Happy Halloween

If you like animation, have a really fast Internet connection,
and about 40 minutes to spare, you might consider watching
Blood: The Last Vampire today. Sputnik7 is streaming it
for free all day today, starting at 6pm EST. The movie itself
is not that great, it's more like a sketch than a film. But
the animation is gorgeous. James Cameron was a big fan.

Trick or treating is like hiking for children. I have happy
memories of trick or treating as a kid. Gathering with your
other childhood friends. My parents would buy me those
small plastic pumpkins to hold our candy (using a garbage
bag is just not right). Trying to see through the pitifully
small eyeholes in your plastic masks, we'd walk for
miles. We were like guerillas. Our parents would drive
us to the next neighborhood, drop us off, and we were
off, trying to hit every house that seemed inhabited.
Of course, we had to hit the wealthy neighborhoods,
under the simple assumption that somehow they might
offer up higher quantity or quality loot. I wonder when I
stopped trick or treating, when I determined that I was
too old to hike for free candy.

I like Sweet Tarts. Gummy Bears. The smell of a
Hershey's Chocolate bar.

Now, onto what really scares me. I committed to writing
a novel of at least 50,000 words next month, and next
month starts tomorrow. This is big news. Over 5000 people
across the country are doing it, and at last check Nanowrimo
was ranked #19 on Blogdex, which shouldn't be surprising.
The same people who set aside time to write in their
weblogs all the time are probably the best suited to
carve out an hour or two a day to write 1700 words or so.

So my weblog volume will be light the next month or so.
What is my novel about? I'm not really sure yet. I have
lots of things I'd like to write about, lots of themes I'm
interested in trying out. Given that I have to write just
about everyday, I think it will meander a bit. Maybe I'll
post it online. I haven't decided if I want to subject anyone
to having to read it.

Oh yeah. I love caramel apples with nuts on them.
That's probably the all-time best Halloween treat I
ever received. I wonder how that house could afford to
give those away.



posted by Eugene Wei at 1:02 PM | link

Sept. 11 has raised my interest in two topics about which I know very little. Politics and religion. I was raised in the most apolitical non-religious family I know. Not that I was a pagan or anything, but those topics just never came up. I have an inherent distrust of both, not based on anything in particular, mostly because I'm naturally a skeptic. Maybe it's that I have a hard time with any ideology (not sure if that's the right word) that draws a line in the sand and tells me I must be on one side or the other, and the other side is evil, or hell, or something like that.

Everyone in the US is suddenly pledging support for Bush? Even people like Clinton and Gore are saying, I'm supporting my president, let's follow his lead. A few months ago, half the populus considered him to be somewhat of a fool. I guess we want to present a unified front to the enemy and prevent any bipartisan politics from paralyzing our government and military. I wonder how long his grace period will last.

Rich called me from New York. He met the enemy, the Series 7 exam, and passed. Now just the Series 66 remains and he'll be back in Seattle. And then the phone calls will start (actually, he can just knock on my door). "Weeg, have you heard of a stock named General Motors? Well, my people have done an exhaustive study and have reason to believe that the share price will rise 35% to 50% in the next six months. Now, you don't know me, I don't know you, so I'm going to start you off small..."

Why do I have to "please use the revolving door"? Is there something wrong with the hinged doors? Someone must know.

Okay, some of you are sick of hearing about baseball, but damn it, I love the sport. Bob Brenly decided to let Curt Schilling pitch Game 4 on 3 days rest. Randy Johnson won't go until Game 6, though, since he can only pitch one more game anyway and you might as well give him 4 days rest. Then Schilling can come back for Game 7 if necessary. Some say sending your pitchers out on 3 days rest reduces their effectiveness. I think in this case it's a great move. Look, the Diamondbacks are old. Schilling, Johnson, Grace, Gonzalez, Williams--these guys are probably not going to get a chance to win another World Series. In fact, the whole Arizona franchise is in big trouble financially. Would you rather have a moderately tired Schilling pitching or a fully rested Brian Andersen or Miguel Batista? It's a great story, the aging warhorse going out firing.

They say the hardest pitch to hit in baseball is a good fastball, but I think a good hard split-fingered fastball might be right up there. Schilling, Clemens...in the old days, Mike Scott. Nomo. It looks like a fastball, but with the minimal rotation the pitch drops at the last minute. Located properly (start it just above the knees and it ends up at your ankles) it's just unhittable.

These are the days a sports fan's plate runs full. NBA season starting (Jordan's jumpshot was flat tonight), World Series, and college and pro football. Even hockey, if you're into that. Fall TV shows are starting up. Man, I might have to invest in one of these hacked Tivo's.

I've watched all 3 episodes of Smallville, and I enjoy it. I like how they've made Lex Luthor one of Clark's best friends. I find it so true to life that your greatest enemies come from those who are at some point ostensibly close to you. You can't have a bitter enemy who happens to be someone completely unknown to you. No, the worst rifts occur with people you try for the longest time to be friends with, to the point where you overlook things that usually drive you nuts to try and maintain the illusion. Finally, someday, it all bubbles to the surface and explodes and suddenly you're bitter enemies. At least that's what I think.

What was I talking about? Oh, Smallville. They've bought themselves a season's worth of storylines by expanding the effects of the kryptonite that exploded on earth when Clark arrived. Now it has infected people all over Smallville, giving Clark a slew of super-powered villains to deal with. They've also chosen to reveal his powers slowly, so we'll get to cycle through his first flight, the beginning of his x-ray vision, and eventually, I suppose, the arrival of his heat vision and the invention of his costume, perhaps.

But it seems every episode, just as he's about to thwart the enemy, somehow there's a whole supply of kryptonite nearby and his hand start rippling and he falls collapses. They've used that a few times already, and it will start to get old real soon.

I have a one in three chance. I'm going to try and make a collect call. One of three people will appear: Alyssa Milano in a leather body-hugging one-piece outfit, Carrot Top, or David Arquette. I have a 33% chance of meeting Alyssa Milano! I can't think of better odds anywhere, and it's all thanks to AT&T.
posted by Eugene Wei at 9:40 PM | link

Vicious

Much ado was made about Microsoft's recent decision to
prevent browsers other than Internet Explorer from accessing
MSN.com. They later apologized and opened MSN.com
back up to all browsers.

