Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Spring Training: Mets 4, Red Sox 2

Green shirts on: Hits rare.
Lackey tough, Ramon was not-
Another day lost.

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Spring Training: Boston 0, Houston 3 and Boston 0, Tampa 7

Zero-What more to say?
No runs, few hits, no scoring.
In the end, no wins.

Monday, March 15, 2010

Sometimes, to keep it together, you've got to leave it alone...

Spring Training: Baltimore 8, Boston 4

Mike at first? Wake drilled?
All's not right-Josh, Papi hit bombs
though-so something's good.

The Sound of Silence

The inimitable Guy Kawasaki pointed to this article from the Financial Times about silence.

One of the things I noticed most clearly about our 24 hour visit to the 1800s while the power was off, was how quiet our house was.

From the article:

"Silence is in fact a curiously elusive concept. The moment we are quiet, we start to hear things we don’t normally hear: the sighing of the wind, birds, insects, even our own heartbeat or blood pressure. (I should make an exception for the profoundly deaf, but it seems that a profoundly deaf person such as the brilliant percussionist Dame Evelyn Glennie still hears something). Perhaps, as the composer John Cage believed, silence doesn’t really exist; or, as Maitland’s friend Janet Batsleer writes to her in a letter, “all silence is waiting to be broken”. "

No question that I fill my life with noise so that I can't pay attention to my thoughts.

Catching Up on the Spring Games

It strikes me that I owe you two haiku.

Saturday-Boston 3, Pirates 2

Triple Play-three fer!
Three outs, one pitch, no waiting!
Clay,Boof,Pap impress

Sunday-Boston 6, Minnesota 4

Becks sick? Hurt Sox? Bah!
Elf, DP, Youk outslug 'em-
Need crew to get well.

On a more serious note, Sox farmhand Ryan Westmoreland has been hospitalized with a potentially serious brain injury, and our friend Farmer Jed Lowrie is being checked out for a heart ailment. Hopefully both Sox will be fine, and the prayers of this blog will be with both men and their families.

Unmentionable Monday

It is Mention Monday again, and that means it's time to mention that which is unmentionable.

@Craftycmc is at it again, trying to take over the world with her blogger army, and, since it is her world, and I'm just a squirrel trying to get a nut, I aim only to serve.

The power has been restored to my own homestead, to the relief of many. It is disturbing to me just how put off I was by being without power. I really should try to spend more time offline and in non powered pursuits. It is unseemly to be so connected to modern pursuits. Like, uh, blogging.

Anyhow, today I'm going to mention my hetero lifemate @erikjfisher, whom you all should follow for his combination of wisdom and funny. He is the proprietor of a sonic wonderland called WBR Show, which can be found at wbrshow.com, a home for fine podcasts and discount fishing lures.

If you're not the podcasting or twitter type, may I remind you? Narwhals, y'all. For real. Seriously.



In addition, a very intriguing new-ish band, brought to my attention by the seriously unwell Mike Schmidt (@the40yearoldboy), Rock Sugar. It involves one of my favorite recent tricks, the mashup, but played by a real band. For an 1980s geek like myself, it's pure joy.

Sunday, March 14, 2010

The New Commandments Culture

The New Commandments Culture is Christopher Hitchens' interesting look at the Ten Commandments.

His final verdict?

"But who cannot summon the confidence to say: Do not condemn people on the basis of their ethnicity or color. Do not ever use people as private property. Despise those who use violence or the threat of it in sexual relations. Hide your face and weep if you dare to harm a child. Do not condemn people for their inborn nature—why would God create so many homosexuals only in order to torture and destroy them? Be aware that you too are an animal and dependent on the web of nature, and think and act accordingly. Do not imagine that you can escape judgment if you rob people with a false prospectus rather than with a knife. Turn off that fucking cell phone—you have no idea how unimportant your call is to us. Denounce all jihadists and crusaders for what they are: psychopathic criminals with ugly delusions. Be willing to renounce any god or any religion if any holy commandments should contradict any of the above. "

Hard to argue with any of that.
Posting from the road. Currently no electrons flowing into my home. Obviously, posting will resume once the 21st century has returned to my neighborhood. We now return you to the Internet, already in progress.