So I went to see my first Nationals game yesterday, which also turned out to be my first rain delay. It was looking cloudy and grey before the game, but it really started to come down in the second inning. We were protected for awhile in our surprisingly good upper deck seats ($15) by an overhang, but eventually it started to get us wet, so we retreated up the seats into a dry area. The grounds crew was kind of laughable though, we spent most of the rain delay cracking jokes about their effectiveness. They rolled out the tarp too far from the field, so no matter how hard they pulled, it didn't cover the third base line. Then when the rain stopped, they brought out the big push-squeegees and sort of randomly tried to push the water off it-some guys pushed here, some there, until after 15 minutes or so, they organized themselves to all push in a row. Plus it seemed like there were maybe 10 or 15 guys total, which isn't that many for such a large tarp. (the photo is of them removing the tarp). So after some rain themed songs, like "Who'll Stop the Rain" by CCR and, surprising me, "Why Does It Always Rain On Me?" by Travis, the rain stopped. The weird thing was that Nats pitcher John Patterson had a no hitting going for about 4 hours, as in the first inning and a half and the 2-hour rain delay. The Nats were up 1-0 at this point off a run which we missed. Unfortunately, when the rain delay ended, Patterson came back in, which I thought was unusual, and the Pirates promptly ended the no hitter with a homer on the first pitch. Then a few innings later one of the Pittsburgh relievers walked in a run and tied it up, and at about 11:30 or so, in the 6th inning, (the game started at 7:05) we gave up and went home. I read today the Nats won, 3-2. I had a good time though, the stadium was not bad, and the food was pretty good, especially the italian sausage with peppers and onions and the kettle corn. The beer was $5 for a medium sized plastic cup, but I guess that's too be expected. And no Clipper City or other tasty microbrews like at Camden Yards. But hey, those are $7 or $8 at the MCI Center, so maybe we're better off. And the Metro isn't as far as people complain.
6/30/2005
So I went to see my first Nationals game yesterday, which also turned out to be my first rain delay. It was looking cloudy and grey before the game, but it really started to come down in the second inning. We were protected for awhile in our surprisingly good upper deck seats ($15) by an overhang, but eventually it started to get us wet, so we retreated up the seats into a dry area. The grounds crew was kind of laughable though, we spent most of the rain delay cracking jokes about their effectiveness. They rolled out the tarp too far from the field, so no matter how hard they pulled, it didn't cover the third base line. Then when the rain stopped, they brought out the big push-squeegees and sort of randomly tried to push the water off it-some guys pushed here, some there, until after 15 minutes or so, they organized themselves to all push in a row. Plus it seemed like there were maybe 10 or 15 guys total, which isn't that many for such a large tarp. (the photo is of them removing the tarp). So after some rain themed songs, like "Who'll Stop the Rain" by CCR and, surprising me, "Why Does It Always Rain On Me?" by Travis, the rain stopped. The weird thing was that Nats pitcher John Patterson had a no hitting going for about 4 hours, as in the first inning and a half and the 2-hour rain delay. The Nats were up 1-0 at this point off a run which we missed. Unfortunately, when the rain delay ended, Patterson came back in, which I thought was unusual, and the Pirates promptly ended the no hitter with a homer on the first pitch. Then a few innings later one of the Pittsburgh relievers walked in a run and tied it up, and at about 11:30 or so, in the 6th inning, (the game started at 7:05) we gave up and went home. I read today the Nats won, 3-2. I had a good time though, the stadium was not bad, and the food was pretty good, especially the italian sausage with peppers and onions and the kettle corn. The beer was $5 for a medium sized plastic cup, but I guess that's too be expected. And no Clipper City or other tasty microbrews like at Camden Yards. But hey, those are $7 or $8 at the MCI Center, so maybe we're better off. And the Metro isn't as far as people complain.
6/28/2005
so somebody sent me this website called rathergood the other day, it's got lots of funny stuff. It has funny animations of cats and monkeys and things playing guitars and singing songs. My favorites are "Gay Bar," to the tune of an Electric 6 song, and "We Like the Moon," which features the weird critters (called sponge monkeys) who were in those bizarrely hilarious Quiznos commercials awhile ago. There's also a post from somebody else's blog here about them.
