The Marlins have an 8-1 lead against the Mets going into the bottom of the 9th. They are bringing in their closer! I love the Marlins. Hanley Ramirez is playing hurt because he hates the Mets.
Phillies are three outs away. Both games should end nearly simultaneously.
Ryan Howard just homered and the Mets are down by seven runs. It looks to me like the Phightins are heading to the playoffs.
I feel Grrreeeat!!!
It took me a while to get comfortable with riding my bike to my new job. For one thing, I didn’t want a repeat of the getting my frame smashed in the mailroom like at my old workplace. And then there was the issue of me having to dress fancy (by my standards) for the new job and how this makes it difficult to show up at work all sweaty.
Instead of riding my fancy new Bottecchia to work, I have been getting there via a circa 1980 touring bike that I bought for $20 at a yard sale a few years ago and forgot about, having left it in my parents’ garage. My mom brought me the bike on a recent visit and after a few fixit sessions in the basement (I’ve been thinking of starting a series of “How Not To Fix a Bicycle” videos for YouTube. The pain and frustration I feel when say breaking my chain tool hurts, but I bet it would look hilarious to somebody else) it works reasonably well.
I did two days sweating a lot and hiding behind minivans while I changed into my work pants in order to evade being seen. The whole experience was unpleasant and awkward, and I was leaning towards just saying forget about it and taking the T. But the T had been getting crowded, and I was really getting sick of it. It seemed like everytime I got on the orange line I’d get stick without a seat, and nobody would offer me a seat either, which is just plain rude, because I had a book. If you don’t have a book on the T, what business do you have occupying a seat? It’s more difficult for me to hold a 1000 read book while standing and being jostled than it is for some “old person” to just stand there. The bottom line is, illiterates don’t deserve to sit!
Sorry for the rant.
And only people reading books I approve of should be allowed to sit.
Back to work. So, I’m feeling this awful tension between uncomfortable T and uncomfortable situation with being nude in the parking lot (slight exagerration). That’s when I was told that there was a shower near my cube at work. This coupled with a secret entrance a fellow cycling commuter co-worker showed me, means that I can pretty much sneak into work a sweaty mess and arrive at my desk fresh and clean and hardly anybody sees me in my former state.
Speaking of state, let me tell you about the old Boston State Hospital. Yes, thanks to google maps, cyclists can find new and exciting ways to get to work. I discovered via satellite a shortcut along some abandoned roads. Yeah, it’s private property but nobody reads this blog anyway so let me tell you all about it. There used to be a Lunatic Asylum there with a 250 acre campus. First it was called “Boston Lunatic Hospital,” then it was called “Boston Insane Hospital,” and then they changed the name to “Boston State Hospital.” Then they closed it down and razed all of the buildings. It is very eerie and strange and I am sure if I cruised through there late at night, not only would I see ghosts, but insane maniac ghosts, which are extra-scary.
The place is currently being developed, but currently all there really are in the section I ride in are a lot of abandoned roads. It’s somewhat reminiscent of Centralia, Pennsylvania where my maternal grandfather was from.
Maybe I’ll take some pictures for you.
So much tumult in Phillies land. Hamels has a sore elbow, but Utley will be back before the end of the month. They pull off a one run win over the Dodgers. Mucho problemos with mlb.com on the mac. Why do they sometimes put up a you need to subscribe message with no links whatsever to seeing the game when you’ve already subscribed? I have a theory about this. Because if you don’t have the proper programs installed the games play on quicktime which you can record. Anyhow, finally found out that the game shows up (choppy but shows up) on Netscape (third choice). Phils pull it out 5-4. Switch to the Mets-Padres. Entering the evening the Mets are 5 ahead of the Phillies in the division, Padres are 1 in front of them in the Wildcard. Pads are leading going into the ninth, and I am trying to weigh the following: a. root against the Mets thinking that the Phils have a lot of games left versus them and that if they can get hot they’ll win the division b. Root against the Padres because the Mets are too far ahead. Mets comeback and win the game in the bottom of the ninth. Marlon Anderson (ex-Phil) hits the game tying rbi single and scores the game winning run. I’ll take it, I guess. We’re tied for the wildcard!
Took Hazel to the tot lot today. For those of you unfamiliar, the tot lot is a playground in Jamaica Plain that people drop abandoned toys off at. It turns out that’s not the only thing they drop there, but more on that in a sec. So not only is it a playground, but there are hundreds of tricycles and stuff like that. The tots love it. But, apparently there have been some problems with the tot lot lately. A sign placed by the entrance today warned of sightings of adult turds over by the see-saw. Adult human turds, I should add. This warning came with a list of things to do should you or your tot come across one of these turds. Among the items, “clean it up.” I don’t think so. Try: leave the tot lot in horror and never come back.
I guess this has been going on for a few months now. I would assume it’s some homeless person who found out that the relative seclusion of tot lot allowed for a private shit after dark. Who knows though, maybe it’s somebody with a scatological sense of humor (read an insane maniac).
