I don't follow college basketball in any real form outside of the occasional glance towards a story or two on a news website during the regular season. I did know that Kentucky, who's on CBS at this moment, has made it through this entire season undefeated, and looks to close out the tournament as such, the first undefeated champion since Bobby Knight and Indiana in the '70s.
This is the time of the year that bettors and television hounds call "March Madness", when the field of now 68 college basketball teams get set up into a bracket and then duke it out in single elimination to eventually find a winner. This is the road to the Final Four.
Anyway, last night, a Friday night, after getting back home after dinner, we put the one game on that was on free television. They go by fast, and we don't have a real rooting interest, besides keeping an eye on the brackets we filled out. The game was an 8-seed versus a 9-seed: San Diego State versus St. Johns University.
SDSU is in the same conference as Cal Poly and Long Beach State, so if we feel a twinge of proximity-rooting, as happens from time to time, we'd be rooting for the Aztecs. St. Johns is in Queens, and, like with LIU-Brooklyn, we also root for New York City teams.
This game was back and forth, and San Diego State won. The teams are stationed in the South region, for reasons I'll be hard-pressed to understand, in an arena in Charlotte, North Carolina.
San Diego versus Queens in Charlotte.
The arena was nearly empty. I've been hearing that there are many arenas this year where guys can't give tickets away. They're also saying that the fans of college basketball are starting to align closely with two other sports' fans: golf and baseball: trending older and white.
There was a sports score tracker updating the other games going on on other channels. One game was 15-9 with six minutes left in the first half. This year the talk has also been about how bad the basketball product has been, how boring and brick-filled the games really are. First team to 55 wins? Even Obama mentioned the, er, "pace" of the college games.
Big tournament of occasionally bad product being played in sad, nearly empty arenas.
The Final Four and Final will be full and exciting, we're all pretty sure.
Saturday, March 21, 2015
Tuesday, March 17, 2015
Happy St. Paddy's 2015
I've got a brisket at home corning, and it may need to be cut in half to be boiled. The weather has finally cooled off, down to the mid 70s at least, so the prospect of boiling cauldrons of water isn't such a bad idea.
In the past on this Irish Day I've oscillated between wishing someone would pinch me to toasting an animated mutant clone.
Finally got a bowler, and got my lappy to work for this host at the J-O-B. Also, on a bit of a day-cation for the day, having been ousted from Sherweeziland for a colleague's need (hence the periodic table in the background):
First time I've been sick in a while, and it came on strong this past Sunday. At least the corned brisket is large enough that it should be able to last until I'm better...
Happy St. Patrick's Day!
In the past on this Irish Day I've oscillated between wishing someone would pinch me to toasting an animated mutant clone.
Finally got a bowler, and got my lappy to work for this host at the J-O-B. Also, on a bit of a day-cation for the day, having been ousted from Sherweeziland for a colleague's need (hence the periodic table in the background):
Happy St. Patrick's Day!
Saturday, March 14, 2015
Happy Pi Day
Why not?
March 14th is becoming known as Pi Day, and not in the nerdy circles I run. I posted a Happy Pi Day post on the first Pi Day I had on this blog (3/14/2010), but now my mom is explaining it people she meets at the blood bank.
The ignorant blood bank worker had mentioned that my mom was the third person who'd wished her a "Happy Pi Day".
That seems more significant---ladies on a Saturday running errands mentioning in passing a mathematical/calendar oddity---than math nerds spreading the math-gospel to each other a dozen years ago.
The "cool" people beat the "squares" in the 50s-60s-70s era and the "nerds" have beat the "jocks" in the 80s-90s-00s era.
I'll let Dan lobby for the May 4th Star Wars Day recognition.
Also,
Happy Pi Day 2011
Happy Pi Day 2012
Happy Pi Day 2013
Happy Pi Day 2014
March 14th is becoming known as Pi Day, and not in the nerdy circles I run. I posted a Happy Pi Day post on the first Pi Day I had on this blog (3/14/2010), but now my mom is explaining it people she meets at the blood bank.
The ignorant blood bank worker had mentioned that my mom was the third person who'd wished her a "Happy Pi Day".
That seems more significant---ladies on a Saturday running errands mentioning in passing a mathematical/calendar oddity---than math nerds spreading the math-gospel to each other a dozen years ago.