6/27/2005
Snap, Crackle, Pops
so there was a nice little interview in the Examiner with GW forward Pops Mensah-Bonsu (number 21 in this photo). Pops declared for the NBA draft as a junior and there was a lot of rumors on gwhoops.com about whether he signed with an agent or not. If you sign with an agent, you can't withdraw from the draft. But thankfully Pops didn't sign and is now back with the GW team, and consequently, GW is now ranked 11th on a preseason poll. Pretty sweet.
6/24/2005
Rumination station
so I was going to rant about Karl Rove, who is a jerk, but I have been told that my blog is kind of "irate" recently. "I rate" it highly! Ha ha. So instead, here is a photo of some girls in bikinis bouncing around on those bouncy things, from when we had our kickball league scavenger hunt. (More photos here, including me topless. mostly under "Random Hunt Pics". Not super work safe). And I'm going to ruminate about pills, which I have been thinking about too. A lot of times when I take pills (you know, roofies and stuff), I can't tell if I swallowed it or not, like I don't feel it. So I get worried, maybe it fell out of my mouth or it went down the sink or something, especially when the water is running so I wouldn't hear it. Once I took another pill because I thought I dropped the first one, but I had actually had taken it, so I OD'ed on sinus medicine, which sucks. You get all jittery and can't concentrate and stuff. Nothing bad happened, and I got out of jail pretty quickly, but I was just sort of wonky feeling. So the moral of the story is don't take too many sinus pills, and hot girls in bikinis are cool.
6/23/2005
so the House voted today to approve a Constitutional amendment banning flag burning, which I think is stupid. Burning the flag is a political statement, and the last time I checked, that was allowed under our Constitution. When I read this article about the vote, this quote stuck out at me:
First off, Randy "Duke", I'm glad you speak for all of them. But I'm not sure they'd all want to ban a political protest like this. And then I saw something else in the LA Times: there are a bunch of questions about Randy "Duke" regarding improper ties to defense contractors. Apparently Cunningham sold his house at an inflated value to a defense contractor who was a donor to his campaign. The contractor sold the house 7 months later for a $700,000 loss. Thus, the contractor bought the house for $700,000 more than it was worth. And this happened after that previously little-known contractor happened to start getting lots of government contracts. Cunningham had also been living on the contractor's yacht on the Potomac for months. He seems like a real jerk, even if he was apparently the inspiration for Tom Cruise's character in "Top Gun." He also previously made a joke about a rectal exam he got, saying it was not natural, unless you were Barney Frank (a gay congressman). Hilarious. (Link here) There's a lot more bad stuff about him, including stuff about the Tailhook scandal, on this anti-Cunningham site.
"Ask the men and women who stood on top of the Trade Center," said Rep. Randy (Duke) Cunningham, R-Calif. "Ask them and they will tell you: pass this amendment."
First off, Randy "Duke", I'm glad you speak for all of them. But I'm not sure they'd all want to ban a political protest like this. And then I saw something else in the LA Times: there are a bunch of questions about Randy "Duke" regarding improper ties to defense contractors. Apparently Cunningham sold his house at an inflated value to a defense contractor who was a donor to his campaign. The contractor sold the house 7 months later for a $700,000 loss. Thus, the contractor bought the house for $700,000 more than it was worth. And this happened after that previously little-known contractor happened to start getting lots of government contracts. Cunningham had also been living on the contractor's yacht on the Potomac for months. He seems like a real jerk, even if he was apparently the inspiration for Tom Cruise's character in "Top Gun." He also previously made a joke about a rectal exam he got, saying it was not natural, unless you were Barney Frank (a gay congressman). Hilarious. (Link here) There's a lot more bad stuff about him, including stuff about the Tailhook scandal, on this anti-Cunningham site.
so my friend Braden is teaching english in Japan and he got these sumo top toys, these tops (as in the kind you spin) that look like sumo wrestlers. He started a blog for their tournaments, and it's pretty funn stuff. Check it out.
In other news, the websites for Lookout! Records and Merge Records have lots of MP3s and clips on then from their bands, so I have been perusing them a lot recently. Good stuff. The Merge ones are just streams so you can't download them to your computer, but they have good sound quality. I think my favorites so far are the Lou Barlow one and "I Turn My Camera On" by Spoon, both on Merge.
