tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-262685932024-03-05T07:09:29.429-05:00The Urban ScrimmageMy rough and vigorous struggle. Maybe it should be called "The Suburban Scrimmage" now that I moved.Simonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14034980205375046592noreply@blogger.comBlogger18125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26268593.post-21381336777379676532010-01-19T23:20:00.003-05:002010-01-19T23:41:31.581-05:00Books books booksI'm basically posting this here for my own benefit, to remember which books I've gone through now.<br /><br />A Child Called "It": One Child's Courage to Survive<br />By Dave Pelzer<br /><br />When The Game Was Ours<br />By Jackie MacMullan<br /><br />The Night of the Gun<br />By David Carr<br /><br />I think that's it. Right now working on...<br /><br />The Tipping Point<br />By Malcolm Gladwell<br /><br />Planning to read soon...<br /><br />180: Climbing the two ladders to inner strength & outer freedom<br />By Rob White<br /><br />The Lost Boy: A Foster Child's Search for the Love of a Family<br />By Dave Pelzer<br /><br />Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't<br />By Jim Collins<br /><br /><br />I'd read 180 immediately. But for whatever reason I'm not ready to take that step at this moment. I think it takes some willingness to change when cracking a book like that...and right now...just avoiding for the moment. However I highly recommend checking out Rob White and the Mind Adventure, overall this has had an incredible impact on me. <a href="http://mindadventure.com/">mindadventure.com</a>Simonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14034980205375046592noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26268593.post-25119127778333418352009-02-23T00:03:00.002-05:002009-02-23T00:12:17.325-05:00WonderboysKilled off <span style="font-style:italic;">Wonderboys</span> by Michael Chabon today. I highly recommend it. In writing style, it reminded me of Great Gatsby - particularly the descriptions. There are parts in this book that had me laughing out loud. I'll have to check out the movie now to see how it compares.<br /><br />I also recently read these...<br />The Unbearable Lightness of Being: A Novel, Milan Kundera<br />The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho<br />Old School, Tobias Wolff<br /><br />All three were very good. Particularly, <span style="font-style:italic;">The Alchemist</span> is a great read on personal philosphy, and so simply written that you can get through it quickly and absorb it easily.<br /><br />Updated finish list...<br />Wonderboys, Michael Chabon<br />Old School, Tobias Wolff<br />The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho<br />The Unbearable Lightness of Being: A Novel, Milan Kundera<br />Fall River Dreams, Bill Reynolds<br />Slaughterhouse-Five, Kurt Vonnegut<br />High Fidelity, Nick Hornby<br />Big Sur, Jack Kerouac<br />One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Ken Kesey<br />The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald<br />American Miler: The Life and Times of Glenn Cunningham, Paul J. Kiell<br />The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain<br />A Drinking Life, Peter Hamill<br />On the Road, Jack KerouacSimonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14034980205375046592noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26268593.post-58734239363464078832008-11-09T13:20:00.003-05:002008-11-09T13:29:39.248-05:00Books updateHaven't updated here for a while but I don't want to lose track of these books I've read...<br /><br />Fall River Dreams, Bill Reynolds<br />Slaughterhouse-Five, Kurt Vonnegut<br />High Fidelity, Nick Hornby<br />Big Sur, Jack Kerouac<br />One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Ken Kesey<br />The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald<br />American Miler: The Life and Times of Glenn Cunningham, Paul J. Kiell<br />The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain<br />A Drinking Life, Peter Hamill<br />On the Road, Jack Kerouac<br /><br />I just ordered eight books off amazon.com...<br /><br />The Unbearable Lightness of Being: A Novel, Milan Kundera<br />The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho<br />Old School, Tobias Wolff<br />Tender Is the Night, F. Scott Fitzgerald<br />The Winning Spirit: 16 Timeless Principles That Drive Performance Excellence, Joe Montana/Tom Mitchell<br />The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, Tom Wolfe<br />A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens<br />The Sun Also Rises, Ernest Hemingway<br /><br />I started reading Endurance by Alfred Lansing but I found it pretty boring. I might go back to it at some point.