Tuesday, November 20, 2018
Thursday, July 19, 2018
A Brave New World
It's been a while - been doing other things. But here's a post about the Atlanta Braves who this year are a much improved team over previous years in the post Bobby Cox era.
Since building their new stadium - SunTrust Field - and moving in they have had a difficult go of it but this year esp. they are doing much better. In fact for most of this season they have been in first place in the National League East. As of today they are in second place closely behind the Phillies (The Braves at 52-42 while the Phillies are 53-42 - about as close as you can get). This record finished off the first half of the season going into the All Star Break and in that game Freddie Freeman, Nick Markakis, Mike Foltynewicz & Ozzie Albies all participated.
If the Braves can repeat their first half success they will end up in great shape with over 100 games won - the most ever was 106 games won in 1998 to finish 1st in the National League. April, May and June they were very good but so far in July they are 5-8 - not up to par with how they fared previously. They will need to improve & get more wins than losses to have any chance at the post season. Still, even if they fall short, they already have had a great year.
Since building their new stadium - SunTrust Field - and moving in they have had a difficult go of it but this year esp. they are doing much better. In fact for most of this season they have been in first place in the National League East. As of today they are in second place closely behind the Phillies (The Braves at 52-42 while the Phillies are 53-42 - about as close as you can get). This record finished off the first half of the season going into the All Star Break and in that game Freddie Freeman, Nick Markakis, Mike Foltynewicz & Ozzie Albies all participated.
If the Braves can repeat their first half success they will end up in great shape with over 100 games won - the most ever was 106 games won in 1998 to finish 1st in the National League. April, May and June they were very good but so far in July they are 5-8 - not up to par with how they fared previously. They will need to improve & get more wins than losses to have any chance at the post season. Still, even if they fall short, they already have had a great year.
Sunday, November 6, 2016
Defoe vs. Carrey
Thursday, September 1, 2016
The Braves As Of Sept 1st
It's been a grueling season so far for Atlanta. As of today they are 51-83 & nearly the worst team in baseball (beaten out only by the Minnesota Twins who are 49-84). Next year they will get a new stadium to play in. I only hope they have a new team playing for them because much of their current team is not up to the task of getting us to the post season.
Rumors are that Atlanta is working on this & maybe they are. Time will tell. If I can I plan on visiting the new stadium & grounds around it. I'm actually excited to see it. Progress is always necessary - you can't expect things to stay the same forever. In Birmingham, AL. where I live sits Rickwood Field, the oldest surviving professional baseball park built in 1910. Each year the local minor league team plays a throwback game there for nostalgia sake I guess. It wouldn't be practical to play there every game. So they play in Regions Field instead which was built in 2013.
Rumors are that Atlanta is working on this & maybe they are. Time will tell. If I can I plan on visiting the new stadium & grounds around it. I'm actually excited to see it. Progress is always necessary - you can't expect things to stay the same forever. In Birmingham, AL. where I live sits Rickwood Field, the oldest surviving professional baseball park built in 1910. Each year the local minor league team plays a throwback game there for nostalgia sake I guess. It wouldn't be practical to play there every game. So they play in Regions Field instead which was built in 2013.
Tuesday, April 26, 2016
A Big Sucking Sound
I've been an Atlanta Braves fan for years & am looking forward to the new stadium next year. However, at the moment there is an awful big sucking sound coming from their city in the form of horrible baseball.
Currently this year the Braves are 4-16 and looking to be probably the worst team in baseball this season. They have very few really good players on their team and some pretty awful ones. Worse yet they don't even seem to care. I was at the Monday game vs. Boston yesterday & Teheran pitched a pretty good game giving up only 1 HR & only one run was scored in the whole game. Atlanta failed to threaten to score & this seems to be one of their failings - their lack of offense. Defense isn't much better esp. with Pierzynski who has a bad butterfingers problem, dropping a pop up and fumbling a ball sitting right in front of him. He also has an issue of showing his disappointment by flipping his hat & bat when things don't go his way (one time he did this he failed to notice he could have been running to 1st base as the Boston catcher dropped the ball - but Pierzynski was in his own world).
