28 February 2006

Rain

I had a minor freakout this morning for no good reason. Maybe it was the rain, maybe it was unsettled dreams, but I had a panic attack. Luckily, my sense returned and I realized that I am an idiot and need to stop worrying so much. Done and done. Well, sort of. Just need to make it to Thursday ...

Oh yes, and I've now taken on a project where I will be measuring the Mg isotopic composition of a suite of volcanic rocks. I think Big Lou would be proud.

Thats all for today.

27 February 2006

Draft Season has begun

So the fantasy baseball draft season has begun and I've had one live draft so far. Pretty happy with the results ... But I think I'll list my picks for sleepers for the 2006 fantasy baseball season, just for kicks

ALL SLEEPER TEAM
C - Javier Valentin (CIN) - Anybody notice his .882 OPS, 14 HR and 50 RBI last season in ~221 AB? Not bad for a part timer catcher
1B - Kevin Youkilis (BOS) - I guess this year proves if he's worth it or not.
2B - Placido Palanco (DET) - He has a starting job and last year posted an .829 OPS in 501 AB. Good solid performer in a shallow position.
3B - Garrett Atkins (COL) - Tough call but he put up 13/89 in 519 AB. Nothing like a young hitter in Denver
OF - Jason Michaels (CLE) - .399 OPS in 221 AB in Philly and now has a starting job in Cleveland ... a little old though.
OF - Matt Murton (CHC) - If Dusty sticks with him. He put up 7/14 in 140 AB with a .907 OPS last year.
OF - John Rodriguez (STL) - He's in the starting mix, definitely if someone gets hurt. .817 OPS in 149 AB with 5 HR to boot.
SP - Jae Seo (LAD) - In a good pitchers park against weak NL West lineups (although he has to pitch in Denver more). Post a 1.18 WHIP and 59/16 K/BB in 91 IP.
SP - Daniel Cabrera (BAL) - Lots of K's and now Leo Mazzone as pitching coach. All signs point to good.
RP - Aaron Heilman (NYM) - He could pitch anywhere in the staff, but was primarily an RP last year where he posted a 1.15 WHIP to go with 106 K and 37 BB.

25 February 2006

Top 10

Well, I meant to post this yesterday but didn't go to work and forgot.

So, to keep up the schedule, my current iPod top 10:

10 Albacore - Palomar
9 Nature Anthem - Grandaddy
8 Heartbeats - The Knife
7 Heartbeats - Jose Gonzalez
6 Dirt Off Your Shoulder/Bittersweet Symphony - Jay Z vs. the Verve
5 Steady, As She Goes - The Raconteurs
4 Soul Meets Body - Death Cab for Cutie
3 Rock & Roll Queen - the Subways
2 When You Wasn't Famous - the Streets
1 This Modern Love - Bloc Party

Enjoy!

23 February 2006

Thursdays ...

Man, I woke up in a odd mood this morning. I don't know rightly why, but I just did. Maybe its because its cold & grey. Maybe because its Thursday. Maybe its because the machine is down. Maybe it was from watching "The Godfather" with TGIF last night and now I'm worried I'm going to end up like Sonny or Luca. Ok, well, thats not really likely, but you never know.

I wish I had more interesting things to say right now. Baseball season is at its most boring/painful part, when all the news is "So and so reported to camp" or "Mr. Monkey is late for camp". Woo. I just want games to begin and stats to compile. Ah well. Maybe I should place my order on Amazon for the Baseball Prospectus 2006 that comes out next week. Yes, yes I will.

Anyway, back to sitting and wondering what to do about a carbonized "bulkhead insulator".

21 February 2006

Simulations and new singles

So, I've run my 100 simulations of the 2006 baseball season on Baseball Season. I'll run it again when we get closer to the regular season. If you want to see the results, I posted a pdf. I'll have more comments in the future, but it looks like New York (both teams) have the best shot at the World Series. Oakland may get more competition from Texas than Los Angeles. Cleveland seems to be underappreciated in the sims, as they are predicted to be merely .500. And the Red Sox don't look to be winning a World Series in 2006. Hmmm.

