.

6. Receive for Services $25. Doesn't say what type of services. It's particularly disturbing when someone turns over this card right after getting out of jail.

7. Pay Hospital $100. My only problem with this card is the picture. A nurse carrying a tray with a glass of water on it. Here's your water, now that'll be 100 dollars.

8. Go Back to Baltic Avenue. Maybe my favorite card in the game. There should be more of these. I believe there are only five: Baltic, Take a ride on the Reading, Advance to St. Charles Place, Advance to Illinois Avenue, Take a walk on the Boardwalk. More if you count the nearest utility, nearest railroad, jail, and advance to Go. I want to see an advance to Pacific Avenue. The poor dark greens.

9. You have been elected Chairman of the Board of Directors. Pay Each player $50. Whoa, slow down. You elect me chairman of the board and then make me dole out $50 to everyone in the game, whether they're on the board of directors or not? Sounds like a milk monitor. I looked up Chairman in the dictionary, just to be safe, and it says nothing about paying board members out of pocket. My favorite definition for the word was "someone employed to wheel a person in a chair."

10. Pay School tax of $150. This is one of the most costly cards in either deck. And the picture won't put you in a better mood. We see a school with a bunch of kids running around out front. If I'm paying $150 I want those kids in classroom. No more recesses.

And another thing, why do I have to pay when I land on a railroad owned by someone else? Yes, I'm in the station, but I haven't gone anywhere yet. I could understand if I was on one railroad square and rolled a 10 to get to the next one. Clearly I'd travelled by train. But I shouldn't have to pay when I land on one, not until I roll on my next turn- that's when I'm actually using the rail service.

Ross Rd Run

2009-05-19T09:25:00.000-07:00

Went for a run today, around the Ross road loop. It's about 6.5 miles. Most of the second half of the run is on the beach, which made it particularly hard today with the hot sun overhead.
About a mile after I turned on to Ross road a green car whizzed by me and the guy in the passenger street yelled- I'm guessing in an attempt to make me jump. My first instinct was a bad one. I bent over and picked up a rock and was going to huck it at their back window. Fortunately, I composed myself in time to not let go of the rock. The car tapped it's breaks, but they didn't turn around. I then picked up the rock in case they came back for another holler, but after jogging 50 ft or so I decided it would be unwise to throw a rock at a car, regardless of how many times the passengers holler at you. I imagined them coming back, getting into a verbal altercation, and then me having to fight them off with a stick found along the road. Needless to say, nothing ended up happening as they never drove by again.
There were Caterpillars and dump trucks on the beach, removing seaweed and spinning around aimlessly. Seems like a silly job as the tide will get rid of most of it. I imagine they're preparing for this weekend, Memorial Day, because the beach and OOB will probably be packed.
There was a kid behind a wheelbarrow, wearing gloves, near the Beachfront Condotel and he said to me in a contrived and painfully deep voice, "how goes it?" I'm not sure why boys and eventually men work so hard to have these baritone, guttural voices. Most of the time it just sounds silly. I said "hi" in the highest voice I could muster.
..................................................................................
An update on the piano: I plan to pick it up on Friday if I can get the truck by then. I'll probably get my brother to help me if he's not busy. I told Breanne that I had a surprise for her, but the only hit I would give her was "I won't know what it is for a couple of weeks." Clearly that's not true, but I figured it would get her thinking- in the wrong direction. She begged for more hints but I didn't budge. At one point she said, "It's not anything that's going to take up a lot of space is it?"
Not a good sign.

Upright Piano

2009-05-18T07:24:00.000-07:00

I'm getting a piano! I'm almost certain Breanne doesn't read my blog so I think it's safe to let the secret out on the web. It's sort of an early birthday present for Breanne- though I'm not entirely sure she'll be happy about it. She likes to play a lot but the front room of our house is already a little crowded with the organ, three guitars, couch, monitor heater and electric piano. I measured though- it'll fit.
It's an upright Packard, and according to the couple I'm getting it from it has good sound and only one of the keys doesn't sound right but it's in the highest register, so I wouldn't be using it much anyway.
I'm going to pick it up sometime this week and hopefully clean it and have it moved into the house without Breanne noticing. I'll have to borrow my dad's truck but I think he's up in the Forks on a fishing trip.

wiffle ball pitches

2009-05-16T15:17:00.000-07:00

These are the 6 main pitches of wiffle ball. There are others, but they're mostly just variations of these. If you can throw all six of these pitches well, you'd be nearly unhittable. I lifted these off a web page, pictures too, but the words in red are my own.

Straight Fastball
The straight fastball is the easiest pitch to throw in the game of Wiffle®Ball. Holes should face home plate and the tips of the index and middle fingers should be placed over the top holes with the thumb on the bottom seem of the ball. The ring finger and pinky finger are together along the seem of the ball. Throwing the ball with a straight over hand motion will create the ball to go straight towards the target, even on a windy day. This grip is the same for a right handed pitcher and left handed pitcher. Do not grip the ball too tight, a nice loose grip is more effective.