<br /><br />I also have Ulyses and Moby Dick sitting on the bookshelf but I'm kind of intimidated by the size/stature of them. I want something I can really sink my teeth into, understand and get through pretty quickly. I'll pick up another Nick Hornby book fairly soon but I've got a lot to get through with that last order.Simonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14034980205375046592noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26268593.post-23966569040660666112008-07-26T19:22:00.000-04:002008-07-26T19:23:09.585-04:00Collective SoulI've got to say I love the first Collective Soul album: <span style="font-style:italic;">Hints, Allegations and Things Left Unsaid</span> is a great album. This came out when I was in the eighth grade and just discovering that I could have my own musical preferences and all that, as long as they were confirmed by my fellow eighth graders. Other confirmed artists: Nirvana, Aerosmith, Counting Crows and Billy Joel. Anyway I was just listening to a few Collective Soul songs off their greatest hits. Man I really like the ones off that first album, maybe nostalgia is affecting my judgement, but the other ones made me lurch over and hit all the buttons to skip the song. It's like that first album was it, then everything went to shit.Simonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14034980205375046592noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26268593.post-23644159087019247692008-07-20T20:08:00.001-04:002008-07-20T20:10:23.009-04:00Genius lineMy genius, if I can call it that, is to combine a whole load of averageness into one compact frame. I'd say that there are millions like me, but there aren't, really...Simonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14034980205375046592noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26268593.post-56572888233057473792008-06-15T19:33:00.005-04:002008-06-15T19:56:43.188-04:00Book updateOkay killed off <i>One Flew Over the Kuckoo's Nest</i> today. Great stuff. That damn army nurse. Instead of Jack Nicholson as McMurphy I pictured someone more like Gene Wilder. Like this:<br /><br /><a href="http://cache.viewimages.com/xc/53027668.jpg?v=1&c=ViewImages&k=2&d=17A4AD9FDB9CF19390335F8FA9CA92A6CCC0ABD3F4987EC426D5502F4A3FD04B"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px;" src="http://cache.viewimages.com/xc/53027668.jpg?v=1&c=ViewImages&k=2&d=17A4AD9FDB9CF19390335F8FA9CA92A6CCC0ABD3F4987EC426D5502F4A3FD04B" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><br />Here's what's still on my book list:<br /><br />Ulysses, James Joyce<br />1984, George Orwell<br />The Dharma Bums, Jack Kerouac<br />The Subterraneans, Jack Kerouac<br />Middlemarch, George Elliot<br />Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy<br />The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, Tom Wolfe<br />Brave New World, Aldous Huxley<br />Endurance, Alfred Lansing<br /><br />The Wiz recommends this:<br />High Fidelity, Nick Hornby<br />Not sure if the book or the Elvis Costello song influenced each other but I think the song is good. Probably didn't influence each other since the nerd put out his song in 1980 and the book came out in 1995. Here's the nerd's video.<br /><br /><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/vRT8nA665Gs&hl=en"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/vRT8nA665Gs&hl=en" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br /><br />Read these in the last few months:<br /><br />Big Sur, Jack Kerouac<br />One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Ken Kesey<br />The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald<br />American Miler: The Life and Times of Glenn Cunningham, Paul J. Kiell<br />A Drinking Life, Peter Hamill<br />On the Road, Jack Kerouac<br /><br />I like listing them because they make me feel like I'm making headway on the list, even though a few of them weren't on the list.Simonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14034980205375046592noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26268593.post-89413699424602284742008-05-31T17:56:00.003-04:002008-05-31T18:08:53.955-04:00Reaction to Big Sur<i>Big Sur</i> is an interesting contrast to common experience. It begins a simple story about getting away to clear the mind and turns into a horrifying, confused disaster of a trip to the other coast. Kerouac is supposed to go from New York or New Jersey wherever he is living to the Big Sur, which is a rural canyon in California, stay in his friend’s cabin alone to get away from his fame and people wanting his attention. He is perfectly successful, he has achieved his goal of being a great author but this seems to offer him no peace or contentment. He has money yet lives with his mother while people stand around outside the house waiting for him to acknowledge them. He wants to get away from that.