adrian is rad

(Shipping Up to Boston makes me feel very nostalgic for the city even though it was recorded years after I left the town.)

That’s my celebration of the 4th, I guess.

I’m back in San Diego, this time I’m here to attend a friend’s wedding.

A main problem of traveling on holidays is that nothing is open. Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade circa 1988. Couldn’t find a place open to use the bathroom for what seemed like hours.

This evening, I went to find dinner. The place I intended to go was closed, of course, so I went across the strip mall to look for something else. This is perhaps the longest strip mall ever made. I walked across perhaps half a mile of parking lot. This place was big enough to have a TGI Fridays, a Boston Market, a Marshall’s, a Mervins, a Shoe Pavillion, a Payless Shoes, a Barnes and Nobles, an In N Out, and probably 50 more establishments….I got brisket at Joey’s BBQ.

Then I saw Wall E. It was really good. Pretty interesting concept for a film–and impressive that they made a compelling film about robots virtually without dialog.

CEOs for Cities has an interesting presentation (pdf) of the top 50 cities ranked by various metrics. For instance, Pittsburgh is 49th in the category of “ratio of people reporting attending a cultural event to the number of people subscribed to cable”. (The biggest loser in that category: Nashville.)

Boston and San Francisco both rank highly (#3 and #1, respectively) in the “ratio of ethnic restaurants to fast food restaurants” category.

A lot of the page headings are confusing or misleading but the actual ratio that they are measuring is also listed on the page and I find those are much clearer.

(via the best non-blog out there Scott)

Here’s an interesting article in the NY Times about the juxtaposition of ridiculous way the Red Sox take money from their fans and the pureness of Fenway. Pretty interesting.

Here is a list of the top 50 sketches ever. There are some funny ones on there.

Merlin Mann has a new weblog to add to the 50 other web presences he has. There’s some funny stuff on there.

Wulai. (”ooh-lai”) I spent yesterday in Wulai, which is known for their hot springs and one of the highest water falls in Taiwan. The hot springs were excruciatingly hot. If I hadn’t seen other people in there, I would have doubted that a human could sit in there. I got in and it was nice. But the advice of a fellow bather provied useful: “don’t move”. I think it worked similar to the recommended advice for falling into cold water: if you don’t move the water directly around the body get closer to the temperature of the body and acts as a protective barrier.

I walked to the waterfalls, about 1.5km. There’s a miniature railroad along this route. The cars are about 10 feet long and the tracks are maybe 2 feet apart. It’s really cute and I wanted to ride it but I decided that I’d do so on the way back, only to find I’m misread the hours and I’d missed it! Disaster. I really like riding odd rail and cable transportation[1], especially funiculars (being a son of Pittsburgh [2]) but others as well.

The falls were nice. Nothing like Victoria Falls or Niagara, but something nice to look at for a few minutes. From there I started walking toward Doll Valley, which the guidebook listed as about an hour away. As I walked away from Wulai, the scenery became lusher in the valley I was walking in and the cars and whatnot became sparser. Eventually I turned onto a foot path and saw a few people and a number of smaller waterfalls. I realized that I wasn’t going to be able to get back by sunset if I went to Doll Valley which I deemed a Bad Thing (TM) so I turned back but the hike was nice.

Sometimes it’s good for the head as well as the body, you know?

Wedding. Today I went to a wedding. Correction, I didn’t go to the wedding, which was held in the family’s home and wasn’t attended by many; I went to the wedding “party” (as they called it) or “reception” (as the Americans might call it). It was pretty interesting. For instance, the couple entered along with lasers and fog machines. The bride changed dresses twice (three dresses total) and the couple would reenter to much fanfare each time. As I understand is the case with many Asian cultures, the wedding presents were actually envelopes of cash. The food was largely really good: about 20 dishes (in 7 or so courses). It was way too much food, but I gave it my best effort.

This is a wedding, not a night club?

No one was drinking the bottle of scotch set aside for my table so I was given it to take home. Now it’s just time to see if I still don’t like scotch and if so see if I can change that.

Lugo’s catch (available here). Perfect. Perfectly timed in both execution and in shutting down a rally by the Rockies.

The Red Sox are highly paid but I’d like to note that they’re getting a lot out of players that aren’t very highly paid at all: Papelbon, Pedroia, Ellsbury, and Youkilis are all low paid players.

It made me really happy that Dice-K that got a two run single.

Couch. After two months, I may have found the only marginally comfortable position on my couch. That is a remarkably uncomfortable couch for sitting, lounging or anything else. Despite being aware of the recommendations I am using my bed to sit and lounge with my laptop or book when I get tired of the chair.

Arnold. They seriously show my governor’s movies all the time here. All…the…time. By the way, TV programmers: they’re mostly not very good, those movies.

[1] The best yet is Wuppertal’s Schwebebahn. If you’re anywhere near Wuppertal, it’s worth a trip just to ride that.