Setting aside any ethical judgment of Microsoft (which was
universally condemned for their actions and whose apology
was judged disingenuous), you have to admire the aggressiveness
of that company. They are a mean survival machine, willing
to take on everyone, including the U.S. Government and
judicial system, by nearly whatever means necessary. They
live on the edge of illegal behavior, testing how far they can
go to ensure their dominance. Watching them take on
competitors is like watching a wolf set loose near a
flock of sheep.

Someday Microsoft will flame out, and I suspect it will
be spectacular to watch.
posted by Eugene Wei at 9:57 AM | link

Waking Life

Who is it that defends our country? I wonder what the
demographic make-up of our armed forces is. And how
it compares to the demographic profile of the United
States as a whole.

If China attacked the U.S. tomorrow, or some Chinese
terrorists flew some planes into the WTC, would I be
just as ready to join the army? Would I want to do so
more than I would otherwise?

What does it say to the rest of the world when their primary
interaction with our country is American cinema? Seriously,
when I think of how I interact with most foreign countries on
a day to day basis (thus I exclude the occasional vacation
as I can't afford otherwise) it's primarily through their movies and
occasionally through some of their citizens, traveling abroad.

Corporations have public relations departments to control
the perception of them by Wall Street, their investors.
Politicians and political parties are even more dependent
on public perception for their power than corporations, which
can show hard economic results to offset any subjective
assessments of their performance. I wish that politics
included some more truly concrete measurements for
political effectiveness and accomplishments. Because I've
seen what public relations is all about, and I've seen how the
press reacts to PR, and the process is horribly detrimental
to the truth. What we read or hear about politicians in
the press, from experts, from friends--it is like hearing a
person describe a courtroom artists sketch of a suspect.

What is it that causes so many sites to use mother's
maiden name as the question you have to answer to
retrieve your password? Is a person's mother's maiden
name really so hard to find out? Maybe it is. Someone
told me their mother's maiden name the other day and
I felt as if I suddenly had immense power over them.

If you didn't read that Chomsky article I referenced yesterday,
or maybe if you did and want to read more, a series of
interviews with him, conducted post Sept. 11, has been
published as an e-book titled 9/11.
posted by Eugene Wei at 10:26 PM | link

The Dead

We are fighting Osama abroad, but here at home we have to deal with anthrax-wielding lunatics. We have some sickos among us, and the nation needs to take some antibiotics. What is the equivalent of societal Cipro? Thanks for the link to Media Whores Online, which hard-core liberals will want to bookmark.

And before you offer your unwavering support for our government, you may wish to read this transcript of a Q&A with Noam Chomsky. He offers his usual astute but somewhat extreme observations about the current situation and how our government is able to define the moral
terminology of this battle against Osama. Not that Osama isn't a bad man that deserves to be spanked. But nothing is ever as clean as it appears, and by the time this is all over, everyone's hands will be dirty. Let's not pretend that there aren't lots of poor Afghans dying right now because we've cut off aid, or bombed the hell out of the land that they live in. To defend the way that we live, though, perhaps we must accept that type of moral arithmetic. Anyway, go read the article. Chomsky is nothing if not thought-provoking, even if he's impossible to debate and slightly insane.

Getting nostalgic for the early days of the web? Take yourself back.

Dubya popped up on the scoreboard during the seventh inning stretch of Game One of the World Series and once again said "make no mistake about it." In this case,
"Make no mistake about it, we will triumph over the evil ones." Something like that. Dubya, YOU make no mistake about it.

Finally visited Blogdex today. It crawls weblogs all over the web and has indexes for the most linked to websites among
weblogs. Interesting stuff from the all-time index:

Blogger is number one. Seems to be the most popular weblog software by far. I wonder if it was that mention in Wired magazine. That's how I first heard of it.

Lots of random weblog related community sites, indexes.

Then Google shows up. Not surprisingly. The search engine of choice for, well, everyone I know. One of the great user interfaces of this first era of the popular world wide web.

The Onion is next at number six. As the Simpsons starts to get long in the tooth, perhaps it is The Onion which has come to carry the banner for humor for those who like to think of themselves as cognoscenti of fine humor.

If you take the word of the community as gospel, then the king of personal weblogs is kottke.org, the top-ranked personal weblog.

Second to Blogger in popularity in the weblog software arena is Greymatter.

CNN.com is the highest ranked news site. Then come three sites I also use a lot: Salon, Memepool, Slashdot.org. Man, I'm like the average weblogger. I link to those sites all the time.

I just realized that song they play at the Mariners games when Kazuhiro Sasaki comes into the game comes from a Paul Oakenfold CD. Of course, he may have stolen, er, sampled it from someone else. It's off of Two Years of Oakenfold at Cream,
Disc One. Not sure what track #. Just in case you want to play it on those days when you need that extra motivation when being called down for breakfast.

My football cup runneth over. Stanford is #14 in the latest BCS rankings, and the Bears made a miraculous comeback today against the hated 49ers to move to 5-1. No one in Seattle really plays football. I miss going out on fall days with Nate, Rick, Vijay, Pavan, and all those folks to chuck the football around. The college days, with no pads hitting, the annual Rice Bowl, and the feeling of pain all over the body the next day. Of all the types of athletic pain I've felt in my life, nothing matched that. There's nothing better than hitting some weight-room sculpted meathead so hard he forgets his own name. My roommate Mark, who was no big weight-lifter, put a hit on some guy that gave him a concussion, and I still remember the sound of it so many years later.

I'm not sure how Stanford made it to #14 in the BCS. I remember a bunch of sites picked us to be last in the Pac-10 this year. We never have any Heisman caliber athletes, and we don't really crank out a lot of Pro-Bowl NFL studs. Teyo Johnson is perhaps our only truly freakish athletic talent. Our backup QB, and now starter, Chris Lewis, is raw, erratic. Throws a lot of interceptions. Our defense is not going to earn any nicknames. Must be good coaching.