<br /><br />Go to Big Sur and stay in a cabin alone, secretly, to get away from all of this. Yet Kerouac sabotages this immediately by getting drunk and showing up in San Francisco to party with all his friends. He eventually gets to the cabin by himself then can’t stand it. He meets back up with Cody with good intentions and there’s lots of other characters that show up. Kerouac intended the trip to help him clear his mind and feel better but he just recreated the same thing he had previously. He ends up back and forth from Big Sur with different groups of people muddying the intent of ever going there and getting drunk.<br /><br />This book has a great start. The writing is so entertaining to me, especially the first 50 or so pages. After a while he really starts rambling a lot, which I’m sure some people consider the genius of the thing but I find it hard to follow and hard to keep myself into. I slogged through the second half the book going crazy with Kerouac. It was a glimpse into being really crazy, where there’s no logic or rationale to what’s coming out. This was pretty interesting but frustrating. The entire thing culminates with him back at the Big Sur with some people who are expecting to have a great time out there but he goes crazy and they just deal with him. He is running around all night while they sleep, he can’t sleep. Finally they are going to leave and let him get away from them (as if they are the reason). Right before they leave he is finally able to sleep in a chair for a minute and it clears up his entire madness. Sort of a happy, this-is-the-end-of-the-book, ending. Funny in the end he is wanting to back to exactly what he was trying to get away from.<br /><br />This guy is really an interesting character. This was the third Kerouac book I’ve read, all within the past year (I’m really picking up the pace).<br /><br />Anyway Kerouac is really an interesting character battling his own psyche and withdrawing from reality through alcohol and drugs. Some of his craziness seems to be totally mental but it’s unclear whether he’s also nutritionally imbalanced, which contributes to the problem.<br /><br />This Kerouac stuff was really appealing to me at first because I saw this freedom he appeared to have. In On the Road, especially, he seemed to just be going from place to place, having experiences and disasters and great times and leaving it behind for the next place. (Finishing off that huge iced coffee has my fingers racing right now.) I’ve never had that type of experience. I play my life to the normal expectations where I lived at home and was a good kid until I graduated high school, then went to college (straight through the five-year program…but I never did any sabbatical or drop out and reenter or going away or anything…I was just on the path I was supposed to be on) and after I graduated from college I had the first chance to do something different since I had no job or obligation. I didn’t do anything. I just sat in my apartment. Two months of nothing until I got a job back at the same college doing the same thing I was doing in college and back on the straight-and-narrow path counting my money and climbing up the corporate (non-profit) ladder feeling like I have to have a job all the time and not knowing if it's good or bad. By the way it's four years later and I'm still sitting in the same apartment.<br /><br />So I’m starting to get that maybe the Kerouac writing appeals to me less because I want the actual freedom but more because I just want to throw in that experience while keeping my path going in the direction it has been. It’s a contrast. I’m not really going to quit what I’m doing and jump in a car and drive across the country until that stops working and then move on to the next thing while getting drunk the whole time even though that idea appeals to me. I can read this thing and experience his insanity and see how my insanity is pretty sane in comparison. Want to change some things maybe though. Socially. My career is taking care of itself because I’m great at that stuff. Not great at advancing in other areas but it's easy to look at the career and say that's success.<br /><br />Final thought here is that Big Sur is an interesting read; it’s not a nicey nice story that’s going to make you feel good or anything, just a look into this guy’s brain during a time in his life which wasn’t so easy going.