Tron and Black Swan

I watched Tron and Black Swan yesterday.   I was really excited for Tron as I remember that I liked the first one though I can't really remember much from it.  All I remember was that some dude got sucked into a video game and he had to play his way out of the game.  The new Tron was really cool too.  We got it on blu-ray as it seemed like the kind of movie to do on blu-ray.  I like to get action movies or movies that have lots of imagery on blu-ray.  Romantic comedies usually don't merit the extra 50 cents for blu-ray in my opinion.  Anyway, as I was saying I really liked the movie.  The plot was good and fairly easy to follow.  The only thing I wished they did was explain more about the Iso's.  I think there could have been a few more instances of playing in the video games.  The movie overall though was good.  I liked the corporate greed angle at the beginning (corporate greed seems to be popular in movies these days for some reason).  The digital world was well done.  One thing I found interesting was that the entire movie was filmed at night time until the end.  In the real world it was always dark and then in the the digital world it was dark.  At the end, the real world was light.  I don't know if it was symbolic or on purpose, but Jana and I thought it was kind of interesting.

Black Swan was one I wasn't sure I would like.  I had heard all sorts of things about the movie like it was the Brokeback Mountain for women and that it had a crazy ending.  I was worried that I would get bored since the film centered around ballet.  In spite of almost the whole movie being ballet scenes I was definitely at the edge of my seat.  The psychological part of the movie was what really took center stage along with her interactions with other characters, especially her mom.  The dancing itself was actually kind of cool in that it was amazing to see what the dancers physically had to do.  The movie did leave me with a lot of unanswered questions which always bothers me.  I just want the movie to neatly tie up all the loose ends, but the wondering and trying to figure out what actually happened might have made the movie more meaningful than had every question been answered.

Bad day Good Friday

Today got off to a bad start last night as I fell asleep in an awkward position on the couch with the tv on.  I woke up around 1 or 2 shivering on the couch and headed up to bed.  A few hours later, my alarm was going off and it was time to get ready for work.  As I got ready, I took a small loaf of banana bread out of the freezer to defrost.  I went to work and forgot my banana bread on the counter all day.  All morning I dreamed of that banana bread and instead had nothing to snack on.  Around 12:30, I decided to run an errand and walked to a building about a mile from my office.  About 30 seconds after I left it began to pour down rain.  I had my umbrella and continued on my way.  The rain was coming down so hard that my umbrella was no match and feet and pants were soon soaked.  I went to the entrance of the building and was told I had to go to the other side.  This was a large building that occupied multiple blocks.  Oh well.  Once I got through security, which took a while, I finally reached the office I was looking for only to be told that they couldn't service me until Monday.  Oh well.

I left and decided to go across the street to the CVS since I was already there.  I got a drink and a chocolate bunny for Jana for Easter.  The line was crazy long and took forever for me to purchase my overpriced items.  As I was walking back I heard a man call out, "Are you ok lady?"  I looked around and literally right next to me was a woman in a wheel chair.  Her chair was one of those ones with a joy stick.  It was leaning against a pole and her rear left wheel was lying next to her chair.  She was soaked and had no umbrella.  I noticed later that she was shivering pretty bad.  I can't believe I didn't even see her.  My first thought was to keep walking and let someone else help her.  I then wondered if I subconsciously didn't see her at first on purpose.  I felt pretty crappy about the thoughts in my head and felt an overwhelming sense of compassion for this woman.  I walked over to her and the guy in the truck who had called out to her had arrived by then too.  The other guy went to park the truck.  I picked up her chair as the man tried to attach the wheel.  He couldn't get it on.  I was afraid we wouldn't be able to fix her chair.  The other guy from the truck arrived and said he could figure out the wheel.  The first guy relieved me of holding the heavy chair.  I held my umbrella over the woman and tried to keep her company.  The guy working on the wheel was able to get it reattached.  Luckily their truck had a hammer and a wrench.

I was having a rough day from my lack of sleep and food and my rainy walk, but it could have been a lot worse.  This woman was leaning against a pole getting soaked with no way to move and she still had good spirits.  These two guys in the truck spotted this women and appeared to not even think twice about helping her.  They both got on the ground and dirty reattaching the wheel.  I love seeing people like this in action and wish I was more like that.  Their relatively small sacrifice (small when compared to Jesus) caused me to think of Good Friday and that Jesus made the ultimate sacrifice for all of us. The rest of my day was great.  I'm glad I was able to meet these guys and the woman in the wheel chair.