The "cool" people beat the "squares" in the 50s-60s-70s era and the "nerds" have beat the "jocks" in the 80s-90s-00s era.
I'll let Dan lobby for the May 4th Star Wars Day recognition.
Also,
Happy Pi Day 2011
Happy Pi Day 2012
Happy Pi Day 2013
Happy Pi Day 2014
Wednesday, March 11, 2015
Lousy Smarch Weather
The weather may be hellacious around the country, but down here, in the confines of los Diez Sur, it's been between the sixties and the eighties for months. Ryan Talyat, an old running mate, was visiting and reminded us of the perfect Simpsons line, "Lousy Smarch Weather," with a photograph of the thermometer of his automobile's center console: 91. It was March 7th and he was in northern San Diego county.
Anyway, in another sense, this has been a lousy Smarch, in that we lost Sam Simon:
Anyway, in another sense, this has been a lousy Smarch, in that we lost Sam Simon:
(Not my picture; thanks photographer!)
Sam Simon was one of the three forces behind the cultural phenomenon and comedy institution we call The Simpsons.
Cartoonist Matt Groening sold a pitch he made up at the last minute while waiting for his meeting with the Fox executives, James L. Brooks used his storytelling savvy to find the emotional heart of any episode he was asked to participate in the production of, and Sam Simon was the leader that flushed out the other characters, the town, and was instrumental in hiring the original staff that gave the show that edge from the start.
Oh, and Sam Simon used his own cartoonist background to smooth out Groening's sketches into the more recognizable characters we have today.
His relationship with Groening was, eh, "strained". He never felt like he got enough credit. In a paraphrase of an anecdote from a fantastic oral history of the origin of the show, somebody was trying to give Simon some perspective. They told him that Groening's story was better, and who's to argue that? One one side you have talented and successful rich-kid television writer and producer who scores another hit; but the other side? Smarty cartoonist goes from searching the couch for change to buy burgers to King of Television. That's America, baby!
Anyway, after the fourth season, in 1993, Simon was out, but was given a piece of the lucrative syndication, VHS, and DVD rights. He'd been making in the ballpark of $10 million a year from the Simpsons. From 1993 until this March when he died.
Cancer.
He'd spent plenty of time finding charities to donate his Simpsons cash to. Near the very end he was making plans to get rid of it all. Very public plans. He has vegan food plans for inner city kids and he supports PETA and anti-whaling organizations among very many other things.
Anyway, during an interview conversation near the end, he discussed his life. To paraphrase, he said he never felt cheated by cancer, that he'd spent the last thirty years doing whatever he wanted wherever he wanted while being supplied with a nearly endless supply of money.
Not too bad.
On the The Simpsons "138th Episode Spectacular", a clipshow episode from season 7, there is a scene where they show fakey photos of the three co-creators: Groening, Brooks, and Simon. Groening was shown as a skinny eye-patch-wearing gun-holstered whacko saluting some unseen thing; Brooks was a portly mustachioed man in a top had, smiling and clenching bags of cash.
The producers, many of whom had been hired by Simon and had remained close, told him they were going to put a slide in for him saying "File Lost" or some other joke in that vein.
He sent them the drawing they used in the episode:
Monday, February 23, 2015
Disneyland in February
When a person is young and lucky enough to get the chance to go to Disneyland, the experience is as magical as it is exhausting for the adults.
When a person is lucky enough to live in Southern California and get an expenses-paid trip to the dual parks in Anaheim named for the most famous animator in America (even if he wasn't a particularly good animator), that person goes. And wears a T-shirt in February while the Worst Winter in Ages pummels half the nation.
My Auntie Peg: (Eyebrows raised as I saunter in in my tie-dye t-shirt)
Me: "Well, I figured right now is the coldest part of the day..."
Auntie Peg: (Nods with a smile)
I've written before about the Ladies' Trip to Disneyland and our various tagging-alongs. Back in 2011 it was in October and a big to-do. We all wore neon-green shirts. Not getting lost that day, I tell you. Man, that day was hot and crowded, and the half-bottle of gin I drank the night before made all that waiting around easy and palatable. We surprised the guest of honor the evening before at the hotel.
In 2013, it was again in October, but this time we all wore baseball jerseys and had a the surprise near the entrances. No gin, not as crowded, nice surprise.