<br /><br />--<br /><br />Want to leave me some feedback? Here's some ideas: (1) What am I your f-ing English teacher? (2) You're boring, thanks for wasting my time. (3) You get an 'A' on that homework assignment!<br /><br />One more book knocked off the reading list. <i>One Few Over the Cuckoo's</i> Nest is up next.Simonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14034980205375046592noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26268593.post-754293296503844742008-05-07T17:39:00.004-04:002008-05-13T23:38:09.295-04:00Laughing on the TI finished off Gatsby a few nights ago and went one night reading <span style="font-style:italic;">Sports Illustrated</span> and the newspaper before I got bored and picked up <span style="font-style:italic;">Big Sur</span> by Jack Kerouac. Now I'm only on page 27 but this book already has me laughing out loud a couple times on the subway so people sitting around me think I'm an idiot and not paying attention so I almost fall when the driver hits the breaks. I focus on a couple shockingly funny lines from my commute home that a teenage boy would laugh at.<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">So I feed Alf</span> [a mule] <span style="font-style:italic;">the last of my apples which he receives with big faroff teeth inside his soft hairy muzzle, never biting, just muffing up my apple from my outstretched palm, and chomping away sadly, turning to scratch his behind against a tree with a big erotic motion that gets worse and worse till finally he's standing there with erectile dong that would scare the Whore of Babylon let alone me.</span><br /><br />A few paragraphs later...<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Even when a rancher car goes by I day dream mad ideas like, here comes Farmer Jones and his two daughters and here I am with a 60-foot redwood tree under my arm walking slowly pulling it along, they are amazed and scared, "Are we dreaming? can anybody be that strong?" they even ask me and my big Zen answer is "You only think I'm strong" and I go on down the road carrying my tree––This has me laughing in clover fields for hours––I pass a cow which turns to look at me as it takes a big dreamy crap...</span><br /><br />Man I can't get enough of this rambling. I think if I ever get around to writing something up for myself like I've been talking about forever it will be in this Kerouac rambling style the first time until I realize that's Kerouac's style not Simon's style and I try something different the second time. I didn't even know what this book was about until I started reading it. Seems all about getting away to be alone and be pure except Kerouac alludes early that he goes crazy after three weeks. Being alone is never lonely because you're always with yourself, right?Simonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14034980205375046592noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26268593.post-63939958654455253932008-05-05T22:43:00.004-04:002008-05-05T23:23:56.719-04:00Gatsby and my book listFinally finished off <i>The Great Gatsby</i> by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Most people have to read that in high school but apparently you can get around that at AHS. Anyway I was fascinated by the descriptiveness of the writing. The style was its own entertainment regardless of the story. I should have kept track of my favorite quotes as I went but here's one that stuck out...<br /><br /><i>Gatsby, his hands still in his pockets, was reclining against the mantlepiece in a strained counterfeit of perfect ease, even boredom. His head leaned back so far that it rested against the face of a defunct mantelpiece clock, and from this position his distraught eyes stared down at Daisy, who was sitting, frightened but graceful, on the edge of a stiff chair.</i><br /><br />So I can cross that one off my reading list. I've got some feelings of inadequacy about how many books I have (not) read so I'm working on that. After failing miserably at matching famous characters with famous books during a trivia contest, I came up with this reading list...<br /><br />To Read:<br />Ulysses, James Joyce*<br />Big Sur, Jack Kerouac*<br />1984, George Orwell<br />The Dharma Bums, Jack Kerouac<br />Middlemarch, George Elliot<br />One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Ken Kesey<br />The Subterraneans, Jack Kerouac<br />Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy<br />The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, Tom Wolfe<br />Brave New World, Aldous Huxley<br />Endurance, Alfred Lansing*<br />*sitting on the shelf waiting for me to pick them up<br /><br />These were on the list (read 'em):<br />The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald<br /><i>This is probably one of my all-time favorites already. See above.