I didn’t realize that the sign I’d read had been abridged by some Puritanical parent until we were leaving the tot lot through another entrance/exit. The first sign I’d read had been folded over, this second one was newer and laid out in all its glory with a large header reading “HOLY SH*T.” The author of the sign, who I found out later was a concerned dad who had earlier been spotted by my wife doing some recon patrol around the see-saw, has decided to combat the completely out of line with the somewhat inappropriate. Bravo. How many three year olds can read anyways? I defintely got a laugh out of it. So long as I don’t have to deal with stepping in it or whatever, I think I’ll laugh it off. That’s what good citizenship is all about really, laughing about things that don’t directly effect you or your family.
Here is a purely hypothetical question for you, one that I throw out there just to see if in it’s hypothetnicity, you find it interesting too.
Let’s say you started a blog in which you pretended to be somebody you’re not just for fun, because what’s more fun than lying? Not much. I would never do something like this, but maybe you would. Let’s also say that after you had begun to do this, and established a meager (to say the least) following (i.e. you got on two or three blogrolls), you noted that one of the incoming links to your fake blog was from another blog whose owner worked for the same company you did. Would you unmask yourself figuring that the complete randomness of it all must be some type of good omen? Or would you keep quiet about it?
I guess for me it would depend if I thought this person was hot or not.
I guess the scammers have been clued into my blog and are now commenting on posts about how Frances Luzzern ran off with all of their money. As if anybody with more than a pea-sized brain thinks Frances Luzzern is really real. I got bored stringing them along. There are some websites out there where people do far nastier things to the scammers than I do, some of them I kind of find disturbing, but, yeah, whatever. No more of that for a while.
I read somewhere (in the world of hyperlinks, leave it to me to say that) that Barry Bonds’ record breaking homer got a 1.1 teevee rating and Hank Aaron’s got 22.3 or something. Basically, the thinking is that less than a million people saw 756 live. Which begs the question, was the whole thing, the chase, the scandal, all of it, actually boring? The answer is yes. Personally I’m more excited about Carlos Lee’s chances of breaking Gil Hodges’ fifty-three year old record of 19 sacrafice flies in a season. 1954 was the first year that sac flies were recorded as a statistic, and since then, remarkably, nobody has hit more sac flies in a season. Lee has 13 so far I think. He has a chance.
I think my dog has to vomit. I love when this happens. You just kind of wait and hope he doesn’t.
Here’s your link. I hope it’s not too little too late.
Loud Family covers the Stones, go figure. It’s not as good as the original, but I am sure Dr. Pete Gliatto would approve of song choice.
Phillies and Cubs on the window to the right. 4-4 in the top of the eighth. I’m invested in this series. Have watched most of it, despite the milestones of Messers Glavine, Bonds, and Rodriguez. Have you noticed that they are all failing miserably. Glavine’s ERA has been over 5 for the past two months. Haven’t checked Bonds tonight, but no updates from the Cubbie announcers (Bob Brenley and someone else). Howry K’s Dobbs. 2 outs nobody on. And A Rod (Roberson grounds out to Howry, we go to the bottom of the eighth) is something like 0 for his last 20. Last night the Yankees hit eight home runs, and he wasn’t part of the action. What are the chances? It’s enough to make me think the sceptics are right about him. Anyways (we’re in a commercial break), yeah, so last night the Phillies wer down by like four runs and I turned over to the Mets Brewers because it was late in the (JC Romero comes in to pitch for the Phils. Cub announcer, not Brenley, mentions that the Mets beat the Brewers so if the Cubs top out Phils they are in first place. Hope not) game and Glavine had left with the lead. But the Mets relievers were (Kendall grounds to Rollins, one out in the bottom of the eighth. Aramis Ramirez comes up with great fanfare from the, uh, fans, but flies out to Burrell on the first pitch, and now the great Soriano. He won’t see anything here.) facing Hardy, Braun, and Fielder (Soriano walks, what I tell ya’), the Brew crew got a run, Glavine’s wife looked livid, her kids on the verge of tears. I am pretty sure they cried later as soon as they had a chance to escape the cameras. Cried their eyes out. In Milwaukee, no less. How pathetic for them. (Fucking Soriano was picked off but ended stealing second. Ryan Howard is not a five tool player. Lousy throw.) But I was happy, because the Met bullpen blowing the game meant that the Phils remained three out. The National League is completely up for grabs, especially the East. (Theriot strikes out on 3-2, but the umpire calls it a walk. Two on, two out. C’mon Romero, shut Brenley up! Cubs fans clapping in unison. Bunch of goddamned lemmings. Derrek Lee is up. Danger Will Robinson. Soriano steals third. Ruiz doesn’t eve throw. 2-0 the count. He swings at a low and inside slider, what would have been ball three. Just misses. 