"...when you live in a godless universe of pain. If the universe was ordered, Neil Armstrong should be the first Neil on Google."

This Week in Comics

Yawn, ask me if I care? Is this the pax-Whedon? Did he bring us this far along only to go out with a whimper? This issue isn't terribly compelling as the last few really haven't been all that exciting. Guess this underlying storyline that has been running through all the issues really isn't all that memorable. I mean "Beak World" and the return of Colossus, and then Colossus is the one to destroy the world? Is this like Jean Grey lite? Well shouldn't complain...once Whedon goes...no more X-men for me...unless they find a decent writer again!

Is this a comic? Or did DC become a short story publisher? Is this suppose to be some leading edge new world thing? Alright, Grant Morrison, is a fantastic writer but this is a comic...let him write a short story elsewhere. I couldn't bring myself to get through this. My excitement for Grant's Bats is slowing dwindling....good bye

2006 Academy Awards

Whoopee....I used to love the awards...I used to see most of the movies...have some favorites...root for some. Love the pre-show, the dresses, and the "Hollywood" atmosphere. Great stuff but lately I just don't see the movies. I still keep abreast of the films...read about them but seem to fallen off the bandwagon when actually seeing them in a theater. Why is it so hard to see a movie? This year I saw none of the nominated films. I did guess correctly on 12 of the awards! (my families annual event). My 4 year, who can't read, guessed 4 correctly (?). I was glad for Martin...and totally impressed by the triumvirate of great film makers (Spielberg, Coppola, and Lucas). Surprised by how suddenly the academy is accepting of black actors. It truly is amazing how un-white the Academy awards have become. Loved Ellen, thought she did great. Overall interesting night but nothing truly remarkable.

The New Yorker - The Orgami Lab

Basically check this website:

http://www.langorigami.com/

Wow! I have a pseudo fetish for things Japanese. I mean I love haiku. manga, Star Blazers, and orgami has always fascinated me. But after reading this article...unbelievable. The fold patterns and the creations. Daunting!

James Hansen - First Man

Okay give me a hard time, but since my revisit to the Kennedy Space Center I have looked a little deeper into the whole space program thing. Realize as a kid growing up I was a NASA junkie...Space Camp baby! In addition I discovered Alibris and ordered a bunch of used books. Having always been a big favorite of Neil (I have my reasons ;-)), I thought this would be a perfect book to find out about the man. First off, great biography...very in-depth, very thorough. Although a major complaint is that it would have been nice to have more additional comments from the man being written about. But of course this wasn't an autobiography, just an authorized biography (as I have mentioned in previous blogs my favorite astronaut book is Michael Collins' Carrying the Fire).

For a true look at what it took to get to the moon and how it "felt" to go then what Collins wrote is your book. I put felt in quotations because I really wanted to know what it was like for a man to be the first on the moon. If you are wondering what Neil thought well don't read this book. 600 pages and the one thing that comes to me throughout this book is how wholly unresponsive Neil truly is (was) about any personnel feelings about going to the moon. This man was so guarded it was if he let loose on any "feeling" answer he might say something too personal or explode. Can someone be so analytical, so careful in speech that it prevents feelings from being explained (god how did wife stay married to him for so long?) How can anyone be so guarded? I am shocked, throughout this entire book, how totally blank Neil truly was. Either it was a massive front or this man is completely devoid of any feelings. I was just amazed how page after page you read about this man and how he utterly failed to tell us how he felt as a human being who first stepped foot on another planet. Give us something, throw us a bone, there has got to be something...even the most scientific person has some feelings, emotions, or thoughts. Neil has absolutely none. I didn't expect NASA to put a poet on the moon first and I'm glad Gene Cernan wasn't it, but you'd think that the first man would open up about something as fantastic as this. Doesn't he understand the human need about hearing a story. This was such a grand story...I understood the pressure...but once it was all over, once you were home safe, don't you think you would have reflected on your journey...just a little bit? It is unfortunate that of the 12 men who visited and walked on the surface of the moon, how they truly have failed as storytellers. Only Alan Bean has shown some personnel feelings through his paintings...perhaps the others just don't have the imagination to comprehend what they were a part of. Neil in all of his analytical abilities never gave his left side of his brain the opportunity to truly feel. The greatest journey of all time has been dissected, written about, diagrammed, engineered, but never truly told as a story. Perhaps I should rewatch "From the Earth to the Moon (?). I don't remember the Apollo 11 feature. Which is probably fitting because even after almost 40 years the whole moon thing just seems like a dream anyway. But I have rambled on about that so I won't repeat that tirade.

California Dreaming

Had to travel to California this week for work. My first trip west for my job. I like the state. I lived in California for about 3 years and grew to love the laid back style of the state. Whenever I hear about the east coast bias I definately understand it. California is an enormous state with alot of beauty. Haven't been north of San Francisco and that is alot of the state I would love to see especially Mount Shasta. LA sort of grows on you but I definately could do without the traffic. San Diego is nice but not my favorite places. I love Half Moon Bay, just south of San Fran. California's laid back attitude is just something you have to experience.