[2] at one point I dated a daugther of the American Revolution. she was really into that.

Their first lost of the post-season was the first game of the post-season I was able to watch in its entirety. They lost in 11 innings. It was a good game for most of it. Hopefully they’ll pick it up next game.

I left my Boston Red Sox “authentic” cap in Hong Kong somewhere. I looked but couldn’t find it. I bought that when the Sox were 4 outs from being out of the post-season in 2004. I’m a little sad because:
a) they don’t make those hats like that any more:
i) they’re not wool (I believe)
ii) they have a black, rather than grey, underbill.
b) BoSox hats in particular are really hard to break in. It’s very obvious who has a new hat and whose has been worn for a while by how bright the blue is.

If anyone has a line on the last year’s version of the fitted cap in 7 1/4 or 7 3/8 (probably the former, that’s what this hat was, though it was tight till I broke it in), I’m good for it. Remember: wool, grey underbill, “authentic”.

It’s ridiculous to be sad about losing a hat. I acknowledge that.

Snow cancelled plenty of days when I was young (though 2 hour delays were the best because you didn’t have to make those yo) but natural conditions haven’t canceled much more feel in the last 8 years. MIT just wouldn’t cancel classes…except for that one record-breaking snow fall. Otherwise, you’re already in hell, what’s walking a mile in 8 inches of freezing slush?

Well that’s all changing for me because tomorrow’s TYPHOON DAY. No school, no work across the region.

Why didn’t anyone tell me that a young Red Sox pitcher pitched a no-hitter in his second major league game. Pretty cool.

The Time 100 (influential people list) is pretty interesting. I spent a lot more time with the Alt Time 100, a list compiled by a panel of “Xzibit, rapper and host of MTV’s Pimp My Ride; Bridget Marquardt, 1/3 of Hugh Hefner’s girlfriend and star of E!’s Girls Next Door; Eddie Sanchez, UFC fighter; Tommy the Clown, krump dancer; Dr. Boogie, hairstylist and contestant on Bravo’s Shear Genius; Jimmy Jimmy Coco, spray tanner; Glenda Borden, party planner”. Here are some excerpts:

10. Hugh Hefner, editor
Everyone thought Hef should make the list. Then I explained that Bridget was one-third going out with him which made the panel very excited. If Bridget was two-thirds going out with Hef, I don’t think the panel could have taken it.

27. Mike Lazrdis, Blackberry founder
Tommy The Clown called him “a real life saver.” You can’t afford to be out of touch for a moment when you’re a krump dancer. That stuff breaks out anywhere, anytime.

45. Bono, singer
All that Africa stuff.

54. Monique, comedian
More good body image stuff. While not at all fat, the panel loves fat people. Though not enough to date them.

56. George Clooney, actor
The panel felt strongly about Darfur. The panel also felt strongly that the most important player in the Darfur crisis is George Clooney. The panel does not equate feeling strongly about something with reading about that something.

60. Magic Johnson, businessman
Xzibit thought that Magic has some secret cure for AIDS he wasn’t sharing and should be left off the list until he divulges his secret. Xzibit has strange thoughts about both medicine and the power of this list.

79. Howie Mandel, TV host
Without him, you’d just be looking at models holding suitcases. You need the Howie visuals to make you long for the suitcase models. It’s the yin-yang concept.

I’m a tree! Bischofia javanica. We’ll forgive the namer for forgetting an ‘f’. From now on you can call me Bishop Wood or Autumn Maple.

The Weekly World News is done and some respectable publications are doing favorable obits.

I’ve been a bit slow on the updates here. I’m catching up!

Libs and I managed to wait possibly four hours between the two of us on the day the tickets were released (back in February), but we managed to get six tickets for the Red Sox while I was in Boston last week. The final groups was Jesse, Colin, Heather, Lauren (no blog!), Libs and I. Good group.

The game was hilariously lopsided (another recap here). By the end of the 3rd inning the Devil Rays were down 13-2, they were on their 3rd pitcher and the Red Sox had hit a grand slam (Coco Crisp) and a 3 run HR (Lowell).

We could have left at that point, but that would have been no fun. Plus we would have missed Sweet Caroline (you should have heard me singing!).

Afterwards, in what’s becoming a bit of a tradition, we hit up Ankara (”For the Gen X-ers”) for froyo. Brownie and reese’s pieces could possibly be the best combination of add-ins ever.

Times like these make me think of this a e housman:

“Is my team plowing,
That I was used to drive
And hear the harness jingle
When I was man alive?”

Ay, the horses trample,
The harness jingles now;
No change though you lie under
The land you used to plow.

“Is football playing
Along the river shore,
With lads to chase the leather,
Now I stand up no more?”

Ay, the ball is flying,
The lads play heart and soul;
The goal stands, Up, the keeper
Stands Up to keep the goal.