In preparation for the novel I'm going to write starting Thursday, I've started transcribing James Joyce's The Dead again. Hopefully the ghost of Joyce's soul will inhabit me for a few hours a day. Enough to crank out 2000 words or so.

Bill bought a house. I wish I could pull the trigger. If I thought I'd definitely stay in Seattle another 3 years I'd do the same. Renting feels so 26.
posted by Eugene Wei at 11:46 PM | link

New vocabulary

From Zentertainment:
"NEW OXFORD AMERICAN DICTIONARY released this week,
including trip-hop (combination of dub reggae and hip-hop),
limousine liberal (wealthy liberal), dumpster diving (trawling
through trash for hidden treasure), Blue Dog Democrat
(conservative democrat), hinky (dishonest or unreliable person),
lawn flamingo (plastic bird as garden ornament), sticker shock
(experienced by shoppers encountering higher-than-expected
prices), and wildcraft (the gathering of herbs, plants, and
fungi from the wild).

There are also several new topical definitions including
Afghan kaftan (dust obscuring bombing zone), asymmetrical
warfare (current euphemism for terrorism), bunker buster
(bomb designed to destroy underground installations),
cutaneous anthrax (anthrax contracted via the skin)."
posted by Eugene Wei at 11:40 AM | link

Episode II

I have a pass to a bright and early screening of Monsters Inc.
on Saturday, in Renton. I normally wouldn't drive all the way
out there just to see a screening, but they're showing the new
Episode II teaser trailer before it. Hmmmm.

Waking Life opens in Seattle tomorrow. Hooray!

No one these days says "hooray" anymore. It went the way of
whitewashed jeans.

I've taken the plunge and decided to participate in Nanowrimo.
So November will be a busy busy month for me. Writing a novel,
another wedding to attend, a big transition at work, lots of business
trips to L.A., a trip to Boston for Thanksgiving, and then the
start of my annual tour of duty at one of our distribution centers
to help out for the holiday season. It will be a light month on
the weblog, I predict.

I'm trying to add a comment system to my weblog, so that
people can attach comments to my blogs, or so that I can
go back in time and laugh at foolish things I once wrote. My
darn webhost charges a lot for PHP, so I think I have to wait
for Blogback or something like that.
posted by Eugene Wei at 6:34 PM | link

Happy birthday Todd

Okay, this one's a little early. The next time I hang out with
Todd, I can write about having spent time with my married
friends. My fondest memories with Todd, besides his wedding,
of course, all involve riding two-wheeled human-powered
machines up sharply inclined masses of earth. We kicked
some older dudes' asses up Lewis and Clark bridge during
STP, and then Todd dragged me up the side of Whistler
Mountain on our mountain bikes. I nearly passed out the
last time, but managed to retain enough energy to outrace
some black bears on our descent.
posted by Eugene Wei at 6:25 PM | link

Happy birthday Ken

Word, to the OG. The only other guy who bleeds with me
everytime the Cubs lose, which occurs with the same frequency
as our birthdays, if you really have to ask.
posted by Eugene Wei at 6:22 PM | link

Nice thing about Outlook XP

The one thing I do like about the new Microsoft Outlook XP
is that it cleans up e-mails that have been forwarded a
hundred times, removing weird line breaks and ">" characters.
Makes that stuff a lot more readable.
posted by Eugene Wei at 3:05 PM | link

What's the Word?

I've thought about getting a Mac for video editing. I'm curious,
though. If you don't want to pay for Microsoft Word on the
Mac ($350!?!) what is the default word processing application?
Is there one? A much cheaper alternative? I can do spreadsheets
and presos and image editing and stuff on my Windows PC,
but I have to at least have a minimally sophisticated word
processing app for my Mac. Especially if I get a laptop.

What do you know, readers?
posted by Eugene Wei at 2:03 PM | link

Leggo my Cipro!

Here's a classic test of patriotism. It's easy to wave the flag
when terrorists kill thousands of your fellow citizens, and it's
easy to salute your brave police and firemen and emergency
personnel. Now the threat of anthrax has everyone feeling
nervous, and a few people I know are hitting websites to stock
up on Cipro, even if they are at low risk of contracting anthrax
and are currently as healthy as can be. We studied this in
econ--it's the tragedy of the commons.

If everyone in an interconnected network (I think we studied
this particularly as it applied to democratic, capitalistic
societies) optimizes for their own well-being, i.e. stocks up
on cipro, then the entire society's well-being is undermined,
i.e., people who really are sick with anthrax can't get
Cipro.

So don't stock up on Cipro unless you really need it. If you
somehow catch Anthrax, count on society to get you the
necessary medication. It's a bit harder than waving a flag,
but no less patriotic.
posted by Eugene Wei at 11:01 AM | link

Germs

...of an idea for my novel for Nanowrimo are starting to grab
hold. Yes, that's a bad pun to use in these times, but in
fact the novel would have to deal with Sept. 11, in some ways.
I have the general themes and some of the short stories
that will support those themes. I need to start flushing it
out a bit.

Nowhere Girl is good. "Ever have the feeling you're an
accessory in someone else's life?" Yes!

New project at work is...involving. I have not yet synthesized
it all in my head. Sometimes the path becomes crystal clear,
but for now, it's all just murky and massive. I dreamed about
it last night.
posted by Eugene Wei at 11:27 PM | link

Proof

Does any car maker use cooler music in their commercials than
Volkswagen? Love that new one "Big Day" with the guy rushing
to break up the wedding.

Saw Proof tonight with Rachael. It was fantastic. Some
math, though it wasn't really about math. Very well acted.
Contained elements from Fermat's Enigma (elliptical curves)
and A Beautiful Mind (which I've just started reading in
anticipation of the movie).

