October 29, 2006
with a wimper
Hi Everybody!
Yes, it's been a while. Life seems to get in the way of writing (or thinking) about life. Well, that's a little abstract. I'm a lazy dude. Check that. I'm an extremely lazy dude. I like to watch TV. TV is not conducive to creating or maintaining independent, novel thought. Also, I like football. Football is fun to watch. It takes up my entire Sunday though. So, see, I'm not good at setting aside time for things like typing. And, thus, I return with a whimper only to disappear again soon, if not tomorrow. But in the interim, let's chat.
The wedding was fun. Very fun. Our family and our friends know how to have fun. Pictures are up on the photographer's web site: www.furlastudio.com. There are a lot of them. Seriously. A lot.
So, there's this dog. And he's ours. It's awesome. Except in the middle of the night. And in the morning. And when she won't stop biting my pants. But the other times, it's awesome. Her ears are bigger than her face. She has literally stopped traffic. Cars have pulled over to ask what breed she is. If you're wondering, she is a Boston Terrier. She is a cute one. All puppies are cute. She's the ugly kind of cute, which is awesome. Having a dog is everything I hoped it would be, except for the annoying shit. But that stuff should abate as her bladder (and the rest of her) gets bigger. Hopefully her ears will stay about the same. Otherwise we will have to rename her Dumbo. And not as an exaggeration.
Having just watched the Bears game, I must say this: The Bears are awesome. They are hands down the best team in the league right now. Here's hoping they can keep it up. At least one of the teams I root for has a shot at greatness. The Bulls might. The Cubs don't. Lou Piniella is the opposite of a savior. Kudos to them though, as they find new ways to lose rather than sticking with time-honored, clinically-proven losing strategies.
And I leave you with pictures.
She'll learn better than to do this to Cubs paraphernalia.
Her as she is. On a good day.
Just a dog.
posted by ben at 4:36 PM | Comments (3)
Hi Everybody!
Yes, it's been a while. Life seems to get in the way of writing (or thinking) about life. Well, that's a little abstract. I'm a lazy dude. Check that. I'm an extremely lazy dude. I like to watch TV. TV is not conducive to creating or maintaining independent, novel thought. Also, I like football. Football is fun to watch. It takes up my entire Sunday though. So, see, I'm not good at setting aside time for things like typing. And, thus, I return with a whimper only to disappear again soon, if not tomorrow. But in the interim, let's chat.
The wedding was fun. Very fun. Our family and our friends know how to have fun. Pictures are up on the photographer's web site: www.furlastudio.com. There are a lot of them. Seriously. A lot.
So, there's this dog. And he's ours. It's awesome. Except in the middle of the night. And in the morning. And when she won't stop biting my pants. But the other times, it's awesome. Her ears are bigger than her face. She has literally stopped traffic. Cars have pulled over to ask what breed she is. If you're wondering, she is a Boston Terrier. She is a cute one. All puppies are cute. She's the ugly kind of cute, which is awesome. Having a dog is everything I hoped it would be, except for the annoying shit. But that stuff should abate as her bladder (and the rest of her) gets bigger. Hopefully her ears will stay about the same. Otherwise we will have to rename her Dumbo. And not as an exaggeration.
Having just watched the Bears game, I must say this: The Bears are awesome. They are hands down the best team in the league right now. Here's hoping they can keep it up. At least one of the teams I root for has a shot at greatness. The Bulls might. The Cubs don't. Lou Piniella is the opposite of a savior. Kudos to them though, as they find new ways to lose rather than sticking with time-honored, clinically-proven losing strategies.
And I leave you with pictures.
posted by ben at 4:36 PM | Comments (1)
August 2, 2006
today's gripe
I saw a trailer today for the new Oliver Stone movie called World Trade Center. And something bothered me. The song that they used over the trailer was "Fix You", which is arguably the best track from their most recent album, X&Y. Here's what bothers me. Besides the fact that it's a great song, its themes have no bearing on what appear to be the themes of the trailer, if not the film. Sure it's a powerful song, but should the themes of the picture and sound of the trailer jive?