“Is my girl happy,
That I thought hard to leave,
And has she tired of weeping
As she lies down at eve?”

Ay, she lies down lightly,
She lies not down to weep:
Your girl is well contented.
Be still, my lad, and sleep.

“Is my friend hearty,
Now I am thin and pine,
And has he found to sleep in
A better bed than mine?”

Yes, lad, I lie easy,
I lie as lads would choose;
I cheer a dead man’s sweetheart,
Never ask me whose.

My mom was telling me this weekend that my parents’ new house is quiet. This astounds me because this is compared to Candlewood[1]. I can’t imagine a quieter place. I remember going into the basement during a break from college and my ears and head hurt it was so quiet. I was so used to four or six or eight computers humming in any room, people yelling, laughing, chatting, arguing, snoring in deep sleep, the belabored breathing of a cold that just won’t go away, the music playing, someone drumming or singing or playing guitar, the street cleaners slowly making their way up the street, the shovels of the snowplows scraping along the street in winter, the garbage trucks coming to empty the dumpster, the cars whizzing past or honking if they weren’t, the drunken college kids yelling or laughing on their walk home from whatever bar or pub, the planes making their way out of Logan. I was so used to a constant din, a background of noise that this silence was shocking.

If Double Eagle[2] is quieter than that, I may have a hard time. I’ll be sure to bring my laptop and music to play.

[1],[2] Through lots of moving, business relationships, and a spread out set of relations, my family has need to refer to a number of different houses. We invariably choose the street name. “Which house was that?” “Smits Road”. “Where was it that Wolfgang visited?” “General Allen Lane”. An odd case of synecdoche. The Candlewood house was always just the “house” but now that my parents have moved away, it’s taking on ‘Candlewood”.

Our cars also had an odd nomenclature: their color. “We’ll take the green car.” “Which car can I take to Andy’s house?” “Take the red car. Mom needs the blue car.” Somehow every car we’ve purchased since the late 80s has been a mutually exclusive color to all that came before. My family is rife with synecdoche.

Menlo Park is dead at 10pm on a Sunday.

[personal thoughts, ramblings after the jump]

(more…)

I went to quite a game between the A’s and the Red Sox last night. Mark Ellis hit for the cycle. The Red Sox made a comeback in the 9th to tie it and send it to extra innings. David Ortiz almost homered in the 10th and then Chavez hit a walk-off home run in the bottom of the 11th. Haren pitched really well (whereas Tavarez did not).

Pretty exciting stuff.

Update: Photos here.

nor can it be. NYC is out of luck as well.

At least according to this essay about what it takes to be Silicon Valley.

The last week (Tuesday-Monday):

• time in the air: 28 hours
• other time on airplanes: 5 hours
• time standing in lines at airports: 9.5 hours
• other time waiting at airports: 4 hours
• number of airports visited or passed through: 7
• approximate distance in miles sprinted in JFK: 0.25
• number flights missed, skipped, or unable to make: 8
• number of tickets sold to me without tickets being issued: 2
• time waiting for luggage at baggage claim: 2.5 hours
• time in the car: 8 hours
• number of meals with friends: 9
• number of delicious, home cooked meals for which I will be eternally grateful: 1
• number of giant, greasy meals at favorite Boston establishments: 2
• number of absolutely awesome froyos at places claiming to be “for the Gen-Xers” (flavor):1 (reese’s pieces and reese’s cups)

Not all bad.

I walked around all weekend in a Boston covered in inches of ice. I walked carefully and I did not slip and fall. I got back to sunny California and one of the first things I did was slip after getting out of the shower. My hip and elbow hurt.

I really like traveling and I’m usually not ready to go home, but I’ll tell you, when I got back yesterday, it was nice to sit on my couch, sit on my chair, sleep in my bed, eat out of my cupboard.

holy crap. I think this is the best blog post I’ve seen, possibly ever. Well, done, Wax.

BoSox tickets for April and May games go on sale tomorrow morning at 10am PST.

Screw cars, we’ll put a fire truck on the Dome. Pretty impressive hack and an interesting memorial for September 11.

One thing that I was sad I never did while at MIT was help organize/ participate in a serious hack.

I went to see the Red Sox play @ Oakland tonight.

Beckett pitched well, but the Papi-less, Manny-less offense just couldn’t score enough runs, losing 2-1.

Oakland moves to 7.5 ahead of the Angels in the AL West. Boston moves to 7.5 games behind the Yankees in the AL East. (The BoSox are 6.5 back in the wild card race.) Doesn’t look good for the Sox.

I don’t like Oakland when they’re playing the Sox, but I must admit, they’re growing on me otherwise.

Patbird and I saw the Rex Stockings beat the A’s last night, 7-3. It was a good game and a nice time.

