I haven't made a post in awhile. I've been doing some interesting stuff (including a trip to Sebastopol, home to a wide variety of communes and the like) and I've also finally been able to upload pictures to the bigwhoop server, so in the near future I should be making those images available for general consumption. But for now, I'm not in the mood to make a halfway decent post.
Recently, the NBA draft---an event which I believe to be quite a bit overblown---took place. This got me to thinking about grad schools, and how things might go if students were selected for grad school in the same manner as the NBA draft...
Announcer: And with its 10th round pick, the University of Arizona selects Robert Shane Bussmann, from the University of California at Berkeley!
Commentator: Well Jim, it's hard to tell why UofA took that guy at all, let alone in the 10th round. The scouting report questions both his intellectual capabilities as well as his motivation and drive to succeed. Heck, they probably could have done better simply by grabbing some bum off the streets of Berkeley instead of Bussmann!
One positive would be getting to be seen on TV. Maybe someday, when PBS6 goes on air.
Box scores are terrible today... Virtually every player on my team is having a horrible day. Not only that, virtually every player on the team ahead of me is doing well. ARGH!
I shot a 93 today at San Jose Municipal Golf course. Considering I had a 43 on the front nine, this was a bit of a dissapointment---though not unexpected given the lack of opportunities for me to play. What was interesting about this particular round of golf was that my Dad and I teed off at about 6:40am. This is probably the earliest I have done so ever, by about an hour. However, it worked out really well because we moved through the course really quickly (not as many people out there playing that early, it turns out) and were finished by about 10:30am, which easily set my own personal record for fastest round of 18 holes. Although I'm tired right now because I got up so early, I'm glad I did it. In fact, I'd go as far as saying that, all in all, it was a very good experience.
The last fish in my aquarium at home in San Jose has finally died. I've had that fish tank in my bedroom for a long time. It's going to be weird without anything alive in it.
The only guarantee that comes with life is death.
Extremists protesting enhanced security measures by setting time bombs in public places. I mean, how idiotic can you be?
In some areas of life, I am very superstitious. When I was a little kid, I used to get these little teal gummi candies that were in the shape of a shark from Schurra's candies. Schurra's made these candies because one of their stores was close to the Shark Tank in San Jose, where the San Jose Sharks play ice hockey. I grew up watching the Sharks first be an incredibly pathetic hockey team, then eventually winning a couple of playoff series where they were the heavy underdogs. During some portions of the season, I would take one of these teal gummy sharks and put it on top of the tv in my room that I always watched the Sharks games on. I did this for good luck. Since the Sharks have not yet won a Stanley Cup, we can conclude that this good luck charm is ineffective.
Another of my superstitious techniques is playing a video game matchup between the two teams involved in battle. Back in the days of my childhood, this would mean plenty of NHL '94 games on my super nintendo (believe me, the '93 Sharks were a lousy team, so playing with them on that game was a serious handicap) playing as the San Jose Sharks. In case you were unaware, the Sharks have been playing the Calgary Flames in Western Conference finals to see who represents the West in the battle for the Stanley Cup. In attempt to tip the scales of fate in the Sharks favor, I've recently revived this superstitious activity in my life, playing as the Sharks against the Flames in a best of 7 series on NHL '99 on my computer. Just now, I (playing as the Sharks) eliminated the Flames in game 6 on their home ice. It was a nice game, because I had to come back from down 5-2 with five minutes left, and then won in overtime. But it means NOTHING, because the real San Jose Sharks just got eliminated today by the real Calgary Flames. Bah. It seems I have no control over fate.
When being made fun of, simply roll with the punch: accept the characterization of yourself as put forth by your attacker; then take that characterization to the extreme to show how absurd it really is. This will put your opponent on his/her toes and give you the advantage. It takes a peculiar combination of arrogance and humility to pull off, but with practice you can make it your secret weapon.
In unrelated news, I finished reading Planetary last night. What I read was a compilation of some (or is it all of the ones that have so far been published?) of the comic books from the series. The storyline is not completed yet, so I am eagerly looking forward to the conclusion. Yeah, it was a real good read.
The race was a lot of fun. Bay to Breakers is kind of a weird sort of race, because there's the walking contingent, which is basically just a beer-fest party on a Sunday morning, and then there's the running contingent, which spends most of its time weaving in and around the walking contingent (until about mile four, when all the walkers are pretty much in the dust). I was actually pretty good at the weaving part, and managed to complete the first mile in about 10 minutes or so. The second and third miles probably took about nine minutes, and then from there I was probably going around 8 minute pace, which would be about one hour, eight minutes total running time (with minimal walking time). This goes well with my estimated start time of 8:30am and finish time of 9:38am. All in all I was very pleased with the whole thing, except for one part: the food after the race was quite lacking , in that virtually nothing was free. I had been under the impression that you get to gorge yourself on free snacks and stuff after the race, but it seems this year the officials got fed up with people who didn't register coming and eating all the free food, so they decided to have almost entirely food stands that cost money. But that's really just a small thing. Now the question is, will I do this again, and if so, when?
