| Obama and butt-gate |
[Jul. 11th, 2009|10:45 am] |
One of the less pleasant side-effects of listening to the Sox on radio is that the show after the game at night is Michael Savage (the man who can't go to England). Savage is a conservative talk-show guy and it was listening to this that I heard of butt-gate, which is the scandal of Obama checking out the rear of a 17 yr old at the G8 Summit. Here's a link:
http://www.theage.com.au/world/nothing-much-behind-bottomgate-20090711-dgpd.html
As it turns out, of course, he wasn't - this was one still, taken from a video, which you can see here:
http://shakespearessister.blogspot.com/2009/07/i-write-letters_10.html
That's Fox News debunking this, btw. He's not checking her out - he's just turning around.
I think that we have to be very suspicious of a still photo that seems to show something scandalous these days, especially on the internet. There's just no reason not to show the context of a photo - in this case, the 10 seconds before and after such a "compromising" photo. |
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| Mountains can be DANGEROUS |
[Jul. 7th, 2009|03:01 pm] |
This story in the Globe (http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2009/07/body_recovered.html) points out that hiking is not something to be taken lightly, even here in the East, with extremely well-marked and used trails, even in the summer.
This guy died on Mt Washington, within 3/4 of the miles from the summit, apparently in early june - and it took a month to find his body. He wasn't like some guys I've seen (I've seen guys starting up the mountain at 2 pm with just a six pack of beer) - he was an experienced hiker.
Granted, Washington has completely unpredictable weather (i've been on the shoulder where it's 50 degrees with horizontal rain and gone over the lip into tuckerman's and it's 80 and sunny), but you have to be careful if you are doing anything that isn't trivial... |
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| Interesting |
[Jun. 22nd, 2009|10:18 pm] |
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aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno't mtaetr in waht oerdr the ltteres in a wrod are, the olny iproamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it whotuit a pboerlm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. fi yuo cna raed tihs, palce it in yuor siantugre. Olny 55% of plepoe can. |
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| A meme (from reynaud) |
[Jun. 19th, 2009|10:16 pm] |
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If there is one person or more on your friends list who makes your world a better place just because they exist, and who you would not have met (in real life or not) without the internet, then post this same sentence in your journal. |
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| More Bujold |
[Jun. 1st, 2009|02:14 pm] |
I picked up a couple more Vor books at Pandemonium (which moved from Harvard Sq - the space is now a hemp store) - Brother's in Arms and Mirror Dance.
The series is incredible - 3 of the books have won hugo's and 3 others were nominated but didn't win. Imagine a Dune series where the quality of the first kept up throughout - that's Vor.
Brother's in Arms is not one of the Hugo Award nominated books, which means it's just about as good as the Honor Harrington books, none of which have never been nominated, either. It's very good - exciting, gripping, never really know what is going to happen.
Mirror Dance is a Hugo award winner and its' just tremendous. It has two lines in it which really are excellent:
"All wealth is biological"
"Half of what we call madness is just some poor slob dealing with pain by a strategy that annoys the people around him"
Two very different sentiments, of course - I just thought it was good...
Highly recommend both books, the entire series, anything that Bujold writes. |
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| Curse of Chalion |
[May. 25th, 2009|09:01 pm] |
I've been meaning to pick this up, along with Paladin of Souls, but something about them put me off - not sure what.
I don't know why.
Bujold can WRITE. There is a reason why she keeps winning Hugo's and Nebula's, etc.
I won't write a review of the book - I'll just say that if you like fantasy, get this book. I'm assuming Paladin of Souls is as good or better, since it won both the Hugo and Nebula and Chalice of Souls didn't win either. |
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| The Doomsday Book |
[May. 23rd, 2009|06:37 pm] |
is a sci-fi book from the early 90's, by Connie Willis - it won both the Hugo and Nebula awards. I honestly have no idea how I had never heard of it or, really, her. I guess I stopped reading sci-fi after college or something.
Anyway - I highly recommend it - in short, it's about what happens when a history student at a college in the 21st century travels in time to the 14th century... and pretty much nothing goes right.
Without revealing more of the plot than you want to know, I found that I had no idea if it was going to have a happy ending or not until very near the end. And the way the book was written, it would have worked either way.
I found it remarkable that way.
highly recommend it. |
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| Michael Savage, banned in Britain |
[May. 6th, 2009|12:44 pm] |
For those of you who don't know this guy, he's got a syndicated radio show - he's a conservative. I've listened to more of his shows than I'd like to admit - the radio station that broadcasts Sox games has him on right after and I don't always change the channel, cause I'm busy. I think the guy's views are out in left field, myself.
Anyway - Britain banned him as a "promoter of hate". He's said he's going to sue for slander.
http://www.boston.com/ae/tv/articles/2009/05/06/banned_us_shock_jock_says_will_sue_britain/
I'm not honestly sure that he has a legal case for this, but then, I'm not a lawyer. I really like the move by Britain, to be honest. Freedom of speech is often touted as a reason to be allowed to say anything, anywhere, and it's not - it just means that you can't be put in jail for what you say in public places (subject to various exceptions, like yelling "fire" in a theater or threatening to kill the president) - it doesn't mean that you must be allowed in to private places to say anything.