I'm on the lookout for new music. I've been listening to the new Thom Yorke album, which is called Eraser. It has reminded me how much I like Radiohead. Listening to Eraser is essentially like listening to Radiohead without any of the live instrumentation. So, I suppose you could say it sounds similar to Amnesiac, though it isn't nearly that dark. Last weekend, I heard about a band that supposedly sounds similar to Radiohead This group branches off developmentally from Radiohead following The Bends. So it's like the alternative version of Radiohead. Supposedly. I haven't mentioned the name of the group cause I can't for the life of me remember it. Ferrario knows it. Dude, what was that band called again?
In terms new music, by which I mean music with which I am not yet familiar but I'm sure many other people are, I really enjoyed listening to the latest album by Stars called Set Yourself on Fire. Quite excellent. I'm also interested in hearing more by Mike Doughty. His sound seems unique, at least from the one song of his that I've heard, which is a single called "Looking at the World from the Bottom of a Well" off an album called Haughty Melodic. Haughty, according to Merriam Webster, is another word for disdainfully proud. Seems similar to today's Google Word of the Day: Supercilious, which means disdainfully arrogant. All my life's a circle...
posted by ben at 4:27 PM | Comments (4)
July 21, 2006
utopian mediocrity
I am no longer in Pittsburgh. While I found it to be cute, quirky little city, I did not decide to abandon my life to pick up and move to the steel capital of the world. Tempting as it was. Anyways, it appears to be about time for my monthly blabbering. See, if my relationship with my blog was a friendship, we would be reduced to periodical life updates rather than actual meaningful discussion. Not that life updates aren't critical to good friendship. Clearly they are, but to me they seem to be more like the red tape of friendship, if you will. I'm not sure I agree fully with that, but I don't appear to be passionate enough to employ the backspace button and think of something either shallower or deeper.
So here are the things I've been concentrating on not writing about.
Life updates, for all aforementioned reasons.It's been a month since I wrote anything. Like anyone's surprised.
It's 8:30 on Friday night and this, whatever it is, is the only meaningful thing I'll do all night. And no, I'm not feeling overly self-important with the addition of meaningful to that sentence. It's just a sliding scale, that's all. In other words, writing is more meaningful than TV-watching. Agreed?
I spent 45 minutes trying to figure out what to have for dinner, then ended up eating a tuna sandwich.
The Cubs are so terrible that it makes me want to dig my left eye out of the socket with a spoon. Still, I went to two games at Wrigley this week.
Radiohead is really good. Too self-evident.
So, since all of that is out, I have resorted to entertaining myself with my Google Home Page Quote of the Day. Here's today's:
"Whenever I dwell for any length of time on my own shortcomings, they gradually begin to seem mild, harmless, rather engaging little things, not at all like the staring defects in other people's characters." -- Margaret Halsey
Anyone know who Margaret Halsey is? Cause this is a fantastic quote. At work, people's shortcomings, as she calls them, have been driving me nuts. Obviously, they don't perceive those particular traits to be as irritating as I do. Otherwise, I would have to assume, they'd work to get better. And maybe they are. I always tell myself that you can't tell if a rookie is going to be any good until he has a few years under his belt. Maybe the same is true in other professions as well. If so, I would like to propose some sort of minor league system. An apprenticeship, if you will. Granted, most people get better at something as they gain experience. But you don't call a rookie up from Triple-A to play third base every day if he's hitting below the Mendoza line (that's an average under .200).
Now, that being said, as I gain experience, I will become better at what I do. I like to think that I was hired because I'm pretty decent at what I do. I'll never really know though due to society's fixation on blowing smoke up asses, whether it be employer-to-employee or vice versa. That bugs me. I never hear criticisms. I ask people for criticisms. It's a good way to figure out how to get better. It seems now that thin skins and maintaining a false sense of high morale assure us that mediocrity is destined to prevail.
OK, so I know that I listed the Cubs in the Topics to Avoid List, but once I used to word mediocrity, I couldn't stop thinking about the Loveable Losers. Remember when people thought that the Loveable Losers alias was on its way out? That was funny. Interestingly the Cubs' payroll before the trading deadline, at which they are bound to unload at least one or two guys, is the highest in the NL Central and seventh-highest in the majors. Who says you can buy wins?
posted by ben at 8:56 PM | Comments (1)
June 29, 2006
sweet sweet tiller
I am in Pittsburgh. And, for those who know I continue to exist based exclusively on the appearance of new material on this blog, be assured I am in fact still around.