A few quick reviews:
When You Wasn't Famous - The Streets: Brilliant. Mike Skinner has somehow made highlands hip-hop that is so catchy it kind of makes me ill. 9/10
Gold Lion - Yeah Yeah Yeahs: Sometimes I worry that the YYYs are the 00's equivalent to No Doubt. I think they have a little more musical credibility, but would you be that surprised to see Karen O pull a Gwen Stefani? Anyway, "Gold Lion" is really polished and put together and bound to be a hit, yet somehow lacks a spark. Hmmm. 7.9/10
*edit* - I figured it out! This song sounds like a lost Love & Rockets song!
You Have Killed Me - Morrissey: He surely does like melodramatic titles, eh? Its actually pretty similar, musically, to his work on You are the Quarry, but I'm a sucker for Moz, so I like it anyway...but what the heck language is Moz trying to sing? 7.5/10

Two new TIG reviews:
Field Notes - Color of Sunshine
The Elected - Sun, Sun, Sun
(weird, both "sun" albums)

Also, some good new albums include: Invisible Eyes - Laugh in the Dark (thanks to TGIF), Jenny Lewis & the Watson Twins - Rabbit Fur Coat (she covers the Travelling Wilburys for chrissakes), Aceyalone with RJD2 - Magnificent City (TGIF will report back on this one)

17 February 2006

Theater, Hip-Hop and the Pod

Tonight TGIF and I are hitting the theater. How very cultural. Nothing like David Mamet and a period piece.

Last night, we ended up seeing an sort of spokenword/unplugged performance featuring Geologic from Blue Scholars and Boots Riley of the the Coup. Good stuff, good political message that I've been arguing for a while - namely that all these activist groups you hear about are trying to tackle issues that are too big for the average worker to care about. Yes, the war in Iraq is wrong and needs to stop, but can you expect that a person making minimum wage is going to skip a day of work to march against the war or to march for a cost-of-living allowance in their city? Or for better housing laws in their neighborhood? Or more money for their local school? I think we know the answer to that. If you want to develop new activists and new left-leaning voters, you need to appeal to their situation and not some high-faluting scholarly topic. (Off soapbox now).

Anyway, its a good, cold three-day weekend here in Seattle.
And with that, here is my iPod top 10 of the week.

10 Albacore - Palomar
9 Knockout - Palomar
8 I Wanna Be Your Joey Ramone - Sleater-Kinney
7 Heartbeats - Jose Gonzalez
6 Dirt Off Your Shoulder/Bittersweet Symphony - Jay Z vs. the Verve
5 Heartbeats - The Knife
4 Nature Anthem - Grandaddy
3 Rock & Roll Queen - the Subways
2 Soul Meets Body - Death Cab for Cutie
1 This Modern Love - Bloc Party

16 February 2006

Some early simulations of 2006

Ok folks, I know you've all been waiting for this, so here it is!
I've been simming the 2006 MLB season using Baseball Mogul 2006. The rosters are updated to last week (so no Jeff Weaver to LAA or Jose Lima to NYM yet). I simmed this roster alignment 52 times and got interesting results. (Note: I didn't realize that the computer controlled teams enough to sign Free Agents. The next version of this will not have this option. Otherwise, its the same roster all season with appropriate subs for injuries - which I can't turn off).

World Series Winners
- I hope you don't like New York. Between the Yankers and the Mets, they won 38 of the 52 WS.
- Next best? Boston and the Cubs won 4 each. They were the only other multiple WS winners.
- Other teams to win once: Oakland, Seattle, Atlanta, Washington, Houston & Arizona (Sorry AL Central).

Division Winners
- AL EAST: The Yankers won the AL East 50 out of 52 runs. Boston and Toronto won one each. Ouch.
- AL CENTRAL: Chicago won 30, Cleveland won 16 and Detroit won 6.
- AL WEST: Oakland won 31, Texas won 15 and Los Angeles/Seattle won 1 each.
- NL EAST: Mets dominate, winning 37. Philadelphia won 8 and Atlanta won 7.
- NL CENTRAL: In a bit of a surprise to me, Chicago won 32, Houston won 16 and Milwaukee/St. Louis won 2 each.
- NL WEST: Los Angeles won 29, San Francisco won 16 and Arizona won 7.

Wild Card
- AL: Red Sox continue to dominate the WC, winning 22. Texas (7), Oakland (5), Toronto (5), Cleveland (4), Detroit (3), New York (2) all won more than once. Kansas City, Minnesota, Baltimore and Seattle won 1 each.
- NL: Its less clearcut, with Philly winning 13, Atlanta 9 and Houston 8. Other multiple winners are New York (6), Chicago (4), Milwaukee (3), Los Angeles (2) and San Francisco (2). Pittsburgh and St. Louis each won 1.

Thats all I'll say for now as these runs were a bit of a test. Stay tuned for better runs in the near future!