Tomorrow, I am running in the first ever race of my life. The race is Bay to Breakers, and is a 12k run from the east side of San Francisco (the bay) to the west side of San Francisco (the breakers, or ocean). I have never run this far in my entire life. Well, that's not quite accurate. There is a trail that is supposedly eight miles or so that I have run, but that is quite a bit different, and it is certainly the case that I won't be running all the time in this race. In part, that will be because there are 80,000 entrants in the race, most of whom are walking or jogging at a slow pace. Consequently, I have heard that it takes about half an hour simply to reach the starting line, then another half hour to complete the first mile. Furthermore, it is not until the 4th mile or so that things begin to thin out. So, based on this knowledge, combined with the 7:10 mile pace that I acheived while running one mile not too long ago, I figure I should finish the race in about 1 hour, twenty minutes. No prob.
(The title is a reference to the DC comics super-hero who is capable of running at nearly the speed of light [or was it beyond the speed of light, if he just tried hard enough?])
It's that time of year when the university begins to have all sorts of graduation parties all over campus. Fortunately for me, a number of these parties occur just outside the lab that I work in, allowing me to take a quick look outside my window every so often to see what free food might be available. Today, there was a very nice spread of all sorts of food that followed the commencement address. Indeed, it was thoroughly enjoyable. Not only that, but it was practically legitimate because I technically graduated in December (I say practically because I went through the whole ritual last year at this time, and it seems a bit criminal to do it twice). Furthermore, one of my friends is having a graduation dinner tonight. Score!
I have refrained from making any posts on the performance of my fantasy baseball teams. Until now.
Fantasy baseball is a game where you create of a team of players by picking from real life baseball players. The better the players you have picked do, the better your team does. I currently have three teams, each with a different amount of significance to me. The least significant is a random yahoo league that I joined for fun. I really don't care what happens in this league, although I would like to win. The second team is in a league with a bunch of people that I don't really know. If I had been present for the draft, so I could have drafted guys like Scott Hatteburg in the first round, I might be more concerned about the success of this team. Still, the fact that I know a couple of people in this league, combined with the fact that there are 20 teams in the league, make it more important to me than the random yahoo league.
Then, finally, there's the last league that I'm in. It's a 10 team nl-only league of people from the astronomy department. It's a keeper league, which means each team gets to keep four players from last year's team. Also, players are obtained through a bidding process auction-style, instead of a draft format that is common to most leagues. To me, this is a much better way to obtain players, because it means you have to think hard about whether you want to put 1/5th of your teams salary into Barry Bonds. It's also the league that I have spent the most time ressearching for and has the most competitive players. So clearly, this is the league that is most important to me.
Now for results. I am in 3rd place out of 12 in the random yahoo league. I'm in 5th place out of 20 in the second league I mentioned. And I'm in 3rd place in the astro league.
There are 23 roster spots on my astro league team, and I currently have capable players filling 19 of those spots. And now, a position by position breakdown:
C: Jason Phillips ($16): He's played horrible so far, but he can't be this bad all season.
C: Ramon Castro ($9): I thought this was a deal at the time, but boy was I wrong!
1B: Adam Dunn ($41): Above and beyond expectations, but too many strikeouts!
2B: D'Angelo Jimenez ($20): Another disaster.
SS: Orlando Cabrera ($12): One of my keepers, a big-time disappointment.
3B: Morgan Ensberg ($12): Another keeper, another huge disappointment. I'd like to take this opportunity to point out that I hate Jimy Williams.
MI: Luis Gonzalez (Waivers): I stupidly didn't get a legitimate infielder on auction day, but Gonzalez could turn out to be a good pickup, especially with the Coors effect.
CI: Chad Tracy (Waivers): I got J.T. Snow on auction day (BUST), but Tracy's been good, except for an error per day sucks big time (errors and strikeouts are categories in this league).
OF: Brian Giles ($71): has been a disappointment so far, but he's starting to come on of late
OF: Scott Podsednik ($12): Another keeper, he's been fantastic.
OF: Corey Patterson ($2): My last keeper. He's underproduced, but then considering how little I paid for him...
OF: Cliff Floyd ($37): Was doing great till he got injured. Every day yahoo says he's at least two weeks away... So frustrating.