I can throw this one straight- straight into the ground or straight over the hitter's head. I can throw it straight if I toss it slowly, but that's not really a fastball is it?

Curve Ball
The curve ball is the bread and butter pitch for most pitchers. Holes out for right handed pitchers. The middle finger should be placed to the left of the holes where the seem of the ball is. The index finger is spread two inches from the middle finger, like making the peace sign. The thumb is place on the bottom of the ball along the seem and should be placed in the middle of the two fingers. The ring finger and the pinky finger are together and against the center of the ball, where the trademark and patent number are. Again a loose grip is very effective. An over hand motion has the biggest curve and can be thrown accurate with some practice. This pitch breaks from right to left on right handed batters (it actually starts behind them). When thrown properly, expect a three to four foot break. Left handed pitchers grip the ball the opposite of above.
My best pitch. Mine actually breaks the opposite way that this description suggests it will. Doesn't matter. When I've got it working I can bend it 5 or 6 feet.

The Riser
The riser is harder to throw then the curve ball. The main reason being, this pitch has to be thrown side arm. The grip is holes down. The index and middle fingers are tightly together above the holes along the seem. The thumb is opposite of the index and middle fingers along the seem too. The ring finger and pinky finger are together and touching the center of the ball where the trademark and patent number is. This pitch has to be thrown side arm. When thrown properly, with a whip motion, expect the ball to rise from two to three feet. If you are throwing the ball too high, you must lower your body while in the wind up to lower the location of the ball while entering the strike zone. This pitch is very difficult to hit when thrown hard. The spin on the ball causes many hitters to foul the ball straight back. The grip is the same for both left handed and right handed pitchers. The big difference with the grip of this pitch is, hold the ball tight, a tight grip is very effective.
Can't throw this one yet. I can occasionally get the ball to rise but I think it's just by chance. Learning this pitch is not my first priority.

Screwball
The screwball is like the curve ball except the grip is the exact opposite. Holes in for the right handed pitchers. Place the index finger on the seem of the ball. The middle finger is spread two inches from the index finger, like making the peace sign. The thumb is on the seem of the ball and the ring finger and the pinky finger are together and touching the solid part of the ball. This pitch is thrown over hand and on right handed batters it breaks inside from left to right about three feet when thrown properly. A loose grip is recommended and is the most effective. This pitch is very hard to master and have control of. You must practice this pitch quite often. Left handed pitchers grip the ball opposite of the above.
Almost identical to the curve ball, this is my other go to pitch. I basically just mix back and forth between this and the curve ball, and if I get ahead on a batter, I throw some submarine junk or whatever pops into my head. It's got a much cooler name than the curve ball so I probably throw it more often.

Knuckleball
The knuckle ball. This pitch is not seen too often because it is very hard to throw accurately. The holes of the ball should be facing home plate and the fingernails of the index finger and middle finger should be dug into the ball on the seem. The thumb should be on the bottom seem of the ball and the ring finger and pinky finger should be together. This pitch is thrown over hand and will move back and forth like a knuckle ball moves in baseball. The grip is held the same way for left handed and right handed pitchers. A very tight grip is recommended to be effective. You have to practice this pitch often, it is very hard to master.
This is a great pitch. My brother can throw it well, at varying speeds. I can't throw it most of the time as there's a lot to it compared to most pitches. I'll have this one down eventually.

Sinker
The sinker is the most difficult pitch to throw and is feared by every hitter. Holes up with this pitch and place the index finger on the seem of the ball. The middle finger is spread two inches from the index finger, like making the peace sign. The thumb is on the seem of the ball and the ring finger and the pinky finger are together and touching the solid part of the ball. This pitch is thrown SIDE ARM or Three-Quarters. This pitch sinks hard on both right and left handed batters. The grip is the same for right handed and left handed pitchers. This pitch is thrown just like the screwball, but it is thrown side arm to three-quarters. This makes the sinker almost impossible to master, few Pro pitchers have this pitch in their arsenal. This pitch is very hard on a pitcher’s arm and is NOT recommended for younger pitchers to throw. A loose grip is recommended and is the most effective.

Cannot throw this yet. I've seen videos on youtube of people throwing this and it's scary- it really looks impossible to hit.

just wiffin'

2009-05-16T15:10:00.000-07:00

Saturday, the 16th of May, my brother drove down from Farmingdale. We played a lot of wiffle. Over the past two days I probably threw 500 pitches, easy. My arm feels like it's about to fall off. Most people would probably consider throwing a wiffle ball minor stress, but the truth is it can actually be more wearisome on your arm because the ball is so much lighter and requires more torque to travel fast and far. I was throwing good screwballs and curves when the day began but by the end I was just lobbing it in there.
We did a HR derby and strike out contest and discussed the rules of play and ideas for making the field better. After he left I dragged a long stick through the fir trees and found two balls that had been lodged in the branches, so all told we only lost one ball today. It will probably turn up eventually though.
I have softball practice tomorrow at noon. I'll be rolling the ball in from the outfield if my arm doesn't loosen up. A 80% chance of thunderstorms though, so there may not be a practice.