This year the party was moved back to February for reasons to which I was not privy. Both the Lady of Honor, the elder of the trio of "Ladies" mentioned before, and Corrie (who's birthday was earlier in the week) got to wear the official birthday buttons. This was amusing more for the Lady than it was for Corrie, because the Lady's actual birthday is in September, and she was discombobulated with occasion upon being wished Happy Birthday.
Those folks are very serious about acknowledging those buttons.
This time the surprise was at the hotel where my brother and his wife and her sister, and eventually everyone else besides me and Corrie, were staying. This time we wore tie-dye shirts, created by Lupita, Holly, and Dan. And maybe Carol. And Norman...the details were lost on me.
The shirts are badass.
It was crowded, but not too bad. The weather was nice, but not glorious. But hey, t-shirts in February...who's complaining?
We got to ride a few rides we hadn't done before, two namely in California Adventure, the park that takes up the old parking lot. ("Remember: we're in the Itchy lot.") Here's a picture from being on line for the Cars ride, which represented our--Corrie's and mine--first experience with it:
Earlier in the day we got to ride, for the first time in many years (it always seems broken down), the Indiana Jones ride. Here's my mom and Auntie Bobbi, with Corrie mildly photo-bombing:
Eventually we ate at the fancy Carthay Circle restaurant in California Adventure, and Corrie and 'Pita made sure to pay for some of the meal.
I was talking with my wards about how sometimes "days off" aren't truly "off days" and showed them this picture. I was pretty sure they wouldn't be able to see my Jameson-neat. "Is that your brother!?!" "You guys look the same!" were quickly followed by, "Ooh, who's that?"
That's my cousin. He's thirty.
After dinner Corrie and I finally rode the Tower of Terror. I'm not sure why I had avoided it in recent trips. I remember it was closed on multiple occasions...maybe someone wanted to skip it... Now though, it is absolutely on my list of will-ride-if-open.
Tie dye: fantastic. Seeing the fam: fantastic. Skipping the torbutrol wasn't the worst idea after all.
Damn those measles...they kept Norm and Holly and the boys away. Missed you guys. The shirts and bags were fantastic.
When a person is lucky enough to live in Southern California and get an expenses-paid trip to the dual parks in Anaheim named for the most famous animator in America (even if he wasn't a particularly good animator), that person goes. And wears a T-shirt in February while the Worst Winter in Ages pummels half the nation.
My Auntie Peg: (Eyebrows raised as I saunter in in my tie-dye t-shirt)
Me: "Well, I figured right now is the coldest part of the day..."
Auntie Peg: (Nods with a smile)
I've written before about the Ladies' Trip to Disneyland and our various tagging-alongs. Back in 2011 it was in October and a big to-do. We all wore neon-green shirts. Not getting lost that day, I tell you. Man, that day was hot and crowded, and the half-bottle of gin I drank the night before made all that waiting around easy and palatable. We surprised the guest of honor the evening before at the hotel.
In 2013, it was again in October, but this time we all wore baseball jerseys and had a the surprise near the entrances. No gin, not as crowded, nice surprise.
This year the party was moved back to February for reasons to which I was not privy. Both the Lady of Honor, the elder of the trio of "Ladies" mentioned before, and Corrie (who's birthday was earlier in the week) got to wear the official birthday buttons. This was amusing more for the Lady than it was for Corrie, because the Lady's actual birthday is in September, and she was discombobulated with occasion upon being wished Happy Birthday.
Those folks are very serious about acknowledging those buttons.
This time the surprise was at the hotel where my brother and his wife and her sister, and eventually everyone else besides me and Corrie, were staying. This time we wore tie-dye shirts, created by Lupita, Holly, and Dan. And maybe Carol. And Norman...the details were lost on me.
The shirts are badass.
It was crowded, but not too bad. The weather was nice, but not glorious. But hey, t-shirts in February...who's complaining?
We got to ride a few rides we hadn't done before, two namely in California Adventure, the park that takes up the old parking lot. ("Remember: we're in the Itchy lot.") Here's a picture from being on line for the Cars ride, which represented our--Corrie's and mine--first experience with it:
Earlier in the day we got to ride, for the first time in many years (it always seems broken down), the Indiana Jones ride. Here's my mom and Auntie Bobbi, with Corrie mildly photo-bombing:
Eventually we ate at the fancy Carthay Circle restaurant in California Adventure, and Corrie and 'Pita made sure to pay for some of the meal.