Fantasyland - Sam Walker

Well since the baseball season is right around the corner, it's time to start thinking fantasy baseball. It has been a struggle over the last few years. I've been good at picking pitching but can't seem to get an offense together. Anyway bought this book last year but since fantasy ball was already in play I decided to skip it. Anyway classic story about the ups and downs of fantasy baseball. I was glad to see that others go through the same insanity. Although spending $50,000 on coming up with a team seems a bit excessive. I have been a big fan of the simple computer fantasy 5 x 5 league althought Roto seems to be a better more personal version.

Anyway I did have some issues with the book especially Ron Shandler's gripes with SABR. Being a member of SABR I don't think there is any problems with doing fantasy research. SABR is certainly not some high and mighty group purposing leaving a researcher out of the mix. Plenty of SABR researchers do consider projections to be in the realm of baseball research. It is too bad Ron didn't feel welcome. Perhaps he should give us a try again.

As I have thought in the past and what Sam says and I quote, "...51 percent of the final outcome. In other words, avoiding injuries and picking up sleepers was, at least in this league, more then half the battle. To Sig, this proves the that the Tout Wars championship turned heavily on one factor: luck. No matter how bright you are, he says, nobody on earth can routinely predict these extreme statistical deviations."

Finally Sam discusses a good analogy to the world of fantasy baseball especially between the statheads and the scouts. It is a football story detailing how the football is placed on the field after the ball carrier is tackled. The "spot" always seems to be a roll of the dice but then when the chains come out a 10 yard chain (is this why the US will never change to the metric system?) that isn't a finelly calibrated instrument is used to determine to a millimeter if the ball has past the first down marker. The analogy (or is it a metaphor) is that scouts preach the value of a good spot while the statheads are convinced you just need a more accurate chain. Neither of these two will ever truly get it right...you actually need to have them both get it right. "In the end, baseball is a game that turns on human tendencies, and human tendencies are fluid."

Final thing that made me go hmmm was that at the end of the season he gave teams a roto scoring and compared how they would do and what do you know the teams finished pretty closing in order of their records...so maybe us statheads aren't completely off the mark!

2007 SI Swim Issue

Ahhh the rite of spring or at least the end of January surprise. Have to admit I miss the old days when the swimsuit issue was just part of the magazine and not an entire issue. Just those 15 - 20 pages of great photos instead of watered down. It was more special and the models were all memorable. I even remember my first time...it was my freshman year in high school and Elle graced the cover. What a beauty she was....my first infatuation. Who knew she'd be on the next three covers pretty much covering my entire high school career. Wow what a powerhouse. Elle will pretty much always brighten my January!

Colorado Rockies Over/Under

Vegas came out with its over/unders for the 2007 season and pegged the Roxs at 74.5. Yikes for a team that won 76 last year that number is kind of low especially after I ran the numbers and got victories of 89, 81, and 85. Oh what should I do? I had promised myself to take the under this year but 74.5? Come on this is the season the Roxs are supposed to grow up...GenR becomes reall ball players and us fans are to expect a 74.5 win season...yikes...Vegas don't like GenR! Now granted the NL West certainly got better but how did the Rockies not get even a little bit better? Right now I think I have to go with over!

This Week in Comics

Well this is an oldie but I did pick it up after reading the book, "Private Wars". I enjoyed the book, enjoyed the simplicity of the art and story. Sometimes comics get lost in the art or the story and the two never meet. I much prefer a good all around story with art that complements the story and adds a bit. Anyway I highly recommend Rucka's work











Why oh why do I even bother? Nothing new to report...still an unknown story line with some T&A art but nothing remotely interesting. Please stop me...I can't go on...oh yeah issue 2 of Brave and the Bold has Green Lantern and Supergirl...why?















This mini-series continues to be a good story. Good art, good story. Throw in that I can remember month to month what is going on indicates that the story is meaninful and not some drab let's make some cheap cash trying to cash in on some popular character or Wolverine!















Get back to me on this one. Issue 1 was the set-up let's see if it can continue.



















The story is starting to fall apart a bit. I liked the white event and what it did and some character development but not sure what this castle ancient society bit is about. Having grown up a bit with the New Universe, I can see the characters although don't remember any ancient society...and where is PsiForce? Come on throw me a bone....













An epilogue&@#(*! Why? Why are you wasting my money? What was this drivel about...it was bad enough how the clone saga ended the first time then you throw this bit at us? Can you say worthless filler...ughhhhh!

Private Wars - Greg Rucka

Reading like a mad man or someone who travels alot and has nothing better to do but read. Greg Rucka has been on my radar screen for sometime as he is a comic book writer. I've read some of his work but never anything really stood out. I had seen some of books and noted that if I got the chance I would read one well the chance came and this was it. Tara Chace (I won't call her the female 007) is Minder One, a pseudo british secret service. Think Alias but no rimbaldi. I had heard good things about the main character and she didn't disappoint. She actually was a character not just some superficial cut out character. The story was fast paced and the final twist was a bit surprising...I thoroughly enjoyed it. So much so that I got the first TPB comic fron Oni and also got the first book before this one.