15 February 2006

So sleepy

Yes, sleepy. I think this is cold is trying to get the better of me. Damn it.
Will have more to say when I win the battle. In the meantime ...

Spring Training starts today!

Coming Soon:
Results of simming 2006 over 75 times. Interesting stuff I tell ya.

14 February 2006

Not much to say today

Quiet today. Its "that" day...which is hopefully good this year (dinner with TGIF).

I watched "Once More With Feeling" for the first time in quite awhile yesterday. I liked it much better this time than the first time. Weird. Ah Joss. The panel discussion with some of the cast and crew made me realize a few things:
1 - Joss Whedon is Xander.
2 - James Marsters seems like he could be a tool in real life.
3 - Nicholas Brendon seems like he could be a jerk in real life.
Thats all. Enough Buffy talk!

13 February 2006

Sore and Sick


Nice view of Mt. Rainier from Snoqualmie Pass.

Went snowshoeing with TGIF and a bunch of others yesterday and I'm darn sore. And I got a cold. Yay! It makes for a great Monday.

Anyway, I wish I had more to say today, but I'm sleepy and sick and sore. So there!

10 February 2006

Hugo, Stephin and the iPod

It's sunny and nice here in Seattle today. How strange.

Couple short comments:
- The TIG "69 Love Songs" show was great, especially the rockin' version of "Luckiest Guy on the Lower East Side" performed by For Better or For Awesome. Quite good interpretation of the song. Packed house at the Croc too.

- Hugo Chavez looks to be trying to reignite the Falklands War. Now, there's a war that needs more attention, dammit.

- My current iPod top 10
*Note: I've decided to retire "Marching Bands of Manhattan" by Death Cab from the Top 10 for reasons I may reveal in the future. It has an unfair advantage.

10 Knockout - Palomar
9 I Wanna Be Your Joey Ramone - Sleater-Kinney
8 Heartbeats - Jose Gonzalez
7 Only You - Portishead
6 Dirt Off Your Shoulder/Bittersweet Symphony - Jay Z vs. the Verve
5 Heartbeats - The Knife
4 Nature Anthem - Grandaddy
3 Rock & Roll Queen - Subways
2 This Modern Love - Bloc Party
1 Soul Meets Body - Death Cab for Cutie

Enjoy!

09 February 2006

Global warming

For those of you concerned with Global Warming, check out this forecast from the National Weather Service:


yes, the high is 1.26x10^19F and the low is -30000F.

Yowzah! (I'm even sure what to call a number thats 10 to the power of 19).

That's all for today. Remember: TIG 69 Love Songs Pre-Vday Bash, tonight at the Croc.

08 February 2006

I've got a theory.

Ever just wake up in a funk but you have no good explanation for it? I'm convinced it has something to do with the previous nights dreams, even if you don't remember them. They somehow leak into your conscious mood. Today is one of those days for me. Kind of down, for no reason I can fully understand. Ah well. Maybe I had dreams involving Evil Bunnies.

Today I'm mostly horrified by George Deutsch, the latest in Dubya's long line of woefully underqualified politic appointees. On what planet does a 24-year-old journalism major who DIDN'T GRADUATE become the public relations director for NASA? Well, luckily, one where he resigns in scandal and shame. How many more years of Deutsches and Mike Browns do we have to survive? I'm scared.

Ok, thats as political as I'm going to get on this blog.

Come on, why isn't it baseball season yet? At least spring training? I'd take an intrasquad game at this point.

07 February 2006

Tuesdays

Tuesday are rapidly becoming my least favorite day of the week.

I imagine its going to be a slow day today as (1) not much going on in the lab; (2) not much going on in baseball world; (3) I'm kind of sleepy. Ah well, maybe I should drag my arse to the gym tonight. Yes, I should.

And while I'm there, I have plenty of new music to listen to, as TGIF and I went to Sonic Boom last night and I spent too much cash. What did I get, you ask?
Jose Gonzalez - Veneer - TGIF and I are in agreement: this album is real good.
Palomar - Palomar III Revenge of Palomar - Only listened to a couple songs in the car, but it seems good so far.
Edan - Beauty and the Beat - Are these guys from Boston? I should find out. Seems like another winner.
Hard-Fi - Cash Machine EP - Purchased for all of 99 cents, mostly because they cover "Seven Nation Army", which is unfortunately only OK. I think TGIF said it best when saying "why cover this song when the original does it so well and so simply."