I've never been to Pittsburgh before. It has a lot of hills. Quite pretty. We went to PNC Park and saw the Pirates take on the White Sox. Fun game. Very cool park. The design of the park is quite modern in appearance. However, the field itself is not. None of those crazy features that you'd find in places like Houston. We had great seats -- right behind home plate. And Jim Thome hit the longest home run I've ever witnessed. Two bounces and it splashed into the Alleghany River.
Going to a non-Cubs game made me realize how truly terrible the Cubs' offense is this year. Yes, I know they haven't had all their weapons in the lineup at the same time since April, but still. They're terrible. They get guys on second and third with nobody out and can't manage to push one run across. That's just terrible. And I don't even want to talk about their pitching. There is no excuse -- none -- for paying $100 million dollars to a team with a .375 win percentage. Man, I sure hope they make it back up to .375.
I realized how awful my Cubs have been this year by watching two teams that play better than them -- and one of them was the lowly Pirates. I tell you this -- not one ground ball went in between two statuesque infielders, as happened in a Cubs game a few days ago. There is no excuse for that sort of nonsense.
In other news, I have no other news. Summer is a crazy time that goes by much faster than any other time of the year. I'm teaching summer school, which is excellent. It's a pretty straightforward assignment. I get paid, but I only work til 11:30 every day. Who could turn that down?
A few months ago, I planted sod. Perhaps I mentioned this. If I did, I don't care. I'll say it again. I planted sod. Not a lot of sod. And not by myself. But it worked. And it's growing. We have a thin strip of land between the street and the sidewalk in front of the building. Until a few weeks ago, it consisted of a collection of dead plants, rocks, and more dead plants. Another guy in the building and I spent one weekend pulling all the dead stuff up. The following weekend, we tilled the soil and laid the sod. Tilling soil is excellent. I rented a gas-powered tiller from Home Depot for the project. Just pull the cord, and till baby till. The only part better than the tilling would have to be the immediacy with which the results of this work can be seen. On the day we finished, it looked like we had the nicest, greenest lawn I'd ever seen. And I must say it's survived pretty darn well. Feelings of accomplishment are hard to come by. I take what I can get.
posted by ben at 5:07 PM | Comments (1)
April 9, 2006
no disappointment this year
Because disappointment is just unfulfilled expectations. I expect very little from the Cubbies this time around.
Before I indulge myself in an embarrassingly detailed assessment of the 2006 Cubs and a terribly off-base prediction of this season's final standings, I have to offer my respect and appreciation to those who designed to bleacher expansion at Wrigley Field. Yesterday, during my first game of the year, I got to see from the inside the 1800 new seats that have been added. They look like they were always there. The "Batter's Eye Box" (a private party box in center field) is basely noticeable. Honestly, they added seats without changing a bit of the look or ambiance. Very impressive. I'll give them the benefit of the doubt and ignore the fact that they're now called The Bud Light Bleachers, since no such sign is present when viewing the new seats. Now then...
The 2006 Cubs are very different from the teams of years past, including the 2003 division champs. Let's start at the beginning. Juan Pierre is a solid leadoff man. He gets on base with hits and walks. He pounds the ball into the ground. And this dude is fast. Once he's on base, everyone's uneasy, especially the opposing pitcher, which means that Todd Walker, Derrek Lee, and Aramis Ramirez will get more pitches to hit. Frankly, the lineup looks great both offensively and defensively. Jacques Jones will be a weak link and should end up hitting seventh before the end of the year. He's quick and he has a good glove and arm, but hitting for average is not his strong suit. Overall, the offense is fast and active, which should produce runs fairly regularly. The defense isn't stellar, but it'll make all the plays it's supposed to make and a few extra.
The pitching is the problem. Wood and Prior are on the DL. Again. Maddux and Zambrano are the rocks of the rotation. A great one-two. Glendon Rusch is the number 3 starter. He is, at best, a number 5. He'll give up 4-5 runs a game on average. He should be the long reliever, if Dusty insists that he is on the team. Jerome Williams can't find his release point, so he'll be in the 'pen for at least a month, unless he's needed in the rotation. The X factor is a guy named Sean Marshall, who will be the 4 starter to start the season. He's never pitched above Double-A. He's a 6-foot 7-inch lefty with a good fastball and a Zito-like curve. He's making his debut tonight in ESPN's game of the week against the Cardinals. If he has a decent game tonight, he can handle any game in the pros. So, we'll see. The other big variable is Wade Miller, who was signed over the winter but is still recovering from a shoulder surgery similar to that underwent by Wood. Miller's a little behind Wood in terms of recovery, but look for him to make a spot start now and then starting in the end of May. The bullpen is much improved, with Bob Howry and Scott Eyre setting up Dempster this year. That lets Wuertz, Williamson, and Ohman pitch the 5th through 7th innings instead of the 7th and 8th. It's all about the starting pitching. If they have a collective ERA below 5.00, the Cubs should win some games.
