Things Thrown Away vol 1
Don’t remember the date. Must be sometime in 1995. Look at those pars! And how I closed out strong. I remember the last hole. Flopped the approach right up close to the pin, but the yips kicked in.
Link of the Day [4.15.10]
Dear kami-sama,Please come to the east coast and let us witness your splendour. Or on the other hand, I'll go visit cousin Bob in the HI just to watch a movie.Thanks to kami-sama,
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Oh, snap! The english dub of Haruhi Suzumiya no Shoshitsu coming to the United States. You can watch it legitimately in SF and in Hawaii when it comes out this summer. I can't wait. Sweet, Nagato! Sweet, Asahina-san! Sweet, Suzumiya-sama! This is some good news.http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2010-04-15/bandai-entertainment-adds-the-disappearance-of-haruhi-suzumiya
Good Spring NIghts Spoiled
The view from my season ticket seats. It’ll be a long season.
Misty Colored Memories
I’ve finally moved out of my mom’s house. All those things I’ve left behind are removed and gone.
“Wait,” you say, “Didn’t you already move seven years ago?”
Yes. But I finally started moving things out of my old room to make way for my brother to move in with his family.
It hit me as I took down my nostalgia board. This is all my memories and keepsakes, and they all must be thrown away. That was pretty hard to do. Throw it away. The prom boutonnieres: thrown away. The field day ribbons: trashed. Meg Ryan shrine: down, destroyed, and garbaged. Gone. Those things that are part of me. Gone.
It was the pack rat in me that saved it. I am cursed by this need to keep all minutiae of my life. I guess it happens because of the need to fill my empty life. They are there to remind me of good times I had.
Then there were the junk that I kept because I thought it would come in handy some day. Aren’t they all like that for a pack rat? I had magazines about the internet. How to make web pages? How to choose the right ISP? Ha ha! I had old Outside mags, Wired mags, and porn. Threw that away. Then I had to clear the junk drawer. All old wires thrown away. Who knows if it was mine? It could’ve been CapSwells. I threw away GameBoy games. Old videos. VHS tapes. It all goes.
Still, there’s plenty left to throw — books and clothing. I never know what to do with it. Recycle. I wonder where I can take old books.
These things are going away from my life. I hope I can remember them in my memories.
Orioles Home Opener: They Make Me Cry
The day I’ve been waiting all winter and spring arrived yesterday: the home opener for our Baltimore Orioles. Baseball is back in Baltimore! It’s spring! And we’re gonna be competing all year.
I’ve bought season tickets just to keep abreast of the team. I’ll be there when they win. I’ll be there when they lose. Hopefully, more wins that losses. I’m expecting a 75 win season from them — just a several games shy of .500, a winning season, because that’s a realistic expectation. So I’m going to be rooting for them.
My tickets for Opening Day was extra, so I chose not to sit in my season ticket seats. I’ve got 13 games there. I need a different angle. I’m in the upper deck section 348 close to the railing. It’s on the third base side and you get pretty views of all the hits.
This I was actually a we. I invited my nephew to watch since he’s got spring break. This is actually the first uncle-ish thing I did for the kid. Weird. I must suck as an uncle. He’ll enjoy this though. Baseball could be his sport.
We take the light rail up from Severn. First time I travelled north to go to the Yard. It’s filled with strange sights, but the trains are packed. They are filled with happy Birds fans. The first visit to Birdland of the year fills everyone with joy. The nephew and I pile into the train.
We get to the yard and join the throngs of fans amassing at the gate. First, we get some soda and drinks to bring in. After entering, we get some snacks. First hot dog of the year. We make it to our seats. The atmosphere was electric. The weather was cold though. Lucky we brought our jackets. We get to our seats and cheer on the opening day ceremonies. Brooks and Boog throw out the ceremonial first pitch. 
The night before, the Birds won their first game of the season. The team looks to make it two in a row. Brad Bergesen, the ace of last season, is the starter. He doesn’t have it today, the top of the first inning he allows 3 runs. Our line up is raring to go. 
We get those 3 runs back in the bottom half. But then our bats go cold, while Bergesen struggles all game. He allows the leadoff batters to reach base and he struggles to end innings. Meanwhile, Toronto’s starter who was wobbly in the first, walking three, settles down and gets several strikeouts. Come on! Where are our bats?
In the fourth inning, the nephew and I go for food. Last year, it was easy to get food. Walk up there was no line. Opening day is different, and we spend two innings in line missing Toronto go up 2 runs and the Orioles tying it up with Tejeda’s 2 run homer. The visitors go up again, but we storm back and take the lead. Pie pinch running for god, Matt Weiters, takes it from first to home on a single by Cesar Izturis. Last, year C-Izzy hit a homer in the bottom of the eighth to win the opener. This year it looked as if he got the game winner again. Pie was dead to rights out, but the catcher could not handle the ball. Why he was sent is a mystery? These great seats we had made all this plainly visible. Pie was only rounding third as the relay was coming home. He would’ve been out by three steps if the catch was made properly. Yet, Pie scores! PIE SCORES! THE ORIOLES ARE UP!
