Baseball

A bunch of “reporters” took a single sentence out of a quote by Ohtani wildly out of context and sensationalized the hell out of it. You figure, for a bunch of people who always cry “Why doesn’t anyone trust the media anymore?!” that they’d actually exercize some integrity. They’re doing Ohtani, their audience, and their peers a massive disservice. Shame on them.

Now that both The Guardians and The Mariners are out of the running for The World Series, I kind of don’t have a team I’m rooting for. I’m definitely rooting against The Yankees and Astros though. So let’s hope The Padres or Phillies win it all.

Birdwatching and Nature

I haven’t really done much of any in the past six months. The fall is my favorite time to do it, not cause of migratory birds or anything, I just love the cool air and falling leaves.

It’s rained once here in the last four weeks, and even then, for like five minutes. I’m not joking. Lake Meade is at its lowest levels in history. The Mississippi is so low in some parts, river barges can’t travel down it. The parks where I live are starting to cut down certain species of trees cause our wet/dry shifts are so dramatic now that the trees can’t cope and are no longer maintainable. It’s kind of crazy to think things are already this bad and we’re just getting started. But it’s cool. Let’s just fiddle away like Nero. After all, everyone is doing it.

Housing Market

Apparently a bunch of people who sank money into the speculative housing market through flipping and Air BNB are seeing some very dark storm clouds forming on the horizon. Good. Fuck them. Housing is a social and life necessity, and should never have been turned into a speculative instrument. My only regret is the banks and corporations engaged in the same behavior will probably come out the other side mostly unscathed, which is a shame, cause they’re the real villains here.

Definitely had both stroganoff and peroggis. Thought both were like, polish or something. I love both though, they’re great comfort food in the winter, which is probably no coincidence. Made me look up packzis, cause I swore those were polish donuts. They are. Which is fine, cause I love those too.

Do you remember the days when you bought mets from the grocery store, you still had to actually cook them? But now they have microwave ready mets. How does that make you feel?

Are you old enough to remember looking up old newspapers on microfilm? Did you ever? Are you ever nostalgic for the opportunity to do it again and kind of hate the whole digital archives, despite how they’re much more convenient?

I know Europe and Asia have tons of baseball leagues. Does Russia?

I’m doing laundry today, a boatload of laundry, so I’m working my way through Seneca’s De Ira translated by James Romm and titled “How to Keep Your Cool.” It’s pretty okay, the translation is easy to read and understand without feeling dry, so credit to Romm for that, and Seneca has some worthwhile thoughts about anger and why our relationship with it is unhealthy.

My wife used Post-It Notes to mark passages she finds interesting. Some books, I’m not joking, she’ll have one every few pages. There were some passages I already went through that made me think a bit, but I didn’t note them, so I’ll have to go back and find them later.

First time reading Seneca though and he’s pretty alright. I told the wife we need more books of his. She agrees. So there’s that.

I also have baseball going on in the background. An old game from earlier this year, if two teams I didn’t pay attention to, just to learn players I don’t know. And no, it’s not a Kansas City Game. As far as I’m aware, that team is actually a work of fiction.

It’s awesome you had a great time. There’s something about discussions during a baseball game that make both more memorable.

Next year, I hope to go to more live games. No more major league games though, cause even when tickets are a deal, $10 hotdogs and $8 pops are just stupid prices.

Which is fine, cause the college, independent, and minor league games all have their own distinct energy and are just as fun, if not more so, than Major League games.

Witnessing sports with others, especially if they enjoy the same sports you do, is an amazing feeling. When you get the moments where something awesome happens, or awesomely disappointing, and you get to share it with those around you, there’s no feeling like it.

And Winter Olympics is fun. Curling is strangely addictive.

Debt is an absolute monster that needs to be slayed, yes, but there should be something in it for people who have worked hard year in and year out and have made significant lifestyle choices to stay debt free. People who either couldn't or chose not to go to school, not to take out mortgages, take out car loans, etc. people who either by choice or by force of circumstances have ultimately lived within their means. Debt is often a luxury, after all, so debt forgiveness would be a social move that would once again favor the more well off.

I shared this once in Global, but I'm sharing it again. This is gonna be, hands down, my feel good song of the year. I don't think I'll get tired of it.

goobster, I haven't heard from you in a bit. Hope you're staying safe in this world of crazy. I know you kind of like both Pokey LaFarge and The Devil Makes Three. If you like them for their playful sound, you'll probably dig this song.

Can I get an ELI5 on what's going on?

I dunno. On the one hand, I don't feel like this is the most catastrophic thing ever and most of us have plenty of things to distract ourselves with, including social media. On the other hand? Compared to a coffee date with friends or walking in the park and chatting it up with regulars/rangers/staff or even going to work, Netflix and XBox and Hubski and all really don't compare.

So, I worked some more on the jacket and even took pictures of what I was doing, but honestly the pictures and the work I'm doing right now is inane and not all that interesting, so there's no point in sharing them. Buuut, I'm actually learning a bit as I go. I called my mother for some advice on it, seeing what she thinkgs one way or another, and I forget most of the tiny, important details of the conversation. The important thing is, I can always take comfort in the fact that I have no attachment to the jacket, so if I mess up royally or it becomes too much, I can always throw it away. I'm turning it into a quilted, patched jacket. Did I say that already? No? Sorry.