I'm trying to read lots of books before the movie adaptions
come out. Not just A Beautiful Mind, but Harry Potter,
Lord of the Rings. It may end up just detracting from
the moviegoing experience, but I'm a firm believer that while
a movie can never do certain things which a book is better
suited to do (convey a person's inner thoughts, for example)
the medium of movies does other things much better than
books (a photo is much better than a paragraph of text for
describing physical appearances, locales). If a movie is
not the book, that is not inherently bad. If it is a bad movie,
then that is bad.

So many people I know are applying to schools. Rachael
pointed out that it's not uncommon in times of recession.
I'd be a much better student now than I was back in my
university days.

posted by Eugene Wei at 10:23 PM | link

Flasher

Looking over my photos, I realize I have bad flash technique.
Lots of my shots have that deer in headlights look, as if a
criminal was caught in a spotlight. Yuck. I may have to
graduate beyond the "flash on the camera" technique which
is the lazy man's recourse.

I am excited to try out my new Sto-Fen Omni Bounce.
posted by Eugene Wei at 10:12 AM | link

Fewer Happy Meals

In times of recession, even Big Macs suffer. We
knew that someday the growth would end. Could this be
that day, after over 99 billion people were served?

Reminds me of the article in the Onion titled something
like "Starbucks to open new location in men's bathroom
of existing Starbucks".

You know that this terrorist stuff is an accepted part of
everyday life now that people make jokes about Osama
bin Laden. In today's Onion:

Woman With Sore Throat Thinks It Might Be Anthrax
NEW YORK— Alicia Dubrow, 23, an assistant copy
editor at Shape magazine, expressed fear Monday that
her recent sore throat is the result of anthrax. "I haven't
had a sore throat in, like, two years, and suddenly I get
one," said Dubrow, searching WebMD for information
on symptoms of the disease. "I've also sort of had a
backache lately, which is weird." Dubrow, who made
a mental note to watch closely for reddish-brown sores,
said she dropped by the Shape mailroom last Friday to
grab a box of rubber bands but does not recall handling
any packages.
posted by Eugene Wei at 9:44 AM | link

Smallville

From Variety:
"Young Superman tale "Smallville" proved to be more
powerful than a locomotive Tuesday, premiering to
some of the best ratings in the WB net's seven-year history.

According to Nielsen Media Research, the 68-minute
premiere of the critically acclaimed "Smallville"
(9-10:08 p.m.) attracted the largest audience ever
for a series preem on the WB (8.35 million
viewers) -- outdrawing ABC's comedies and Fox's
"Love Cruise" to finish third for the hour.

It also bagged the best 18-49 rating for a Frog net
series premiere (3.8/9) as well as the best score for
any episode of any series in the WB's history among
adults 18-34 (4.5/12), men 18-34 (5.0/14) and men
18-49 (3.9/10)."

I watched the season premiere. Fairly entertaining
show, more because of the storytelling than the
special effects or the acting (the lead, who plays
Superman, is pretty unexpressive). I guess I have not
outgrown the drama of teenage angst.

posted by Eugene Wei at 9:37 AM | link

Random thoughts

Maybe it was Sept. 11, and the anthrax scares now, or maybe
an early mid-life crisis. I'm a budding skeptic. My mind bounces
from anthrax to playoff baseball to work and around and around.
It's difficult to think much further into the future. I think I'm in
danger of losing my long-term imagination.

When Bill house hunts, or Joannie prepares for marriage, or
Michelle seeks a job in Seattle, or Howie starts business
school, I can barely think out as far as Thanksgiving.

Went to the Mariners game today. I'm resigned to the idea that
the Yankees will win it all again, and it depresses me. Please,
someone beat the Yankees. Is there anything more dull than
seeing the highest paid team in baseball win year after year?
The series doesn't line up well for the M's. Today they had a
struggling Sele against a rested Pettite. Tomorrow they have
Garcia on 3 days rest against Mussina, probably the best Yankee
starter right now (and statistically, he might have had a better
year than Clemens if you disregard W-L record). They get
the edge with Moyer in Game 3, but just barely. Williams
seems to hit Moyer very well. I think the key to the series
is giving Pineiro a start against Clemens in Game Four. Pass
up Sele.

New project at work, and it is very challenging and time-consuming.
I think I'm ready for an uptick in intensity again, though these days
with the early darkness outside and empty offices earlier than
normal, late nights at my desk are a bit, mmm, secluded.

Installed Office XP at work b/c I needed the new pivot table
interface for accessing some data cubes. So far, I don't detect
very many striking improvements. Thankfully, my custom macros
and buttons in Excel were not lost. Outlook seems to run slower
and strange bugs pop up to nag me from time to time.

I might be out in NYC on business sometime in the next two weeks.
It would be fun to see James, and Karen might head out as well.

You know, it really is very easy to download movies off the
Internet. I've never really had the urge, as watching movies on a picture
the size of a playing card on a PC with the sound coming from a
pair of PC computers holds no appeal for me. But for kicks I decided
to try it out today and managed to find all sorts of current movies
out there.

There was an interesting article in the NYTimes Magazine recently,
an issue examining love in the 21st century. The article questioned
the modern conception of love and whether or not it truly is a thing
to be desired in its most popular forms (marriage, monogamy, etc.).
If more than one in two marriages ends in divorce, might it not be an
institution in need of some adjustment? Maybe that's the accepted
calculus of marriage, that if you hit .500 you're a success. In baseball
you strike out once it's okay if you get a hit the next time out. If
your first marriage ends in divorce and you remarry, happily, you're
a one-time divorcee. Maybe the problem lies in the romantic notion
that you must find sexual attraction and lifelong companionship from
the same person (when we know that the former has a finite life).
I'm not really sure what I'm trying to say. For a man with a somewhat
skeptical bent, I found the article intriguing.

Today is the first time since last winter that I can recall seeing
temperatures fall under 50 degrees. I read 43 degrees on my way
to work this morning. Car windows frost up, and I'm reminded so
strongly of rushing out on a fall day in Naperville, preparing to
play football on a large, empty field dusted with gold and orange
leaves.

