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I'm gonna recant what I said about going to see bad baseball teams play bad, bad, bad baseball. It hurts, and I'm not hardcore enough. Yet, I was there for the 13-0 beatdown tonight. Every pitcher giving up a home run, even if they didn't give up a home run. It was a painful 9 innings and 3 hours. At least, I caught the beginnings of the Grand Prix of Baltimore.

The Hardcore is composed of the people I saw at the Yard tonight.

There's the gentleman who has season tickets a row behind me. He's been rotating his companions between his children and his friends. He jinxes us as he's always there for the beatdown.

There's the lady and the gentleman who have the two season ticket seats on my right. He's old and she's younger. I can't guess their relationship. Father-daughter? Husband-wife? Gentleman-escort? I can't tell. I'm afraid to ask. I'm hoping its husband-'trophy' wife. They are an interesting couple. She's also pretty.

There's the kids from Hopkins, the freshman from LA and NJ. They've come to catch a game at the Yard. Wish they got to see a better game. Although, I did tell them to go sneak into the seats behind home plate. Hopefully, you got to see them on television.

There's the group of high school kids. They came down from the upper level to catch the final innings. They had seen last night's game, too. It's great to egg these kids on in their taunting. We're getting on the Jumbo-tron!

There's the dude from work. He's still at the game in the ninth. What are we doing and why do we subject ourselves to this junk? WHY!

There's the guy who's vacation is watching some ball games. He wore an Orioles shirt tonight, but wore a Blue Jays shirt last night. He's on his way to Boston for three games, Yankees then Rangers. I thought he was here for the Grand Prix. He hates motorsports.

There's the kids who sat in the seats for the first two innings. They were very loud and I kept looking at the dad a few rows back. I couldn't help it. Maybe, subconsciously, I wanted him to get his kids out of there. They did clear out, but they cheered loudly for the Orioles even though we wer down 7 by the third.

In there place came the mother and her 2 children. They were shooed away by the husband-wife couple.

I didn't talk up the ball girl. It wasn't Kirsten.

Orioles play a day game tomorrow and I doubt they'll get 5000 fans. I don't think they got 10000 tonight. We're number 32!

Labels: Baltimore Orioles, baseball, Camden Yards

Goodbye, August! Hello, September or as we call it around here News Radio Quote Month. I can't believe I'm still doing it after all these years. I'm wondering if I have exhausted all the great quotes from the show leaving me with the "Matthew this" or "Lisa that" quotes. Plus, I can't believe I am still into that show. You would think I would forget it like I've done with Northern Exposure or The X-Files, but it hangs around here like a Month of Quotes.

I see that CapitolSwell is taking up the challenge. Bring it!

Labels: it rocks, music break, your kung fu is good

Though this team really sucks and cannot play sound fundamental baseball, it's still fun to go down to the Yard and catch a game. Although, at times, it is very trying, but still, it beats cancer. Following the team will kill you (RIP Flanny), so only the hardcore can get through a season. I've been through 4 and now I have the thousand yard stare.

"Hey Joker, we ought to put you up for the congressional medal of... ugly!"

"The Horror... The Horror..."

Labels: baseball, Camden Yards

End of summer? What better way to end it with the song of summer? You don't think this was it? Perhaps you can clue me in to the one that you thought was summertime 2011. Use the comments.

Labels: it rocks, music break, time sink

In my Google Reader (the only google app I truly use day-to-day), I've got the political feeds set up to be the first thing launched. Basically, I use Reader to read political blogs. I get most of my political information from blogs, because our news industry is broken. They are not newsmen but entertainers. There is no more reporting but entertainment. You wonder why we're stupid. It starts with our press. We've given up on informing. We'd rather entertain. It's become trivial and this makes the world susceptible to assfucks such as Palin, Bachman, the GOP and the Tea Party. It leads us to fucktard presidents. When we are uninformed, we make these bad decisions. Of course, sometimes people are just plain stupid.

http://pressthink.org/2011/08/why-political-coverage-is-broken/

Labels: disaster, lotd, phonies

Aw, geez. As if my wallet needed to be sucked clean some more, I've found me a nendoroid blog. Keep up with the latest nendo or so what's coming in the future with today's Link of the Day. They even show you ones that you couldn't get. It's like Pokemon -- gotta catch 'em all!

http://nendonesia.com/

Labels: lotd, nendoroid

We're taking this to the end of the month. You've got to love this song. And better yet learn it on your guitar. Let's begin.