Mo' nopoly

2009-05-15T18:12:00.000-07:00

Played two games of Monopoly against Breanne yesterday. The first one took literally no more than half an hour as I managed to get all three orange spots and watch Breanne struggle to build on Boardwalk and Park place.
The second game took longer- she got a phone call then we went out side for a bit during a break in play- but I eventually won again. I let it linger a bit longer than I should have, really milking her dry and cutting deals to keep her in the game while I profited big time.
I ended the game with a "C" of properties, from Baltic to Marvin Gardens, all with Hotels. It was a murderous sickle for Breanne to maneuver and needless to say it didn't last long. My total value at the end of the game, including real estate, money and hotels, totalled $16,182. Pretty good when you consider there's only $15,140 in the game.

Is My Mom Nearby?

2009-05-14T12:50:00.000-07:00

Read this hilarious article today in the Portland Press Herald. Talk about a wacky receptionist. http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/newsupdate.php?updates/bomb-threat-was-never-a-threat-at-all

My favorite piece might be the moral that the wise and deaf receptionist imparts at the end.

Animal Encounters

2009-05-12T13:37:00.000-07:00

On Sunday morning, following the wedding of a friend, my dad lent me his havahart trap so I could catch the woodchuck that's been hanging around the garden. When I got back to Old Orchard, I put some lettuce and rotten clementines in the trap and set it up by the white tool shed, close to the spot where I originally saw the woodchuck. My dad said not to put it directly on it's path or it will just meander around the trap.

Breanne woke me up the next morning, very early, before she left for work. There was a raccoon in my trap. I tried to fall back to sleep but I couldn't stop thinking about the raccoon so I got up and went out to look at it. It was a little bigger than I expected, easily filling up half the cage. It struggled to turn away from me as I approached. It's face was shaped like a cat's, but it's eyes were sad and dark, and large, like dog's eyes.

The raccoon was terrified as I put on my gloves and leaned down towards the cage. I picked up the trap by the handle and put it in the back of the PT cruiser, on a tarp. I drove it down the road and dropped it off at a little turnaround in the woods that has a "no dumping" sign posted at the tree line. The raccoon shot off the moment it realized the cage door was open, and didn't stop running for as long as I could see it. I'm sure I'll catch a lot of cats and raccoons before I catch my woodchuck.

Later in the day, after looking at the week long forecast, I decided to mow the lawn. While I was mowing by the white shed, coincidentally on almost the exact spot where I'd set the trap, I accidentally mowed over a frog. I didn't see it till it tried to hop away. It was entirely intact other than its back left leg which splayed at the knee like string cheese, almost to a separating point, giving him an extra crease of floppy leg, like a drawn out accordion. It was hard to look at and my first instinct was to put it out of it's misery, because it could barely hop. The idea of squishing the life out of it made me sick though, and I eventually decided that it would be better for the food chain if I let it live so some predator could eat it. At least, that's how I rationalized it.

The third encounter isn't nearly as interesting. I saw a big snake on my steps today and I lifted it up with a measuring stick but it shook it's way off and slipped under the steps. It had a very tiny head, even for a snake.

I also saw several other animals today, but nothing worth writing about.

*the picture at the top is NOT my own. It's just a general picture of a havahart trap.

wiffle ball

2009-04-30T19:34:00.000-07:00

well shit. I've been slacking with my blogs.

I guess the coolest thing I've been up to, if you want to call it cool, is making a wiffle ball field. I'm having a wiffle ball party at my house on the 23rd of May and I've been working on getting the field together for a few weeks. I've bought materials for constructing foul poles but I'm still waiting on my yellow duct tape I ordered in the mail. It should be hear in the next few days, then I can put up my 12-15 ft tall foul poles (depending on how deep I shove them into the ground).

I cut back the prickly bushes that once shredded my legs up while I attempted to make a diving catch three years ago, and put a warning track in front of what was left of the bush.

I also made a strike zone we won't need an umpire or have to argue balls and strikes. I'll probably construct a better one once I get some better lumber but it'll do in the meantime.

I ordered two dozen wiffle balls online and have accumulated 3 or 4 additional balls with the bats I've bought.

I've also been working on some pitches. I can throw the curve consistently and I can occasionally get the slider working. When I have those two moving, and throw in the fastball, I've got a fairly good arsenal.

Yeast!

2009-04-10T19:59:00.000-07:00

Finally wrote down that bread recipe you've all been waiting for. It's called Farmhouse White Loaf. Got it out of a book.

Ingredients:
4 1/3 cups white flour
2 tablespoons butter
1 1/2 teaspoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 teaspoons rapid rising yeast
1 tablespoon milk powder
1 cup and 2 tablespoons warm water

1 Put the flour into a large bowl, add the butter and rub in with the fingertips until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Stir in the sugar, salt, yeast, and milk powder. Gradually mix in enough warm water to make a soft dough.