2007 USA Cross Country Championships

Great day, great races. Saw my first USA Cross Country meet and loved it. Arrived just when the masters races were finishing. Saw the Junion men and women and the Open men and women. Fantastic 2K loop course, mud everywhere, and some great competive races especially the open mens race. Deena Kastor blew away the other open women and a young 15 year old blew away the 19 and under junior women's race. Well pretty spectacular for a sophomore in high school especially blowing away 19 year old college freshmen! Junior mens was okay but really nothing spectacular. The big dog race featuring the open men was like seeing a University of Colorado alumni meet. The top 3 finishers were all CU runners. Alan Culpepper just ran a great race and put on some surge from hell and just blew the pack away. Just an all around great day at the races. You especially had to love the ditch mud pit jump..great stuff!

John Williams vs Mozart

Is John Williams this generations Mozart? Just something I thought of while listening to something. I mean back in Mozart's time they didn't have movies but they did have opera and Mozard did do operas. You have to understand there is no research in this just me making conjecture. I mean John Williams has scored Jaws, Star Wars, Superman, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Jurassic Park, Schindler's List, and Harry Potter. He has been nominated 45 times for an oscar and has won it 5 times. I tend to think that Mozart is put on this high level but what composers do we have today. Our movies this century's operas? In a few hundred years will Star Wars be remembered more for its music then the movie? Just some rambling thoughts from me....hmmmmm?

51 Birch Street

The Joy of XM! I have had my XM for about a 2 months now and it makes my commute tolerable especially in the morning because of the Bob Edwards Show. I always enjoyed Bob when he was on NPR and have missed him since. His morning show on XM is great. He has plenty of time to interview people and provide a great story. This morning there was a thought provoking story about a film maker (documentary) about his father and mother. The basis of the story was that his mother passed away and his Dad after three weeks annouced he was marrying a former secretary. Obviously this came as a surprise to the family. The seed of the ideal moved forward when the family began cleaning the house they came across their mother's diaries. Over 30 years of handwritten thoughts detailing the trials and tribulations of a woman coming to age in the 60 and70s. Being a parent now and seeing how difficult it is being an adult it is always interesting to think about your parents not as you see them but has people. Oftentimes you really don't think of your parents has individuals with goals and what not. It is difficult to see them any other way then what you have always imagined. I guess with death they take on a different perspective. Something to think about before your parents have moved on.

Athanasius Kircher?

Interesting side note article in the New Yorker this week about 17th century renaissance man (?). Never heard of the man but he has been compared to Leonardo da Vinci for his inventiveness and the breadth and depth of his work. Did a little research and found that he wrote books on Egyptology, geology, music theory, magnetism and even studied malaria and the plague. Fascinating study for a 17th century. He was a believer of the syncretic approach (or consisting of the attempt to reconcile disparate or contradictory beliefs, often while melding practices of various schools of thought). Overall an interesting man who seems to have been a "one-man intellectual clearing house" but with the changing of times seemed to have been swallowed up by rationalism and Descartes. Funny how people of the past seemed to be rediscovered. Umberto Eco seems have written about him in his novel The Island of the Day Before.

P.S. Although since I published this article I received my MAKE magazine (Volume 9) and what should be added as an insert to the magazine? Yes a Athanasius Kircher booklet (leaflet?) detailing his construction of a magnetic clock...weird...I seem to see a Gladwell tipping point going on with the Athanasius Kircher meme...

Baseball???

Spring Training is right around the corner and I thought I would do some very basic unscientific research to determine how many wins the Roxs might have this year. My basic every day line up is as follows:

C Torrealba
1B Helton
2B Matsui
3B Atkins
SS Tulowitzki
LF Holliday
CF Taveras
RF Hawpe

Bench
Carroll
Barmes
Sullivan
Iannetta

Using ZiPS, Chone, and Marcels projections this line-up normalized to at bats based on the average of the last five years (approximately 5542) gives a runs scored of 892, 798, and 854. Not too shabby since they have average 803 runs in the past 5 years.

Moving on to the pitchers...I simply took the starting pitching found out the innings pitched over the last 5 years (approximately 1429) then normalized on the starters (didn't bother finding out individual relievers because at this point who knows). The ZiPS has the starters going 840 innings while Chone has these starters going 810. With the average innings pitched being 1429 for Rox pitchers I simply extended the starters out over 1429. Probably an estimate too high since we hope relievers will give up less runs but I figure the runs scored from above is probably a bit overzealous (all projections assume a perfect healthy season, mostly!)

Pitching
Cook
Francis
Lopez
Kim
Buckholz

So from the two projections I came out with 801 runs allowed for both projections! Finally through this into the Neyer Pythagorean theorem (using 801 for Marcels) and I have the Roxs winning 89, 81, and 86 for an average of 85 wins. Not too bad!