Mmmmm...is for math rock

A great day in baseball

2008-05-16T05:08:50Z

The Royals completed a three-game sweep of the Tigers, who have the second-highest payroll in Major League Baseball. The Tigers are still last in the AL Central Division. Meanwhile, the once-lowly-but-now-leading-the-AL-East Tampa Bay Rays defeated the Yankees, who sunk to last place in that division. The Florida Marlins currently lead the NL East with baseball's lowest payroll.

Even if the big payrolls win out later, we'll always have this day to look back on. And this one, when the Royals last had a winning record. If they sweep the series this weekend, they would have a winning record again, too...

mark72 @ 2008-05-15T13:29:00

2008-05-15T18:31:12Z

Has everyone seen ThingsyoungerthanJohnMcCain.com? ZOMG, the dude is even older than I had imagined. (Thanks for pointing this out, Kevin!)

mark72 @ 2008-05-14T22:04:00

2008-05-15T03:07:31Z

The Royals now have a three-game winning streak (and a 4-0 record vs. the second-largest payroll in MLB) after defeating the Detroit Tigers 2-0 tonight. Luke Hochevar turned in another quality start, and Joey Gathright drove in both runs with a single. Joakim Soria closed the game for his 10th save and still has not allowed a run this season.

If the Royals win tomorrow and complete the sweep, they will have a .500 record for the month of May. I can't help but wonder whether the Royals might have been .500 or better overall had they signed Frank Thomas when he was briefly available.

mark72 @ 2008-05-14T15:27:00

2008-05-14T20:24:40Z

mark72 @ 2008-05-10T11:36:00

2008-05-10T16:34:26Z

Seriously, what's the point?

mark72 @ 2008-05-09T19:00:00

2008-05-10T00:04:37Z

Wish Hillary a Happy Mother's Day (Wonkette)
Uh Oh -- Peggy Noonan is Making Sense (Wonkette)

political lols

mark72 @ 2008-05-06T16:44:00

2008-05-06T21:47:34Z

I finally got one right. You can't tell by looking, but he was checking out my bbq grill.

And here he is wondering why I haven't mowed the lawn yet this week.

It's so sad that the best photos I got of the woodpecker were these:

Perfect pose ruined by shutter speed I suppose.

Seeing so many blurry pics of this bird has warped my own perception of what it really looked like.

I can't tell if it's a downy or hairy woodpecker from any of these photos.

13-16.

2008-05-04T03:37:09Z

The Royals improved to 13-16 as they beat Cleveland 4-2 on the road. Luke Hochevar picked up his second win in his second quality start of the year. Mark Teahen had three of the team's twelve hits. Let's hope there will be more games like this one.

mark72 @ 2008-05-02T22:49:00

2008-05-03T03:48:22Z

I just got back from phenomenull's birthday party.
I'z ated too much.
That is all.

Bored, seeking iTunes suggestions

2008-05-02T03:25:10Z

I'll catch up on Lost sometime when the weather crew isn't taking up a majority of the time slot. Probably not tomorrow, though. I wonder when the version with commentary becomes available...that would be a nice compromise.

I bought the Bottomless Pit album today via iTunes. If I had a turntable, I'd want the 2x12"+CD package. I also bought Swervedriver's Mezcal Head, part of Miles Smiles (since my CD is apparently lost forever), and a few Hurl songs. I still have some credit left from the iTunes gift card, too, so it's been a great value gift.

I found some old compilation discs I'd made and received 6-8 years ago. iTunes doesn't recognize individual songs, so they're fairly useless now that I don't have the old e-mails or whatever had the track listings. I was able to label most of the 90 Day Men songs I found, though. When I saw them live, I thought that was one of the greatest shows I've seen. Maybe I was manic then. Every song requires a major indie listening filter (you know, the filter that removes all judgments on the vocals, and/or changes all thoughts of "bad" or "pretentious" into "authentic" and "artsy" and "so original", and/or the fact that everything sounds like it's being played in a garage, and so on), and most of them require a lot of patience to get through the first verse. Most of those songs from that album are still interesting, though. I suppose I could have sifted through them and found Hurl's "Bred in Kentucky" and a few Chavez tunes (which I have not purchased yet), but it feels good to buy those sorts of songs anyway.