If the Braves win 50 games this year I'll be shocked considering how badly they are playing. A friend of mine keeps saying they'll win 22 games cause he heard the Taylor Swift song of the same number, but I can't see them doing that badly - though they are sucking quite badly atm.
I've never seen this team in such a situation and I have to wonder why it has to be this way. I can only make assumptions as to why & my only guess is that they need to save money due to spending it on the upcoming new stadium & that in a year or two they will try to get better players. So now they can't spend any money. Is this why?
It's very frustrating for the fans and the players & managers. Fredi Gonzalez seems unmotivated to even try to argue anything on the field either. There was several times he could have argued calls but instead did practically nothing. Bobby Cox would have exploded under these circumstances & got himself thrown out of the game. I'm not saying that is better. But at least it shows you care & that you're trying to fire up your players.
Yes, there's a big sucking sound about 100 miles east of where I live. I just hope it's not a black hole opening up permanently that's so hungry it will devour the team I'm a fan of & make me change allegiance to some other franchise like Cincinnati, the Cubs or St. Louis. Because I really don't want to do that if I can help it.
Currently this year the Braves are 4-16 and looking to be probably the worst team in baseball this season. They have very few really good players on their team and some pretty awful ones. Worse yet they don't even seem to care. I was at the Monday game vs. Boston yesterday & Teheran pitched a pretty good game giving up only 1 HR & only one run was scored in the whole game. Atlanta failed to threaten to score & this seems to be one of their failings - their lack of offense. Defense isn't much better esp. with Pierzynski who has a bad butterfingers problem, dropping a pop up and fumbling a ball sitting right in front of him. He also has an issue of showing his disappointment by flipping his hat & bat when things don't go his way (one time he did this he failed to notice he could have been running to 1st base as the Boston catcher dropped the ball - but Pierzynski was in his own world).
If the Braves win 50 games this year I'll be shocked considering how badly they are playing. A friend of mine keeps saying they'll win 22 games cause he heard the Taylor Swift song of the same number, but I can't see them doing that badly - though they are sucking quite badly atm.
I've never seen this team in such a situation and I have to wonder why it has to be this way. I can only make assumptions as to why & my only guess is that they need to save money due to spending it on the upcoming new stadium & that in a year or two they will try to get better players. So now they can't spend any money. Is this why?
It's very frustrating for the fans and the players & managers. Fredi Gonzalez seems unmotivated to even try to argue anything on the field either. There was several times he could have argued calls but instead did practically nothing. Bobby Cox would have exploded under these circumstances & got himself thrown out of the game. I'm not saying that is better. But at least it shows you care & that you're trying to fire up your players.
Yes, there's a big sucking sound about 100 miles east of where I live. I just hope it's not a black hole opening up permanently that's so hungry it will devour the team I'm a fan of & make me change allegiance to some other franchise like Cincinnati, the Cubs or St. Louis. Because I really don't want to do that if I can help it.
Sunday, April 24, 2016
The Forgotten Detroit
This is weird. Today I was thinking about MLB teams and their stadiums - those I have been to (old & new) & those I have yet to visit. I could come up with 29 teams. I knew there were 30 but I just couldn't for the life of me remember that last one.
So I looked this up on my home page search engine - BING - and typed in "mlb teams". They immediately came up with a scroll graphic showing the team names & icons (ex: The Cardinals has the red bird on the bat). What was really, really weird was they only had 29 teams too. Not 30! Where was team number 30?
As it turns out BING had forgotten to show one of the teams & it was the exact same one that I couldn't remember. Looking further I discovered the missing team was the Detroit Tigers. I sent feedback to BING about this so that they might rectify their error.
Okay, so both me and BING both forgot the same thing. I guess that is plausible. But I find it pretty weird that this is the case. That I could remember exactly the same 29 teams that BING did (or whomever programmed the graphic scroll).
Just one bit of weirdness for the day I suppose.
So I looked this up on my home page search engine - BING - and typed in "mlb teams". They immediately came up with a scroll graphic showing the team names & icons (ex: The Cardinals has the red bird on the bat). What was really, really weird was they only had 29 teams too. Not 30! Where was team number 30?