Now, everyone else. Here's how I see the divisions shaping up, based mostly on what I saw in players and teams last year, what I've seen in the spring, and what I've read in the papers. (By "the papers" I mean the internet and Sports Illustrated)
AL East
1. New York
2. Boston
3. Toronto
4. Tampa Bay
5. Baltimore
AL Central
1. Cleveland
2. Chicago
3. Detroit
4. Minnesota
5. Kansas City
AL West
1. Oakland
2. Anaheim
3. Seattle
4. Texas
NL East
1. Philadelphia
2. Atlanta
3. New York
4. Washington
5. Florida
NL Central
1. St. Louis
2. Milwaukee
3. Houston
4. Chicago
5. Pittsburgh
6. Cincinnati
NL West
1. Los Angeles
2. San Diego
3. San Francisco
4. Arizona
5. Colorado
We'll do a progress check in a few months.
posted by ben at 3:33 PM | Comments (0)
April 8, 2006
call me mr. hobbledehoy
In the image of the my.yahoo and my.msn custom home page services, google has launched something similar. I decided to give it a whirl, as I no longer have what I would consider to be a relevant home page for my browser. One of the widget-type boxes i decided to include is a word-of-the-day box. I really hope one or both of today's words make their way into my everyday vernacular (is that redundant?):
fustian. meaning: pompous or pretentious language. I love the irony of words about words. Especially ones like this.
hobbledehoy. meaning: an awkward, gawky young fellow. I teach a bunch of hobbledehoys. I am a hobbledehoy. Try saying it. Just rolls of the tongue, doesn't it? Hobbledehoy. Not bad to type either.
I'm going to my first Cubs game of the year, after which I will be able to provide a thorough scouting report in addition to some well-informed but ultimately incorrect predictions about how this baseball season will end up. Stay tuned.
posted by ben at 11:21 AM | Comments (0)
April 3, 2006
the best and the worst
Opening Day: Cubs 16, Reds 7. Good omen? Not likely. Last year the Cubs scored 16 on Opening Day as well. Last year did not end well. Giving up seven runs is not good. But it isn't so bad either. Pitchers don't really hit their groove until about a month into the season. The best news is that only 3 of the Cubs' 16 runs were scored on a home run. They scored 16 runs on 18 hits. Bunts were put down. Key players got hits with two outs. That shows execution. Execution makes me happy.
Spring break is definitely over. The one day in recent memory that I haven't been able to fall asleep until after 1AM was the night before I had to go back to work. Then I woke up at 4:30 and couldn't for the life of me get back to sleep. Figures. Spring break is like a little teaser. It's like the world is saying to me: See what your life will be like in two months? Yeah, it's not yet. You still have responsibilities. GET OUT OF BED!
posted by ben at 6:22 PM | Comments (0)
April 2, 2006
it's about time
My spring break is about to end. The most annoying part of that is that it is so soon after we've changed the clocks. I hate changing the clocks. Seems pretty archaic me. I believe it's done primarily for farmers, so they have "more time" during the day. My question is this: do those who need to "save the daylight" really care what time it is? It's not like we've added any daylight to the day.
The new Baseball Season is about to start. Excitement fills the air. At least the air surrounding me is filled with excitement. I know the Cubs will be terrible, but I just like baseball. Man, the Cubs will definitely be terrible. Don't tell me my pessimism means I'm not a fan. It just means they've hurt me too many times to rationalize prolonging my unfounded optimism. More on that later.
Did anyone else see the Simpsons live-action opening last week? It was like the old-school Simpsons opening, only the entire thing was done with real actors. A bit surreal...
posted by ben at 7:04 PM | Comments (3)
March 31, 2006
the place to be
When I was in college, we went to Memphis and New Orleans for spring break. How the times, they are a-changin'...
http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/03/29/walmat.spring.break.ap/index.html
posted by ben at 10:40 AM | Comments (0)