Speaking of iTunes, I could use your help. What are the top 10 songs and/or top 3 albums I should buy next, in your opinion? (I generally like alternative*, rock, and jazz. I'll check out something considered metal or country, but I hope those will be great examples and/or exception to the rule of the genre.) I promise I'll listen to your suggestions.

This was another day I could have gone for a walk, but the weather forecast and sky suggested it was best to stay inside. So I did. And I got a fair amount of coursework done (my goal for the week has almost been met with two working days left), but I also got a bad case of cabin fever somehow (the weather didn't help). It's a good thing I'm getting out of the house the next two days.

* I've always thought that was the dumbest name for a genre ever. Everything is an alternative to everything else. Now I have to scroll through my entire iTunes library twice to see how the band/artist chose to be classified.

mark72 @ 2008-04-28T14:50:00

2008-04-28T20:08:44Z

I had a lot on my mind yesterday, so I didn't get much done, including mowing the lawn. I'll have to get to that sometime soon. But I did notice something odd while I was eating lunch: woodpeckers at my bird feeder!

I used the portrait setting, hoping that the red-bellied woodpecker would be in focus at the expense of the background (which would be a pleasantly blurred green, I had imagined incorrectly). I'm officially through with that setting unless I have multiple take opportunities in other modes without worrying about the subject flying away.

I didn't get a picture of the other woodpecker (and another bird that I couldn't ID which probably wasn't a woodpecker at all) I saw at the feeder yesterday. I'm pretty sure it must have been a downy woodpecker. I've also noticed lark sparrows and common redpolls and maybe blue-gray gnatcatchers hanging around lately in addition to the normal varieties.

I can't believe I'm out of seed already! When I bought that big bag of it a few weeks ago, I thought I had several months' supply.

11-13

2008-04-27T20:31:41Z

11-13 isn't so bad for a team that was only 2-8 in their past ten games.

We arrived early enough to claim our stadium blankets yesterday. Now I have a throw for each sofa. The weather stayed on the nice side. It was a great night to be at the ballpark.

Luke Hochevar made his second start of 2008. It was a quality start, and he got the win as the Royals won 2-1.

When Jose Guillen was announced as the cleanup hitter in the first inning, I had yelled, "are you done with your slump now?" Jose lined out to end the inning.

The Royals took a 1-0 lead in the fourth when Mark Teahen scored on Ross Gload's single. I cheered for the result and quietly lamented how this will only reinforce the illusion that Gload is an adequate major league first baseman.

In the fifth inning, I'm afraid I became less of a man. An entirely too adorable toddler was having a blast playing with the seats in front of me, and somehow I ended up paying more attention to the kid than to the game. Toronto scored a run, and I didn't even notice until the top of the sixth. In case I hadn't mentioned this already, I'm not particularly astute at faking things, so I was worried that jaredchilders might call me on that.

Just as I was prepared to spill the beans to a would-be-laughing Jared, Jose Guillen was up to bat again in the bottom of the sixth. Apparently he'd thought about what I'd said earlier and decided to break his slump with a home run. So he did, and my lack of knowledge about the score of the game became irrelevant! Yay, Jose!

Fortunately, that was the last run-producing event in the game because I had found a woman who was dying to get the camera crew's attention. People trying to get on TV and/or Crown Vision are the best. It really doesn't matter whether it's about team spirit or boredom or attention whoring because the entertainment value is so high. This one kept wiggling and shaking it and tossing her head around, yet the cameras remained focused elsewhere. So she wiggled/shaked/twisted/spazzed/convulsed/flapped/got jiggy all the more furiously. I didn't know the human body was capable of moving in some of those ways. Finally, all of her contorting was rewarded with an on-camera performance, but by then she didn't have the energy to sustain much of anything anymore. I'll bet she's sore today.

mark72 @ 2008-04-24T23:17:00

2008-04-25T04:25:13Z

In case you haven't seen me lately,

Obviously, I haven't made it to the hobbyist phase of photography. Or to the no-streak level of glass cleaning.