2 Knead well on a lightly floured surface for 5 minutes until the dough is smooth and elastic. Put the dough back into the bowl, cover loosely with oiled plastic wrap and leave in a warm place to rise for 45 minutes or until doubled in size.

3 Tip the dough out on to a lightly floured surface, knead well then put into a greased 1 lb or 2 lb loaf tin, depending on the size of the dough.

4 Cover loosely with oiled plastic wrap and leave in a warm place to rise for 30 minutes or until the dough reaches the top of the tin.

5 Remove the plastic wrap, sprinkle with flour and bake in a preheated oven, at 400 degrees, for 30 minutes. Cover loosely with foil after 15 minutes of baking.

6 Noisily devour.

Animal Control

2009-03-19T09:24:00.001-07:00

Got a letter from the Gardiner Police Department today. Specifically, it was from the Office of the Animal Control Officer. Their records indicated that I am the owner of a dog(s) over 6 months of age, which has not been licensed. In accordance with Title 7, MRSA, 3921 & 3943, I am obligated to license my dog at the municipal clerk's office annually on or before January 31, 2009. Fortunately, the letter arrived today, on the 19th of March, 2009.

First of all, I wonder who the gumshoe is that determined I had an unregistered dog, or dogs. Apparently the Gardiner Police Department's files are so exact that their records indicate that I have either a dog or multiple dogs. Frightening perspicacity! And I don't know if it's the flu I've had recently or what, but Title 7, MRSA, 3921 & 3943 completely slipped my mind. I feel like a fool.

Regardless, I don't own a dog, and so I called up the office. I spoke to a woman on the other end of the line and told her so. She said her records indicated that I did indeed have a dog. I said, Nope, I've never had one- which isn't true, but for some reason, I said it. So she said she'd get back to me but that they might have to send someone around to investigate. And I hope they do.

Training and the Draft: Why the Army is fun

2009-03-16T12:47:00.000-07:00

I'm trying to kick start my Olympic training. The 2009 Maine Summer Olympics are only 5 months away. I went for a jog today, about 6 miles, around a loop that included the beach. My legs felt fine- as they should have considering I hadn't used them in a month- but I was desperately out of breath at the end. I was running 6 miles on my down days in San Francisco, and it's much hillier out there. I haven't done much else in the way of training other than lifting weights. I guess that might help in the tug-of-war. I'm on the verge of getting fat, which happens every few months, but hopefully with the arrival of warm weather, I can get myself running and exercising more.
Last night was the draft for my fantasy baseball league, The Barnstorming Union. The turnout was OK, a bit better than last year. My brother drove down from Manchester to conduct his draft here- he doesn't have the internet. He brought a three-ring binder with him that had some cheat sheets in it and I think it helped because he wound up with a good team. Overall, I was satisfied with my draft. I didn't get the big closer that I wanted, but I did get four solid picks at spots 1, 14, 15, and 21, in Holliday, Bedard, O. Cabrera, and DeRosa respectively. At one point in the draft the autopilot kicked in on it's own, which prevented my drafting of Clay Buchholz, and later on I was "skipped" two rounds in a row, for reasons still unknown to me. But I can't complain, my team is looking exceptionally strong this year, lacking only perhaps in one consistent SP and a mid level reliever.
Right now I'm working on fixing that problem by moving one of my OF for a good starting pitcher.

To Do

2009-03-10T20:58:00.000-07:00

Made a long To Do list today, and I finished everything but "lift weights." I actually finished some things today that weren't on the list. Things that I'd been putting off. A fairly productive day overall. I exchanged my new router at Target because the one I'd purchased didn't come with the installation CD. I had to get one that was 10 bucks more but I hooked it up today and it's working well. I cleaned the whole house. That ate up a lot of my day. I filled out a bunch of online applications, mostly at Maine Med. If I get any of the jobs I applied for there, I hope it's the garage attendant. I've always wanted that job. It's a lot like the toll booth job I had, I imagine, without the constant hassle of motorists and change making. Though garage attendants are almost always brutally shot in 80's action movies, I'm assuming it's safer today. But, I probably won't get the job anyway so I don't have to fret.
I made an excel-ent spreadsheet today of Scrabble scores. I tabulated averages for all the free range games (in which you have "free range" of any dictionary, word list, whatever) and challenge games I've kept track of in my Scrabble Tracker book. I only included people who have played at least 5 recorded games, which included myself, Ethan, Breb, Jesse, Manda, and Joe C. It's a good spreadsheet and I'm going to keep up with it.
I also printed off the registration forms for the Scrabble tournament, and emailed the slackers in my fantasy league.
Now I'm rearranging the house. At one time, I determined that I only performed interior decorating and rearranging when depressed. Well I don't feel depressed. In fact I feel better than I have for the last month on account of getting done at the bakery. I still have the pressure of finding another job, but it's not nearly as bad as reporting to the bakery 5 days a week in the middle of the night and trying to be nice to people I'd rather to throttle. Anyway, in preparation for the organ, which I plan to move down next week if it doesn't snow again, I'm putting all the book shelves in one room: the porch room- or as Breb and I call it, the sun room. So I'll probably be working on that into the wee hours. That's all I got.