OF: Larry Walker ($35): This was probably a mistake, given that I already had plenty of depth at OF, but this was a much lower price than I had Walker going for. Of course, I didn't count on him being out beyond mid April.
UT: Danny Bautista ($4): A big time over-achiever so far. But I need RBI and slugging, so I can't really trade him.
SP: Roger Clemens ($39): Wow!
SP: Matt Clement ($24): Wow!
SP: Brad Penny ($13): Wow!
SP: Carl Pavano ($11): He's been good too.
SP: John Thomson ($14): I thought I got him at a good price, but he hasn't improved as much as I expected from leaving Coors to the Braves.
SP: Edwin Jackson ($20): Damn, what the hell was I thinking here????
RP: Armando Benitez ($34): Wow!
RP: Shawn Chacon ($14): As long as he keeps that closer job, I'm happy.
RP: Jose Valverde ($11): This was a solid pickup on auction day, and it's paying off big-time now. I have a surplus in saves with him as a closer, so I might try to improve somewhere in hitting by moving one of my closers.
So obviously, I'm hanging in there with fantastic pitching and stolen bases. When Walker and Floyd come back I might have a chance. But the guy in 1st place is in 1st by a lot. I dunno if he can be caught.
In my head, I often "run through" a hypothetical conversation with someone I know. I think about some topic, then think of someone to discuss that topic with, and then imagine what their response to the issue at hand might be. Then, I think about what my response to their response would be, and so on until it becomes obvious that the hypothetical person I have thought of is no different than myself. I do this sort of thing a lot. It actually is one of the primary ways that I waste time.
In other news, I'd like to take this opportunity to thank my numerous loyal viewers for refraining from commenting on the last six posts. Indeed, no one even offered any good books for me to read when I made that simple request a few days ago (except for my Dad, who lent me some good comic books in addition to a novel by Phillip K. Dick). I tip my cap to your stalwart refusal to budge an inch to make a post and risk disrupting the beautifully symmetric post:comment ratio of 2:1.
Jerks. Stop lurking.
I just sent off the first ever "Summer Softball 2004" email, advertising an opportunity to play softball once a week over the summer. The primary targets of this email were people in astronomy and physics, but I also included some other people that I know who might be interested in playing softball this summer as well. Including myself, there are 39 people on the email list. This could create problems if everyone emails me back saying they'll be at every game. However, I'm banking on a 40-50% attendance rate, which would be just about right for the field we'll be playing on. It will be nice to play softball a few weeks before leaving Berkeley.
Today I got to thinking about money. I am fortunate in that I will not go into debt while in grad school for the next five-six years. However, it is also the case that I won't be making much money. And lately, I have come to realize that there are a few things that I will need money for. In the near term is the month long road trip this summer. I am interested in buying a car before I go to Arizona. I would like to buy (instead of rent) in Tucson, if it is at all possible. I will probably be buying a lot of plane tickets. I wonder where this money will come from.
I think it would be pretty oppressive if the entire world smelled like oranges all the time, but not as oppressive as if it smelled like tuna all the time.
The guy working at a desk next to mine is eating a tuna sandwich, and I'm holding an orange right next to my nose so it's not overwhelmed by the tuna. It looks a little strange.
For the past week or so, the internet connection at my apartment has been rather poor, and recently it's gotten even worse. Half the time when I try to load a website I get an error message. This is highly unfortunate, as I might take the time at home to make a post about diversity at the UC Berkeley campus, in particular with regards to certain "left-wing" radicals. However, I'm hungry and ready to leave work, so it ain't gonna happen here and now. But if the internet is once again accessible as it should be from home, I might do it.
I have a bunch of pictures from my camera that I want to upload to the gallery, but the crappy internet connection at my apartment has prevented this for the past week or so.
I need to find a good book to read. Any recommendations?
Clearly, the index of interesting-ness of my recent posts has been above what it ought to be, as my posts:comments ratio is now 244:125. I'm going to need a run of six consecutive utterly boring posts to fix this problem. So far, off to a good start.
In other news, I have had an extremely difficult time motivating myself to accomplish anything at work today.
"this is a true sign of how far you've fallen if this is really on a cell phone" - text message from Andy Morrison via AOL Instant Messenger
Hi Andy. Yes, I signed up with aol instant messenger to send me messages on my cell phone when I'm not on AIM. The main point was so I could get updates on the Giants and Sharks games through text messages from AOL. However, it also came with this feature where your friends can send you IMs in the form of text messages. It's actually fairly cool... It only does that when I'm not signed on to AIM, and since my connection is very spotty right now, I have been unable to sign on to AIM. Hence if you see me on AIM, it's probably the cell phone that's accepting text messages and I won't be able to respond (for free).