Smithsonian - American History

Last Saturday we decided to go to the Smithsonian Institute's American History Museum.  This is my second favorite Smithsonian after the Air and Space Museum.  The Air and Space is also Clara's favorite as we heard her say, "I want to see the planes," over and over again.  We spent most of our time in the basement which was focused on American transportation.  The cars were really cool.  My favorite was a 1977 Honda.   

This is a 77 Honda!

There were lots of trains there including a subway from Chicago that you could sit on and pretend you were on a subway.  I found it kind of ironic since most of the visitors probably arrived by subway.  They had exhibits that showed transportation in different cities at different points in time.  Some of the places I found interesting was the railroad in North Carolina, Route 66, Interstate 10, and Portland in the 40's.


the dream of the 40's is alive in Portland

They also showed how an automobile travelled across the country before there were roads.


This photo was from the Smithsonian website.

They had a picture at the show with the Navy Yard in DC where people used a very unsafe looking bridge to cross the Anacostia river to get to and from work each day in 1863.  It said that a developer built the bridge to attract workers at the Navy Yard to live accross the river.



found this photo on this site

We also went to the nuclear power section of the Smithsonian because they have an exhibit about Hanford, WA.  It's amazing that they built a town with a population of 50,000 basically overnight for the Manhatten Project. 


The R with the mushroom cloud is the logo for the Richland High School Bombers.

If you have any interest in cars, transportation, or how America was shaped by the types of transportation of the times this is a very good exhibit and I would highly recommend it. 

Milton Bradley

Milton Bradley right before he hit a homerun last night

Two things that I think are funny about this picture:

1. Milton is wearing ear plugs at home.  I wonder if he is getting heckled at home.  I can understand why he would wear them on the road, but home seems weird.  I hope this is the answer for him staying focused during the game.

2. The fans behind him wore giant foam King Felix crowns the whole game.  I'm glad these King Felix fans stayed the whole game even though he got lit up, but they really cracked me up.  You can see them during every lefthanded at bat.

Safety at the ballpark

The San Francisco Giants fan that was brutally beaten in LA by Dodger's "fans" has struck a deep chord with me.  I posted this story on Facebook last year, but I thought I would talk about it again here.  Jana, Clara, and I went to New York City last summer and I planned the trip to coincide with a Mariners game that was to be played at Yankee Stadium.  The trip got off to a bad start as we witnessed two men fighting on the subway right when we initially arrived.  On the third day of our trip, in a crowded subway, a young boy (12 to 14) bumped into a larger older man.  The man turned around and went after the young boy and verbally attacked him for bumping into him.  We did meet some nice people in Central Park and at dinner at Mickey Mantle Restaurant. 

We went to Yankee Stadium on the second day that we were there and as soon as we arrived people were verbally attacking me for wearing an Ichiro! tshirt.  As we went to our seat people booed and yelled profanity at me.  I kept my head down and tried my best to ignore the angry words.  Jana, Clara, and I sat down in our $40 a piece seats in right field just before the game was to begin.  It was cool during the first inning the fans around us chanted each players name until they acknowledged them.  I could tell that these were good fans that knew and cared about baseball.



Our view from our right field seats.  Ichiro! is about to leadoff with a Homerun

 Then Ichiro! led off with a home run off of Javier Vasquez.  (Here's the box score) I was so excited that I stood up and clapped for Ichiro! as he hit the home run very close to where we were sitting.  Fans started yelling terrible things at me and told me to sit down.  I did as I was with my family and did not want to put them in danger.  Then two batters later Russel "the muscle" Branyan hit a solo homer over our heads into the upper deck in right field.  I again stood and clapped.  The fans around me said more terrible things and told me to sit down.  A fan sitting behind Jana said that they were going to beat up my family after the game.  I said that we are not going to be intimidated and that we were going to stay at the game.  I decided I wouldn't stand up again or clap if the Mariners do anything good again.  The Yankees scored 4 runs in the bottom of the first to go up by 2 which actually kind of relieved me as I thought this might calm them down.  The next inning was pretty uneventful as neither team scored.  Jana said the guy kept talking to his buddy about how he was going to kick my a-- after the game though.  In the third inning, Ichiro! again homered to right field and I, while sitting, again took a bunch of abuse.  The Mariners then got some runners on base and scored another run to tie the game up.  This led to the fans in the whole stadium to start chanting a--hole to Vazquez.  Clara (2 at the time) decided to join in.  Jana said that the fans were very loudly talking about what they were going to do to us so I decided we had had enough.  We left the game through 2 and a half innings, $120 down the drain. 