There were three home runs by some big guys: Ortiz, Manny and a bomb from Nick Swisher. As always with BoSox v A’s games out here, there were a ton of Sox fans there; to the point where one could hear chants for both teams at the same time.

I also learned yesterday that Oakland has closed the upper deck for the season, reducing the seating capacity to 35,077, which was almost reached by the 33,370 in attendence last night.

This week I read Goat by Brad Land. (Here’s a review/ plot summary.)

It’s a memoir about Brad as a college student that gets abducted, beat up and has his car stolen. He’s pretty traumatized by the event.

A year later he joins his brother at Clemson, where the brother’s joined a fraternity. Brad decides to join the same fraternity. The hazing that follows gets to him and gets mixed up in his head with his previously trauma and he starts having nightmares every night and shaking constantly.

It’s a fast read and well-written. I was (technically) in a fraternity but even by MIT standards it was a bit of an outlier. By the time I was a senior I still hadn’t ever seen a keg in real life and we were more likely to have a discussion about LEDs or carbon nano tubes than getting drunk or getting lucky. And people didn’t even memorize our frat’s poems or history, let alone go through any more serious hazing. I knew this sort of thing went on and probably still goes on, but the details, the specifics were shocking.

All in all, it was pretty unsettling.

It also made me want to write a memoir of my college years. I’ve been thinking about this since about my sophomore year. I think it could be a good story.

I scanned some photos tonight and put them in my gallery. Particularly, I scanned some older photos from Boston, some baseball shots, my last trip to Mexico, and local ghost town.

I’ve also started to post some photos on godhatesmath again.

I’ve been pretty slow on the posts recently, large because I’ve been busy doing stuff that is sort of not-interesting-in-the-blog-way.

So I decided I’d turn all this stuff into a post.

One time things and whatnot:

• Nedelle’s pretty rad. She’s going to be playing on my radio show this Wednesday at about 10:15pm PDT. I’m pretty excited. I’ll see if I can get a copy of the show up for you east coast people to listen to.
• I’m getting ready for the Tahoe Century ride in about a month. I’ve been trying to ride a lot in preparation. I rode today and yesterday, but I’ve also been having problems with getting an inordinate number of flats, so I need to resolve that. But my goal over the next three weeks is 3 rides/ week: 2 x 30 miles and 1 x 15 miles, including at least one trip up Old La Honda or King’s Mountain per week. At this point, I alternatingly feel I’m screwed and that I’m doing fine.
• I’m going to be in Philadelphia/ DC, NYC and Pittsburgh for about 10 days total in late July for a couple weddings. It’s pretty exciting. I’m thinking about Rye Playland and Kennywood among so many other things. I might also try to catch a taping of Conan, try to catch a Buc’s game and, of course, see some fantastic friends and take lots of pictures with too many cameras.
• I just now found a weird and kind of interesting acoustic cover of Sigur Ros. I never considered that someone could cover Sigur Ros. They’re no Sigur Ros, but it’s cool.
• I’m going to South Africa again next February. February 2007, that is for my mom’s birthday. I’m going to spend a week in Cape Town, but I’m also going to try to spend 1-2 weeks on the road driving around South Africa. I’m looking forward to going back to South Africa.
• It looks like my laptop (Proud Owner of Brand New Canada) is near its end. Unless something changes about the situation, I’ll probably be getting a new one in the next few weeks/ couple of months.

Everyday stuff:

• I’m still taking spanish at the Palo Alto Adult School. It’s about 2 hours a week and the pace is slow, but I’m learning stuff so, yeah, it’s good.
• Lots of KZSU stuff. I’m doing my indie show. I’m not longer hosting the the Lunch Special but I’m still acting as the producer. Lots of interesting guests bringing their music. A schedule is on that page I linked up there. I’m also the Promotions Director, so I try to organize tickets for concerts for on-air giveaways. As the promotions guy, I’m also writing a custom PHP web app. This stuff is not obvious and not easy, at least not for me, the mech e. I’m getting the hang of it, but I’m also pretty much sick of writing this app.
• I’ve been challenged by lawn bowling and recently applied for membership at the place I’ve been bowling, the Palo Alto Lawn Bowling Club. The green is closed until the end of May, though, so no bowling for now.
• The BoSox are tied for lead in their division. The Pirates are a couple steps away from the bottom of the league. The Steelers got what look like a couple good WRs in the draft.

My crazy Saturday actually started Friday when a pair of pretty decent tickets to the next day’s ball game were up for grabs, and grab I did. After some calls dug and I were going to see the Giants vs. the Diamondbacks.

We started at the 21st Amendment a brewpub a few blocks from the ballpark. The burgers were decent and their watermelon wheat was suprisingly subtle and good.

