sethbc’s (infrequent) blog…

It’s been a pretty crazy year. I’ve had a lot of stuff going on, that’s for sure. Lot of drama going on with people I know, lot of drama for me. The one person I spent the last 3 months with had to leave New York, and one of my friends from a bar near work is moving to Madison. I’ve been hanging out a lot at home, though I did hang out last night for Nick’s birthday. We had a great time :). Afterwards I went down to Key Bar and met up with some friends. I’m completely exhausted right now though, but I can’t really say I had a stressful day. I spent the whole day watching the braves games and the Masters!

I hadn’t had a chance to blog about it yet, but I was so happy to see Bruce Sutter inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. I love Bruce. He was one of the nicest guys I’ve ever met. His induction speech indicated that; reading the transcript was like a who’s who for good guys in baseball.

I’m at a time in my life where I don’t miss playing baseball any more, but I do miss going to the ball park every day. I miss seeing all the special people that do the jobs off the field, the people that make a baseball player’s job easier as you go through the long season. So to traveling secretaries Bill Acree and CJ Cherre, clubhouse guys Yosh Kawano, Butch Yakeman, Buddy Bates, Casey Stephensen, trainers Tony Garofalo, Gene Geiselman, Dave Pursley, Jeff Porter, Doctors Stan London and Joe Chandler, and to all the visiting clubbies, I’m truly grateful for all that you’ve done. You guys were more important to my career than anyone will ever know. I’d like to say thank you to all my Major League coaches and managers. Without you, all this wouldn’t have been possible.

Its nice to see my dad got a shout out, but also Bill Acree (one of the most dependable guys I know – throughout the years he’s done a lot for us), Jeff Porter, and of course Dave Pursley. I grew up around these guys, and they devoted large portions of their lives to the Braves. Good to know that their (largely unseen) efforts are appreciated.

Well the final I had today was pretty tough. I definitely missed something on it, but I’m pretty pissed off about it because the only reason I missed it was because the rules were formatted poorly in the statutory sources manual he gave us. Looks like he pretty much cut and pasted a PDF from the EU Journal, so the page breaks are all off. Well I was looking at the right statute, but apparently the last section is after about 5 blank lines and a title/page number sitting in the middle of the page. If I’d have known it wasn’t the end of the statute, I probably would have factored that into my answer. Oh well, give people a computer and they turn into a moron. It was an important part of the question, but there were other parts of the exam.

In other news, what the hell happened last night? We were up 6-1 and Farnsworth managed to blow it twice. Talk about a real heartbreaker. We got tied up in the 9th, and then finally lost in the 18th. Its just ridiculous. Why the front office won’t put up the money to get a decent bullpen, I’ll never know. We had one of the worst bullpens in the majors this year. I just don’t get it. I’m so sick of watching the Braves win the division and lose in the first round. Bobby Cox is the best manager in the game, but even he can’t keep up what he’s been doing through the post-season.

Well Today is do or die for the Braves, and tomorrow I have a final. Thats some luck huh? Oh well, hopefully by 10pm CET I’ll know whether or not they won. On the other hand, I’m feeling fine for the final.

Technorati Tags: Baseball, School

Well the last couple days have been pretty fun. We went out both nights. Wednesday there was a party at a friends house, and last night a bunch of us went out to this place called “Music Bar.

Well the Braves lost last night, but the real story is what happened to the Red Sox. I mean seriously, they were partying like it was 1986. Don’t worry Tony, I’m sure they’ll forgive you. It only took like 18 years to forget about Buckner (if you can say they forgot about him).

Technorati Tags: Baseball

Well the teams are set, and it is now time for post-season baseball! The Braves won their division (for the 14th year in a row), and are facing off in the first round against the Astros.

I’ve got mixed feelings about this series. The Astros pitching is lights out — Clemens, Oswalt and Pettitte can throw all five games if they want to. Thing is, Clemens record this year sucks because they Astros just don’t score runs. The other thing to consider is that the Braves are 5-1 against the Astros this year. The most astonishing stat is that the ‘Stros batted .175 against Atlanta this season. Finally, the Braves are tied with the Yankees for 2nd best home record in the Majors (Behind the Bo’ Sox).

The first game of the series promises to be lights out — Andy Pettitte throwing against John Smoltz.

ESPN is predicting that the Astros will win the series in 4 games, but I just don’t see that happening. I know the ‘Stros have an imposing pitching staff, but you can’t win games if you don’t score any runs!

Much to my chagrin however, I will not be able to watch games live this year as I’m in Budapest. This will be the first post-season that I’m completely missing.

Technorati Tags: Baseball

My, oh my, there is simply so much to talk about!

First, the Braves just clinched their 14th straight division title. I can’t say I’m surprised. I don’t know what to expect from the playoffs this year. I think we’re probably going to have to face Houston. I certainly hope that we don’t fizzle out in the first round like we have done the last several years. I mean we’re chocked full of rookies this year, but I worry about our pitching. I hope Smoltzy is feeling better by the first round — we need him in the playoffs. Our problem the last couple years was that we just couldn’t get him the ball with a lead!

