Now that Brian gave his, here are my lame excuses for not posting:
1. Connectivity issues
My cable modem has fritzed frequently, not to be restarted by mortal tech support, only to restart inexplicably. Today I had a tech out who noted a couple of reasons why my signal might be low, but no idea about the modem. Grr. I think I've lost about a half of a month of service already...and had to eat at Panera a couple of times.
Pi. Trip out of town
Last weekend, I was out of town for my cousin's wedding, and stayed through until Monday morning to spend some time with my grandparents over Father's day. It was good. But I didn't have the laptop...
I will note that I flew from Reagan airport to Ford airport.
6.02 x 10^23. Been busy
Last week, shopping for father's day, the wedding, packing, laundry, etc. The week before, the last week of umpiring, and I was being run quite busy then too. But at least I got a nice home plate-shaped plaque of recognition from the league for that.
i. Second job as a delivery boy. I have honor; there are no pictures of me.
Tuesday, June 21, 2005
Sunday, June 05, 2005
Nationals Update
Tomorrow, for the first time since 1933, DC wakes up to a first place baseball team.
We had the local SABR chapter meeting at the ballpark yesterday, and Jamey Carrol was recruited to talk to us. He was pretty cool for a tiny utility infielder having to fill in as an everday second baseman. He's also been hustling his butt off and scoring runs in bunches, including the game winner Friday night and go-ahead run on Saturday.
We'll see if the scoring at RFK starts to pick up now that it's finally gotten hot today, and looks to stay that way...
We had the local SABR chapter meeting at the ballpark yesterday, and Jamey Carrol was recruited to talk to us. He was pretty cool for a tiny utility infielder having to fill in as an everday second baseman. He's also been hustling his butt off and scoring runs in bunches, including the game winner Friday night and go-ahead run on Saturday.
We'll see if the scoring at RFK starts to pick up now that it's finally gotten hot today, and looks to stay that way...
Wednesday, June 01, 2005
Am I really the first of the "bloggers I personally know" to discuss the Deep Throat news? Apparently. I guess I don't personally know any bloggers of sufficient age to have been aware through Watergate, but still, we've all see the movie, yes? (No, not that one. And incedentally, I wonder what the rejected pseudonyms were. Thank goodness there was no Back Door Sluts 9.)
I have nothing to add, of course, other than to note I'll probably pick up a paper copy of the Washington Post tommorow--Woodward's story will be available online, but this just feels like something you should read with actual newsprint in your hands. It's the long-awaited epilogue to the whole mess.
I also can't believe the likes of Pat Buchannan and others are whining that Felt is somehow a traitor for betraying "his" administration. Last I checked, the FBI should only be responsible to the truth and to the people. Given that the White House was obstructing the FBI, what was he supposed to do to at least do his duty in the ethical sense? To me, these attacks just speak to the hubris of the American right both then and now, and how they typically care about their own power bases more than the responsibility of governance.
This soapbox looks rickety, so I'll get down now.
I have nothing to add, of course, other than to note I'll probably pick up a paper copy of the Washington Post tommorow--Woodward's story will be available online, but this just feels like something you should read with actual newsprint in your hands. It's the long-awaited epilogue to the whole mess.
I also can't believe the likes of Pat Buchannan and others are whining that Felt is somehow a traitor for betraying "his" administration. Last I checked, the FBI should only be responsible to the truth and to the people. Given that the White House was obstructing the FBI, what was he supposed to do to at least do his duty in the ethical sense? To me, these attacks just speak to the hubris of the American right both then and now, and how they typically care about their own power bases more than the responsibility of governance.
This soapbox looks rickety, so I'll get down now.
Wednesday, May 25, 2005
Rule 7.08 (d)
Here's the play, and don't cheat and look at the rule:
Bases loaded, pop fly just foul down the first base line. Runner on first started on the hit (base coach was yelling at the batter to run, and confused the runner), and was six steps off when the ball was caught by the first baseman. The first baseman steps on the bag, and the runner returns and is not tagged. Is the runner out?
