Milwaukee has a 4-0 lead in the 5th as I write this, and if they hang on, they will have swept the world champs.
… You are officially cleared to catch that Brewer Fever.
Tag Archives: brewers
Constant Updates
I’m really tired and I should have been in bed an hour or so ago. I had to finish a movie first.
I haven’t had much that was very blogg-o-riffic the last couple weeks. Work has been really busy. I haven’t done much in the evenings, and I probably oughta change that.
Here is a quick list from the weekend:
– I saw the Brewers loss on Friday with Dave, but they did have a winning weekend
– I had to go to work for a while on Saturday. It was OK.
– I went to Kilian’s 3rd birthday party, but since my ‘work’ had run late, I rushed over there without my card or my camera. A couple pics from my phone are on the Flickrs.
– I slept way too late this morning after not being able to sleep last night
– I have converted the last Windows holdover that I had in my house (the laptop)– I am now a linux-only sorta guy (which was a long time coming), and only interesting to the geekiest among you, I’m sure
– I started reading John Hodgman’s book, The Areas of My Expertise. It is funny.
OK. Bed time.
A Quick Thought While the Brewers Are Throwing One In the Shitter
Busy work week, so not much daytime blogging, I’m afraid. Too bad, cuz I’m sure I would’ve had something to say about the VA Tech hoopla had I kept up on it.
Just don’t freak out to me about gun control. Every time some looney picks up a weapon, there’s a liberal somewhere that wants to bury all the guns in some abandoned mine shaft. That’s bullshit. Guns don’t kill people, etc.
Anyway, I already digress. What I really wanted to comment on was the ubiquity of electronic communication and how it might water down our interactions. I just shot an email off to a buddy who I haven’t seen in a while, and it was one of the longer messages I’ve written in the last several months. It had distinct points and everything. There were even a couple paragraphs with more than two sentences. We’re talking about a virtual ‘tome’ here.
What I ended up thinking as I sent that message out was: what’s more meaningful? Relationships, even a great distance apart, kept alive by a few random words day to day, or less frequent, more in-depth contact?
I have all sorts of people that I keep in pretty good touch with, but we don’t have to say much to maintain those relationships. There are others that I see or talk with less, but our contact is always positive, ending with regrets about not talking more often. Is one system superior to the other, or is this just the natural course of things? I suppose another way to frame the question is– what makes you feel better? Do you like that occasional warm-n-fuzzy you get from catching up with a friend, or do you prefer to know you’ve got people just a couple button-presses away (several times daily, if necessary)? I guess we probably all need a little of both.
I’ll have to think about it some more, but if you get a really long, thought-out message from me in the near future, you’ll know why.
Go Figure
Attendance for the L.A. Angels at the Cleveland Indians, April 11 @ Miller Park in Milwaukee:
16,375
Attendance for the Indiana Pacers at the Milwaukee Bucks, April 11 @ the Bradley Center in Milwaukee:
14,596
Attendance for the Milwaukee Brewers at the Florida Marlins, Aprill 11 @ Dolphins Stadium in Miami:
11,379
Quiet (Good) Friday
I finally have a couple moments to breathe today.
It’s been a really hectic week of work, just due to the volume of processing that had to be accomplished. I feel bad that I haven’t really been inclined to blog even when I get home, in part cuz I’ve missed the news for most of the week…
What *can* I tell you?
I thought the end of the business with Iran and the British sailors was pretty interesting. I don’t think anyone can really fool themselves into believing that anything Iran does right now won’t have some effect on the international response to their nuclear program. Personally, I can’t imagine why any nation’s leader with half a brain would want to get into a pissing contest with G-Dub– just give us 21 more months, and it’ll all be over, everyone will be able to relax and stop sleeping with an ICBM under their pillow.
Well, except for Israel, of course.
In sports, the Brewers 2-1 start to the season is nothing to sneeze at. They can’t win every game all season, but hell– if they win twice as many as they lose all season, that will make them… (ponders the math)… 108-54. They’ll never win that many games. They could get sort of close to that and still be unbelievably awesome. I’ve been saying to people, “less than 90 wins will be disappointing.” I’m going to stick by that. It’s only 9 more victories .500 ball, and should be totally do-able for this group.
The only two things that have been troubling to me so far this year:
1. Carlos Villanueva’s shaky first appearance of the season (I think he’ll be OK in the long run)
2. Jose Capellan’s crybaby attitude
Note that both items relate to pitching, which is the most important thing to this club– they’re still very young, and are going to be prone to streakiness at the plate. They need consistency somewhere, and there are a lot of dollars invested in the pitching staff.
Last sports comment of the day: If you want to believe for a second that the Bucks are NOT trying their damnedest to tank the season while appearing to not tank the season, then please follow this link to some listings for a lovely condominium development I’ve recently invested in down in the Mississippi delta.
I went off a couple weeks ago about the integrity of my profession, to the confusion of some and the disinterest of others. If you are at all interested in what has become the hottest news item in financial aid departments across the country, check out this article from Inside Higher Ed on some new info that’s being turned up. I still think that the vast majority of my colleagues are ethical and honorable people. It’s this 1% or less that are (A) making the rest of us ill, and (B) going to cause some changes in the way we do business. Just a matter of time… Until then, my hope is that the students don’t suffer more confusion or stress than they already have.
I’ll be in Madison this evening (Friday) and then the Milwaukee area for the duration of the weekend. Plan accordingly.
Have a happy Easter!
Sign of the Times?
So now we have Brewers (rather than Packers) demanding to be traded.