As it turns out BING had forgotten to show one of the teams & it was the exact same one that I couldn't remember. Looking further I discovered the missing team was the Detroit Tigers. I sent feedback to BING about this so that they might rectify their error.
Okay, so both me and BING both forgot the same thing. I guess that is plausible. But I find it pretty weird that this is the case. That I could remember exactly the same 29 teams that BING did (or whomever programmed the graphic scroll).
Just one bit of weirdness for the day I suppose.
Tuesday, March 1, 2016
Monday, November 16, 2015
Into The Gunlesslands
We have a new show on the AMC tv station called Into The Badlands. If I had to describe it it would be if you combined Roots and Kung Fu Saturday Action Theater. Roots because of the 'slave plantaion' aspect of the show and the latter because of all the cool martial arts fighting and swordplay.
I do like the show, not as much as The Walking Dead, but it is entertaining. However, one thing that makes little to no sense is the total lack of guns. Sure they have other technology like motorcycles and cars. But no one thought to invent any kind of gun? Seems strange since there are other ranged weapons (namely shurikens, although I think I've also seen knives & other bladed weapons thrown).
The only reason I can fathom is that the creators just didn't want guns in the show - logic be damned. Their option I guess. Though I cannot agree. One thing this does do, however, is allow for great melee battles - which is fun to watch. If guns did exist everyone could just shoot one another & not result in much of a show. Some options would be to wear bullet proof armor or have the skills to dodge the bullets. But whatever. I'll be watching nevertheless.
Saturday, October 24, 2015
Ghost Hunters
I've seen those shows on TV where they search for ghosts in peoples homes & have always thought how stupid that is. I'm like, "ghosts aren't real. They never find them!"
Well the latter is true - we never see any ghosts being found. But is that because we aren't in the "right mind" so to speak? Let me explain...
I heard on the radio today about a family who bought a home & shortly after moving in began to hear & even see things - strange & even ghostly things. Things that couldn't be rationally explained. At least until their home was checked out.
As it turned out there was a carbon monoxide leak in their home. This was slowly poisoning them & the cause of them seeing and hearing the strange noises & sights.
But were these all just hallucinations? Or did the poisoning of their brains enable them to sense things that normal minds could not detect?
It is a quandary & hard to prove.
I've never believed in ghosts, but I've also never been in a mentally damaged state that might enable me to see & hear them.
Maybe the people on the ghost hunter shows need to suck on a car tailpipe or something before trying to find these ghosts. Maybe that would help them too? Of course, even if they did see or hear them then they still couldn't record them on video or audio for TV.
Oh well...
I also had another idea relating to this & it is with the term spirits. Spirits is another name for alcohol & is derived from Middle Eastern alchemy. These alchemists were more concerned with medical elixirs than with transmuting lead into gold. The vapor given off and collected during an alchemical process (as with distillation of alcohol) was called a spirit of the original material. And so, you'd see a "spirit" as it changed into alcohol. Of course spirits is also another name for ghosts, which brings us back again to the subject of this posting.
My thought is that, as with poisoning of the mind by carbon monoxide, alcohol can likewise put the mind in an altered state. Possibly altered enough even to see what the imbiber believes to be ghosts. Usually those who were drunk forget what they saw and were doing, however, but perhaps this is just another way of enabling this ability. And perhaps the term spirit was not only derived from the distillation process but also due to drunks witnessing ghostly images.
Who knows?...
Well the latter is true - we never see any ghosts being found. But is that because we aren't in the "right mind" so to speak? Let me explain...
I heard on the radio today about a family who bought a home & shortly after moving in began to hear & even see things - strange & even ghostly things. Things that couldn't be rationally explained. At least until their home was checked out.
As it turned out there was a carbon monoxide leak in their home. This was slowly poisoning them & the cause of them seeing and hearing the strange noises & sights.
But were these all just hallucinations? Or did the poisoning of their brains enable them to sense things that normal minds could not detect?
It is a quandary & hard to prove.
I've never believed in ghosts, but I've also never been in a mentally damaged state that might enable me to see & hear them.
Maybe the people on the ghost hunter shows need to suck on a car tailpipe or something before trying to find these ghosts. Maybe that would help them too? Of course, even if they did see or hear them then they still couldn't record them on video or audio for TV.