And then our closer comes in. The least said the better. Mike Gonzales’s line for the game 0.2 of an inning 1 walk, 1 passed ball, 2 hits, 2 earned runs. The Boo Birds were out in force. I was shaking my head. The nephew was booing loudly too. Gonzales wouldn’t be getting the grief he’s been getting if his delivery wasn’t so unorthodox. It’s a rocking motion which exaggerates his wildness.
But we lost. The final was 7-6. Blown save and all.
We cram back into the light rail and go home. Leaving the sad times behind. Maybe next time we’ll win. Next time is Monday. Who wants to go?
Opening Day Thread
Here’s to the Orioles!
I’m at the game.
Use this thread to chat about how terrible (or good) the team is today.
Here’s the great Oriole, Brooks Robinson. Mr. Oriole if you ask me. (Sorry, Cal. You’re just another O) It’s his 1962 Topps Card.
Here’s Brooks again with a groovy 1972 Topps card.
Here’s the 2010 outfield. Thank god for Adam Jones.
Come on Bawlmore! Come on Orioles! Come on Os!
160 Games Left
It's too early to criticize the Orioles. There are 160 games left. There's plenty of time to make it alright. Two games is not enough to estimate the quality of the team. Yet still, the first two losses of the season are an extension of the ways they lost last year: bullpen collapsing and not hitting with runners in scoring positions.The expectations are high for the fans. We're told the team is on the right path. The team is better than it was last year with the addition of free agents and with the maturation of our young stars. The team will win more games.Expectations can be dashed with reality.Will the free agents add hits and runs while maintaining a solid defense? Will our young players fulfill the potential that baseball scouts say they have? Will our pitching solidify into quality starters and solid bullpen work? Will the team score more runs and give up less runs than last year? Will they make all games competitive?The two games so far make the case for the negative. Our hopes were high. Now we wonder if we were deluding ourselves.But let's see. We still have 160 left.
K-ON!! ED Season 2
Mio singing is better than Yui singing.
Here’s the ending of K-ON!!. The second season. More Mio. More Azu-nyan. More Sawako-sensei. More adventures of the girls in Houkogo Tea Time.
As for the actual episode, I forgot how slow they were.
Greenberg
Somehow I’m trying to express my views on the Noah Baumbach film, Greenberg. I doubt I’ll get this right.
Greenberg stars Ben Stiller as the eponymous main male character trying to re-establish himself after being released from rehab. He house sits at his successful brother’s house in LA for the weeks his brother is away on vacation in Vietnam. He establishes a a rapport with his brother’s personal assistant, and they begin a slow-step, tango of a relationship that’s dysfunctional and redeeming. It’s just another indie film plot.
Now I state that Stiller is the main male character, but the personal assistant played by Great Gerwig is every bit the main character, too. She’s the second lead and it is through her that we learn of him. I would almost say she’s the lead. The film opens up following her story and it takes 20 minutes before we get to Stiller. All the while you wonder what is up with this girl. She’s a personal assistant, a glorified gopher, but it pays the bills and allows for the partying till dawn lifestyle she finds herself with.
These two find each other. Real quick and real sudden. And real. It had the audience gasping. “No way!” Very interesting if you think about it. I kept wondering how they each felt about the other. She would’ve just expected? He would’ve wanted it? Where did that come from?
The movie goes by just as every indie movie goes. Not much action, but plenty of character development. Stiller’s character gains something from her, but I don’t she gains anything from him except for companionship. She may understand him, but that understanding wasn’t built on seeing who he is, but who she is. She accepts him because he finally accepts himself.
I thought the early part of the movie was slow and uninteresting. The later part got to be better. Perhaps it was because the amusing scene when Greenberg confronts the youth. It really is scary on how he nails the fear and the awe inherent at looking at the next generation.
Decent movie for the time I was in the theatre.
3 of 5 stars.
Hot Tub Time Machine
Hot Tub Time Machine, a title of a movie in search of a story. The movie just wasn’t that good for film looking to break through the fourth wall with it’s nudge-nudge wink-wink. It wasn’t enough that John Cusak besmirched his 80s cool character status or even Craig Robinson not being funny, but Rob Cordry eating up entire scenes that was an effrontery.
Of course, I went to see this after hearing CapSwell’s short terse acknowledgement of it. I never know with that dude. It sounds good, but it may be bad.
This. This was bad.
2 of 5 stars.