Walgreens

2009-02-27T12:22:00.000-08:00

on Wednesday I received 5 calls from an 877 number that I didn't recognize. I was at work all day and always leave my cell phone at home or in the car. There were no messages, so I didn't think much of it. Thursday morning, I received two calls from the same number before 7 am. Finally, the eighth time they called, third time that morning, I answered. I was half in bed, half on the floor (I sleep on a mattress).

Me: Hello?

Them: Hi, this is Walgreens. We specialize in...blah, blah, blah... (I listened to them extolling the Walgreens chain for about 30 seconds)

I hung up, turned the ringer off.

When I got up a few hours later, I had 3 more calls from the same number and a new message. I punched the buttons to get into my mailbox and sure enough the message was from Walgreens.

This time, instead of going on and on about how great their store was, they cut to the chase and told me I'd won a $30 gift certificate and they would be mailing it to me.

Well that's great, but I'm still confused.

1. Why couldn't they have just left that message the first time they called?

2. Why didn't the person I spoke to on the phone tell me that immediately?

3. Oddly, the message was left after the 10th call, and followed up by an 11th call. Why did they call again after the message?

New Job

2009-02-21T08:21:00.001-08:00

Been doing a shitty job keeping up with my blog. I got a position as a loader at a big bakery. I've been working weird shifts, mostly 3:30am to noon at the moment, which really does a number on you. It doesn't leave me with much energy and sees me under the covers by 8 at the latest. I've got better hours this week, going in at times like 1pm, 2pm, and 4pm. I have Monday off, which will be dedicated to finding a better job. I looked for a job in San Francisco for 6 months without success, so I'm sure I can find a job in the greater Saco area in one day. No problem.

The job isn't good, but at least I'm getting some hours right now. I think I worked overtime this week (6 days out of 7) but I'm guessing there is some type of loophole that will keep me from being paid extra. Numerous employees at the bakery have encouraged me to look elsewhere for work, and not in a threatening way. From several employees I have heard (not that I needed to be told) that the job is a dead end and a bad place to work. The pay has actually decreased in the last 10 years, the benefits are awful, and the hours are inconsistent. In my case, I applied for an "on call" position, though I'm working full-time at the moment, and I'm told that if I wasn't scheduled but then called to come in, saying no is not an option. That's not really what on call means, but, what can you do. About the only good part of the job is that my friend Jesse is a supervisor there so I get to see him occasionally if I work second shift. Regardless of how bad the job is, I'm lucky to have employment. As everyone knows, the economy isn't the strongest right now, and Breanne told me that she has four female co-workers whose husbands are out of work right now. That's rough. But on the other hand, I have quite a few plans coming up in the month of March, and it would be a shame to have to cancel all of them. That's the catch. I know that work is what people do; they work then they die. Well, I don't really care for that. I'll work when I'm dead, or however that saying goes.

On a side note, last night Breanne and I went to a USM hockey game. It was the first time I'd sat through an entire USM game. I saw Ray Jean, a guy I went to high school with, and talked to him during the second period.

Gorham Scrabble Club 2/08/09

2009-02-08T13:44:00.001-08:00

The second Sunday of February, and that spells Gorham Scrabble Club. This was my second time attending. The second Sunday of January was snowed out.
It was a much better turnout than my first appearance. 8 people all together, if you don't include an old confused looking man with a deerstalker cap on in the corner. I played my first game against Mary, though she preferred either Mary Lee or Mary Lou- I didn't catch it. She started slow and spent most of the game playing catch-up. I scored a bingo with LIZARDS and ended up beating her 393-302.
My second game was against Kassandra, the club organizer. I'd played her two months ago and beat her badly. It was closer this time around but I still got her by almost 100: 405-314. I played two bingos with HORRIBLY and FANCIES. I also played afronts, not sure if it had two f's, and she challenged it off the board.
My third game was not pretty. I played Sean, a guy in his 50's or 60's, who was clearly my superior. He beat me 477-264, but in fairness, I had the shittiest tiles this game. At one point I had three consecutive draws of only vowels. Sean also drew both blanks, all four S's, and the Z, X, Q, and J early enough in the game to not be stuck with them. I had a bingo with ESTEEMED late in the game, which isn't bad considering my tray was E T M E E E D. He played multiple words I hadn't heard of including LOX, CHEEP, CROZE, and LANAI. He had three bingos against me: MISSION, CROONING, and RAIDING. Had the letters been more evenly distributed, he still would have beaten me. It wouldn't have been such a crushing though. However, you won't always draw the best tiles and you have to make due with what you get. Needless to say, I didn't do that.
My last game was another against Kassandra. I walloped her again, this time 389-319. I had two bingos in this game too, both occurring within my first four turns. ADULATE and DATELINE, the latter landing on a triple word.
I am discovering that there is a gigantic gap between the skill level of players at the Gorham Scrabble Club. Sean, for example, has played against some of the best players in the world, including Matt Graham from the movie Word Wars, who at the moment is ranked 10th in the world. Other players would be considered kitchen table players, rarely scoring above 400 and not looking to expand their vocabularies through study and memorization. I think I'm somewhere in between, though probably a lot closer to the kitchen.