And I have no problem with England banning him.
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| The Wheel of Time |
[Apr. 24th, 2009|12:13 am] |
Some many years ago, I picked up a book that looked interesting, called The Eye of the World, by a guy named Robert Jordan. I didn't realize that I was getting sucked into a huge series, perhaps the single longest fantasy series I've ever read (Feist has more books set in and around Midkemia, but those are generally trilogies kind of set with each other. Goodkind's Sword of Truth is 11 books, which is the same as Wheel of Time thus far - but it's not done)
The series has a huge set of characters and can be controversial - for one, a lot of the female characters are really annoying and there isnt' a lot happening in some of the later books - but it is an excellent fantasy series.
Robert Jordan died a couple of years ago, but left notes for the 12th and last book. I've just been poking around on wikipedia and found that the "last book" will be 3 books, released in '09, '10 and '11... nearly a million words in total.
The first will be The Gathering Storm (cause, apparently, the last eleven books haven't really been about anything gathering), the second Shifting Winds and the third Tarmon Gai'don. That it's 3 books makes sense - I had no idea how he was going to clean up all the loose threads in 1 book. |
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| Susan Boyle |
[Apr. 18th, 2009|10:31 pm] |
I wanted to post my reaction to this - not actually the video, which is phenomenal, but to the media coverage of it.
I reacted to this for much the reason I expect most people did - Susan Boyle wasn't like most people you see on these shows - she wasn't an embryonic talent... she's fully formed and she just blew me away.
I keep reading media stories talking about how we are shallow cause we looked at her and didn't think anything would happen and everyone was cynical and I don't really understand why that is. I mean, I would have expected something... but nothing prepared me for just how good she is.
And the song she chose - les mis is a great musical and that particular song is the perfect song for a middle aged woman who maybe has seen her dream go by and is taking this chance to seize it again.
it's not about looks - it's about talent and the human spirit and being the best we can be and about optimism...
We don't have much optimism here in America now. Perhaps we are seeing ourselves as a bit middle-aged, perhaps tarnished some. As a country, we've dreamed a dream and it hasn't been true.
Ok, that last bit is worthy of bad media ;)
But I think that she resonates with us at a deep level because she's good, not because she has suddenly made us realize we are shallow. She is inspirational - she's not a lesson in morality. |
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| Auction day |
[Apr. 11th, 2009|11:11 pm] |
For my roto team. I've been doing roto for 20+ years, in various leagues and with various people. I finished 2nd in my league last year and I think I have a kick-ass team this year - very few holes.
For those who dont' know, 5x5 NL only keeper auction league. The basic rules are straight from original roto - we dont' even have FAAB!!! We do have some somewhat restrictive trading rules. Below is my team:
| Position | Player | Salary | Contract Status | | Catcher | G. Soto | 15 | 2nd yr | | Catcher | Martin | 27 | | | First Base | J. Cantu | 11 | 2nd yr | | Third Base | Wright | 44 | | | Corner Man | Hall | 8 | | | Second Base | K. Johnson | 6 | K-09 * | | Shortstop | H. Ramirez | 15 | K-09 * | | Middle IF | Drew | 21 | | | Outfield | N. Morgan | 2 | 2nd yr | | Outfield | J. Upton | 15 | K-10 | | Outfield | Franceour | 13 | | | Outfield | Gerut | 8 | | | Outfield | Schafer | 10 | | | Utility | Renteria | 5 | | | | | | | | Pitcher | T. Lilly | 11 | LD * | | Pitcher | J. Moyer | 1 | 2nd yr | | Pitcher | P. Maholm | 2 | 2nd yr | | Pitcher | harang | 17 | | | Pitcher | Howry | 1 | | | Pitcher | Hudson | 2 | | | Pitcher | Hoffman | 19 | | | Pitcher | Meredith | 1 | | | Pitcher | M. Capps | 14 | LD * |
All the players with no contract status are ones I got at auction.
The asterisks indicate players in one of the states: salary > 24, salary > 10 and in last year of contract, or any player signed to a long term deal in the last year of their contract. LD means last year. K-09 means long term deal in last year, K-10 means long term deal with 2 years left. I have 6 asterisk players. This is important, because you can only trade 1 asterisk player for another.
My team projects to be very good - top 3 in most categories, which is very good for right after the auction. I'll have to make some trades - in particular, I'll need help with my pitching staff, but that shouldn't be that hard to get.
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| The last ER |
[Apr. 2nd, 2009|11:19 pm] |
I watched the 2 hour series finale tonight. I used to watch it alot - I stopped watching it regularly around the time they dropped a helicopter on Rocket Romano - tuned in off and on. I think tonight was the first one I saw with John Stamos (who was pretty good)
Obviously, they had a lot of returness - Benton (with the fist pump from season 1 in the opening credits), Lewis, Corday... and Rachel Greene, which surprised me. She was in the ER for a school tour because she wants to be an ER doc.