06 February 2006

BTTF, Part IV?

Oh my word.

Enjoy!

The Magic of the iPod

So, for quite a few years now, I've had this, well, dream, let's say. I would listen to my iPod/mp3 player on the bus, or in my car or at night and set it on shuffle. Then, I would pretend that someone I fancy would be playing random songs and seeing if I can guess what song it is and we would talk about the song and music and everything. The sort of thing a music nerd like me would love. I knew full well that this sort of delusional fantasy would never come true and that I was just torturing myself with a search for just such an experience.
However
Last night I was driving around Seattle with TGIF and I had my iPod plugged into my stereo. She was in charge of the music and what does she do but RE-ENACT THAT ENTIRE FANTASY. Yes, my friends, TGIF started playing the "I'll-pick-a-song, you-name-it" game with my iPod. I practically swerved off the road. TGIF has made the leap from not only being super cool and fun to be with to "are you for real you're so great" status. It was brilliant. Heck, we sat in my car for like 30 minutes after getting to my apartment playing the game.

Ok.

Anyway, a few other comments:
- Apparently the Super Bowl would have been great if the Seahawks showed up. Well, congrats to the Steelers. Any time you use your 3rd string RB to throw a TD, you deserved to win.
- Now that the Super Bowl is done, SPRING TRAINING IS ONLY 10 DAYS AWAY! Now, thats good news.
- For those Seattle-ites who look at this, Thursday is the 69 Love Songs Pre-Valentine's Day Bash at the Crocodile. Be there. There's a good chance that TGIF and I will be there. Heck, if you enter the contest before tomorrow (2/7) you might even win tickets.

03 February 2006

Soup or Bowl

I've recently come to discover that more people than I thought actually read my blog. Not that I find this disconcerting or disturbing, but I was just a little surprised. I mean, its like assuming that only 1 or 2 people look through your windows at night only to discover that its more like a dozen. Wait, no. Thats not it at all. Imagine a lemon, but with small holes in the side that emit light. Now, take that lemon and put it on a cart. Maybe a small child's rollerskate. Then, strap a large Pratt & Whitney jet engine to it. That's what I'm talking about. Really.

A few observations for today, Friday 2/3:
1 - I'm cold. I should have brought a sweater.
2 - I'm sleepy. But not complaining that TGIF has been keeping me up late (get your mind out of there, thank you very much).
3 - I just ate cold chicken soup because I can't find a microwave in the new building.
4 - I'm seeing a high school production of "Arsenic & Old Lace" tonight.
5 - At this production, I will be meeting TGIF's best friend.
6 - I woke up this morning I had a Unicorn's song stuck in my head, then proceeded to torment TGIF with the entire Unicorn's album.

Superbowl weekend! I'm not as excited as I should be, considering I live in Seattle and the Seahawks are, in fact, in the Superbowl. If they were to win, the world will stop spinning and that will be that. I just hope this city learns to have a sports riot. I'll likely watch at least a little of the game, but we'll see. Might be fun to run around the city when its abandoned. However, my prediction: Seattle 27 Pittsburgh 24.

02 February 2006

Current iPod Top 10

Here it is, because I'm sleepy today.

10. Your Cover's Blown - Belle & Sebastian
9. Wonderwall - Ryan Adams
8. Ruby Blue - Roisin Murphy
7. Kids Don't Mind - Papas Fritas
6. A Sweet Summer's Night on Hammer Hill - Jens Lekman
5. She's the One - Beta Band
4. Dirt Off Your Shoulder/Bittersweet Symphony - Jay Z vs the Verve
3. Nature Anthem - Grandaddy
2. Soul Meets Body - Death Cab for Cutie
1. Marching Bands of Manhattan - Death Cab for Cutie

01 February 2006

It's like high school, except without all the many things that sucked

I am sleepy today, mostly because TGIF and I were on the phone last night for 3 hours. Why? you ask. Does she live far away? Well, if by far away you mean ~7 minutes by car away, then yes, she lives far away. So, no, she doesn't live far away. We just kind of get on a roll and BAM its 1 AM.

Anybody tell me whats the deal with Johnny Damon? Is he trashing the Sox and talking about Manny and Papi being great Yankers because he feels like the jilted ex-boyfriend? "Boy, I'm so much better off without you here! See! Look how happy I am! Look at all my friends like A-Rod and Jeter. Yeah, its pretty good now". Poor Johnny. And the Sox have moved onto the younger and more, eh, "fun" Coco Crisp.