Labels: it rocks, music break

The Yankees are in town hopefully getting a beatdown. Last week, I spent the weekend with a yankee, Shinagawa-kun, the eponymous antagonist in Yankee-kun To Megane-chan. I watched all ten episodes of last year's j-drama. My MacBook Pro was hot with all the torrenting and watching of mkv files on VLC. I had a blast.

Yankee-kun To Megane-chan actually was one of the first manga I read in scanlation. It was around the time I learned to love School Rumble. It too has a yankee, the lovelorn Harima Kenji, and I thought he was hilarious, so I went looking for other manga of that ilk. It needs a delinquent and a silly love interest when you plug those into a reference you get Shinagawa Daichi in Yankee-kun To Megane Chan. It also had the funniest girl in manga, Adachi Hana, the megane. I only read a few chapters before I got sick of the scanlation so I never finished it, but it premised has me hooked. I keep hoping for the manga to be brought to the US, but I doubt it. Twenty-three chapter manga about school days don't stand a chance of being accepted in the US. Just ask School Rumble (O, Kodansha, will you give us the final 4 chapters!)

I really like to know what happens because what I read had me hooked. The premise of the manga is that the delinquent, Shinagawa-kun, the yankee, is dragged into a happy school life by Adachi Hana, the class representative, the worst student, and eventual the student council president. She drags him kicking and screaming into school life. The kicker here is that she too was a yankee the most toughest one in junior high, Hurricane Ada! She's hellbent on changing her past and she sees Shinagawa as a project to mold into a passable member of school society. The manga was filled with hilarity as she forced him to do good. I wish I could complete it as the story, from reading wikipedia, sounds even more fun. With a cover like this, I couldn't pass up this manga.



So last week, I found out that they did a J-Drama of the manga last year. I don't think they did an anime, but a live action show would be the next best thing to getting close to completing the story. I'll tell you right now that I am a sucker for girls in glasses. That's why I found Riisa Naka as Adachi Hana so adorable. She nails the part and I was hooked. I immediately started downloading all ten episodes and watched them back-to-back-to-back over several nights. I had fun.



So expect me to rehash this short series here on this blog. I know no one reads anything I recommend, but you have got to watch this show.

Labels: manga, Yankee-kun to Megane-chan

I would've been at the early game of today's scheduled Yankee-Oriole tilt, but Hurricane Irene caused today's games to be cancelled. Unlike Joe Gerardi, I'm okay with it. It was a makeup game for another rained out game from April so another week or two doesn't make a difference. I'm not gonna whine about it. I can wait. Maybe another 14 years.

You have to wait for those baseballs to come flying your way. Maybe you'll have some light hitting middle infielder taking his cuts, then you'll have the heavy bomber. You stand close to the wall for the ground rule double, then you back up, way back for the bombs. You've got to position right. Catch that ball!

Labels: baseball, Camden Yards

I finally get my Yamanaka Sawako nendoroid, and she comes in petit version with a magazine written in Japanese.

It's like an early birthday present!

http://www.goodsmile.info/product/en/3267/Monthly+Anime+Style+-+Issue+5.html

Labels: gifts that keep on gifting, K-ON, lotd, nendoroid, so kawaii

You've got to want it. If you're standing on the wall, call for the ball. Look at a player, call his name, throw your hands up, and yell, "Throw me a ball!" It don't matter what team. It don't matter what player. Do it. Call for the ball.

The nephew was shy. He couldn't even ask Guthrie for a ball. Me? I just yelled, "Hey, Blue Jay throw me a ball!" I had no idea his name. I had no idea his number which was unfortunate as I would usually call them by that -- "Hey, 57! Throw me one."

Sometimes they'll throw you one. It's happened. It'll happen again. Thanks, Nick!