Second, I started school.  I have many hours of class a day, and I barely understand the professors. Oh well, I’m sure I’ll be more comfortable in the next week. It’s just very hard to get back into the swing of things after so long on the road. The other problem is that I know nothing about EU law. All of us Americans are in pretty much the same boat though.

Third, I’ve been doing a lot of reading recently, most of it in the whole thriller genre (a la Dan Brown). I read all four Dan Brown books (The Da Vinci Code, Angels and Demons, Deception Point, and Digital Fortress), and The Rule of Four. The first time I read the Da Vinci code I wasn’t impressed, but after reading The Rule of Four, I realized just how bad novels in this genre can be. I know that Rule is supposed to be a compelling read, but I’ve got to say that I wasn’t impressed at all. The writing was poor at best, and the plot was completely implausible. I didn’t go to Princeton, but I can make a fair guess that people don’t sit around doing the things the characters in Rule did. I mean seriously, who speaks 6 languages (including, Greek, Latin and Hieroglyph) during their sophomore year.

Unfortunately, the Dan Brown books, while light-years ahead, are hardly literary masterpieces. The plot in the novels, while being implausible, is at least entertaining. Unfortunately, the plot in all four novels are virtually the same. Government agencies, secret societies, the Catholic Church. They’re all the same. The characters as well. Rachel Sexton? Give me a break. Beautiful young intel worker, daughter of the foremost presidential candidate and aide to the president? Are you kidding me? The characters are simply paper thin, they have no dimension to them at all. After two novels about Robert Langdon, I know nothing about him other than the fact the he used to be a swimmer and can get every woman he wants. He’s like the guy’s version of Nora Roberts.

Don’t get me wrong, I thought the novels were entertaining. I just don’t see that writing them can be that hard. I think I should start researching an as of yet unnamed book. If I never write it, who cares? I’ll just start accumulating random knowledge about secret societies, religions, and technology. Eventually I’ll come up with a plot or tire of the exercise. I’m going to do most of my research/writing on a wiki that I’m running locally on my laptop. Maybe I’ll put it online when I get back to the states (or maybe I’ll be sick of it by then). I’ve been running mediawiki on my apple. One pain though — CEU has blocked CVS, so I can’t download the source for the 1.6 branch. I know that fink has a cvs proxy support, but I don’t know how the hell to use it. I don’t have a visible proxy here, they just block ports if they don’t know what they do. My first step is going to be to try to get CEU to open up the SVN and CVS ports.

In another random note, I saw Trek came out with their bikes for next year, but I don’t see the SSLx. I wonder if the Madone 5.9 SSL is the same as the SSLx. I know that the TTx is there. I also don’t see anything about a Lance bike (like the Live Strong bike). Their mountain bike selection is just amazing now. The Session 10 has like 210 mm of travel in the front! Thats just unbelievable! I’d like to get some kind of mountain bike some time, but I’m just not sure what I’d go with. I mean something that rugged is almost certainly a downhill bike, which I’m less interested in than an all-mountain bike or a hard-tail.

The other thing that intrigues me that I saw mentioned by the Fat Cyclist (once yesterday and once a month ago) is the track bike he just got. They’re not that expensive, and real men ride fixed gears. Okay, maybe thats not true, but I certainly think that fixed gears and single speeds are rock solid. They give you a connection to the road that you don’t get from anything else. Unfortunately, using them on a group ride isn’t very practical. Hard to keep up on a climb when everyone else is riding a geared bike. So many bikes, so little time/money/space! I’d like to get a mountain bike, I’d like a road bike, I’d like a single speed or fixed gear bike. I already have a hybrid. The thing is, I really don’t need the best of everything. The fixed/single speed might have to be last on the list. I’m sure I could get a cheap road bike that I could train on. I know Trek sells one for like 600 bucks (the 1000) that has a lot of bang for the buck. As far as mountain biking, I need to build up my legs before I really go out there and do something crazy.

Technorati Tags: Baseball, Books, Cycling, School

ESPN.com - MLB - Recap - Braves at Giants

I’m absolutely ecstatic at the fact that we are within a half a game. I thought it was only a matter of time. The Braves simply have the best organization in baseball in terms of operating within a constrained environment. Certainly the Yanks (and even the Sox to some extent) have unlimited money, so their operating constraints are different. There is just something about John Schuerholz, Frank Wren, Bobby Cox, and the rest of the gang. I also happen to think they have an incredible medical staff, but I might be biased.

Of course living in DC, I’m sad to see the Nats falling apart the way they are. I don’t have any idea what’s going on with Livan. That is just ridiculous. He’s retiring because he’s mad at something, but he won’t tell anyone what, and he’s going to have a knee surgery he doesn’t need? Where have I seen this before? That kind of behavior is just ridiculous for a professional athlete. You get paid a lot of money to play the game. Deal with it.

Technorati Tags: Baseball