In other words, not Britney Spears singing Hit Me Baby One More
Time but more like Travis covering Hit Me Baby One More Time.
Mellow, ironic, somewhat desperate, possibly drug-influenced.
posted by Eugene Wei at 10:41 PM | link

Playoff baseball is great. Because of the way the sport is played,
initiated by a one on one confrontation of pitcher and batter, it
provides the type of focused drama that is lacking in, say, a sport
like football.

I'm usually not a fan of letting starting pitchers throw 120, 130
pitches (it's a common precursor to season-ending arm injuries)
but in the playoffs there's something noble about it. Matt Morris
and Curt Schilling both stayed out there past 120 pitches, and
both went out firing with their best pitches. Morris with his knee
buckling curve to strike out Grace, and Schilling with his 98 mph
gas to blow away Matheny. That's baseball's equivalent of the
running back who's had about thirty carries plowing over one
linebacker and dragging another two yards for a first down in
the fourth quarter.
posted by Eugene Wei at 11:20 PM | link

Okay, you're Lou Piniella, and you're looking to pick your playoff roster. You have to leave one of the following pitchers behind. Which would you pick?

	Innings pitched	WHIP	ERA
Pitcher A	75.1	0.94	2.03
Pitcher B	78.1	1.28	3.56
Pitcher C	163.0	1.42	4.25
Pitcher D	66.0	1.47	4.36
Pitcher E	110.1	1.43	4.73

Pitcher A is Joel Pineiro, and he got left off the playoff roster, presumably because he's young. Well, the Mariners felt that today, when Pineiro wasn't there and Lou had to go to pitchers C, D, and E, who combined for six innings pitched, 13 runs allowed.

The Indians and Cardinals ignored the old "youths are not battle-tested for the playoffs" and started two rookies, C.C. Sabathia and Bud Smith, because they had pitched well during the regular season. Both won today.

In a short series, how likely is it that you'll want to go beyond Nelson and Rhodes as your setup men for Sasaki? Not likely, unless you're getting shelled early, and even then, you should probably just ride Rhodes and Nelson if you want to survive. You don't need Paniagua. Yes, Pineiro is a starter, but you bet a manager would use Randy Johnson or Pedro Martinez or another starter as a relief pitcher if they felt it would help. Pineiro should've been on the roster, and you could make the case he should have started Game 3.
posted by Eugene Wei at 1:17 PM | link

Happy birthday Emily!

Happy birthday Emily! Where was Scully?

Emily has the coolest pictures of herself and her friends and other
things hanging all over her house. And all this old camera equipment
just sitting on shelves everywhere. I need to start hanging up pictures
like that around my room.

I seriously doubt I'll make it to the morning bike ride. I could barely
drive to Sammamish right now, let alone ride. This rainy weather
is horrible. I'm not even sure I can make it to the morning run. I'm
such a wuss dog this week.

posted by Eugene Wei at 12:40 AM | link

Dread

The FBI warns of possible terrorist attacks in the next few days.

I've gotten e-mails from all sorts of people: don't go to malls on Oct. 31,
don't handle any letters from unknown people or from the Middle East,
don't drink water from the tap, and on and on.

It's somewhat contradictory to both "alert Americans to any credible
threats about future terrorist plans" without providing any details while
at the same time saying that "Americans should go on with their lives,
there's no reason people should live in panic." But those e-mails
I'm receiving, with detailed instructions, also inspire more defined
and perhaps no less credible fears. This is how it is to live in a
nation at war.
posted by Eugene Wei at 11:54 PM | link

24 year old Bean

She says she's 24, but I think she's really 17. Damn, and
I'm here trying to pluck my gray hairs. Where's the justice?
What's her secret? Lots of sleep.

Sorry Bean. Heh heh.

Took Bean to see Ben Folds with Katie who I hadn't seen in
ages. They're both Ben Folds fans. I'm a Folds novice. Fun
show. Ben Folds has lots of energy. Now I smell like an
abandoned disco bar, or a casino carpet.

I felt really ill all day. I had stomach cramps, and then a few
times today had dizzy spells. Didn't have breakfast, had a bowl
of soup for lunch, and heated some dinner but couldn't stomach
it and threw most of it out. During the concert my blood sugar
bottomed out, and the smoke and heat started wearing me out.
Haven't been sleeping well. I wonder if it's this cold, wet,
miserable weather we're experiencing.

A different sort of review for The Corrections.

Poor Astros. Lost again. They've blown something like seven straight
saves in the playoffs. Though they were mugged. The home plate umpire
had a strike zone wider than Gwyneth Paltrow in a fat suit. Which raises
the point, why do we, in this day and age, still expect human beings
to judge the strike zone if it's such a critical determinant of wins and
losses? Dierker flubbed game one by going to Mike Jackson instead
of Octavio Dotel. They probably would've lost anyway. I saw the last
Astros series against the Cubs, and Mlicki got shelled, and Oswalt
was definitely not right.

Want to talk about some sick pitches? This has happened a few times
this year, but it's still amazing to see it happen to a major league
hitter. Randy Johnson threw a slider that hit a batter in the foot after
he swung and missed. The batter was Albert Pujols, likely rookie
of the year, and someone who had homered of Johnson in the first
inning. I thought stuff like that only happened in wiffle ball. Oh well,
Johnson ended up losing, again. Seven straight losses in the playoffs
for currently the best pitcher in the NL. Crazy.

I'm rooting for the A's. Everyone from the GM on down in that org is
pretty cool, and I definitely don't want to see the Yankees win it
all again. If the A's win, maybe more Billy Beane acolytes will make
it into front offices around both leagues, and as a result more
teams would be assembled in a smarter fashion. Mark Mulder beat
Clemens tonight, which will surprise lots of people but shouldn't.
At this point in their careers, Mulder is a batter pitcher than Clemens
and probably one of the top four starters in the American League.
I think this is the A's year to win it all.

Some of the Mariners fans are sweating it out. They should win game
two, as Finley is washed up and barely passable as a major league starter
these days. Game three should be interesting. In Cleveland, with their
fans going nuts, and a hittable Aaron Sele on the mound versus rookie
17 game winner C.C. Sabathia. The latter didn't have a great ERA this
year but won a ton of games. Why Piniella left Pineiro off the roster I'll
never understand. Dumb dumb move.
posted by Eugene Wei at 1:29 AM | link

Prophetic?