Labels: baseball, Camden Yards, no new tale to tell

I miss Scully.

Labels: music break, Scully, The X-Files

Last time at Camden Yards, I took my nephew to batting practice. This was for a Blue Jays game. We waited for Jose Bautista to "hit it here" and he did deliver...

Labels: baseball, Camden Yards, picture

I don't know what to say.

You've made a fine company.

Thank you.

May the road rise with you on your next adventure.

Best wishes.

Labels: Apple, genius, gifts that keep on gifting, thankful

In the morning before the ground shook, I was reading Micheal Chabon's Maps And Legends and came upon his intro to Casting the Runes, an anthology of M.R. James ghost stories. Chabon celebrates the short story "Oh, Whistle and I'll Come to You, My Lad!" as M.R. James' greatest ghost story. He also laments that the ghost story has fallen out of favor with writers.

I concur. There's something satisfying about a well crafted ghost stories. A well written ghost story sends shivers up your spine and is a joy to read. You're frightened and elated and that's a good feeling.

What I liked about Chabon's essay was that he went touched upon a few things I noticed about ghost stories -- things I felt I should write about too. Here's where I write about them.

Chabon talked about the first person perspective of most ghosts stories. They are mostly told by a narrator describing ghastly things he has seen or has heard about from a reliable source. Chabon talked about the truthiness of the ghost story accounts. The narrator's account from a first person perspective -- can you trust 'em? Or that they seem almost true. Chabon talked about how they were told on cold winter nights around camp fires. That's the best time for ghost stories. And they are told, spoken, enough to scare you.

I, too, love the first person perspective of the ghost story. "I don't believe in the supernatural, but...." They always open like that and you get hooked. I don't believe in the supernatural but I love the chills I get from reading them. I love 'em in the winter. The darkness. The cold. Under the covers. The darkness. All are conducive to being frightened.

It's almost fall and the day's are getting longer. It's almost time for a good ghost story. "I don't believe in the supernatural..."

Labels: spooky, well read

I'm sure you've already heard about the earthquake on the East Coast.

I was down in the basement lab and thought it was just construction until the floor began to quake. Then my stomach felt funny .

Everyone was looking at each other on the first shake. Then we got up and left immediately on the continuous second shake. Just a very eventful day.

I survived!

Labels: disaster, get me out of here

It's come to this. With the closing of Borders, it's become hard to find manga. You can still use Amazon or you can go digital.

Try today's link. Is it worth it?

Maybe, I'll just read the fansubs.

http://www.jmanga.com/

Labels: comics, commerce, lotd, manga, well read

If you all followed me on twitter, you would've been treated to my crazy rants (crazants!) on how I feel about the Orioles. I think I've raged against them every game. Last night, they were coming back (I know, right?), but then Matusz who although kept them in the game through six, still sucks though, was relieved by the worse bunch of "pitchers" in the MLB. I've gone to calling these guys arsonists: the opposite of what relief pitching should be doing. They're throwing gas on the fire!

Anyhow, I believe this song is appropriate for our bullpen. Wouldn't it be funny if Camden Yards music director played this for our chief arsonist Kevin Gregg when he comes out in relief? It would be awesome!

Labels: anger and frustration, Baltimore Orioles, baseball, music break

30 Minutes or Less was a dual buddy movie. You had the comedy buddy movie with Jesse Eisenberg and Aziz Ansari, and you have the serious buddy movie with Danny McBride and Nick Swardson. One group brought the comedy. The other brought the stupid action. They were stupid. It made me stupid.

What's strange is that the movie put both couples as sympathetic characters. You expect it from the comedy team, but from the villains? Could they make them anymore sympathetic?

Then the movie got real with the latino, brown skinned bad guy. The tone went from a comedic to gruesome quickly with some gritty violence. Who would've thought?

Also, for a 1.5 hour movie it felt long.

Needless to say, I didn't like this movie.

2 of 5 stars

Labels: movies, review

I miss playing my acoustic guitar. I doesn't sound good going through my Fender Jaguar Amp. I don't have it near me so I barely play it. Maybe I'm looking for a new one. That Taylor looks mighty nice. Wait! I thought I wanted a Jaguar. Maybe later, then.