Answering

2009-02-03T20:57:00.000-08:00

Got an answering machine. Now I can collect all those automated messages from Sally Mae, looking for Beverly. I'm sort of an answering machine right now. Sounds like something Bukowski would say. Or, "My dick is a white mamba and I'm sort of an answering machine right now." That's better.
I read The Road to Wellville in San Francisco and finally got the movie in the mail today. It was cracked, almost from the hole to the edge. The rating on IMDB is terrible but I was really hoping to watch it tonight.
More importantly, I took the biggest icicle from the eave out back and froze it, point up, on the rail of the back porch. Something Andy Goldsworthy probably did when he was 4. Just took a little snow and tap water. It looks neat. I'm hoping a blue jay will land on it tomorrow.

Mind Teaser

2009-01-29T10:50:00.001-08:00

Breanne gave me a couple brain books for X-mas jr. The Great Book of Mind Teasers & Mind Puzzlers by George J. Summers and The Book of IQ tests by two guys named Carter and Russell. The puzzlers book I actually had as a kid. I think it was my brothers but we all used it. I remember the illustrations because they're scary. The men all look like dark apes with big brows and penetrating eyes- the artist uses lots of shading and cross-hatching.
I took one of the IQ tests this morning and it was much harder than the one I took in San Francisco. I should probably be devoting my brain to trivia for the 12-week challenge at Jimmy the Greeks' instead. We've finished 3rd and 4th so far in four weeks, so we're doing OK. Unfortunately, Breanne is going to miss the next two Mondays because of work so our best days are probably behind us.

Updyke

2009-01-28T22:44:00.000-08:00

John Updike died two days ago. I didn't find out till today. That's what happens when you don't pay attention to the outside world. I'm surprised I even found out though- all the articles I skimmed today online were about the fucking keyboard player from Lynyrd Skynyrd dying. I can't even think of a single Skynyrd song with a keyboard in it. The guys name was Billy Powell. I hate that band anyway. They might have the best lyrics in music history though.
Here's an excerpt from Sweet Home Alabama. It was written in response to Neil Young songs like Alabama and Southern Man, which deal with racism and slavery and bible touting in the south.

Well I heard Mr. Young sing about her
Well I heard ol' Neil put her down
Well I hope Neil Young will remember
A southern man don't need him round anyhow

Wow, way to put ol' Neil in his place. And to think, Ronnie Van Zant, you died in a plane crash, in your "prime." And people think this is a good song. Jesus Christ.
My point is, John Updike died.
I told Breanne about it and she was surprised. She didn't realize he was so old. Then we talked about it for a bit and I realized she was thinking of John Irving. All confusion could have been avoided if I'd just said the keyboardist for Lynyrd Skynyrd had died.
"Not Billy Powell!"

Kristmas

2009-01-28T18:30:00.000-08:00

Recorded two new Christmas tunes for next years KKKristmas album. One is called "Santa Claus is Real" and the other is "A Christmas Prayer." Neither one is great, but I'm getting better at using the Sessions program that came with my MIDI keyboard. I just discovered a better way to cut and paste tracks that helps the drums sound better. Because I don't like to use loops, drumming can be very difficult and even with the help of a metronome it's easy to fall out of rhythm. Now I can get a couple bars of a steady rhythm I like and cut and paste it.
And the KKK stands for Keyes Kids Kristmas, so, don't get your stockings in a bunch.

snow

2009-01-28T18:26:00.000-08:00

Just finished shoveling the driveway and the back porch. It was the heaviest snow that I've ever tried to move. The driveway took me twice as long as it should have and my back feels like my neck and anus are using my spine for tug-of-war. Garden burger time!

Scrabble Club

2009-01-26T15:05:00.000-08:00

I abdicated my post as president of the OOBSC (Old Orchard Beach Scrabble Club) yesterday after another fruitless "meeting." Nobody showed up until Jesse did around 8. We were supposed to start at 4. Didn't even get any calls or anything. Breanne ended up bringing Joe T. back from Portland with her so we got some good games in from about 9 to midnight. We ordered pizza from Papa John's and it made Breanne sick. It made me nauseated too but I didn't barf like her. I was reminded why we don't get pizza from places like that.
Maybe if I meet more people that like scrabble I'll try again some time.

The Man from Earth (2007)

2009-01-23T22:51:00.000-08:00

I watched a great movie called The Man from Earth tonight. It was about this guy who was born a caveman and has been alive for thousands of years and decides, for the first time ever, to tell his friends his secret. The whole movie is just a long conversation and intervention in the main character's living room. The acting and editing is shit as the film probably had a tiny budget but it was a great story. If you have netflix it's a watch instantly film.

Xmas Jr.