</i><br />The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain<br /><i>I may have read this in the past. I certainly read parts of it but I'm not sure if I ever read it all the way through. Either way it was worth taking off the shelf and getting into. It doesn't need any compliments.</i><br /><br />Other books I have read recently:<br />American Miler: The Life and Times of Glenn Cunningham, Paul J. Kiell<br /><i>This was given to me by a friend. It's okay. Cunningham is an interesting guy but this book isn't written too well. If you're a fan of track & field I'd recommend it.</i><br />A Drinking Life, Peter Hamill<br /><i>This is a great read. It's very entertaining and certainly made me take a look at my night life, what excuses I make and what priorities I think I should be setting.</i><br />On the Road, Jack Kerouac<br /><i>Great stuff. This book made me re-evaluate whether I should be sitting here in this same job and same apartment trying to build some kind of nest or whatever my goal here is...making money? I still don't know but I don't have the balls to quit it all and run off. I think about it sometimes though.</i>Simonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14034980205375046592noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26268593.post-88293525414652073142008-04-02T21:36:00.002-04:002008-04-02T21:39:50.422-04:00Chad VaderFunny video series here, Chad Vader - Day Shift Manager. Chad is Darth Vader's brother, who is a regular guy that works at a supermarket. I suggest watching a few episodes (about five minutes each) because it takes a while to get going.<br /><br /><object width="425" height="355"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/4wGR4-SeuJ0&hl=en"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/4wGR4-SeuJ0&hl=en" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="355"></embed></object>Simonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14034980205375046592noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26268593.post-45545593544079708772007-10-17T17:06:00.002-04:002008-04-02T21:36:43.145-04:00Grape LadyWhen I need to be cheered up I just watch Grape Lady. Actually I used to watch Grape Lady. Unfortunately the video is no longer available because Fox is flexing its copyright muscle. Luckily YouTube has lots of other videos to waste time on (see above).<br /><br /><object width="425" height="350"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/90m2Xw_Haj0"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/90m2Xw_Haj0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350"></embed></object>Simonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14034980205375046592noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26268593.post-74984292872995658222007-10-11T14:20:00.000-04:002007-10-11T15:25:20.859-04:00BU Football<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-dUNhRI8UBSRQY-lr-KX0Cr0SVuLLAiAHuXtugzCKCsXhH2uwdAmWUcrgvAJAkdtTcuugefInDv_AwkuNpzQdVRcxQAPIV48I8lPkwoW44ak12BXblMmarILFLiLBOd5e-dNi/s1600-h/bufootball.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-dUNhRI8UBSRQY-lr-KX0Cr0SVuLLAiAHuXtugzCKCsXhH2uwdAmWUcrgvAJAkdtTcuugefInDv_AwkuNpzQdVRcxQAPIV48I8lPkwoW44ak12BXblMmarILFLiLBOd5e-dNi/s320/bufootball.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5120162357367476498" /></a><br /><br />This is scanned from last Sunday's Boston Globe. Boston University cut football on Homecoming weekend in 1997. Obviously there are still some very strong feelings about this. The ad got me thinking how the players, alumni, coaches, parents and others involved must have felt when their collective mission disappeared. I don't have time to write about that but may in the future.Simonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14034980205375046592noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26268593.post-31175131953941709682007-10-11T12:47:00.000-04:002007-10-11T14:09:48.084-04:00ContextToday's Boston Herald had a short article [<a href="http://www.bostonherald.com/sports/football/patriots/view.bg?articleid=1037410">link</a>] by Karen Guregian explaining Patriots cornerback Asante Samuel's tattoo that reads "Get Rich To This." Turns out it is a quote from a Gnarls Barkley song. Samuel interprets it to mean that he will make the best out of whatever he is doing and put everything he has into it.<br /><br />Samuel took a lot of heat about the tattoo after someone wrote that it said "Get Paid" and was referring to his contract status. It didn't even say that. Quite a misconception and it reminded me of another media misconception that spiraled out of control about No. 81.