The non-character reunion stuff was pretty normal ER - people dying, babies being born, people dying because of babies being born, massive traumas, girl in a coma from alcohol poisoning... all standard stuff, really.
There was a nice little scene, right at the end - lots of ambulances from an industrial explosion, Carter is at the ER with Rachel and he's working...
and, the last line in the show, as carter wheels a gurney in with a burn victim... "Coming, Dr Greene?"... echoing what I believe was the last line of the first episode, where Mark Greene says "coming, Dr Carter?" in a similar situation. |
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| Season Finale of Damages |
[Apr. 1st, 2009|11:37 pm] |
Just saw the season finale of damages.
I had a long recap of what the show was, but hit the wrong button on my browser and lost it, which I hate hate hate...
Anyway - if you haven't watched it, it's a good show - well acted, well written.
I'll say this - I was pretty taken aback at the twists in the last 20 minutes or so - the entire season had been hinting about a wide variety of things happening. What ACTUALLY happens is not at all what you would expect (as one of the characters says right at the end) and, in fact, one of the twists came out of nowhere, with absolutely no hints at all. |
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| Are you KIDDING me? |
[Mar. 11th, 2009|10:35 am] |
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2009/03/11/now_needy_fdic_collected_little_in_premiums/
This is a story talking about how the FDIC was unable to get approval to collect premiums FOR A DECADE!!! mainly, cause Congress thought that they had plenty of money.
This could be a disaster - can you imagine a bank run, cause people worry about failures and the FDIC not being able to cover them?
This is a good sign:
"The FDIC has never failed to make good on its promise to pay for the insured deposits when a bank fails, and officials said that will not change. The fund ran short of money during the savings and loan crisis of the 1980s, prompting the agency to increase fees to make up for the shortfall." |
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| Baen Free Library |
[Feb. 22nd, 2009|08:55 pm] |
This is a great site for Sci-Fi fans (http://www.baen.com/library/)
A number of Baen Books titles are available as FREE downloads, including books by David Weber, Luis McMaster Bujold, James Hogan (he was a reasonably big sci-fi author in the 80's, then he stopped and I think he's back - he wrote one book where the premise was that astronauts make it to the moon and find a human skeleton. A 50,000 year old human skeleton.), Mercedes Lackey, Harry Turtledove and others.
I got to it through Weber's Honor Harrington books, which are about as gripping space opera as you can get. |
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| The Vor Saga, by Lois McMaster Bujold |
[Feb. 14th, 2009|07:17 pm] |
I have found a series that I may be a new favorite - it's hard for me to believe that I missed this.
It's not an easy series to describe - kind of space opera, kind of coming of age, kind of all sorts of things. The main protagonist is Miles Vorkasigan (I didn't spell that right), the son of the Regent for the Emperor of Barrayar, which one of the worlds settled by humans. Timeline for the series isn't set and the number of worlds people settled isn't really mentioned, but it is definitely the future - Earth is mentioned and Miles visits Earth.
Not every book/story is about Miles - I'm reading the ones about where his mother and father meet. In general, the ones with Miles include complex plots with escalating problems - sometimes, Miles creates them through his own inexperience, sometimes they are created for him by opponents.
Many of the books are sold now in omnibus format, with 2 or 3 stories in one, usually 2 novels and a short story pulled together.
One of the reasons I am posting now is that the story I just read has, as an aftermath, a short about body retrieval from after a space battle. A 2 person ship, pilot and retrieval expert, are getting bodies and the pilot, a fairly inexperienced kid, is continually amazed at the care the expert takes - she talks to the bodies, dresses them up in uniform if she can. I wont' mention the ending of the story, but it's quite poignant. |
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| Watched and listened to most of the Obama press conference |
[Feb. 10th, 2009|12:00 am] |
One thing I noticed was the length of his answers - I liked it. I guess the reporters didn't, cause they couldn't ask as many questions as they would like, though, given that one of the questions was about steroid use in baseball, I don't know that that was a bad thing.
But it's nice to know that we have a president who can give long, coherent answers. |
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| so, no unicorns or puppies |
[Jan. 20th, 2009|03:04 pm] |
But Barack Obama is the President (even though we had no President for about 5 minutes there) - the speech was good, I thought, though Bush must have been wincing a lot. He didn't quite say that the last 8 years were a total disaster, but it was close.
So the Obama presidency has begun!!! Let's see what happens.
Below are the lyrics to "Simple Gifts", which was one of the songs that Williams combined for the Inaugural Piece played before Obama took the oath, faithfully.
- Tis the gift to be simple, 'tis the gift to be free,
- 'Tis the gift to come down where you ought to be,
- And when we find ourselves in the place just right,
- 'Twill be in the valley of love and delight.
- When true simplicity is gain'd,
- To bow and to bend we shan't be asham'd,
- To turn, turn will be our delight,
- Till by turning, turning we come round right.
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