I don't think that those guys would have beaten us up after the game, but it definitely wasn't a good environment to have my family at.  I worry about taking my family to sporting events and it makes me sad.  I wonder how sports are going to continue to grow if other families have come to worry about the safety of their family and the environment they are exposing the youngest members too.  Even if we were not wearing opposing team's gear at the game it still was not an appropriate place to have a child.  I don't want Clara to come home saying some of the words that were coming out of these people's mouths or to learn the total lack of sportsmanship that some of these fans exhibited.  I'm going to take Clara to a Nats game this year because luckily a lot of the loudmouths are fairweather fans and probably won't show up to watch a bad baseball team.  I just hope we don't have to leave another sporting event early again. 

Road Rage

Today at 9:40 AM, Jana and I were driving on Washington Blvd and about to enter Route 66.  As I was exiting off the road I looked over and saw a guy moving into my lane right into our car.  I moved over and honked and he kept going.  I sped up to avoid him and he sped up too and tried to ram us again right before we entered the freeway.  It freaked Jana and I out so I let him go.  I decided to try to get a picture of his license plate so I could report him, but when he saw me he cut to the other lane.  He then slowed down and then tried to ram me again.  I was pretty ticked at this point so I was pretty determined to get a picture of his license plate.  I sped up to him again to get his picture, but he slowed down and cut to the other lane.  I was able to get a picture of him, but not his license plate.  He started motioning with his fingers like he was pulling a trigger aiming at me and Jana.  I really wish there was a cop around to get this guy or for me to at least get his license plate number.  He was driving a newish Honda Pilot that was grey in color.

The face of road rage

Government Shutdown

The vast majority of Americans will feel little or no effect from the looming government shutdown.  Many of these people will have little to no interest in the shutdown and I would have been in that boat less than a year ago.  I am in the first year of a government job and this possible shutdown could have devastating consequences to my family.  After selling my house and moving my family across the country we were left with very little cushion to weather any financial storms.  I looked at it as a risk that we had to take.  Part of the tradeoff of the lower pay from working for the government was the job security.  Now I don't even have that.  This situation is very stressful to me, my family, and most of my coworkers. 

One of the hardest parts of the looming shutdown has been the silence from the government about what to expect.  My bosses are as much in the dark as I am.  I have no idea if I'm deemed essential, however, I suspect that I am not.  I'm not even sure how I'm supposed to know if I should come to work on Monday.  I assume that the news would be an appropriate source, but it would be nice to have a procedure in place. 

This whole process has been rather enlightening about the whole political process.  During the week of President's Day Congress decided to take the whole week off even though the continuing resolution was set to expire at the end of that week.  They extended the CR, but the lack of aggressively tackling this budget issue was disheartening.  We are half way through the fiscal year and there is no budget.  This is Congress' main duty.  If I were 6 months late on a task I probably would be let go from my job.  The other part that is disheartening is the lack of caring that many in Congress seem to have for the Federal employee.  There are Congressmen out there calling for a shutdown who could care less how many people they financially ruin in the process.  For example, here is a quote from the Washington Post:

“If liberals in the Senate would rather play political games and force a government shutdown, instead of accepting a modest down payment on fiscal discipline and reform, I say, ‘Shut it down!’ ” yelled Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.) at a tea party rally at the Capitol.

I'm sorry, but the time for this hardline response was 6 months ago.  It's time to compromise.  Again, you're playing chicken with other people's lives.  I don't understand why Federal employees are being vilified and blamed for the deficit.  I'm pretty sure that Joe Federal employee making $40k a year is really the problem.  I'm sure the deficit has nothing to do with bailing out huge banks so their executives can take golden parachutes and still not loan small businesses and average Americans money.