<br /><br />A few years ago Randy Moss was quoted saying "I play when I want to play." This sounds like a terribly selfish thing to say. Well Moss did say that but it he didn't mean it the way you think.<br /><br />The question asked by Sid Hartman of the Minneapolis Star & Tribune was, "Does Cris Carter get you pumped up to play games?" The full answer was actually "No, I play when I wanna play...nobody gets Randy Moss pumped up but Randy Moss."<br /><br />You can figure it out yourself.Simonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14034980205375046592noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26268593.post-14403283492910002482007-10-07T13:03:00.000-04:002007-10-07T13:04:10.286-04:00Fantasy baseball season comes down to one reality decisionI played in a head-to-head, weekly fantasy baseball league through ESPN.com this year. The league was based on points and had negative stats, which made it really interesting. For instance, a pitcher getting a win was worth 10; a loss was -5. It was the first time I ever had a fantasy baseball league. Ten guys from work all threw in $100 (except one guy, who only threw in $10, then disappeared). So there was $910 up for grabs at the end of 26 weeks – a 24-week regular season and a final four playoff. The split was 700/200/100.<br /><br />My team, called the Paper Boys, finished second in the league with a 16-8 record and played Detroit Rock City (also 16-8) in the semifinals of the playoffs. The other semifinal matchup was Freakshow (20-4) against the Ice Men (14-10).<br /><br />With the money up for grabs, I became completely obsessed with my fantasy baseball team during the semifinals. If I won the semis, I was guaranteed $200. If I lost, the most I could get was $100 and I could end up with nothing. I sat on my couch in front of my TV watching any baseball game that was on. They all seemed to matter. Tim Hudson pitched seven shutout innings, then came out for the eighth and gave up three runs and took the loss. I almost cried. Tears of rage. I threw all the papers off my coffee table onto the floor. That asshole could have gotten me 39 points if he left the game instead of coming out for the eighth inning. I was sitting with my laptop in my lap, checking box scores of other games. I was refreshing my fantasy baseball score every minute. Did Aaron Harang get the win? Detroit Rock City picked up Chris Capuano on the last day of the week and I watched in horror as he pitched a gem. But his bullpen failed and Capuano got the no decision.<br /><br />Detroit Rock City was run by a pouty guy that worked downstairs from me. He refused to talk to me during the playoffs. At first he I thought he was joking, but as the week wore on it became serious. He wouldn't return my phone calls and he avoided going near my office. He was really mad when I beat him 476-425. He came around when he won the consolation round and got $100.<br /><br />The other semifinal was also interesting and I was obsessed with watching those scores also. Freakshow was a master of exploiting the nuances of the league rules. He would add and drop players depending on who was playing that day. It wasn't really like running a baseball team, it was a transaction contest. I've never met the man but I don't like him. He might be a priest for all I know, but I don't like him because of his fantasy baseball tactics.<br /><br />But during the playoffs, Freakshow's moves backfired. He picked up pitchers who bonked. His batters took rest days. The Ice Men beat Freakshow at his own game, 484-358. The Ice Men were run by a friend of mine who also works in my building. We wasted a lot of time talking about fantasy baseball at work. It's an explicit violation of the rules of our work place to do fantasy baseball because it's considered gambling. It should be a violation because people spend so many work hours agonizing over a fake baseball team.<br /><br />The Paper Boys were in the finals against the Ice Men. I definitely thought I had a better team, but the Ice Men kept making roster moves to pick up different guys. It was almost impossible to predict what players would perform during the last week of the season. Young pitchers were shutting it down. September call-ups were getting tons of playing time. Old guys were getting surgery. Contenders were resting for the playoffs. It was all luck.<br /><br />Going into the final day of the season, the Ice Men were up on the Paper Boys 468-464. It was an incredible soap opera. My eyes shifted continuously between the baseball game on TV and the box scores on my computer. I read as many online articles as possible to try to figure out if Albert Pujols was playing that day. He did, and went 0-5. Damn.