I'm so boring I don't even fake smiles very well. The lighting is bad in this one, but it makes me look tan instead of the pale milky whitey I really am. The goatee is recent. The best thing about it is spending less time and effort shaving each day, but maybe it isn't me. I'm open to suggestions.

Time to start a load of laundry and call it a day.

Oh, and I'm going to a Royals-Blue Jays game this Saturday with jaredchilders (and maybe my brother if I can get ahold of him) since David Glass rolled back prices again. Good times ahead.

mark72 @ 2008-04-24T12:22:00

2008-04-24T18:03:11Z

I only walked about a mile and a half today, but considering I had expected thunderstorms all day and no walk at all, I'm happy with it. When I left, the sky was blue with a few clouds. I wanted to go for more, but the sky had turned grey with heavy-looking clouds, and I definitely didn't want to walk 3/4 of a mile through a thunderstorm. Now it's apparent that I could have gone the extra mile or two since those seemingly forboding clouds were really only grey in that eighties glam metal band way: having the look and/or sound of impending doom which may be concerning or alarming to the (inner) parent while the (inner) child is out and about rather than working on schoolwork, but offering hot-aired, long-winded, cliched power ballads and nothing of real substance in the end. Eventually it all comes crashing down to earth and always has the potential to ruin someone's moment or day, though.

In case I haven't mentioned anything about the neighborhood already, it's a mixed bag. That's partly why I chose this area. On more than one occasion, I've heard a car go by with Mexican polka playing on the radio with the windows open followed by some boom-boom rap stuff followed by a new Honda Accord with something like old Def Leppard blaring through the windows. Earlier this week, I noticed someone a few blocks away was broadcasting "Billie Jean" with their car stereo (while washing it in the driveway?) with no shame at all while I was on a walk. It's usually pretty quiet, though. Thankfully, my neighbors across the street have put away that plastic (sculpture?) of a naked obese woman for a several months now. It just wasn't the best choice for yard art, jus' sayin'.

9-10.

2008-04-20T23:55:25Z

The Royals are a losing team for the first time this season.

The Royals had only eight baserunners in this game. Alberto Callaspo and his .350+ batting average was stuck in the nine-hole for some poor bit of reasoning.

Luke Hochevar seemed to live up to his hype in the early innings of his first major league start, but he struggled mightily the second time through the Oakland lineup. He should get at least two more starts to prove himself. Hopefully, he can turn in a quality start in one of those opportunities (or at least something better than John Bale's results in three starts).

Frank Thomas was released by the Toronto Blue Jays today. I wonder if the Royals will try to sign him. He could be the answer to the lack of run production, and he would almost certainly out-produce Ross Gload. Billy Butler could move to first base, Gload would move to the bench (where he belongs), and the Royals could move up in the standings again.

9-9.

2008-04-20T00:57:39Z

The Royals are 9-9 after a frustrating 5-6 loss to the Athletics today and a humiliating 2-13 loss to the A's yesterday. There's really nothing good to say about either game.

Former #1 draft pick Luke Hochevar starts for the Royals tomorrow. The fate of the Royals' winning season now rests squarely on the rookie's shoulders. Hopefully he'll show why he deserved to be in the rotation more than John Bale all along.

Bale had "won" the #4 spot in the rotation with his performance in spring training. Bale's ST ERA was 4.91. Hochevar's was 2.25. The Royals understand that a lower ERA is a better ERA, don't they? At least Tomko is pitching better than his ST ERA of 7.23. SEVEN POINT TWO THREE!

It was also obvious in spring training that Ross Gload did not hit enough to start at first base and that TPJ is actually a worse hitter than he seemed to be last year.

Grey bird I can't ID

2008-04-19T22:57:09Z

I keep mentioning these grey birds I can't ID, and I may have finally gotten a pic of one yesterday.

I know that's a brown-headed cowbird in the background, but what's in the foreground? Sorry it's blurry. At least I was able to crop out the flash.

mark72 @ 2008-04-19T13:35:00

2008-04-19T21:50:12Z

Yesterday was the family get-together day.
My folks showed up early for lunch and a game of Scrabble while BC was busy taking his test and, after that, a nap.

