Saturday, August 29, 2009

Game 129: Guaranteed Close Shave Or Your Money Back

It turns out they did play, after all.


Cowboy Clay was simply magnificent tonight, throwing 8 1/3 scoreless innings at the Blue Jays. The Okey Doke got knocked around, however, giving up two ringing hits in the ninth that put the tying run on base before the Lord Of The Dance locked it down for a 3-2 win.

Today's Context Free Don Draper Quote

“It’s not. I told you. I’m right where I’m supposed to be. Just haven’t figured out what to do yet.”

(via unlikelywords.com)

Whiny White Guy

“This is the springtime of my loving…,” as Robert Plant puts it at the beginning of The Rain Song”. It is looking increasingly like tonight’s Red Sox game will be rained out, according to my pal @Surviving_Grady on Twitter. So I’ll have to, out of habit if nothing else, find something else to say today. Or not-it’s not like the fact that I don’t post will affect anything or anyone.

My loving? More like midwinter, frankly. I never imagined that sex, something that you spend so much time seeking as a young man, just becomes pointless as you age. Sad.

Wait, that’s not true. Not entirely. This feeling has been boiling around in my head for weeks now. I’m going to try and express it here. I’ll try to get it right. I probably won’t.

Ahem.

It’s not so much not seeing the point of sex, as not seeing the point of pleasure. It doesn’t seem worth the work to get it. I am obsessed to the point of mania with just surviving, not going broke, making sure there’s enough food and enough to drink and enough in the bank to provide for such things. There isn’t any room for anything else, in my brain or in my day.

Anhedonia is the technical name for it-the marrow has just been drained from life. Life is just existing, not living.

This isn’t anyone’s fault-I don’t blame my family, my friends, anybody-not even myself. I have made the choices I have made willingly, and now I have to live with the consequences. “Nobody’s fault,” as Plant also once put it, “but mine”.

There is a part of “The Watchmen” when the character Rorschach (Jackie Earl Haley) intones a line about the city looking to him, crying, “Save us!”. And I look down, Rorschach says, and I say, “No.” It’s part of an ongoing theme in the book and the movie-that humanity is just too greedy, and foolish, and stupid to be worth the heroes’ efforts.

I have lived a long time while clinging to the notion that there has to be something better-once I pay off this bill, or if I won the lottery, or if x happens, THEN I will be happy. A realization that has come upon me like a sledgehammer in recent days is that suddenly, for the first time, I don’t think there is something else. This is it. This is how it’s going to be. Even if I solve the six things bothering me at the moment, there will be three more by the time I have those six settled. So I look at the rest of my life, and I ask myself if anything will make me happy? And I look down at myself, and I say, “No”. I’m too greedy, foolish, and stupid to be worth rescuing.

I must say again, emphatically, that I don’t blame anyone but myself for this. I wasn’t trapped into anything. It’s all on me.

All this is not a pleasing revelation.

TMI? Yes. Moving on…

***

According to Twitter, again, the Red Sox are now reportedly claiming they are going to start tonight’s game on time, despite what appears to be nearly constant rain. We shall see.

In addition, Tim Wakefield’s back has apparently flared up again, and it appears we are so desperate we might let Paul Byrd pitch for us. In a major league game, no less. Le Sigh.

I pine for the days when we had “too much” pitching.

***

@VelveteenMind, a blogger who is both more talented and, apparently, more imitated than I, Twittered about a problem she had with someone plagiarizing her work. She got the offending post removed, and an apology from the thief.

It made me wonder how I would feel if I were the victim of such a thing. Perhaps I’m the victim of it right now-maybe you’re reading this on a Chinese web site that has been brilliantly pirating all of my work and reselling it on the lucrative “Whiny White Guys” market.

Yeah, I doubt it too.

I think it’s a little bit flattering, despite it all, to have your work seen as having enough value to be worth stealing. Then again, all evidence to the contrary on this site, we bloggers do put some thought and effort into our posts, and people shouldn’t claim it as their own.

Although I maintain, if you’re stealing my drivel, you need to steal a better class of material.