Wow. This is the quote, from Capellan’s agent, that really blew me away in that story: There are a lot of organizations that don’t have the pitching depth the Brewers have. I think his services could be better used elsewhere.
A lot of organizations that wish they had our depth???
You kid? Wow, you don’t kid.
My response to Jose and his agent would be, “Sure, you can be traded. Go find us a starting 3rd baseman and you got a deal.”
Finally Time for an Opener
It has been a bleak, bleak winter in Wisconsin if you enjoy professional sports.
Not to take anything away from the accomplishments of the Badgers and, to an extent, the Marquette men’s basketball team, but if you live in Wisconsin and you enjoy following your hometown pro teams, this fall and winter were fairly forgettable. In every way.
I said to a co-worker back on October 1, “I’m just counting down the days ’til spring training.”
And count them I did.
Now, after the most optimistic spring I can recall since 1993, the Crew takes the field for the first day of the season right here at Miller Park. And if you ask me, there is no team more fun to follow when they’re playing well than your hometown baseball team.
They’ve got the longest season, spanning nearly everyone’s favorite season of the year. They’ve got a fantastic atmosphere surrounding a beautiful park, and a number of young players poised to make some great strides in their respective careers.
And who’s to say how everything will turn out come next October? For today, that doesn’t matter. Regardless of what happens, you can’t beat the feeling of a gorgeous Opening Day, and the optimism of the long summer ahead.
For those of you stuck at work, home, or school today, I will try to update the flickr stream with some regularity during the day…
Off to the game!
A Man Walked into a Bar Quick-Moving 4×4 Peppered With Giant Spikes
This is probably my busiest “processing” week of the year at work. We got started on the upcoming aid year, and trying to juggle two at once always presents a lot of time-consuming issues. On top of that, I have to get a whole mess of nursing students set to go in the next couple weeks…
I understand that for most of you, what I do at work is not really interesting or relevant, but I thought I would just mention “what I’ve been up to.” Yesterday, as I communicated to a few different people, my brain was mushy enough at the end of the day that I just wanted to be beaten over the head repeatedly with a heavy, blunt object. Like a 2×4. Or something. Next week will probably be better. Opening day on Monday, anyway…
In other news:
Joe & April had a good time in Germany, judging from the reports I’ve received. April’s folks are coming into town this weekend, now that the Knitts actually have enough room to house guests at their domicile. I was surprised that I didn’t get any feedback about the wallpaper that was on the computer when they got home, but I decided that there is probably some revenge scheme afoot that I’ll be surprised by later.
Jim Droste asked me to read at his wedding in June. I graciously accepted ((I also just realized that saying I’ve known someone for 10 years really isn’t that mind-blowing anymore. This fall, I will have known people I’ve known only since college for 10 years. That really doesn’t mean much, I guess, other than 10 years used to seem like a significant segment of time.)). Unfortunately, Michelle won’t be able to join me, since that’s also WILS seminar weekend. I’ll be looking forward to it either way…
I caught myself up on some things about the house last night that have been nagging at me, so I’ll feel OK doing some “recreational tinkering” this evening. I think I might get a HDTV tuner card for the PC. I’m curious about the sort of reception I’d be able to pull through the air. I guess I should go the Internet to find the facts about how well that would work.
I’ve had to type the word “verification” in a number of emails this week. Makes it seem strange that I have consistently been misspelling it– most often, it’s “verfication” instead. Spell check is good. I think you should consider spell-checking all your email before you send it. Even the casual/personal messages. Just push F7. That’s it. Every time. Make it a habit. F7 to check, then F9 to send. Unless you do the mail through the interwebs, then I don’t know what the hell you got going on.
I’m really just rambling here, time to tune in for Brewers baseball ((Yesterday, I sent the guys an email with the subject line “Could someone please pot Kent up?” but if my experience in broadcasting is any indication, the message was met with a middle finger, and the delete button. Doesn’t hurt to ask, I guess)).
I Am Jack's Ruined Career
I felt compelled to mention this, simply because I brought up his name in an earlier post:
Potpurri
One of my favorite things to do is argue with Dave Slotten about whether or not climate change is a myth. D-Slo is full of shit, of course.
Anyway, thinking of that made me want to whip this tidbit from the AP out there, because it features some of the Senate Republicans turning global warming into a partisan issue when Al Gore sat down to chat with them last week. Follow the link, or check out my summary:
AL GORE: Polar ice is melting at such an alarming rate, there probably won’t be any during the summer by the middle of this century. That is tragically fucked up.
JAMES INHOFE, R-OK: Piss off, Al– I distinctly remember shoveling last month…
JOE BARTON, R-TX: Yeah– and didn’t you leave the lights on at your house when you flew to L.A. for the Oscars? Prick?
And speaking of dumbasses working for the federal government, file this one under “surprise, surprise.”
Elsewhere, the Brewers finally traded a damn outfielder today, and by my count, that means they only need to move one more to get down to a reasonable number for the season. The prediction that I offered Schrubbe was “Jenks or Mench will be gone as soon as Nix is healthy.” Even though Laynce Nix is the least of the three, the fact is I think Ned will wind up with a king-sized bitchfest all year if those two really, really, really actually platoon for the balance of the season. That being said, one has to go and let the other take the bulk of the work.
Even if the Crew winds up with Geoff being their everyday guy back in left and he tanks, you’ve got 3 more guys in the system just clamoring for PT.
It’s warm today in a not-so-comfortable way. It’s too random and early for this sort of shit. On the positive side, I think it’s kept a lot of students off campus…
Finally, I think I should try to take some more pictures than I have been over the last few months, but I tend to fall into subject-ruts pretty quickly. Any suggestions?