They knew I'm thinking about getting a digital camera, so they brought their old one to try out. Just the camera. No instruction manual or accessory cables necessary to charge it up or anything like that. It's a 5.0 megapixel Olympus with several modes, although I have no idea what they do differently since I have no manual. I tried to take a few shots to see how they would turn out.

Mr. Grackle. He and his posse were hanging out frequently yesterday. (As you can see,
I haven't mowed my lawn yet, and I have almost as many weeds as blades of grass.)

There would have been more pics of Mr. Grackle and his posse, but Dad kept chasing them away with his unbridled enthusiasm:

"WHAT A MESSY EATER!" (Mr. Grackle flew away mid-sentence.) "What? There was more feed falling to the ground than going into his beak!"

"WOW, THAT'S PRETTY! WHAT IS THAT?" (Ms. Cardinal flew away mid-sentence.)

And so on. We did see many birds, though. Cardinals -- including what must have been a juvenile male -- a blue jay, a brown-headed cowbird, freaking house sparrows, robins, a couple of mourning doves, one of those grey birds I can't identify, many a grackle, and something reddish which I had thought was a house finch had made an appearance, usually up close. One really big grackle kept trying to come back to the feeder, but since it was close to empty, it swayed back and forth too much and he couldn't get his balance. You probably had to be there to see it for yourself, but it was pretty funny, especially after the second or third time when my normally quiet mother said, "Come back and try it again when you're not drunk!" We saw pretty much everything I've seen except starlings, the black and red birds I can't ID, and the orioles which are supposed to be attracted to my other feeder but haven't been yet.

Lookit me lookin' at you, Mr. Birdwatcher...DOH you forgot to say say cheezburger!

The pic of the mourning dove didn't turn out well due to the tall grass. I missed a lot of other photo ops while waiting for the 3x zoom to kick in (it kept resetting itself), and many were scared away by the flash I couldn't seem to turn off after Dad had calmed down a bit. I definitely want something closer to 6x-12x optical zoom and an instruction manual with my digital camera. I didn't get a pic of my folks (or of me, or of BC & Mel, or of my house, etc.) because the camera battery was dead by the time the Scrabble game was over.

They had been beating me around turn eight or ten while I was paying too much attention to the birds, but of course I won in the end. I mean that purely as information and not at all as gloating.

We met up with BC & Mel at the 75th Street Brewery and had a great time. I love that place, but it's usually a haven for chain smokers. It hadn't occurred to me that the smoking ban could take effect immediately, although I knew it had passed. So now we can go there without anybody's health being affected by stale smoke and without our clothes smelling like it afterward, as an added bonus.

It hasn't been very windy lately, so I think my new roof turbine has fixed the problem, but I won't know that for sure for another week or so.

mark72 @ 2008-04-18T22:03:00

2008-04-19T03:00:21Z

9-7.

2008-04-18T06:10:41Z

The Royals are 9-7 after a 5-3 loss to Los Angeles of Anaheim. The Royals are now 2nd in the AL Central, out by a half game. Brett Tomko pitched seven innings, a good amount for a fifth starter. Six of them were strong innings, and he limited the Angels to seven baserunners (for a 1.00 WHIP). He got in trouble in the third when he loaded the bases with two out.

I'm amazed that I can still say that the Royals have owned a winning record all year in the third week of the season. Especially if they continue to score so few runs.

mark72 @ 2008-04-17T18:23:00

2008-04-18T00:12:02Z

Today has been slow and rainy, but not bad at all.

I had an appointment to donate blood today. That meant a Chipotle burrito for lunch and a Route 44 cherry limeade on the way to the blood center (during the half-price hours of the day). And two oreos afterward at the insistence of a nurse. Not the best diet day, but nothing that will completely ruin it considering how little else I've eaten.