In other news, the websites for Lookout! Records and Merge Records have lots of MP3s and clips on then from their bands, so I have been perusing them a lot recently. Good stuff. The Merge ones are just streams so you can't download them to your computer, but they have good sound quality. I think my favorites so far are the Lou Barlow one and "I Turn My Camera On" by Spoon, both on Merge.
6/22/2005
so I don't think there's a better possible headline than "Giant popsicle melts, floods NYC park." That's amazing.
so I've been seeing ads on MTV for this new show, the Andy Milonakis Show. It looks amazing. He's this kid who looks maybe 14, and he does ridiculous stuff. The clips on the ad have him and Lil Jon eating cereal. Lil Jon is eating it out of his pimp chalice, then he spits the cereal on Andy's head. Another one Andy has a big chicken shaped Pez dispenser that dispenses chicken nuggets. Good times. Here's his site on MTV.com.
6/21/2005
So I'm no blog expert. However, I have been reading them for awhile and have been getting steadily more and more annoyed by so-called famous blogs and their mannerisms. Below are some things that annoy me. And I have been guilty of some of these, but that doesn't mean they aren't still annoying. (Blog names used as examples, usually.)
- Calling another blogger by the name of their blog. "I hung out with Steve Coolfer, Jim Stereogum, and DJ Nick Catchdubs spun some good stuff." First off, that's not their last name. And I don't care if you hung out with another blogger, or even if you hung out with a non-blogger. Lots of people have blogs, if I mentioned all of my friends with blogs in my blog, I'd probably never stop typing. This might be OK if you are actually trying to advertise the other blogs, but if you're namedropping the famous bloggers you hang out with, I am not impressed.
- Shortening those names even further. Ultragrrl is already an alias, you don't need to make a nickname for an alias. And if you do, maybe your alias is too long.
- Abbreviating people's names. The Wonkette's real name is Ana Marie Cox, not AMC. AMC is a car company from the 70s and a theater chain. Are you in that much of a hurry that you can't type "Cox" or "Ana Marie" instead of AMC?
- And as a corollary, just mentioning the name of another blogger as a link, as if we should know who that person is by name alone (especially as a list):
"Also at the Bloc Party show were Tim, Karen, Lindsay, Sam and Sarah." Zzz.
- Inventing/co-opting words and phrases and then using them incessantly. "stizz," "so best," "evs" (as in "worst evs")
- Ads for your DJ set, or even worse, for other bloggers' DJ sets. If you want to mention that you're DJing somewhere, fine, but a big picture of the ad is annoying. And I couldn't care less if Ultragrrl is DJing somewhere under a clever punny DJ name. (That being said, I have and will continue to go to some bloggers' DJ sets, and Ultragrrl is pretty hot.)
- General snarky breathlessness. Coming up with new and convoluted ways to say something sucks might be fun, but it gets very old, very fast. And honestly, how many of these new CDs are really that good? Will you still listen to them in three months, when no one talks about them anymore? How do you afford your rock and roll lifestyle?
- Using phrases in other languages in your posts. It's annoying in books, it's still annoying in blogs.
- Celebrating your blog titles and taglines. "Look how clever I am with my pun or obscure song reference!" Then again, there are only so many possible blog names out there, which is why mine is squidpants and not something like andrewsblog.blogspot.com.
- And along those lines, you're not fooling anyone with a self-deprecating blog title. I think every blogger secretly (or not so secretly) wants attention, which is why blogs exist. Don't try and hide it.
- Cutesy title graphics. I want to cut the top of my monitor off so I can't see the banner image on the Wonkette's blog.
- Emotional crap. this doesn't happen very much on the famous blogs, but rants about your emotions bore me to tears.
- Complaining about other groups of people. I guess it's part of the hipster code to complain about suburbanites, bankers, college kids, and so on at the shows you go to, but they're allowed to be there too. Not everyone is as cool as you are. And honestly, complaining about college kids? How asinine is that? I'm sure you, famous blogger, sat in your dorm room studying and chugged beer on your futon for your entire college career, right? Come on. Plus most of these bands you foam over are probably in or just out of college. (example)
- And finally, thank you to those people who don't do those things. To those people that do some of this stuff, it doesn't mean I don't like you. It just means I might skip that entry.
And when it comes down to it, I suppose a lot of these have to do with who these blogs are meant for - do the famous bloggers write their blogs for their friends, or for anybody who happens to stumble across them? I'm sure most of the famous types have tons of readers who have never met them, which I guess is why the personalization annoys me. But they could argue that they write their blogs for a small group of friends, and lots of random people just happen to read them too. Do what you want, but I'm still annoyed.