***

Friday, August 28, 2009

Game 128: And the homers, and the rain, and the....WIN!

Josh Beckett struggled, giving up 5 runs on homers by Rod Barajas and Aaron Hill, but it was Jason Bay, tying the score at 5 with a homer of his own before the rains came. After a 48 minute rain delay, the Red Sox loaded the bases off of Shawn Camp and Josh Roenicke in the bottom of the 8th. New friend Casey Kotchman came on to pinch hit, grounding out but allowing David Ortiz to score the winning run.

Like it oughta be

This is blogging as it oughta be, and customer service like it oughta be, and Twitter like it oughta be.

Misty Mountain Hop



So I cued this song on my IPod, plugged it into the car, and turned it up about as loud as I could stand it, and then I drove home.

The great John Henry Bonham bringing the noise as only he can.

I love Metallica, but no drum sound I've ever heard is as monstrously badass as this one.

Enjoy.

Today's Context Free Don Draper Quote

Mostly because I'm just plain lazy, I still haven't watched "Mad Men". I know, I know. I've heard Jon Hamm on "Never Not Funny" and "The BS Report", and I've heard review after review about how brilliant it is. Still haven't seen it. I know. But thanks to the lovely blog I just stumbled upon, unlikelywords.com, here's Today's Context Free Quote from Mad Men's Don Draper:


“You’re talking as if they’re some fresh version of us. They’re not. Young people don’t know anything, especially that they’re young.”

Thursday, August 27, 2009

Game 127: Tazawa gets Hibachied

Junichi Tazama had a no good, horrible, very bad day at the office tonight, giving up 9 runs over 4 innings, and that was all she wrote-even two homers from JD Drew couldn't close the gap in a 9-5 win.

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Game 126: All Hail The Large Father

In Boston tonight, the Red Sox pulled out a 3-2 win over the White Sox on a game winning homer by the Large Father, David Ortiz, in the bottom of the ninth inning. Tim Wakefield pitched brilliantly in his return to active duty, tossing 7 innings of one run ball. New friend RR, however, gave up a game tying homer in the 8th inning to Scott Podsednik, who homers approximately once per Halley's Comet.

It was all up to Big Papi then, and so, with one out in the ninth, he curled a homer around the foul pole for the game winner. Simple as that.

Amazing.....Just Amazing.....


How To Pay For Anything With Blank Paper (Derren Brown - NLP) - Amazing videos are here


This is an amazing video. Unbelievable. I want to think this is staged, but it doesn't seem so.

Just watch it. It is jaw dropping.

Senator Kennedy Dead

Senator Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts died last night at the age of 77.


This is the New York Times obituary, and
this is journalist Robert Scheer's rememberance.

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Game 125: The Tallest Short Guy

Jon Lester did what Jon Lester does, making Tom Verducci cry by tossing another 6 2/3 fine frames, and Jason Bay cracked his 28th home run of the year to help push Boston to a 6-3 win. Jacoby Ellsbury set a Red Sox team record with his 55th steal, but being the Boston stolen base leader is kind of like being the tallest short guy.

In other news, Boston acquired failed closer and former Astro Billy Wagner, who is best known for blowing games in Philadelphia and New York in recent years. He is coming back from elbow surgery, and could be a useful spare part during the stretch run.

Monday, August 24, 2009

Game 124: We'll always have Jose Contreras

In Boston tonight, the Red Sox rocked Jose Contreras to the tune of 7 runs in under 3 innings. Our friend Cowboy Clay could not escape the fifth without surrendering 7 of his own, though, and Boston just managed to scrape by with a 12-8 win.

Sunday, August 23, 2009

Game 123: On the one hand...

Josh Beckett pitched very well, on the balls that remained inside Fenway Park-8 innings, only 2 runs, and only 4 hits.

However, he gave up five homers, and those count, and Boston fell to an 8-4 loss at Fenway Park against the Yankees today.

Boston still leads Texas for the Wild Card Spot by 1 game.

Why I'm a Snob

http://somecamerunning.typepad.com/some_came_running/2009/08/young-and-dumb.html

A very interesting take on why you can't fight mass taste.