Then we headed over to the ballgame. We were situated at the end of the right foul line, still in the lower boxes. For a game where I wasn’t rooting for either team, it ended up being pretty entertaining. It ended with a walk-off homer in the bottom of the ninth, which is pretty sweet. This was immediately preceeded in the top of the ninth by some tremendous play in left field by not-Barry Bonds, including a game-saving catch of an otherwise-sure-to-be home run. Bonds wasn’t playing because, as far as I can tell, he’s weak and has had too many steroids. Honestly, I didn’t miss him too much.

I also took the opportunity, since I got my new new lens on Thursday to try my hand at baseball photography. Not surprisingly, even a 200mm lens from decent seats doesn’t get you close-up shots of much stuff, but it was definitely a new viewpoint on things. I definitely missed a couple great shots, including a tremendous Moises Alou diving catch basically right in front of us. It’s yet to be seen whether I did get any good shots.

After the game, I headed up to Aquatic Park to swim there for the first time since last July. Man, it was cold, probably close to 55. I’d forgotten how cold that is. A quick primer on cold water swimming (try this at your own risk): get yourself some silicone ear plugs and a Barracuda Hot Head. When you get in the water, you’ll probably go into panic breathing. This is normal. The best way to overcome it is to just start swimming. Put your fast in the water and swim, even though this the opposite of what your body wants to do; your lungs want to expel all air from them.

After that, I headed to gumbeaux’s place, only to walk back to Fort Mason (right next to Aquatic Park) for the SF International Beer Festival, which, get this!, is a fundraiser for a nursery school. Gums and I had a nice walk all the way down Fillmore, catching some awesome views of the city and the bay on the way. The beer fest was, well interesting. There was a lot of beer there, all of it measured out in 2-3oz tasting cups. Good news: there was a lot of good beer there. Bad news: most of the beers I liked, I knew already. It was still a good time. I don’t know why I thought differently, but it ended up that a lot of the patrons of this event were slightly grown-up fratboyz and sorority girlz. Given this, it wasn’t too surprising that I got about ten “go bosox!”s on my sox hat.

Definitely note-worthy was our experience on our way back from the beer fest. Gums and I didn’t want to walk the three-ish miles back to his place, so we decided to take the bus, the number 22 Fillmore, to be specific. We saw it circle around at the end of its route but we could figure out where it would actually stop given that there weren’t any bus stop signs nearby. We started to walk quickly and gums stuck out his arm to flag down the bus and it actually stopped for us. Then, realizing that it was $1.50, I said aloud to gumbeaux ‘I don’t think we have enough change’ (we thought it’d be $1.25) to which the bus driver responded ‘$1 is fine! Just $1.’ That’s right, we flagged down a bus and then managed to knock the price down 50%. The bus ride had its interesting characters as they always do, the least of which was the absolutely amazonian woman in the short skirt who showed no evidence of wearing underwear.

Wooo. Good times.

If you haven’t seen it yet, there’s a pretty sweet video that a guy made recreating the bottom of the 10th of Game 6 of the World Series using Nintendo’s classic RBI Baseball. He even uses the real play-by-play. Apparently getting certain hits right took him up to 200 tries. My goodness! Also, apparently the maker of this managed to get a job out of it. The resume for the New Era.

Speaking of Game 6, has anyone seen the movie? Apparently it’s good.

Wow, what an game.

Dug and I went down to watch it at Shanghai Kelly’s, which must be one of the most crazy Steeler bars outside of Pittsburgh. It’s a relatively small neighborhood bar in the Russian Hill neighborhood of San Francisco. Pretty unsassuming really, but when I arrive half an hour before game time, all the seats were filled with people donning Steelers gear and there were a number of people standing already. Beers were being consumed (keep in mind, this was 9:30am PST). By the start of the game, it seemed like everyone had one under their belt already and the place was packed—maybe 60 people there. Some were old timers, undoubtedly fans from the 70s dynasty era and others were younger, raised on Jerome Bettis and Cowher football.

It was really funny, I met people from Peters Township, Mt. Lebanon (the neighboring towns) and Upper St. Clair (my alma mater) there. It was a boisterous and fun place to watch a game. People were cheering at every chance they got and on the big plays, I was high-fiving and hugging people I didn’t know.

I sort of poke fun at people in Pittsburgh for living and dying with this team, but I have to admit I was bouyed by this game and experience.

Something I’ve noticed about football, or people talking about football recently is that games are often talked about as, for instance, “Pittsburgh vs. Cincinatti.” In reality, of course, Pittsburgh is not playing Cincinatti; it is simply the team in that city versus the team that resides in the other city. This is a very common occurance in football (except for two team cities like New York, with the Giants and Jets), more so than other sports. I don’t remember people talking much about “Toronto playing Boston”—it was usually “the Blue Jays vs. the [Red]Sox.” People don’t call the Pirates “Pittsburgh.”

In poetry or literature they call a part representing a whole a synecdoche.