- Calling another blogger by the name of their blog. "I hung out with Steve Coolfer, Jim Stereogum, and DJ Nick Catchdubs spun some good stuff." First off, that's not their last name. And I don't care if you hung out with another blogger, or even if you hung out with a non-blogger. Lots of people have blogs, if I mentioned all of my friends with blogs in my blog, I'd probably never stop typing. This might be OK if you are actually trying to advertise the other blogs, but if you're namedropping the famous bloggers you hang out with, I am not impressed.
- Shortening those names even further. Ultragrrl is already an alias, you don't need to make a nickname for an alias. And if you do, maybe your alias is too long.
- Abbreviating people's names. The Wonkette's real name is Ana Marie Cox, not AMC. AMC is a car company from the 70s and a theater chain. Are you in that much of a hurry that you can't type "Cox" or "Ana Marie" instead of AMC?
- And as a corollary, just mentioning the name of another blogger as a link, as if we should know who that person is by name alone (especially as a list):
"Also at the Bloc Party show were Tim, Karen, Lindsay, Sam and Sarah." Zzz.
- Inventing/co-opting words and phrases and then using them incessantly. "stizz," "so best," "evs" (as in "worst evs")
- Ads for your DJ set, or even worse, for other bloggers' DJ sets. If you want to mention that you're DJing somewhere, fine, but a big picture of the ad is annoying. And I couldn't care less if Ultragrrl is DJing somewhere under a clever punny DJ name. (That being said, I have and will continue to go to some bloggers' DJ sets, and Ultragrrl is pretty hot.)
- General snarky breathlessness. Coming up with new and convoluted ways to say something sucks might be fun, but it gets very old, very fast. And honestly, how many of these new CDs are really that good? Will you still listen to them in three months, when no one talks about them anymore? How do you afford your rock and roll lifestyle?
- Using phrases in other languages in your posts. It's annoying in books, it's still annoying in blogs.
- Celebrating your blog titles and taglines. "Look how clever I am with my pun or obscure song reference!" Then again, there are only so many possible blog names out there, which is why mine is squidpants and not something like andrewsblog.blogspot.com.
- And along those lines, you're not fooling anyone with a self-deprecating blog title. I think every blogger secretly (or not so secretly) wants attention, which is why blogs exist. Don't try and hide it.
- Cutesy title graphics. I want to cut the top of my monitor off so I can't see the banner image on the Wonkette's blog.
- Emotional crap. this doesn't happen very much on the famous blogs, but rants about your emotions bore me to tears.
- Complaining about other groups of people. I guess it's part of the hipster code to complain about suburbanites, bankers, college kids, and so on at the shows you go to, but they're allowed to be there too. Not everyone is as cool as you are. And honestly, complaining about college kids? How asinine is that? I'm sure you, famous blogger, sat in your dorm room studying and chugged beer on your futon for your entire college career, right? Come on. Plus most of these bands you foam over are probably in or just out of college. (example)
- And finally, thank you to those people who don't do those things. To those people that do some of this stuff, it doesn't mean I don't like you. It just means I might skip that entry.
And when it comes down to it, I suppose a lot of these have to do with who these blogs are meant for - do the famous bloggers write their blogs for their friends, or for anybody who happens to stumble across them? I'm sure most of the famous types have tons of readers who have never met them, which I guess is why the personalization annoys me. But they could argue that they write their blogs for a small group of friends, and lots of random people just happen to read them too. Do what you want, but I'm still annoyed.
6/20/2005
so I thought this was a pretty funny article. Saddam told his guards not to bring him Froot Loops. But he does like Doritos. He would make a good roommate for me, because we'd never eat each other's food. I like Froot Loops and not Doritos.
I also heard that Bill Clinton might get a talk show. He should do it with Saddam! I would watch the hell out of that. That would be awesome, two former world leader enemies doing a TV talk show. Saddam could be the wacky sidekick. Or maybe he could lead the band.
I also heard that Bill Clinton might get a talk show. He should do it with Saddam! I would watch the hell out of that. That would be awesome, two former world leader enemies doing a TV talk show. Saddam could be the wacky sidekick. Or maybe he could lead the band.
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