< spoiler space>
Of course he is, by the rule cited in the title:
The italicized portion was what one of the assistant coaches was misinformed about--for some reason he thought that on a caught foul ball the runner has to be tagged, not the base. The head coach of the batting team, who is a good guy, didn't manage to ask us before the next pitch, which meant a protest couldn't be lodged. Which was great for me because it would have been paperwork for me to fill out to prove I was right. But anyway, he, another ump who has a (I think) grandkid on the team, and this assistant were insistent that I had it wrong. I offered to get the rulebook after the game and show them for their education (I didn't know the rule number right off the top of my head, but I was certain I was right.) So there isn't an incident that I'm here bitching about--the head coach, whom I showed the rulebook afterwords, admittedly he wasn't as familiar with the rules minutiae as he thought his helper was, so he defered to him and backed his position.)
What I want to ask the Teeming Handful (that means you) is have you ever had, or heard of anyone having, this misconception? I mean, missunderstanding the infield fly rule or something fairly uncommon like obstruction or a fair ball hitting the runner doesn't surprise me. Sometimes the rules aren't perfectly intuitive but if you think about them they make some kind of sense. I just cannot come up with a way in which the wrong interpretation I was confronted with tonight makes any sense whatsoever. (I mean, if the runner runs to second without retouching first, this guy's position says you have to chase him down with the ball.) And since I've never encountered it before, I'd like to know to if I'm being snooty thinking this guy (though definitely polite about it) was completely off his rocker.
Bases loaded, pop fly just foul down the first base line. Runner on first started on the hit (base coach was yelling at the batter to run, and confused the runner), and was six steps off when the ball was caught by the first baseman. The first baseman steps on the bag, and the runner returns and is not tagged. Is the runner out?
< spoiler space>
Of course he is, by the rule cited in the title:
[Any runner is out when] failing to retouch the base after a fair of foul fly ball is legally caught before that runner or the base is tagged by a fielder. (emphasis mine; © 2004 Little League Baseball, Inc.)
The italicized portion was what one of the assistant coaches was misinformed about--for some reason he thought that on a caught foul ball the runner has to be tagged, not the base. The head coach of the batting team, who is a good guy, didn't manage to ask us before the next pitch, which meant a protest couldn't be lodged. Which was great for me because it would have been paperwork for me to fill out to prove I was right. But anyway, he, another ump who has a (I think) grandkid on the team, and this assistant were insistent that I had it wrong. I offered to get the rulebook after the game and show them for their education (I didn't know the rule number right off the top of my head, but I was certain I was right.) So there isn't an incident that I'm here bitching about--the head coach, whom I showed the rulebook afterwords, admittedly he wasn't as familiar with the rules minutiae as he thought his helper was, so he defered to him and backed his position.)
What I want to ask the Teeming Handful (that means you) is have you ever had, or heard of anyone having, this misconception? I mean, missunderstanding the infield fly rule or something fairly uncommon like obstruction or a fair ball hitting the runner doesn't surprise me. Sometimes the rules aren't perfectly intuitive but if you think about them they make some kind of sense. I just cannot come up with a way in which the wrong interpretation I was confronted with tonight makes any sense whatsoever. (I mean, if the runner runs to second without retouching first, this guy's position says you have to chase him down with the ball.) And since I've never encountered it before, I'd like to know to if I'm being snooty thinking this guy (though definitely polite about it) was completely off his rocker.
Apartment Living
UPDATE: Not a Blogger login problem, but somehow the picture link was replaced with a blogger post link. I would swear that there's no way I did that, but it's far more likely than Blogger randomly messing with me. Anyway, it works now.
My mom wanted to see a picture of my new couch. So here it is. Why use bandwith when you can let IKEA do it? Plus my couch already has piles of crap on it. This one doesn't. I always thought showrooms should be more realistic that way--there should be piles of magazines you have to move, and some of the couches should have jelly stains and such, so you can see how it will look in the long run.
My aparment complex had "resident appreciation week" last week, and I got a free umbrella. It doesn't sound that cool, but I didn't own one, so even though I'm advertising them in a not-too-garish manner when it rains it's kind of handy. It needs to be about three inches longer though so I can do the semi-cool trick of using it as a low grade walking stick in between sprinkles.
This is the best I can do? Man, I need a life.
My mom wanted to see a picture of my new couch. So here it is. Why use bandwith when you can let IKEA do it? Plus my couch already has piles of crap on it. This one doesn't. I always thought showrooms should be more realistic that way--there should be piles of magazines you have to move, and some of the couches should have jelly stains and such, so you can see how it will look in the long run.