I’m wondering if this ties in to the attachment and involvement cities feel for their teams and visa versa. Pittsburgh may be a fringe example, but I know the city lives and dies with the Steelers and the team is exceptionally devoted to the fans and the city, in a way they’re not devoted to the Pirates or the Penguins. It could be that Pittsburgh is a “football” town and similar devote occurs elsewhere for other sports (Boston to the Red Sox comes to mind).

I know it’s inevitable that a lot of the members of the 2004 Miracle Red Sox will sign to other teams, even the yankees, but this just sent chills down my spine.

There was this girl I had a crush on for most of Spring 2003. We went to concerts together. I made her a mixtape, because we all know that mixtape=love (these guys think so too).

I found a copy I’d made yesterday while organizing my CDs. I’d forgotten about it completely but now I’m listening to it at work. I probably made this early May 2003.

The tracklist:

1. Lion’s Mane - Iron and Wine
2. Ohio - Damien Jurado
3. New Partner - Palace Brothers
4. Accident - Clem Snide
5. I See a Darkness - Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy
6. Most of October, All of November - P:ano
7. Silvery Light of a Dream, Pt II - the Apples in stereo
8. If We Can Land a Man on the Moon, Surely I Can Win Your Heart - Beulah
9. Hideaway - Olivia Tremor Control
10. A Duel Will Settle This - Mates of State
11. Sleep the Clock Around - Belle & Sebastian
12. Summer is Coming - Matt Pond PA
13. Away, Into the Light - One AM Radio
14. Who Am I? - Seldom
15. Bad Diary Days - Pedro the Lion
16. No Solid Ground - ms. john soda
17. This Place is a Prison - The Postal Service
18. Consequence - The Notwist
19. Ruby’s Wishes - Unwed Sailor
20. Stanley Kubrick - Mogwai

It’s a nice mix of songs. I still listen to and like most of these songs and bands quite a bit.

I made it on a friend’s computer because I didn’t have a laptop yet so I copied all the songs to the computer individually and then made the CD from that. She loved it; she bought three CDs of bands on the CD within a week because she liked them so much.

She was not smitten with me, though.

Red Sox are out of the playoffs in a sweep. I mean, come on guys. At least go down 3-2 in the ALDS!

Yankees are tied up in their series. I’m hoping the Angels will win tonight at 8pm, in the only major league game today.

A punter, Michael Koenen kicked a 58 yard field goal (after a “practice try” of sorts, caused by the opposing team calling time-out). Who would think of putting in a punter to try for a really long field goal? I guess he did kick field goals in college. What’s the league record longest field goal? Something like 63 yards, right?

Steelers play the Chargers tonight on Monday Night Football. I’ll be watching. Chargers beat the Patriots last week and the Patriots beat the Steelers the week before so if the Steelers win tonight, they’re—what?—better than themselves?

Most question marks in one of my posts ever. I don’t know if that’s actually true.

NPR did an interesting piece on the singing/ playing of “Sweet Caroline” (by Neil Diamond) in the 8th inning at Fenway Park.

Dug and I went to see the Giants at SBC Park today. I’d managed to get some basically field-level seats (section 104, row 24, if you want to look it up) off of craigslist for below face value.

It ended up being a pretty exciting game even though neither of us were really rooting for either team. Something like five home runs were hit, the last being No. 705 by Barry Bonds, his second of the season after being out recovering from knee surgery for most of the season. I’d seen Bonds play in his Pirates years and probably saw many home runs by him. Someone’s career home runs 134 and 162 are not noteworthy. One thing you don’t notice from the highlight reels of someone who’s always swinging for the fences like Bonds [note: he’s not always swinging for the fences—he hit a on-the-ground single earlier in the game] is what he looks like when he misses. He missed (or foul-tipped) two times in the at bat where he finally hit a home run and it looked like his arms were going to rip out he was swinging so hard. When he finally did connect solidly, the ball had no chance of staying in the park; a quick kayaker in China Basin is now the proud owner of the Bonds Home Run Ball No. 705.

(Wow, I just realized that I’ve seen 8 (Red Sox, A’s, Giants, Pirates, Blue Jays, Nationals, Phillies, Dodgers) teams play at four stadiums (Coliseum, Fenway, RFK, SBC) this year.)

In other sporting news, the Steelers won pretty handily (again) and I happened to notice another team lost today. It’ll be interesting when they face off next week.

I’m sitting in the W20 (the student center) at MIT, burning about an hour before I leave for the airport. I got in Saturday morning early and I’ve been going just about non-stop since then. I hope I sleep some on the airplane because I need to get some rest before I go back to work tomorrow morning. My goodness.