2009-01-23T09:54:00.000-08:00

Christmas Jr. was last weekend. Got some great gifts.
-Harry Smith American Folk collection. Been wanting this for years. It's a 6-CD set of music from the early-middle 20th century, in the folk tradition.
-Some records including Kenny Loggins Live. This goes well with my new record player. It's real nice and I've been using almost constantly since I got it. I listened to a lot of the Boss yesterday. The player also has a USB port so I can export songs from Vinyl on to the computer.
-some other CDs and some books. A Randy Newman piano book, Karlology (which I've been wanting for months but didn't buy because I was fairly certain someone would buy it for me for XmasJr. Confessions of a Yakuza, The Michael Palin Diaries. My brother got me a CD by Vampire Weekend, which I like a lot, and a Dylan Bootleg which has a lot of tunes I've never even heard.
-Greg got me some rubber shoelaces and a giant plastic Hershey's kiss that plays "Kiss is on my list" by Hall & Oates when you open it.
-Manda got me a tiny head lamp that is much better than the one I own. It's has 5 or 6 settings and the beams are extremely bright.
-I also received a chess clock for playing scrabble. I've used that a few times as well.
-And a hula hoop, which I pick up every 10 seconds or so. I've mastered the neck to torso move but I have yet to perform the torso to neck move successfully. I watched a video of a woman doing it on youtube and it doesn't look all that hard.
-And I got a harmonica and neck piece for holding it. The harmonica is in E so I can play along to Blood on the Tracks. I got the very same thing for Ethan for the very same reason.

Julius R.

2009-01-22T14:42:00.000-08:00

Had a question about Julius Rosenberg at trivia on Monday night and I actually got it wrong. Actually probably isn't a necessary word as I don't know much about the Rosenbergs in all honesty. The question pertained to their method of execution. I guessed hanging because I knew the criminals in the Holcomb, KS, murder were tried and hanged sometime around the same time. I was wrong, it was death by electric chair.

Soloman Brothers

2009-01-14T21:58:00.001-08:00

Couldn't sleep so I watched The Soloman Brothers on Netflix, the watch instantly promotion. Maybe I was overtired but this movie had me laughing out loud. It was written by Bob Odenkirk and it was evident from scene one. I give it 3.5 stars out of 5. The scenes where they trained to become better fathers were probably the best.

Jump tab

2009-01-14T11:49:00.000-08:00

This is a tab I arranged for "Jump" by Van Halen. It's not difficult to play. I haven't completed the solo yet, and I may never. I've been working on a harmonica version of the solo, simplified, but it's still beyond my mouth harp skills. So for the time being, I just hum the instrumental break over the chords.

Anticipation

2009-01-14T06:48:00.001-08:00

I think Carly Simon said it best in her hit song Anticipation. She said, "anticipation." That's what I'm feeling for the 2009 Red Sox season. I know it's months away and we still have the World Baseball classic and hours of game construction for what was previous titled Big League Manager, but that's for a different blog. This one is about the 2009 Sox.

Acquisitions. Lots of them recently, though not the type of blockbusters you'd expect from the Sox after the las few off seasons (though last season was quiet, it was also directly following a World series sweep). The Yankees, meanwhile, have gone absolute bonkers in their winter dealings. A.J. Burnett, C.C. Sabathia, Mark Texiera, Nick Swisher. The Red Sox in turn have picked up John Smoltz, Brad Penny, Rocco Baldelli, and Takashi Saito. Yes, there are others, and yes that's not all the Yankees have done this winter, but let's keep to the big names for the moment.

1. A.J Burnett vs Brad Penny. Both began there careers in Florida with the Marlins. Both pitchers are around 30, Burnett a year older. ERA and WHIP very similar. Burnett racks up more strikeouts but Penny has a better winning percentage, having three seasons with 14 wins or more, while Burnett has only one. Burnett has a very good season in '08 while Penny had shoulder problems the whole year that grossly inflated his numbers. Burnett signs for 5 years at $83 million while Penny gets a one year deal for $5 million. Theo Epstein would never have signed a 32 year old injury prone pitcher, with only 10 more wins than losses over the course of his career, to a 5 year deal.

2. C.C. Sabathia vs. Smoltz and Saito. Granted, this isn't a fair comparison. We're comparing a Cy Young winning, NL-eating demon of fat with an a likely HOFer in his twilight and a closer with an '08 arm injury. C.C. Sabathia is awesome. There's no dispelling that. He's also gargantuan and has never pitched a whole season in a joint like Yankee stadium. The pressure gets to people. And we've all seen what pressure has done to CC (I forgot that he removed the dots officially last year). I've heard him compared to David Wells, and people point out how well he did in the Bronx. Yeah, well Wells relied on a sand wedge curve ball and had a nice easy fat rolling delivery. Sabathia unravels and his arms explodes across his torso, putting his necklace in orbit and everything else. Basically, he has a weight problem. My CC Sabathia Indians cup places him at 290 lbs. Please. He is a triple-pounder, with cheese, easily. Even so, were I Cashman and company, I would have signed Sabathia in a flash. I wouldn't have signed him for 7 years (!) at 161 million. The only pitcher in the majors I'd sign to a deal of 6 years or more is JohanSantana and it's too late for that. So on to Smoltz. Incredible career. He can close, start, spot start-anything. He's coming off an injury plagued year but the Sox got him for 5.5 mil. This one is iffy, but I hope it works out. Then there's Saito, which in my opinion is the biggest steal of the off season. Saito has a career ERA of 1.95, which was "ballooned" by last seasons 2.49. He can still throw in the mid-90's and he's cool as a cucumber. If Papelbon goes down at all next year, the Sox have a bonafide All-star as a set-up man and part-time closer. Again, a one-year deal for $5 million, and I am going to guess that Saito gets 10 saves next year and has an ERA around 2.