The guys at Baseball Prospectus are smart. This article called
Colon's awesome start in Game 1 versus the M's.
posted by Eugene Wei at 1:17 AM | link

What?

Jimmy Hitchcock, professional football player, has no ACLs. Blew
them both out, couldn't afford to get them reconstructed at the time,
so just continued to play without them. That's sick.
posted by Eugene Wei at 11:31 AM | link

Trailer for Vanilla Sky, in Quicktime.

Recently watched the original film which this movie is based on. Open Your Eyes, by Alejandro Amenabar (The Others). Penelope Cruz plays the same character in both versions.

I somehow suspect that the Cameron Crowe version will be lighter. Hmm, maybe it's the use of Salsbury Hill in the trailer.

I don't think Penelope Cruz is necessarily the end all be all, but her accent is super sexy. Cameron Diaz--I'm not sure I'll ever be able to take her in a serious role (which is another reason I think this version will be a lot lighter than the original). Tom Cruise is a 2-D actor, a one-trick pony. He compensates for his limited range by having generic good looks and a lot of ambition. Hopefully he will not turn this role into "Jerry Maguire with a facial deformity."
posted by Eugene Wei at 5:36 PM | link

Cranium?

Poor Audrey got her car ripped off. Even stranger, they stole the
Cranium board game I gave her for her birthday, along with the
car seats, stereo, stick shift, etc. Cranium? Were they going to
give it away as a present? Or open it up to play?
posted by Eugene Wei at 5:20 PM | link

Adobe Dodo

Adobe applications are so unintuitive to me. I can use maybe 10 basic
functions in Photoshop, but the rest is Greek to me. Until they come up
with a more intuitive metaphor for image editing, I think most Adobe
applications will continue to be toys for the serious graphic artist.
Not that that's a bad thing, but there's a lot of money to be made off
the masses (think Microsoft Office) in this space, as we all start
owning digital cameras. Maybe Photoshop LE is that software.
posted by Eugene Wei at 5:17 PM | link

Favorite pen pal

I sometimes have good ideas at work. Surprise surprise. But good
ideas are fleeting, like dreams. That's one thing I've learned in my
old age. So I write myself e-mails, to my home computer. I get
home and read my e-mail at my personal account, and I think,
damn, that's a good idea. I was pretty smart at 11:03am this
morning.


posted by Eugene Wei at 5:04 PM | link

Alternative combat

Bored with the usual sports like football, basketball?
Try BattleBots or the Iron Chef. I recently watched a
bit of both and give them high marks for entertainment
value.

Modern warfare is absolutely terrifying in an abstract
way. Sept. 11 was so strange in that it was as concrete
a manifestation of terrorism as can be (two gigantic
buildings actually collapsed), and yet it was so completely
unbelievable. Airplanes crashing into the World Trade
Centers, which then collapsed? It's a Dali-esque
nightmare come to life. Every several years or so when
I was young, I'd have this nightmare that the entire
world, everything, was coming to an end. At least that's
the best way I have to describe it. A feeling of complete
terror and desperation. And then I'd wake up and my
heart would be pounding and I'd be so happy to realize
it was over that I would feel complete elation.
posted by Eugene Wei at 3:57 PM | link

Inside the park

Just saw Sammy hit an inside the park home run, his 63rd.
Right fielder lost the ball in the sun, and Sosa hustled all
the way around on a routine fly ball.

Oh! And now Fred McGriff just bombed one onto Sheffield
Ave. Back to back.
posted by Eugene Wei at 2:01 PM | link

Spoonful of sugar

I don't normally watch The West Wing, so I am not familiar with all the
characters. Still, after a long run on Wednesday night, I had to sit down
and ice my weary knees, and nothing else looked appealing in the 9p.m.
time slot. Plus, I'd heard lots about how they delayed the season
premiere one week to air this special episode, pulled together by
Aaron Sorkin and company in the wake of Sept. 11.

My opinion? It was like a well-done liberal after-school special.
I was reminded of the ending of G.I. Joe cartoons
"Now you know, kids."
"And knowing is half the battle!"
Seriously, who were these school kids? They were not normal.

Of course, the Arab they hold for questioning early on was
going to be innocent, despite having protested against the
U.S. troops in Saudi Arabia and acknowledged the Arab oppression
of women. And at the end of the show, he shrugs off his
inquisition and heads back to work, and Leo comes by and
apologizes. The easy way out, intended to make us feel
as if the moral balance has been re-established and it's
safe for Arabs and others to work and play together again.
The real world is not nearly so clean.

Rob Lowe: "Terrorism never succeeds. It only strengthens
that which it attacks." It sounds good, but that's not how
I feel. The world is a scary place. I'm waiting for biological
weapons to fall, the next terrorist attack. I don't want to travel
to the Middle East any more. Sure, the U.S. is not going
away. But I do think I had greater peace of mind before
all this happened, and watching the West Wing did not
change any of that.

I admire the acting on the show, though. The characters
are smooth, glib. The Islamic extremists are to Islam as
KKK are to Christianity bit was clever. The whole episode
struck me as a sugar-coated, pompous weigh-in on the
whole matter. We are the West Wing, and the nation needs
to hear our opinion about Sept. 11, because we are that
culturally important. I say, just post some phone numbers
that people can call to contribute to the relief efforts, and
go on with your show.
posted by Eugene Wei at 1:48 PM | link

The Zone

When I was in Chicago, Mike, Derek, Joannie and I stopped
at the ESPNZone center downtown. It's like Gameworks, but
sports focused. Lots of arcade games, a giant sports bar with
a whole wall of TV screens, scrolling sports tickers, and lots
of TVs broadcasting various ESPN channels. We decided
to play pop-a-shot, and in team competition against the
three of them I scored 124 in pop-a-shot classic. That's by
far my all-time high. I was in a serious zone, everything was
going down. I'm putting that down on my resume.
posted by Eugene Wei at 12:33 PM | link

Ig Nobel Prizes

Funny stuff. The Ig Nobel Prizes were awarded yesterday. They
honor people whose achievements "cannot or should not be reproduced."