The itinerary, in somewhat chronilogical order:

• Brookline Lunch with Jesse. Cheap good diner food.
• hangin out at Jesse’s place. Watched The Breakfast Club
• Newbury Comics. Bought something for Logan Sandmeyer of duckmeup.com
• Pour House for half priced hamburger night with Elmo, Snellla, Sam, Jesse and Mim. I got the double Wisconsin, of course.
• Beers on the roof of tEp
• My Summer of Love at Kendall Square Cinema with mim and Jesse
• lunch at Thorton’s Fenway Grill with Abe and Amrys, followed by a game at Fenway with the same plus Colin.
• FroYo at Ankara with Abe and Colin
• Bukowski’s in Inman with Wally, Mim, Indy, Farhad, Wumph, Mim and Jesse.
• Get the new Night Rally and Clickers split 12″ from Farhad at April Fog.
• Breznev’s with Wally, Agi, Morton, Sarah, Blake, Paladin, Kraken, Mim, Andyl, Jesse, and Qwgbo. 2 Peking Ducks is a whole lot of fat!
• Newbury Comics (this time picking up the new Stars CD, a 2 CD Neil Diamond Set, and the old Time Are a Changin’ CD by Dylan) and a Frappe at JP Licks with mim.
• the 4th of July Part at tEp. The fireworks, despite other reports, were fantastic and very well done. The music selection in parts could be overlooked.
• Lunch with Amrys, stop by to see Georgeji (Prof. Ruckert), errands at my Boston bank, buying an MIT ringer T at the Coop, drink a dr. pepper while blogging this.
• get a sandwhich for the plane, hop on the T

Andyl and I saw Fever Pitch on Sunday Night. I liked it.

It’s a movie about a fanatical Red Sox fan (Jimmy Fallon) and his priorities with new non-Red Sox fan girlfriend (Drew Barrymore) based on a book about a fanatical soccer fan.

It’s by the Farrelly brothers (Something About Mary, Dumb and Dumber), so there is some gratuitous (and funny) bathroom humor, but mostly it’s a love song to the Red Sox and their 2004 season. And something of a love story between Fallon and Barrymore too.

Both Andyl and I came out of the movie, somewhat strangely for a movie about a team and a girl, very nostalgic for Boston. I knew where Drew Barrymore’s character lived (based on the First Baptist Church, at the corner of Comm Ave and Clarendon, you see as Jimmy Fallon leaves her apartment); it’s probably around 93 Marlborough. That was about a five minute walk from tEp; fenway was about a fifteen minute walk. It’s all very familiar.

Caveats to my liking this movie:

• I like the Red Sox.
• I like Boston.
• I like Jimmy Fallon (but even that couldn’t get me to watch Taxi)
• I like Drew Barrymore.

I went to the BoSox vs. Oakland A’s game tonight at the Coliseum. It was a really exciting game!

Sox out to an early lead. Oakland scored a few runs to a 5-3 lead and then the Sox scored 4 in the eighth to take the lead, which they held onto to win. Very exciting.

The Coliseum is an old concrete cookie cutter stadium, but it’s actually sort of charming in that way. Lots of bathrooms, quick to get out at the end of the game without much battling the crowd. The bleacher seats are cheap and the view isn’t bad at all. And the Oakland fans are quite devoted. I like that. Even though in the end they will LOSE to the Sox. HA!

I have been thinking about this for a while and I got reminded by Gwen Stefani’s appearance on Letterman backed by a marching band.

For those of you who don’t know, I did marching band for four years. I sort of hated it, but I was also damn good at it. I like indie rock. I have for years. Put those together, and boom! You got a promising concept here.

[Here’s a decent primer on marching bands if you’re unfamiliar with stuff.]

This is my idea: approximately a 30 piece ensemble, definitely a bass drum or two, and a snare or two. probably snare-mounted high hats. Maybe a quad or a quint. Definitely a glockenspiel. It’d probably be brass heavy. A couple trumpets and trombones. A tuba holding down the bassline would be cool. A sax or two. Flutes and clarinets could probably be skipped. Eh, maybe a clarinet or two would be cool.

All common instrumentation thus far. It’d be cool to have guitar with one of those wireless do-dads. A bass might also be cool, but if the tuba/ sousaphone can do it, that’d be better. Other things that could have pickups and a wireless do-dad: ukulele, banjo, 80s-style guitar pianos.

Singing: I think there’d have to be a lead singer, but also plenty of chorus/ backup parts by the people on the field. Thinking about this for the past few days, it might be cool to have the singer be the conductor on the platform out front. My most recent thought would be that there wouldn’t be a conductor (phasing shouldn’t be a problem with a <30 person band) and everyone would do formations. (I did mention that, right? that everyone would do formations. Probably not super complex ones, but it wouldn’t be one of those band that just walks on the field, plays and walks off. There’d be no pit.) The time could be led from within; this would make speeding up easier, I think. So maybe the guitarist is singing and playing and marching with everyone else. The problem with that is that people like looking at the singer/ lead man while the thing is going on. hmm.