I also bought this Stan Getz CD on my way to give blood since it was on sale. It doesn't have "Girl from Ipanema" (you've heard it in commercials if on it, and I could have bought a different one which had most of these tracks plus instrumental versions of "One Note Samba" (which I LOVE -- it's pretty much the reason I bought it) and "Girl..." but this one had the following words printed on the back: Stan Getz...brilliant improvisations played against the sound texture of his new instrumental quartet... Sounds like an entirely instrumental album, doesn't it? I should have kept reading: ...enhanced by the lovely lyric singing of Astrud Gilberto...recorded in memorable live performance at Cafe Au Go Go, Greenwich Village's jazz coffeehouse... I had tried to listen to this album, but it wasn't in their database that way. I had listened to the other one, and I wish I had bought it instead for a similar price. Dang. Maybe I can buy the instrumental tracks from the other album on iTunes. At least the vocalist isn't being too cute or cheesy, which is easily done in my opinion.

You know what's really great about an album like this, though? It was just a gig at a coffeehouse by a group of musicians which went on to be legendary. I suppose Getz may have been already at the time, and Antonio Carlos Jobim should have been, but Gary Burton was just out of Berklee, and the rest essentially built the rest of their careers on the resume which included playing with Getz, Burton, and Jobim. That sort of thing just doesn't happen in the music industry very often -- if at all -- anymore.

When I got home I realized that I hadn't checked the fantasy NBA league yet. So I did. AND I WON! I had gained back the half point I'd lost to fall into that blasted tie. To think I'd almost turned down the league since I hadn't paid attention to the NBA much in the past few years. That was one of the more enjoyable fantasy sports leagues I've ever joined, not just because I won, but because it was so close. I had been in 3rd most of the season.

I'm thinking about buying a digital camera later this month (around or under $200 at the very most), so let me know if you have any recommendations. I've heard that I should expect at least 6 megapixels and try to get the most optical zoom for the money. If that is wrong, then let me know. There are many other features from one model to another, and I could use some help figuring out which features are important to an amateur who mostly wants to easily take quality photos now and may want to dabble in photography as a hobby someday.

The Royals game doesn't start until 9:00 PM our time again since they're on the left coast. I can't believe the Royals' announcers and advertisers have been saying "left coast" -- a sure sign that the slang has been around forever by the time Paul Splittorff is using it.

9-6!

2008-04-17T05:26:38Z

The Royals are 9-6 after defeating Los Angeles of Anaheim 3-2! Joey Gathright and Mark Teahen each had three hits, and Gathright had stolen second base to set up the go-ahead run in the second inning. Gil Meche earned his first win of 2008 with his first quality start of the year.

The Royals are 3-2 after winning the first game of a series, and they can build on that over the next three games.

mark72 @ 2008-04-16T15:18:00

2008-04-16T20:16:38Z

Did Ben Sargent die, or is he just on vacation or something? (Hopefully the latter, obviously)

8-6.

2008-04-16T15:54:55Z

The Royals are 8-6 after a 6-11 loss to the Mariners. At least they still have a winning record overall. John Bale failed to last five innings today and has not turned in a quality start in 2008.

Ryan Lefebvre defended one or both of Bale's first starts as something which should be considered a quality start in his opinion during an earlier broadcast. A quality start reqires 6+ innings pitched, an ERA of 4.50 or less, and a WHIP of 1.50 or less. In each of Bale's first two starts, he gave up four earned runs for an ERA of almost 6.00 and had allowed 20 hits and walks in his first two starts for a WHIP of 1.62. It's not like Bale was close to a quality start in either case. Bale's 4.05 ERA and 1.55 WHIP as a reliever last year or his 4.60 ERA and 1.46 WHIP in his MLB career would represent a considerable improvement over his results in the rotation so far this season. Were the other options really that bad, or does someone in the Royals' management have a man crush on John Bale? Almost every pitcher improves his numbers out of the bullpen vs. starting, so I wonder what the Royals were expecting from Bale in the rotation this year. Were they banking on a psychological boost to his ERA and WHIP because he preferred to start? Leo Nunez enjoyed better results as a starter last season, and maybe the Royals will give him a chance again in '08.

8-5!

2008-04-15T04:47:51Z

The Royals are now leading the American League Central Division with an 8-5 record after defeating the Mariners 5-1 on the road! Zack Greinke pitched a complete game, and Billy Butler and Miguel Olivo homered for the Royals.