Here we go again with another round of covers on Youtube. If you don't like the original, then you might not like this. And if you don't like the original, then what's wrong with you. Isn't it the song of the summer?

Labels: music break

Go to CamdenChat.com to commiserate with fellow Orioles fans on how bad our home team is. This team is worst than they were last year. It's hard to say that, but it's true.

Labels: Baltimore Orioles, baseball, Camden Yards, disaster, fanatical

I had started writing a review for Crazy, Stupid, Love earlier this week while I've been twiddling my thumbs at work, but I deleted the first draft. Was that stupid of me? No, because I thought it went nowhere. Now, as I write review, I know this one's gonna go nowhere as well. I should've published the first one -- one and done.

Steve Carell and Julianne Moore are a couple on the edge of divorce. She wants out because she married the 40 Year Old Virgin. He can't believe it, grants her wish, and mopes around before Ryan
Gosling shows him how to be a man. He dresses Carell up, teaches him how to pick up women, and lets him loose in his home bar. Carell flies right, but does he like his lady's man persona? Doubtful as he maintains the ex's yard at night and keeps close tabs on his family. The question then becomes does Gosling like his persona? Doubtful as he falls in love with the ubiquitous Emma Stone. Gosling tabbed Carell for the same loser role he had been but transformed as a lady's man he knows he misses something.

I thought Crazy, Stupid, Love was a romantic comedy, just look at its title, but it isn't. It's a romantic drama with comedic overtones. It acts like a rom-com, but doesn't try to follow all the conventions of the genre. Strangeness abounds in this hybrid movie and its best to watch with a clear view that this is really about love and its sometimes stupid, sometimes crazy practitioners.

There is a twists that you know is coming, and one that you don't know. I'll not spoil it for you but I was surprised and laughed both times. Clever.

Now of the couples involved in this movie, the younger will make you cringe. Everything they did was really creepy. I couldn't believe it. I'm warning you now.

3 of 5 stars

Labels: movies, review

*sigh*

Even I know how terribly unprepared I am for it.

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/07/04/110704fa_fact_paumgarten?currentPage=all

Labels: lotd, love

I don't know what I was expecting from Cowboys & Aliens. Did I expect a western? Or an alien invasion flick? Perhaps I was expecting a good flick. You got the western and the alien invasion, but it wasn't good.

The film jumps right in with Daniel Craig trying to figure out who he is and how he got into this mess. What movie am I in? Is this a western? Or is it an alien invasion film? Yes. Long story short, he's an outlaw with a heart of gold. Gold being the operative word.

The townspeople are ruled by the big cattle rancher, Indiana Jones. Harrison Ford is looking old. And he's crotchety. He hates everyone. We'll come to find out he has a heart of gold. Gold being the operative word.

There's the Doc who is a minister, and there's the barkeep who is a doctor. The minister doc helps stitch up Daniel Craig and knows that he is the key to making the town a better place. The barkeep doc is a wimp but finds out later that he does make the town a better place. They both have hearts of gold. Gold being the operative word.

The doc barkeep loses his wife to the aliens. Daniel Craig loses his memory to the aliens. Various townfolk get lost to the aliens. A posse is rounded up to get them back. This is the part where we get to see them strung up as food for the aliens. Just like in Super 8. I think they used the same setup.

I watch Jon Favreau movies and wonder where the action is. His films are slack in pace even the Iron Men movies. It saddens me, because he's always directing action movies. One day, his pace will make a movie fun to watch.

2 of 5 stars

Labels: movies, review

I am currently two months into reading Shattered Sword: The Untold Story of the Battle of Midway. It's taken me this long not because its a particularly thick book, but because I've only read it off and on a few pages one night, then a chapter the next. Everytime I read it, I'm hooked. It's a gripping account of the last good days of the Imperial Japanese Kido Butai their carrier division strike force as it meets its end at Midway. At the rate I'm reading this book, I'll be done by September.

In reading this book, it's made me more curious about naval ships and especially about their damage control activities. It's kind of coupled to my work as well as I'm doing things with automated systems on board a ship. Stupid as it is working for IniTech has me very close to a few things that I am interested in. Boats, man, boats. I like 'em.