Uniforms: there’d have to be uniforms. I don’t think just t-shirts and jeans, but also not normal marching band uniforms. maybe jump suits? there’d have to be some hat, too. Marching bands have hats.

Songs selection and styles: indie rock. I think a lot of it would be post-rock. It’d be important to do mostly original songs, but some covers would be alright. Imagine a nice build going on the field while they are all stationary, then the drums come in and the mass of people start coming toward you and changing formations and stuff. I think it’d be pretty sweet.

Excuses for not doing this right now: it’d take a lot of time to start up and there aren’t people in the area that are that interested in indie rock bands. I think if I lived in an area with a higher concentration of people of my interests, it’d be easier. Like Cambridge, MA.

Jon Werberg put it nicely on Sunday. Some teams just stick with you. The BoSox, the Steelers. It’s the history, it’s what the team represents and it’s to a large extent, the fans. What the team means to the fans. It became national news this fall what the Red Sox means to Boston and the Red Sox Nation.

Pittsburgh is more insular though. The flux of people in Boston, adding to the Red Sox Nation, is not common place in Pittsburgh. But that doesn’t stop every home game to be sold out. That doesn’t stop the largest crowd to ever watch a Steelers home game from showing up in sub-10 degree weather to see their dream team fall.

I haven’t been to Green Bay or Chicago (and I was in Boston when the Patriots won their first Super Bowl), but it’s hard to imagine a city more devoted to its team. Or a city more crushed by their team’s loss. Pittsburgh doesn’t get a lot of good news. The city is bankrupt; the county will be too soon. People and jobs move away. My team—my boys as I call them sometimes—lost and I’m sad. But almost moreso I’m sad for my home town. I don’t think anyone that isn’t a Pittsburgher can understand how much joy this team gave them; the bouyancy that Pittsburghers had during the seasons; and the hopes that were rested on the team.

In the words of fans of the losers that always get so close “next year will be our year.” And I think it may be. Plaxico is leaving but it seems most of the rest of the team will stick around. Roethlisberger may come back from his only loss in the NFL and be better for it; he may have a sophomore slump. Time will tell.

Was I glad I went? definitely. I’d probably even do it again knowing everything I know now.

Mean time, I think it’s about time to put my name on the season ticket waiting list. In 10 or 15 years I may actually be back in Pittsburgh by the time I get them.

I spent basically the whole weekend doing the MIT Mystery Hunt. It’s a puzzle competition that’s pretty famous at this point. People fly in from around the country and the world to MIT to take part. My team, Project Electric Mayhem (or just Mayhem), has a west coast branch that operates out of the Bay Area. I hunted my four years at the Institute and now this was my second year out here.

The sort of puzzles that are in the Mystery Hunt are pretty intense. Usually it’s just a set of clues with little or no instructions or hints on what to do with them. One puzzle I got was something like this:

Hypoblast
Ohio College
US President
Witch Location
expressed differently
… [35 total clues]

01942
19025
19230
… [36 total]

the list of numbers was obviously zip codes. You look them up and you have 37 cities and states. Then you had to anagram (mix up the letters to get a new word) the city and state pairs and the anagram forms the answer to a clue. For example, look up 19025 and you’ll get Dresher, PA. That anagrams to rephrased which is the answer to the clue expressed differently. Now do this 35 times. Order the produced words in order of the original clues (which was arbitrary, the zip codes were in numerical order) and read down the first letters and you get HERBTARLEKDARRINSTEPHENSORKIPWILSON. And you have one zip code left, 56510, which is Ada, MN. You anagram that and look at the clue and, what do you know, Herb Tarlek, Darrin Stephens and Kip Wilson were each an AD MAN. And that’s your answer for one puzzle.

And there were probably about 120 puzzles this year.

And you take the answer to the puzzles for each round and then use those as the clue to solve meta-puzzle. There was an additional layer of meta-meta puzzles (not strictly true; we ended up calling these “super puzzles”) for each round this year as well.

Here’s a great write up of the sort of stuff that goes on during Mystery Hunt. I remember one year people made Rhett call up Noam Chomsky at home to ask him about a linguistics puzzle.

Mayhem did well. We had all the super puzzles except one solved. We suspect if we’d solved that we would have done a meta-super puzzle with all the answer from the super puzzles (and maybe the meta puzzles), the gone on the runaround in which you try to find the coin, which is hidden on campus somewhere.

Yes, hundreds, if not over a thousand people, do this every year and all for a simple prize; if you win, you get to write the Hunt for the following year. There is no second prize. When the coin is found, you pack up and go home.

Alright. Time to sleep.

[Update: Wally’s got a nice write up of the Mystery Hunt, including a nice piece of writing he did for the Technique.

The Steelers do it again. It looks like this year might be the year for the one for the thumb.

After the BoSox (who, incidentally, were just named the Sports Illustrated Sportsmen of the Year), the Steelers doing well, I’m happy.