I was talking with my wards about how sometimes "days off" aren't truly "off days" and showed them this picture. I was pretty sure they wouldn't be able to see my Jameson-neat. "Is that your brother!?!" "You guys look the same!" were quickly followed by, "Ooh, who's that?"
That's my cousin. He's thirty.
After dinner Corrie and I finally rode the Tower of Terror. I'm not sure why I had avoided it in recent trips. I remember it was closed on multiple occasions...maybe someone wanted to skip it... Now though, it is absolutely on my list of will-ride-if-open.
Tie dye: fantastic. Seeing the fam: fantastic. Skipping the torbutrol wasn't the worst idea after all.
Damn those measles...they kept Norm and Holly and the boys away. Missed you guys. The shirts and bags were fantastic.
Monday, February 16, 2015
"Pale Blue Dot" Anniversary
We like to celebrate Carl Sagan around these parts, and this past Saturday was the 25th anniversary of Voyager 1's last turn back to Earth to take one final picture before the camera systems were powered down.
Carl Sagan made the suggestion that Voyager 1, because of it's trajectory taking it above the orbital plane of the planets in our solar system, take one last photograph of Earth. There wouldn't be any real scientific purpose, since it would appear far too small to discern any detail. The philosophical implications, Sagan argued, would be significant.
Many other Voyager team members argued that it would be too dangerous for the photography instruments to take direct pictures of the sun. Eventually Sagan'c camp prevailed, and Voyager turned and snapped a series of pictures that have come to be known as the Family Portrait. Stitched together a viewer can get a sense of the relative positions of each of the planets. The Family Portrait itself is a maddening collection of black squares with solar flares disturbing a few exposures, but a sense of emptiness persists.
I say that Sagan's camp "eventually" won because he made the suggestion in 1980, and they decided to make it happen in 1989, and only by 1990 had the equipment ready to turn back and take the shot. Afterwards, all photographic equipment was powered down as the satellite would not be coming into close proximity with any other large object for the duration of it's icy power cells. It needed to save it's juice for other data collecting, seeing as how it is the furthest man-made object from Earth, the only thing we've ever sent beyond the solar system.
Here you go, the furthest photograph from earth, from over three-billion miles away...that's us, the pale blue dot in the orange band of refracted light caused by the camera lens:
Carl Sagan made the suggestion that Voyager 1, because of it's trajectory taking it above the orbital plane of the planets in our solar system, take one last photograph of Earth. There wouldn't be any real scientific purpose, since it would appear far too small to discern any detail. The philosophical implications, Sagan argued, would be significant.
Many other Voyager team members argued that it would be too dangerous for the photography instruments to take direct pictures of the sun. Eventually Sagan'c camp prevailed, and Voyager turned and snapped a series of pictures that have come to be known as the Family Portrait. Stitched together a viewer can get a sense of the relative positions of each of the planets. The Family Portrait itself is a maddening collection of black squares with solar flares disturbing a few exposures, but a sense of emptiness persists.
I say that Sagan's camp "eventually" won because he made the suggestion in 1980, and they decided to make it happen in 1989, and only by 1990 had the equipment ready to turn back and take the shot. Afterwards, all photographic equipment was powered down as the satellite would not be coming into close proximity with any other large object for the duration of it's icy power cells. It needed to save it's juice for other data collecting, seeing as how it is the furthest man-made object from Earth, the only thing we've ever sent beyond the solar system.
Here you go, the furthest photograph from earth, from over three-billion miles away...that's us, the pale blue dot in the orange band of refracted light caused by the camera lens:
Friday, February 13, 2015
Happy Friday the 13th
Turns out this is one of our year's three Friday the 13th's. Because of the nature of the 28-day month and mathematically modular systems, next month will also have a Friday the 13th.
November is the home month of the third Lucky Friday.
I switched to cold water for shaving, seriously contemplated taking feline medicine to Disneyland for recreational purposes, and find myself either too busy or too tired to get to this thing as often as I'd like.
There will be new content here soon-ish, though.
November is the home month of the third Lucky Friday.
I switched to cold water for shaving, seriously contemplated taking feline medicine to Disneyland for recreational purposes, and find myself either too busy or too tired to get to this thing as often as I'd like.
There will be new content here soon-ish, though.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)