<br /><br />The final day was incredible. Barry Zito pitched well for the Ice Men. Chase Utley turned two double plays. The Paper Boys' great performance came in a night game. The fantasy week was so tight that everything hinged on my final starting pitcher of the season, Seattle's Felix Hernandez. This guy caused me major heartburn during the season. He pitched a one-hitter against the Red Sox in April, then went on the DL, pitched poorly, then started to come around. Now his team was out of playoff contention and it was the final day of the season. I had no idea what was going to happen. But he was amazing. He mowed down the Rangers. After eight innings he had allowed just a few hits, had eight strikeouts and was looking great.<br /><br />I was praying for Hernandez to pitch the ninth. It was a night game in Seattle, so I was sitting at my computer watching the gamecast around 1 a.m. That's where you sit there watching the stats update continuously. I was feeling pathetic but there was a lot of money on the line so I couldn't think about sleep. Hernandez came out for the ninth inning. I was sure I was going to win with a Hernandez complete game. He got the first two outs no problem. Then the gamecast wouldn't update. I was hitting refresh but nothing was happening.<br /><br />I was in a state of shock when I realized what happened: a pitching change. That asshole Seattle manager took out Hernandez so he could get the standing ovation, and he was bringing in the Ice Men's closer, JJ Putz, so he could get an ovation too. I was giving the Seattle manager the middle finger. Actually I was giving my computer the middle finger, but it was directed at one John MacLaren. With one more out, Hernandez would have scored 50 fantasy points. Instead he got 38. Putz got the out and got a save, good for seven points for the Ice Men. I thought I was going to puke. If Hernandez stayed in and got that last out, the Paper Boys would have won the week, 532-521. Instead the Ice Men took a 528-520 victory. With that one decision John MacLaren decided who would win the Boston Baseball League.Simonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14034980205375046592noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26268593.post-9675000936396749202007-10-03T13:27:00.000-04:002007-10-03T13:29:01.880-04:00Question by Sheila Jon PritchardThis poem is by Sheila Jon Pritchard. It is published somewhere, and I'll try to figure that out and post a link to buy the book.<br /><br />--<br />Trying to write about my life and how I came to love poetry is like trying to structure a London fog. I suppose I have to thank my eccentric parents for this because they taught the family nothing about reality. We were only invited to ask questions. This we did by creating our own family plays. I, being the youngest, was assigned only to minor roles, always fumbling my lines. Our scripts were saturated with imponderables like, why are we here? Who are we? I told my father I knew the answer. I found it one night while talking to God. "You couldn't have," he informed me. "He doesn't exist. He died in the eighteenth century. In England."<br /> <br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Question</span><br /><br />Who shot the bullet into the heart of the world?<br />Where are the secret saboteurs who stab the will,<br />shatter resolve, choke the life flow in a single thrust?<br /><br />Where do these destroyers hide, these inconsequentials<br />who power nothingness into the seat of God<br />In you? In me?<br /><br />Does the massacre begin at home?<br />A silent grievance, a flush of humiliation,<br />a slight forgotten,<br />or so you thought!<br /><br />Does the blood spurt from a ruptured belief,<br />a man lost in the bewilderment of the age,<br />a woman betrayed?<br />Or does it birth in the seed of a child<br />planted and nurtured in a world<br />kidnapped by its own fear?<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Sheila Jon Pritchard </span>Simonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14034980205375046592noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26268593.post-36595150996456021762007-10-01T22:39:00.000-04:002007-10-08T10:26:48.862-04:00Franklin Park<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5GBAbuN3GxnzK1H3E9p1JuHoDqV_lc-N7OOtr6pvGXMCgC9ZF4SKTUacNBP4WAVoHoMMoy3uyjewzBFyRIrJcPoQPfI6xQc5kejHn9v0G1FdZNtta7h7kPXNsUiKYUAI-5-04/s1600-h/franklinpark.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5GBAbuN3GxnzK1H3E9p1JuHoDqV_lc-N7OOtr6pvGXMCgC9ZF4SKTUacNBP4WAVoHoMMoy3uyjewzBFyRIrJcPoQPfI6xQc5kejHn9v0G1FdZNtta7h7kPXNsUiKYUAI-5-04/s400/franklinpark.