My aparment complex had "resident appreciation week" last week, and I got a free umbrella. It doesn't sound that cool, but I didn't own one, so even though I'm advertising them in a not-too-garish manner when it rains it's kind of handy. It needs to be about three inches longer though so I can do the semi-cool trick of using it as a low grade walking stick in between sprinkles.
This is the best I can do? Man, I need a life.
Thursday, May 19, 2005
Trip through the Rotation, Part 5--Nineteen Up, Nineteen Down
Game 5, 5/17/05, Wes Obermuller (82, 24) vs. Claudio Vargas (14, -12)
WP--Obermuller
LP--Vargas
Seating: Section 523, Row 2, Seat 13, though I actually sat a few seats away b/c 11 rows were comprised of NRL people, so we sloshed around.
Hat: Red Nationals Home cap (script W)
One great pitching performance and one lousy one. Vargas got shelled in 1 1/3 and only threw 44 pitches by my count; Brady Clark hit the first pitch for a homer and Carlos Lee finished him with a three run bomb. in fact, due to back spasms from Patterson, he'll start again on Friday on only two day rests. Obermuller on the other hand was perfect through 6 1/3, and one of the hits was a fly ball that should have been caught but Geoff Jenkins lost it in the lights. Fortunately that was not the first baserunner.
Tomo Okha actually had a hell of a "start" in relief--5 2/3, 2 hits, 0 runs, would have scored 67/13.5 as a start.
As I figured, I was the only one from the lab I noticed keeping score. I meant to go with a less overdone and pitch-tracking scoresheet, but baseballscorecards.com was down, and the newsprint scorecard in the program isn't very good, so I printed out my technical one anyway. It's not as if the fact that I'm an obsessive geek is a state secret or anything.
I think I actaully managed to keep a couple of people who were present more for the camaraderie than the baseball from leaving while the perfect game was still a possibility. I kept stressing how this was unlikely but historic and they'd hate to miss it. Either that or they were just happy to have another overpriced beer.
So I saw 5 games in about 99 hours, made 4 Metro rides and one car trip, saw the teams I was rooting for at the time go 2-3, saw a couple of multi-error innings, watched some great and some lousy baseball, and had a pretty good time. I'm a little tired and ready to eat a meal that doesn't come in a bun or a plastic container at this point. I also definitely need to catch up on bills, apartment cleaning, etc. and grab some down time at home. Thanks for coming along.
WP--Obermuller
LP--Vargas
Seating: Section 523, Row 2, Seat 13, though I actually sat a few seats away b/c 11 rows were comprised of NRL people, so we sloshed around.
Hat: Red Nationals Home cap (script W)
One great pitching performance and one lousy one. Vargas got shelled in 1 1/3 and only threw 44 pitches by my count; Brady Clark hit the first pitch for a homer and Carlos Lee finished him with a three run bomb. in fact, due to back spasms from Patterson, he'll start again on Friday on only two day rests. Obermuller on the other hand was perfect through 6 1/3, and one of the hits was a fly ball that should have been caught but Geoff Jenkins lost it in the lights. Fortunately that was not the first baserunner.
Tomo Okha actually had a hell of a "start" in relief--5 2/3, 2 hits, 0 runs, would have scored 67/13.5 as a start.
As I figured, I was the only one from the lab I noticed keeping score. I meant to go with a less overdone and pitch-tracking scoresheet, but baseballscorecards.com was down, and the newsprint scorecard in the program isn't very good, so I printed out my technical one anyway. It's not as if the fact that I'm an obsessive geek is a state secret or anything.
I think I actaully managed to keep a couple of people who were present more for the camaraderie than the baseball from leaving while the perfect game was still a possibility. I kept stressing how this was unlikely but historic and they'd hate to miss it. Either that or they were just happy to have another overpriced beer.
So I saw 5 games in about 99 hours, made 4 Metro rides and one car trip, saw the teams I was rooting for at the time go 2-3, saw a couple of multi-error innings, watched some great and some lousy baseball, and had a pretty good time. I'm a little tired and ready to eat a meal that doesn't come in a bun or a plastic container at this point. I also definitely need to catch up on bills, apartment cleaning, etc. and grab some down time at home. Thanks for coming along.
Wednesday, May 18, 2005
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