Oh well...
I also had another idea relating to this & it is with the term spirits. Spirits is another name for alcohol & is derived from Middle Eastern alchemy. These alchemists were more concerned with medical elixirs than with transmuting lead into gold. The vapor given off and collected during an alchemical process (as with distillation of alcohol) was called a spirit of the original material. And so, you'd see a "spirit" as it changed into alcohol. Of course spirits is also another name for ghosts, which brings us back again to the subject of this posting.
My thought is that, as with poisoning of the mind by carbon monoxide, alcohol can likewise put the mind in an altered state. Possibly altered enough even to see what the imbiber believes to be ghosts. Usually those who were drunk forget what they saw and were doing, however, but perhaps this is just another way of enabling this ability. And perhaps the term spirit was not only derived from the distillation process but also due to drunks witnessing ghostly images.
Who knows?...
Monday, August 24, 2015
Chicago Trip
I spent the last several days in Chicago with a friend of mine. Mainly it was to see some baseball (I'm a Braves fan as I live in B'ham, AL.) and we usually go somewhere each year to catch a few games for a "road trip" vacation. This year it turned out the schedual worked out so that we could do this trip. (We had wanted to go on a trip to Washington D.C./Pittsburgh but that fell through).
It was a fun trip. The weather was good. We rode the trains from near our hotel in Evanston to get to Wrigley Field. We had to ride the purple train from Dempster station to Howard station then switch over to the red train & ride it down to Addison Station. Not bad at all once we figured it out. We don't have trains like this in B'ham so we weren't used to how they operate but it's not that confusing.
Unfortunately the Braves lost all 4 games against the Cubs. Atlanta kinda sucks this year. Maybe the Cubbies will win the World Series in 2015 (like it was foretold in the Back to the Future movie).
They have some good players & are playing well so I'd not put it beyond the realm of possibility.
Here's a couple photos from Wrigley I took while there:
It was a fun trip. The weather was good. We rode the trains from near our hotel in Evanston to get to Wrigley Field. We had to ride the purple train from Dempster station to Howard station then switch over to the red train & ride it down to Addison Station. Not bad at all once we figured it out. We don't have trains like this in B'ham so we weren't used to how they operate but it's not that confusing.
Unfortunately the Braves lost all 4 games against the Cubs. Atlanta kinda sucks this year. Maybe the Cubbies will win the World Series in 2015 (like it was foretold in the Back to the Future movie).
They have some good players & are playing well so I'd not put it beyond the realm of possibility.
Here's a couple photos from Wrigley I took while there:
Thursday, July 30, 2015
Banned For Life
So Tom Brady has been punished & will miss 4 NFL games next season for cheating (deflating footballs). Is that enough of a punishment? Is winning all that matters nowadays?
Other athletes who've cheated/used illegal drugs/etc. have been punished much more harshly in the past. There is a long list of very recognizable names:
Pete Rose, Tonya Harding, Lance Armstrong, "Shoeless" Joe Jackson, Ben Johnson among the most famous and well-known who were banned for life from their sports. So why shouldn't Tom Brady also be banned for life as well?
For that matter why shouldn't Alex Rodriguez be banned for life when it was determined that he used illegal drugs? Who makes these decisions & why are some people spared the lifetime ban while others are stricken down? It seems rather arbitrary to me. What do you think?
Other athletes who've cheated/used illegal drugs/etc. have been punished much more harshly in the past. There is a long list of very recognizable names:
Pete Rose, Tonya Harding, Lance Armstrong, "Shoeless" Joe Jackson, Ben Johnson among the most famous and well-known who were banned for life from their sports. So why shouldn't Tom Brady also be banned for life as well?
For that matter why shouldn't Alex Rodriguez be banned for life when it was determined that he used illegal drugs? Who makes these decisions & why are some people spared the lifetime ban while others are stricken down? It seems rather arbitrary to me. What do you think?