3. Mark Teixiera. I put Mark on his own because he's incomparable. Since he came up in '03 with Texas I have been calling him an infield Mickey Mantle. For fielding and switch-hitting power in one package, he has no equal. The Yankees paid a shit load to get him ($180 million over 8 years) but he will probably be worth it. In my lifetime I can't think of a scarier combination than A-Rod and Teixiera. That being said, it is dangerous to sign a player to a deal of that caliber. You better be damn sure he's the player you think he is. Hopefully, for the sake of the Yanks, he is. I think he is. The Sox did a great job driving up his price tag though. Was anyone actually surprised that he went to the Yanks?

4. Swisher vs. Baldelli. I'm tired and I need to eat breakfast. Swisher will probably be traded before the season starts and who the hell knows what they're getting with Rocco. He's still only 27 and at his last physical, doctors were confident that Rocco can take medication to successfully combat his weird mitochondrial disease. Wouldn't that be a great story if Baldelli became a hometown (grew up 50 miles from Fenway) hero for the Sox?

Rocky!

2009-01-14T06:44:00.000-08:00

The Interwebs

2009-01-13T15:06:00.000-08:00

Just got the internet today. Had been without it for a little over two months. Here are a few of the things I missed and didn't miss about it:

Missed
-Theme Time Radio on XM
-Checking MLB.com every 5 minutes to get the off season scoop
-Keeping in good "contact" with people via email and facebookb
-Finding the answer to a question with a couple of clicks

Didn't Miss
-Checking MLB.com every 5 minutes to get the off season scoop
-Facebook, and it's siren call
-The amount of time wasted reading stupid articles about things I don't care about
-Online predators

I have loads and loads of shit to blog about so they'll be more coming soon. Right after I check MLB.com...

ISTHMUS

2008-12-22T12:06:00.000-08:00

Breanne played the greatest Bingo I've ever seen last night. ISTHMUS. I'd never even heard of it. It's not so much the obscurity of the word as the fact that she spotted it on her tray.

Neil and Wilco

2008-12-15T09:16:00.000-08:00

Still don't have the internet, and not because of the recent ice storm. I'm waiting till I get a job.
Did, however, see Neil Young and Wilco in Worcester last night. I didn't know that Wilco was even playing until the car ride down. Mike and Jesse, the two guys I went with, had never heard Wilco. Mike had never even heard of them.
We sat in the high rafters of the DCU center and down and to our left we watched Wilco open. They played the Spiders song, Don't forget the flowers, the Echo song, Jesus etc., I'm the man who loves you, and a few I didn't know. I may have forgotten a song or two. They didn't play for long.
A short break, and Neil rode on stage (not literally on a horse, but you could smell horse as he shuffled). But then he stopped shuffling. He teetered and rocked and jumped (a bit) and played with gusto and lust-o. Hey Hey My My, Cinnamon girl, Cowgirl in the Sand, Rockin' in the Free world, some more. He split these rockers up with acoustics, Old Man, Heart of Gold, Lonesome Me, Needle and the Damage done, and his voice was as strong as ever. No rust at all. He also debuted a bunch of new songs, I think Mike said something about a new album of his. The songs all dealt with gas, energy, cars, the economy- that kind of stuff. Couldn't really get into them, but I have to admit, I wanted him to drop the electric at times and snuggle up to the piano. He didn't do much at the piano.
For an encore, he did "A Day in the Life," and it didn't disappoint. He sang the bridge-"woke up, got out of bed" etc.- with so much enthusiasm, you could tell he loved what he was doing. After the long sustained chord (still the longest in pop music history?) he trudged up to the xylophone, grabbed the sticks and stood behind it like a tyronic alchemist, struck two plates (the wrong note) pretended to look for the right and then found the right one, struck it, looked out at the audience, satisfied, waved, then walked off the stage.

Notice

2008-12-02T10:22:00.001-08:00

I'm now back in Maine and living in Old Orchard. I was on the road for two weeks and bouncing between Breanne's and my parents's home. This is the first time I've really used the internet in over three weeks. I haven't listened to Theme Time Radio in almost a month, and I have decided to cease blogging on the subject. I still don't have the internet at home but I will resume regular blogging once I am connected. I'm at the library in Scarborough right now, dehydrated, and trying to figure out how to sign up for the NET's at SMCC.