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5116563853378261234" /></a><br />This is Nick's painting titled "Franklin Park". Check out his blog for many more <a href="http://www.artistnick.com">http://www.artistnick.com</a>.Simonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14034980205375046592noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26268593.post-74224240028509133502007-10-01T18:36:00.000-04:002007-10-02T09:10:24.360-04:00Top 10 Musical Artists/BandsJohn Lennon/The Beatles<br />Johnny Cash<br />Elvis Costello<br />The Wallflowers<br />Ben Folds<br />Guns N' Roses<br />Bob Dylan<br />Stevie Ray Vaughan<br />Counting Crows<br />The Rolling StonesSimonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14034980205375046592noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26268593.post-1145240478492844952007-10-01T09:36:00.000-04:002007-10-01T13:28:08.979-04:00Daylight saving all year...<span style="font-family:georgia;">This web site has a lot of great information and some really hilarious anecdotes about daylight saving time. Note: daylight saving time is when it's lighter later, like in the summer. Daylight standard time is in the winter.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:georgia;">http://webexhibits.org/daylightsaving/</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:georgia;">Example that I find funny: "When the clocks fall back one hour in October, all Amtrak trains in the U.S. that are running on time stop at 2:00 a.m. and wait one hour before resuming. Overnight passengers are often surprised to find their train at a dead stop and their travel time an hour longer than expected."</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:georgia;">The web site explains the history of daylight saving (not daylight savings) and clarifies a lot of misconceptions. Daylight saving was originally Ben Franklin's idea but Londoner William Willett was the first person to really advocate for it. That was in 1907 with his pamphlet "Waste Of Daylight." The first time daylight saving was enacted on a wide-spread basis was during World War II in an effort to save energy and resources. Many people think that daylight saving goes back much further and the farmers need it for some reason (Personally, I thought this was because farmers liked getting up early and wanted the sun to be out).</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:georgia;">The following two paragraphs from the web exhibits site seem to me to be enough reason to justify extending daylight saving time to the winter months.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:georgia;">--</span><br /><span style="font-family:georgia;">Following the 1973 oil embargo, the U.S. Congress extended Daylight Saving Time to 8 months, rather than the normal six months. During that time, the U.S. Department of Transportation found that observing Daylight Saving Time in March and April saved the equivalent in energy of 10,000 barrels of oil each day - a total of 600,000 barrels in each of those two years.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:georgia;">Likewise, in 1986, Daylight Saving Time moved from the last Sunday in April to the first Sunday in April. No change was made to the ending date of the last Sunday in October. Adding the entire month of April to Daylight Saving Time is estimated to save the U.S. about 300,000 barrels of oil each year.</span><br /><span style="font-family:georgia;">--</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:georgia;">And in a good policy change by George W. Bush, we're getting closer to the goal! Also from the web site: </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:georgia;">--</span><br /><span style="font-family:Times;">On August 8, 2005, President George W. Bush signed the <em>Energy Policy Act of 2005</em>. This Act changed the time change dates for Daylight Saving Time in the U.S. Beginning in 2007, DST will begin on the second Sunday in March and end the first Sunday in November. The Secretary of Energy will report the impact of this change to Congress. Congress retains the right to resume the 2005 Daylight Saving Time schedule once the Department of Energy study is complete.</span><br /><span style="font-family:georgia;">--</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:georgia;">My hope is that the country will save a lot of energy and thus justify moving to daylight saving on a year-round basis. I just want it to be light when I get out of work. </span>Simonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14034980205375046592noreply@blogger.com0