Saturday, June 27, 2015
Working On Book 3
The last month or so I've been back at work on my trilogy Andy Brighton and the Dragons of Wyrme. You can find the first two books on Amazon.com over here:------------------------------->
I wrote up the outline for the final book a good while back (probably shortly after finishing
book 2) but put off trying to actually write the 3rd book in earnest due to other activities and
distractions. What I usually do when writing my books is to come up with ideas for what would
make for an interesting story - then I come up with a basic outline - then when I'm pretty sure
that it looks workable I try to sit down and type out the book. So far this has worked out, though
it takes a long while to finish my books (a year or so I'd guess). Of course this lengthy amount
of time is considering that I have a full-time job to go to nearly everyday so I can only write in
my remaining spare time. Oh, for the freedom of not having to work & be able to write all day
long - I could get finished so much faster. But I don't wish to give excuses.
At any rate I believe that I've settled on a title for the final installment after much dilemma:
The Great Reconfiguring I think it will be called (pertaining to a plot point in the story).
So far I'm about halfway thru chapter 3 & making good progress. Today while at work at
my full-time job I had a sort of revelation about the instigators of the plot in the books and had
to write it down. It was something I had lightly touched on previously in books 1 & 2 but which
will become much more prominent. It's fundamentally the same idea as a self-fulfilling prophecy,
except in reverse (many times the fear of something happening might actually cause it to happen
due to the actions and/or reactions people might have to it - but in the case of my story the prophecy was a desirable outcome, therefore it coming true was not feared).
Tuesday, June 23, 2015
In Case You Ever Wondered...
The Universe is full of things big and small. We as humans and the world we live on are kinda the "middle of the road" size-wise because there are things both much bigger and much smaller. In case you might have wondered what things are bigger or smaller than us & Earth take a look at the following interactive site. Use the slider bar below the image frame to see larger & larger or smaller & smaller objects. (one of the coolest websites I've ever seen)
http://htwins.net/scale2/
http://htwins.net/scale2/
Monday, June 22, 2015
You Better Run...You Better Hide!
Either his girlfriend's father came home early or the dead have come to life.
You'll find out which one it is when Fear The Walking Dead premiers on AMC in August.
Until then we can watch him run!
You'll find out which one it is when Fear The Walking Dead premiers on AMC in August.
Until then we can watch him run!
Friday, June 19, 2015
He'll Be Back
Arnold pranks unsuspecting tourists in this video where he's promoting his latest Terminator movie. He catches them off guard as they think he's just a wax figure.
Saturday, June 13, 2015
Go Cubs!
I'm scheduled to vacation the week that the Braves are at Chicago in August. My friend and I are staying several days so we're looking for a place to stay. The choices are between Wrigleyville and Evanston. I saw this video of some big Cubs fans that centers on the former location & it looked kinda cool (though Evanston did too)
Wednesday, May 27, 2015
Saturday, May 23, 2015
Don't Look Down
If you're afraid of heights you may not want to watch this video. A couple guys made this video while ascending the Shanghai Tower in China (the 2nd tallest) at about 650 meters. It was still under construction and had a crane on top so they climbed up that too to get even higher! My question is did they have on parachutes so they could just jump off at the end or in case they fell or something? Because there's no way in Hell I'd do something like this!
Thursday, May 21, 2015
Back...To Star Trek
Adam Savage of Mythbusters fame is the ultimate geek. Not in a bad way, however, but in the good way. By this I mean that he has all the coolest gadgets and gizmos from all the best movies ever made. Han solo's blaster, R2-D2, & C3P0 from Star Wars - he's got them. Deckard's M2019 PKD Detective Special from Blade Runner - he's got it, a replica whip from Indiana Jones - he's got it, etc. the list goes on for days. Star Trek is one of his loves and so, since he is great at recreating objects from movies & TV shows he created his own captain's chair that Kirk would sit in. As usual the level of exacting detail he demanded was high. And the result is exceptional. With friend Will Smith of Tested and Jeremy Williams to help wire it up they finish the chair and give it a test.
Saturday, May 16, 2015
Surf the Golf Course
Ideally with the younger golfers in mind I'd imagine comes a new idea for getting around on the golf courses. The Golf Board. It's almost like surfing the grass in between taking your shots. I'm sure a lot of people would be interested in trying this for the places who offer it.
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