My favorites:

MEDICINE

Peter Barss of McGill University, for his impactful medical report "Injuries
Due to Falling Coconuts."

PUBLISHED IN: The Journal of Trauma,
vol. 21, no. 11, 1984, pp. 990-1.

PHYSICS

David Schmidt of the University of Massachusetts for his
partial solution to the question of why shower curtains billow inwards.

BIOLOGY

Buck Weimer of Pueblo, Colorado for inventing Under-Ease,
airtight underwear with a replaceable charcoal filter that
removes bad-smelling gases before they escape.

LITERATURE

John Richards of Boston, England, founder of The Apostrophe Protection Society,
for his efforts to protect, promote, and defend the differences between
plural and possessive.

PSYCHOLOGY

Lawrence W. Sherman of Miami University, Ohio, for his influential research
report "An Ecological Study of Glee in Small Groups of Preschool Children."

PUBLISHED IN: Child Development,
vol. 46, no. 1, March 1975, pp. 53-61.

ASTROPHYSICS

Dr. Jack and Rexella Van Impe of Jack Van Impe Ministries,
Rochester Hills, Michigan, for their discovery that black holes
fulfill all the technical requirements to be the location of Hell.

REFERENCE: The March 31, 2001 television and Internet
broadcast of the "Jack Van Impe Presents" program. (at about
the 12 minute mark).

PEACE

Viliumas Malinauskus
of Grutas, Lithuania, for creating the amusement park known as "Stalin
World."
posted by Eugene Wei at 12:27 PM | link

Random notes

Went to the Mariners game against the Rangers. The
Rangers pitchers were horrendous. Barely could crack
85 mph on the radar gun, which in itself isn't necessarily
bad, but I've never seen so many breaking balls in the
dirt. By the 5th inning it was 12-1, and one Rangers
pitcher had been hit in the shin by a ball and wheeled
out on a modified wheelchair. A-Rod plays on a bad,
bad team. Bill and I left after the sixth inning, after 2
hours and 45 minutes of mind-numbing boredom.

Cubs need to fire Don Baylor. He has proven to be a lousy
manager, unable to communicate effectively with his players
and coaches, preferring to do his talking and managing through
the press, which is horrible. He should talk to his players
face to face, like men. His players gripe about him to the
press as well. He's not a very smart tactical manager,
either. Can the guy.

Saw the Annie Leibovitz "Women" exhibit with Bean. I
didn't think it was all that. Her subjects are all grim-faced,
solemn. Silent, unhappy, and way too serious. Maybe it's
some commentary on women's treatment by media or
society or something. I'd prefer to see some of them smiling,
or defiant. Something about posed portraiture, too, just
doesn't strike me as natural. Maybe I'm just jealous that
I don't have the equipment and connections to take some
of the shots she gets.

There is actually a photographer named Weegee! I saw
this book at the Seattle Art Museum gift shop.
A quick search at Amazon.com revealed lots of other
books by him as well. Apparently, he was a famous
news photographer. What a strange coincidence. I can
barely remember who started calling me Weegee out
here anyway, though I believe it had to do with a spreadsheet
I developed called Ouija (because it worked like black
magic), and then I think Susannah tacked on the
Sweet.

Bean might join some studio and be able to develop
photos for me. That would be cool. It's all voodoo to me.

Barry Bonds is putting up Nintendo numbers this year. His
on base percentage is .512 right now. That's right, every
other time up to the plate, he gets on base. That's sick.
His slugging percentage is currently the highest of all time,
.848. Higher than Babe Ruth in 1921! His swing is not
fluid, but it's brutally effective. Short, compact, rapid
rotation. I've never seen a hitter in such a zone for such
a long period of time. Unbelievable.

Rickey Henderson set the all-time runs record yesterday
as well. He's somewhat of a pompous ass, but between
him and Bonds, I can say I'm lucky enough to have seen
two of the top 5 leftfielders of all time. And Cal Ripken,
one of the top three shortstops of all time. And Clemens
and Maddux, two of the top 10 pitchers of all time.

And A-Rod, who might someday be the greatest shortstop
of all time. He hit his 52nd home run last night to a
smattering of boos. I wonder if he's happy, playing on that
lousy team. Many fans in Seattle were taunting him or
booing him, but I had to clap. He's just too good, the
best position player of his generation.

Oh yeah, and there's Pedro, the most dominating pitcher
I've ever seen. Of course, he always gets injured. Maybe he's
just too small to be a durable pitcher, but he's great. I loved
his quote about drilling the Bambino in the ass.
posted by Eugene Wei at 12:10 PM | link

Mitch McDeere

Joannie passed the Illinois state bar--congrats!
posted by Eugene Wei at 11:53 AM | link

Band of Brothers

It's hard to recognize too many individual characters. But perhaps
that is the story of war, which at times seems larger than any one
man. Spielberg and Hanks, with Saving Private Ryan and now
Band of Brothers, have achieved a new hyper-realistic depiction
of war which will change the way future moviemakers depict war,
the topics they choose to tackle.