Enough with the pissing match.

Fan of the game

I subscribe to mlb.tv and the package I bought requires me to watch only the home team's broadcast.  I have been forced to watch Oakland A's broadcasters and Texas Rangers broadcasters so far this season.

During the Rangers game tonight they handed out a fan of the game award to a young couple attending the game.  The reporter said that they were getting married at the ballpark the next morning and asked the man if he was excited for tomorrow.  Without missing a beat the guy said, "This is going to be the worst day of my life."  The reporter said "OK" and then asked the girl about why she chose the ballpark to get married at.  She said "This is my first time at the ballpark, but we're really big sports fans..."  then the guy interrupts and points at three guys standing next to his fiance and yells "these are my groomsmen."  He then leans over her to high five all of them.  The sideline reporter hands the girl their fan of the game prize which was a couple of tshirts and they cut back to the game.  The announcers said nothing.  It was awesome and sad.  I really hate to say this, but that marriage will not last.

Also, the Rangers are really good again this year.

Modern Day Simpson's Softball Team

Jonah Keri had a great question in his Fangraphs' chat today about what his modern day Simpson's softball team would be.  His list is in this tweet:

This (Homer at the Bat) is one of my favorite Simpson's episodes of all time.  (From wikipedia) Mr. Burns tasked Mr. Smithers to get ringers for a softball game between his power plant and a rival power plant in Shelbyville.  The players he requests are  Honus Wagner, Cap Anson, Mordecai Brown, Gabby Street, Pie Traynor, Harry Hooper, Nap Lajoie, Joe Jackson, and Jim Creighton which Mr. Smithers has to tell Mr. Burns that many of these players are dead or long since retired.  Mr. Smithers gathers current major league stars that included  Roger Clemens, Wade Boggs, Ken Griffey, Jr., Steve Sax, Ozzie Smith, José Canseco, Don Mattingly, Darryl Strawberry and Mike Scioscia.  All of the players have some reason why they can't play except for Darryl Strawberry who plays the same position as Homer.  Darryl dominates the game, but in the last inning the Shelbyville team brings in a lefthanded pitcher.  Mr. Burns plays the platoon splits and brings in Homer (a right handed hitter) to face the pitcher with the bases loaded in a tie game.  Homer gets beaned which wins the game for Springfield. 

I think my favorite part of this team is that these aren't necessarily the best players at their positions at the time that this episode aired (1992).  Steve Sax, Don Mattingly, and Mike Scioscia were good players, but certainly not the best at their positions.  Strawberry had come off a decent season in 1991, but only played in 43 games in 1992.  With that in mind, personality factored into my list somewhat. 

SP - Roy Halladay  (Roger Clemens)

I went with Roy because he's the best right handed pitcher in baseball just like Roger Clemens was.  At the time (in my memory) Roger hadn't developed the surly personality that I think of him having now.  I remember him being a confident pitcher like I think of Halladay now.  I like the Lincecum pick because of his quirky personality, but I don't think Lincecum and Clemens have anything in common besides being major league pitchers.

C -  Jason Kendall (Mike Scioscia)

Mike Scioscia's last season was in 1992.  I don't remember him that well since his career ended about the time I became interested in baseball, but looking at his stats he hit for little power and had decent to good on base percentage numbers.  In the episode, Scioscia just wanted to be an everyman working a 9-5 job.  This led to him getting radiation poisoning (in the show) from working too much in the nuclear power plant.  I picked Jason Kendall because he's an unexciting catcher who's career is winding down.  He never really hit for power and had a few seasons where he was able to get on base fairly well.  He's also a guy that I could see working a 9 to 5 job, but then again a lot of catchers look like 9 to 5 job kind of guys.

1B -  Ryan Howard (Don Mattingly)

Mattingly had a nice peak from 1984 to 1989, but his career was definitely winding down when the episode aired.  He is beloved by Yankee fans and might even gets votes for the hall of fame based on that love.  Ryan Howard is a guy who enjoyed a nice peak, but is declining in skill as his strikeouts increase and walks decrease.  He seems to be somewhat overrated by his fans like Mattingly was.  Mattingly missed out on the softball game because Mr. Burns kept telling him to shave his non-existant side burns.  It would be funny to ask Ryan Howard to shave his non-existent side burns. 