Now, all this makes me wonder if I should be building the Kido Butai instead of the IJN battleships. I should build out the Akagi or Soryu rather than the Nagato. Scratch that. Nagato is awesome.

Labels: fine scale modeling, nagato, well read

You do not run on Matt Weiters.

Labels: Baltimore Orioles, baseball

I'm by no means a partial observer here. You could call me an Apple fan boy and I wouldn't deny it. They've proved to be one of the best run companies for the last 40 years and this is with the lost 90s. They were knocked flat on their backs by Microsoft and Windows95, but picked themselves off the mat, swung back hard, and eventually became the juggernaut they are today. They have spent the last decade doing everything right.

When I read attacks upon Apple, I know the sour grapes that they come from: (in best whiny voice) "Apple suxs! Macs suxs! Iphones sucks! {Insert platform of choice} rulez!" Apple's kicked butt, usually of the platform the person likes. It's difficult to embrace Apple as towers over all other computer companies in hardware, software, and the public's mindshare.

Yet, they aren't the only big dog on the block. Google is another 1,000 lb gorilla, and it's flexing its muscles. They leverage their search engine dominance (and online advertising dominance) into the Android operating system. They sell ads that so happen to need a platform like the web or Android OS to deliver.

They're not above whining about Apple. They've got into a shouting match over the set of Nortel patents.

Just because you lose out on them doesn't mean you should whine about it. Whining about "bogus" patents that Apple and Microsoft out bid Google for is sour grapes.

The funny thing is patents especially the software kind suck. They're beginning to stifle software development in the mobile arena. Google could've been in the forefront of campaigning for patent reform with their "Do No Evil" slogan, but you can't be for wanting patents and against them at the same time. You're head will asplode with the hypocrisy.

But for real, we need to reform our patent system. Our leading "Do No Evil" company, Google, would be the ideal candidate to advocate reform. But whining about losing out on a patent bid, doesn't help the cause for patent reform.

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/08/when-patents-attack-android.html

Labels: lotd, wankers

A few months back, I saw the first "friends with benefits" movie, No Strings Attached, and I liked it. Did this make me susceptible to another "friends with benefits" movie with the apt title, Friends with Benefits? Not sure.

I don't remember what I liked about the first "friends with benefits" movie and why I gave it a decent review. Was it the acting? The actors? The story? The script? It seems it must've been a combination of all these as I made note of the story and the actors in my review. I guess for a "friends with benefits" movie we have to come to like the story and the actors in order to like the movie.

Friends With Benefits stars Justin Timberlake and Mila Kunis. I've come to enjoy Timberlake as an actor. He's thoroughly agreeable in everything I've seen him in from The Social Network to ugh, Bad Teacher. Mila Kunis is Mila Kunis all growns up, easy on the eyes. Adequate for the role she plays.

The two are brought together after they have been dumped by their exes because she headhunts for an executive placement agency and she brings him to New York. It'll remind you of the classic line in When Harry Met Sally -- "That's too bad. You were the only person I knew in New York." In fact, the movie goes out of its way to disproving the adage from the same movie that men and women can't be friends because of the sex. For the two, the sex doesn't get in the way, it's the friendship.

Right from the meet cute you feel the chemistry between both characters. Flirting even though one is basically employed by the other. They quickly become friends and do things as friends because his only friend in New York is she. Then they show how compatible they are and comfortable with each other. Then comes the benefits naturally arising from being together often.

He likes her. She likes him. They're friends why not? The friendship will get in the way, but our protagonists triumph as you know they would in a good little romantic comedy.

As I left the theatre, I kept wondering which I "friends with benefits" movie I liked more. To be honest, I can't decide. Perhaps a back-to-back screening would suffice, but I think that would be too much. I already like them both.

3 of 5 stars.

Labels: movies, review

Tell me more. It all stinks anyway. Burn it all. Burn it all down.

(I woke up on the wrong side of the bed today.)

http://nplusonemag.com/origins-of-the-crisis

Labels: lotd, wankers