I wouldn't be surprised if the next time kingmudsy makes one of these threads, I bomb it with way too much stuff. Looks like, crazy germs and all, I'm gonna be a shut in for at least a couple of weeks. That means crafts, video games, and hanging out in the yard with my camera lamenting the fact that my neighborhood has a grand total of 12 bird species, 2 lizard species, and not much else of interest to put on iNaturalist. Who knows? Maybe I'll get lucky and something rare will fly by one morning.

Gonna post a Rambling Kaiju review now, cause I definitely got time to work on those now.

Stay healthy Hubski. Stay safe. Shit's still on fire, yo.

. . .that's a marvelous pun.

I know stocks were hurting already. I shared this. At this point though, beyond that, I really don't know what to think anymore.

Sorry. Maybe I was unclear. I was asking, isn't the argument for better funding states for disaster response is that they're better able to respond to local disasters because they're local organizations?

They're related to weasels and can be found pretty much all along the arctic circle, so Canada, Russia, etc. I don't know if they'd make good pets or even legal ones, but some states allow people to keep ferrets as pets and they're equally pretty darn cute.

It should be pointed out that from a shareholder perspective, GE went from $60 to $11 in the face of external technological threats. Shareholder value is the idea that you can't roll your money back into R&D because it doesn't have any immediate benefit, far better to declare a dividend and keep the people who own your shares happy.

Tesla, for their part, gives no fucks about their shareholders. They have been rewarded handsomely for it.

Whether we're talking about public or privately owned companies, if there's one real big lesson from companies like Hostess and Toys R Us and Sears and such, is that if you prioritize extracting wealth from company assets instead of using those assets to reinforce the company, you're gonna have a great time making yourself that much richer. Everyone who works for you though? They're gonna have a real bad time society suffers because of it.

Not talked about in the article, but related, a draw down in carbon creation, whether we're talking about drilling for or transporting oil, manufacturing, etc., reduces the risk of environmental harm. The less oil being pumped and moved, the less spills there will be. The less factories in operation, the less people develop asthma. The less planes flying, the less noise pollution interrupting the dynamic and vital sounds of nature. There's more at stake than just carbon reduction.

Howdy. :)

. . . with the exception of a few stories here and there, I'm not a fan of him because he's morbidly bleak. Your guys' quotes, you and kingmudsy, remind me of Harlan Ellison though.

These are the only two videos of his I've seen (I think), but I liked both. I'll look into him more!

Your getup isn't far from fatigues, you stop noticing protective gear after a surprisingly short while, and it just seems more serious.

Prior experience has made me overly cautious, but always keep in mind that protective gear doesn't make you invincible (head gear in boxing, for example, reduces risks of cuts and bruising, not necessarily TBI). Gotta be smart and careful.

Glad to hear you're enjoying Sambo though. :)

Edit: Don't wanna sound like a nag, just worried about safety is all.

I like it. It's playful.

You made this?

The more I think about it, the more I don't know.

On the one hand, I feel like leaderboards go against the spirit of charity, in that they're acts of sacrifice made with humility and discretion, done for the importance of the deed and not for the importance of recognition. At the same time, what might be a big offering by one person could easily be over shadowed by a small offering from someone else. For example, if Mr. James and his third grade class had a bake sale and raised a hundred dollars, that's a pretty significant act that would easily be overshadowed by say, a millionaire who decides to donate 10k. The kids worked hard and if any recognition should be doled out, they deserve it, but they can't compete against someone who could sneeze out some cash and not even worry.

But on the other hand, I can see how leaderboards could be great motivators. If someone loves recognition so much that they're willing to pay big for it, that's a win for the charity. Likewise, if someone is falling far short of their potential, they could face a bit of shame and derision. Also, sometimes some friendly competition doesn't hurt. But then again, giving is about understanding the need, not for love of fame or fear of guilt.

I dunno.

America is trailing hard, both in number of total trees and actual v planned tree ratio. We should totally step up our game.

Also, Romania, Estonia, and Tunisia learn hard into the maxim of "Under promise, over deliver."

So, ammy - anybody give you any trillions in the past ten years? No? Well that money went somewhere and that's one of many reasons everything is utterly dystopian.

Fixed that for you.

WHAT?!

They're like, one of two retail places to get book supplies from that I know of. More importantly though, they're so nice whenever I've ordered from them. Man. That's tragic.

A friend played the studio version of this for me. I've never heard of this song, and the trio plays a form of Americana that isn't really what I usually listen to (not that I think it's bad, it's just mot my taste). But man, I tell you, this song, its theme and lyrics, the way these three tackle it? It was good and I knew I'd have to find a version to share with you guys.

I feel with these kind of crafts, it's usually quite easy to be "acceptable" but then the gap until "good" is pretty big.

Sewing is weird in that, at least with hand sewing, there are as many subtle components as there are obvious components. For example, a lot of stitches end up hidden, so unless someone tears apart a piece, how are they gonna know?

Each time I make something, I learn something, from how a certain fabric works to a better way to hold my piece to learning how to make more consistent stitch lengths. Messing up something, for me, is the quickest way to learn something, and I've made a ton of learnable mistakes that have influenced how I want to piece things, how I treat my fabric and threads, how I keep my needles from breaking, etc.

Five embroidery projects from now, look at the backs of those pieces and compare them to the pieces you just made. You'll have made mad improvements, but because the backs are hidden, no one will know, except you.

The gap is big, but it's easily traversable, the gains are there, but they are often hidden if not outright inmaterial.

Dunno if this is really real, or really elaborate green washing.