3-1. Infielders in to reassure Romero that the ump is an idiot. Here we go…. C’mon Romero! Just outside. Three walks in a row with two outs. Durbin, now in the bullpen. Romero to DeRosa. Strike on the inside corner…. The only strike of the Lee at bat replayed for a ball, 1-1. Fouls one off. Don’t you love this play-by-play?? 1-2 count…Romero from the stretch, did DeRosa go?? The first base ump says no. Idiot. Pop up, Iguchi is there, to the ninth.) Ok, commercial break, onto other things of note, like the fact that less than a mile from where I will lay my head down to sleep tonight a woman killed her kids on Sunday. She wanted to committ suicide but not without taking her kids with her. And of course, she kills her kids, but somehow fails to take care of herself. A few self inflicted stab wounds. Arrested in a hospital bed this morning. So much misery, so close (back to baseball. Cubs bring in their closer Dempster. Iguchi up. Cub announcers bragging about their stupid bullpen. How I want to beat these chumps. 2-2 count to Iguchi. Now they’re bragging about Oliver Perez… Jaque Jones terrific diving catch to rob Iguchi of a lead off single. Twenty to thirty replays. Rollins up. 1-1. First bragging about Oliver Perez, but now onto Billy Wagner. Salt in wounds, anyone? Rollins lines to right for a single. The table is set for Ryan Howard. I like our chances here. Dempster makes him look foolish. Swing strike. 0-1. 2-2 to Howard now. Both strikes made him look foolish…. He almost chased ball three. 3-2… Walk himmmm. Howard K’s, Rollins takes second. Rollins seems hurt… I guess the ball hit him. He’s okay.. Rowand up. Swing and a miss. Dempster throws some nasty shit up there. fouls one off. Shit, 0-2. Idiot fans standing and cheering… Rollins takes third on a ball. 1-2 man on third 2 outs 4-4 top of the ninth… Ball two. Back in business. I smell a run…. Ball three! Fans scream but that was NOT a strike!! We’re full. Brenley: “May have been up a tad.” Whatever, moron. Rowand walks. Pat the Bat up. .261 with 14 homers of late. Hot recently, but…. Inside ball one. .381 lifetime versus Dempster. 2-0. That was close. Pat, right where you want him. Dempster throws a strike. 2-1. Burrell looks foolish with a big swing and miss. 2-2 with two outs and two on….tie game… Ball three. Fans don’t like it, but what do they know? Here we go, game on the line… Walked him!!! Bases juiced for the Phils. 4-4, top of the ninth with two out. Here comes Carlos Ruiz. Thank god Barajas didn’t start. I love Ruiz. he’s clutch.. Watch this.. ball one called for a strike. Aw shit, fielder’s choice 6-4. I’m going to pee………… Bret Myers on to pitch for the Phils. I think we’ll see the tenth. Murton up for the Cubs. Breaking ball right over the plate strike one, and then again with a swing for strike two, but aw crap an 0-2 line drive double off the glove of a diving Jayson Werth, the nephew of Rob Wilfong or somebody like that. Unreal. Rollins had a ball off his glove earlier that cost the Phillies a run. It’s a game of inches. Murton goes to third on a ball that almost killed Cedeno. 3-0. The winning run on third and no outs. They walk him. Myers after the first two pitches to Murton has looked awful. Jaques Jones is up. My fingers are hurting. Triple play por favor. Jones is 5 for 9 off Myers in his career. They’re walking him. I am putting on music, this is ridiculous. Anyhow, the Loud Family, that I bought from emusic, some song called “What if it Works.” I actually interviewed this guy once. I think his name is Scott Miller. Hey!! Myers K’d Kendall. But that’s only one out and the bases are still loaded. Please GIDP Pinch Hitter former Red Sox Cliff Floyd… Nasty slider, 0-1. Floyd .364 lifetime verus Myers. Wild pitch, Cubs win.
“After the shootings, the guard appear on a hill near Taylor Hall. Students are everywhere and the guard seems unaware of what to do.” — Howard Ruffner
I am really getting into the fact that people are putting so much stuff online. When I was a kid, it was always fun to spin a globe and plunk my finger down to stop and see where I was. I think the contemporary version of this game is much more high res. What I like to do is go to flickr, type in a random four or five digit number in the search bar, and see where it takes me.
For example, I just randomly found this wedding. Maybe it’s too close. I have no idea where that event is even taking place, without the necessary zooming out. Anyhow, another great thing, are some of the online albums that have a more narrative appeal to them. The other week I was browsing through somebody from Manhattan’s 9/11 album. Interestingly enough, the user name is Hiro Shima. The most impressive I have found so far though, is Howard Ruffner’s 1970 Kent State web album. There are some details with certain pictures, but they pretty much speak for themselves. I wouldn’t want to lessen what people went through by saying it’s like being there, but the album does lend itself to a very frightening immediacy, especially when witnessing the seemingly benign (in context) initial actions of the students: a rally, burning draft cards. But then you see the thing begin to spiral out of control, and there is one particular series of shots of Governor Rhodes inspecting the burned out ROTC building that really builds up the dramatic tension. You can almost see the awful turn of events in his furrowed brows.
Most times when viewing web photo albums, I do so randomly, trying to make out what is going on, where maybe it is taking place, et cetera. This is part of the fun, it’s like contemporary archaeology. With the Ruffner pictures, there is no fun in discovering anything new, and there is plenty of dread in rediscovering something in the past. But the photos are compelling enough to keep you there. I don’t want to give too much away, because it might detract from the experience. A great ending though, it has a lot to do with “survival,” which is always a good word.
Word to the wise, these things are always best viewed in slide show mode for maximum effect.