2B -  Luis Castillo (Steve Sax)

Baseball reference does a similarity score where they compare players who are similar to other players.  Castillo is the second player listed as Sax's most similar player.  I thought this was pretty funny as both guys had long careers, weren't very good, and played in New York.  Steve Sax had an issue where he couldn't make a throw to first base.  They called it Steve Sax Syndrome.  Luis Castillo was recently released by the Mets and the Phillies offered him a tryout in Spring Training just before the season started.  For some reason, it took him a few days to get to Phillies camp even though Mets and Phillies camps are both in Florida.  Showing up late for your last opportunity should probably be refered to as Luis Castillo Syndrome now. 

3B - Adrian Beltre (Wade Boggs)

Beltre and Boggs are totally different hitters, but Beltre's quirkiness would be awesome for the team.  Adrian Beltre does not like to have his head touched.  I think that the Simpson's writers could think of a way to incorporate that into the reason why he does not make the team.  Like maybe Luis Catillo touches Beltre's head and then points at Ryan Howard.  Beltre comes up to Howard and swings wildly and misses.  Howard throws a single punch into Beltre's nose and knocks him out while Castillo giggles close by.  Howard then knocks out Castillo.

SS - Derek Jeter (Ozzie Smith)

I'm going to go with Jeter here as I don't think there is anyone comparable to Smith in baseball today.  Jeter is as well respected.  That's where the comparison ends.  Jeter's bat is much better than Smith's and Smith's glove is much better than Jeter's.  Ozzie gets lost in a Springfield Mystery Spot while sightseeing in Springfield.  I think it would be pretty funny to see Jeter sightseeing in a crappy town.

LF - Manny Ramirez (Jose Canseco)

I agree with this pick from Mr. Keri.  Both are interesting personalities to say the least (I can't wait for the Manny autobiography to come out).  They were both very good during their careers.  Manny was better.  Both seem to have no filter on their mouth. 

CF -  Ken Griffey Jr. (Ken Griffey Jr.)

This is probably the hardest for me as Griffey is my favorite baseball player.  I'm not sure there is anyone in baseball quite like Ken Griffey Jr.  Cargo had a great season last year, but probably won't be a full-time centerfielder.  I am really at a loss to come up with anyone who plays centerfield with close to as much talent or charisma as Griffey.  I'm going with Griffey here even though he retired last year and wasn't even close to the player he was in 1992 when he retired.  It's my list so I'm going to put Griffey on it.

RF - Josh Hamilton (Darryl Strawberry)

In right field, I have Josh Hamilton.  Ok, he's a leftfielder, but the corner outfield positions aren't as important as a centerfielder.  He can play right field.  He seems like a good match for Strawberry.  Both are super talented players that had their careers derailed by drugs.  The biggest problem I see with this is that its not as fun to chant Josh as it is to chant Darryl.  That ruins one of the best jokes in the show when Bart is chanting Darryl in a negative way and a single tear is seen going down his cheek.

Players I would have liked to have had on my team: Ichiro!, King Felix, Brett Anderson, Dirk Hayhurst, and Logan Morrison

Haircut

I went to my favorite barber shop today.  They do a great job with the cut and they also give a pretty good massage.  The best part is the straight razor followed by a hot towel.

While sitting there I thought, when I go bald on top I'm going to grow a tail. How awesome would it be if I went on an audit in my suit with my bald tail?  The auditee would have to take me serious when I show up looking ridiculous.

While I was thinking about my bald tail a woman walked into the barber shop.  One of the barbers awkwardly asked the woman if there was anything she needed.  She said she wanted a haircut.  The barber said oh.......take a seat and someone will be with you.  When it was her turn she was right next to me.  The barber asked how she wanted her hair cut and the woman said she would like to see a book of hairstyles.  I almost started laughing.  The barber said "we have no book, you tell me what you want, I cut it.  I cut man, woman, anything with hair."  LOL  The woman said she wanted her hair stacked, whatever that means.  The barbers started speaking in their native language and started laughing.  This was the first time I didn't assume they were making fun of me.  I wish I could have seen the finished product of her haircut.