I remember watching the miniseries North and South as a kid.
Is there any TV experience more gratifying than the weekly gathering
to catch the next episode of a high quality TV miniseries? Band of
Brothers doesn't quite have that as each episode can stand alone,
but it's better than anything on network TV. When's the last time
a network television channel came out with a good miniseries?
posted by Eugene Wei at 11:22 PM | link

On the homeless bum: Gucci top, $1,895

News clip spotted at IMDb:

Pamela Anderson insists she wouldn't have thought
twice about shooting her lesbian stalker in the head
if she had had a gun. The mother of two was terrified
to find the crazed fan hiding in her house, and says
her training in weapons would have come in handy.
Pamela says, "If I had a gun, I would have shot her
in the head. I can shoot too. I've been trained in all
kinds of weaponry. I did a course for Barb Wire. I
can shoot bazookas, grenade launchers... I rock
with my Glock out. What's that line in Mommie
Dearest? 'Don't f*** with me, fellas, this ain't my first
time at the rodeo!'" Pam says she knew her stalker
was getting out of hand when her clothes started to
go missing and then she saw homeless people near
her house wearing her clothes. She says, "I'd see
girls and homeless people on the beach wearing
glittery bikini tops and hotpants and I'm like - that's
my stuff! She was giving my stuff to her friends! I
tell you, the homeless people looked great. Gucci
cut-offs, Louis Vuitton suitcases. They looked
fabulous."
posted by Eugene Wei at 10:48 AM | link

Bad movies

Most films receiving acclaim these days do so purely because they
differ from the usual junk being put out by Hollywood. But a lot of
these movies aren't really all that enjoyable either. I can't remember
the last time I went to a movie and just had a purely enjoyable time.
I feel robbed most days when I leave the theater, or pop a rental
out of the DVD player. Really, if films like Amores Perros and Sexy
Beast are all that people can recommend, moviegoers everywhere
are best advised to read a good book.
posted by Eugene Wei at 12:05 AM | link

Studio in New York

Happy birthday, Joannie! Got to celebrate with her in person
in Chicago. She has the trappings of an adult now. An apartment
in Chicago, a paying job, her very own shoe rack. Got to
visit the courtroom where occasionally she has to jump up
and shout "All rise! The court of the honorable Judge Holderman
is in session!" or something like that. I think I have to see it
to believe it. I still just want to put her in a headlock and give
her a noogie.

Caught two Cubs games, both of which they won 6-2. In
the second game, the Cubs hit 3 home runs on 3 consecutive
pitches in the first inning, but I missed it. Derek, Joannie, Mike,
and I were late and just missed those. Drats. The Wrigley
Field experience is so different than the experience at Safeco
Field or that of any modern stadium. Wrigley is like a heavenly
playground field sprouted in the middle of a city, surrounded by
wood seats the neighbors threw up to stop and watch. In
between innings, there are no blooper reels on giant scoreboards
to ponder. The view of the city from the field itself, the people on
the buildings across the street, the ivy on the brick walls, and
the bright green hue of the grass in the sunlight. It feels very
intimate. It's amazing. I was so happy just to sit there and
watch baseball.

Okay, no more weddings until November. A brief respite. All the
weddings this month have worn me out and beat up my credit
card a bit. But it was a good run. To counteract all this coupling
up, though, Howie and Mark are now once again single. And loose
on the UCLA campus. Hide the women and child-women.

If I ever get married, I want to hold it somewhere other than
where I live, or my family live, or where her family lives. A place
away from it all. More fun for all involved, even if it means a smaller
party. The more people that travel there the better. When too
many people live close by they all run out early.

Saw the Van Gogh-Gauguin exhibit at the Art Institute. It was
instructive. Van Gogh was a great admirer of Gauguin and
invited him to his yellow house (it was literally painted yellow)
in Arles, France, to work together to fulfill Van Gogh's vision
for a Studio of the South. Unfortunately, they disagreed on
many topics of art, and over the course of just under a year,
grew apart. Still, the two of them tried hard to make it work.
In the end, though, just as Gauguin planned to leave, Van Gogh,
upset and mentally imbalanced, cut off part of his ear and sent
it to a prostitute. Gauguin brought Vincent's brother Theo to
watch over him, then Gauguin left. A fascinating story. Joannie
wonders if they were gay. I wonder if I could duplicate that type
of artistic collaboration today. I've always had this idea that
I'd gather some of my artist friends and go live together somewhere,
perhaps New York (the city of the moment for me) and work
together, inspiring each other to great work. Who's with me?
I want to start my own Studio. Fiction, moviemaking, photography.
I don't know enough about music and painting.

I had a sudden desire to learn all about Frank Lloyd Wright and
architecture while I was in Chicago so Derek took me to tour the
Robie House on the campus of the University of Chicago.
I was quite inspired. Must learn more. Want to help to design my
own house someday. The amazing thing is that the house was
built in the early 1900's but still struck me as amazingly modern.
I don't have a formal understanding of architecture, but I am
familiar with its effect on and parallels with the construction
of my mind. In an ideal world, I'd have my own house with a
room dedicated to my writing. Today my computer is near my
bed, and that juxtaposition deals havoc with my mental
separation of work and sleep. Even my television is here in the
same room with me. It's like a bachelor pad to the nth degree,
and my writing suffers, if you can believe it. Hard to explain.

Jenny is trying to convince me to participate in National Novel
Writing Month. An endurance event of the mind, she calls it.
The challenge? Write a 50,000 word novel in the month of November,
2001. A 30 day month, so just under 2,000 words a day, which
comes out to about 10 pages double spaced, with fat margins.
Or, a short English paper every day. 30 short stories back to back.
I picture myself, a pack of Dunhills, a bottle of Makers, a
Remington typewriter, pieces of sunlight cut up by the blades
of a desk fan, strobing my face. Better a mute typewriter than
the computer, mocking me with its blinking cursor. Damn, I'm
tempted though. What better excuse to write, write, write.

Am more than halfway through The Corrections. Very readable,
for a novel, I must give Franzen that. Better written than most
novels I've read in the past few years. Still, the topic, a dysfunctional
modern family, depresses me.

One thing that suffered while I was home was my running. Kept
planning to do it, then had to run out to see folks. Went to the
shoe store today and they laughed at my old Adidas which they
urged me to throw out right away. Bought some new shoes, and
they prescribed some orthotics. Hopefully they'll alleviate my random
pains. Took them out right away for a spin around the outside of
Green Lake. Couldn't see anything and nearly tripped on rocks and
roots along the dirt path a few times. All sorts of silent night
runners ran by me. If one thing will keep me running, it's the
frustration of being passed by fast moving skinny people all
the time. Damn you fast skinny people.

Tim is urging me to do Death Ride with him next year. 16K vertical
feet! Good lord. I barely survived 10K of vertical climbing this
year in RAMROD. Still...
posted by Eugene Wei at 11:00 PM | link