Oh-eee-oh-eee-oh



Morris Day would like to wish you a happy Fourth of July Weekend.

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Buy Me some Peanuts



A country superstar I never heard of sang during the 7th inning stretch. It reminded me of the President's press conference. I think the term is: "go straight for the base."

I have a theory that the NBA rigs the lottery winner to either (a) save a franchise; (b) bring a star to a big market; (c) let the least popular teams win the lottery during a weak draft. My evidence in respective order: James.Iverson.Bogut.

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Summer Weekend #1

Last week featured the official start of Summer. The weather didn't disappoint. Among the uncomfortable, sweaty feeling I took these pictures. In reverse order:


Day

Night

I sit in an air-conditioned office all day. I've been sitting in my air-conditioned apartment all night. I should probably spend more time outside and do more than stand at train platforms and take pictures. This heat should be enjoyed.


Baseball in Milwaukee. We welcomed our friend Damon from his navy stint and got him a few beers at a baseball game. It was great to sit around, drink beers, watch baseball, and enjoy the happiness Damon expressed for being out of the Navy. If you met him, you'd understand why.


Two rookies hit their first Major League Home Runs against the twins. The linked article mentions more people will claim to have been at the game than there were at the stadium. That's a bit of an overstatement, but I've got a personal record of it. Fielder hammered the first pitch he saw off the bench.


Pizza. It's been a whirlwind few weeks lately, so I suggested to we stay in and sit on the couch all night. The night was as good as the pizza.

- Weekend's mental trigger: Great America. I drove about an hour in slow traffic and noticed the long line of cars waiting to get to the theme park's parking lot. Then it hit me: I forgot my tickets to the baseball game back home. I cursed a few times, turned around, and went back to square one. I left my house at 10:30 am...I didn't get to my folk's house until 2:30 pm. Longest 90 mile trip ever.

- My dad's next-door neighbor planted a pine tree on his property. They have assumed that the lot-line is a yard or two further than it actually is and have landscaped around it the tree. I warned my dad that there's a legal battle afoot if he doesn't remind them that they're using his property. If they continue to tend that part of the yard for a few unnoticed years, they own it. My father dismissed my warning. I think he does that a lot to everybody...and somehow it works out for him.

- Damon was happy to be out of the Navy. I mean really happy. I mean happy.

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The View Over There


Hazy. Humid.

Quinn remarked that the downtown area looked angry today. Days like these are tough to enjoy indoors. I'm not sure about those spots in the distance. You define those.

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Paranoid Sprots Coverage

If you want to see how the local media handles having two baseball teams...and turn it into a paranoid microcosm of how far we have come as a society since the 60's (or reconstruction), one not need to look further than the local sports report tonight.

I first turned to the ABC affiliate. The minority sportscaster opened up his newscast and spoke about how Cubs (northside/largely caucasian fan base) fans constantly complain to him that the affiliate keeps giving the Sox (southside/largely minority fan base) the lead story. So he jovially opened up with a story about how the Brewers beat the Cubs 9-4 and talked about how bad they played etc. etc. and said something like "this is what you wanted...you got it." The next story was about how the Sox continue to run up their lead in the division behind their amazing pitching staff.

After that story, I immediately turned to the NBC affiliate. The caucasian sportscaster opened his segment and went straight to the Cubs game. Before going into the highlights of the game, he immediately started making excuses as to why the Cubs starting pitcher gave up eight runs in one inning with a panicked tone in his voice. In fact, he made over five references to a line-drive that glanced off the pitcher's hand during the eight run rally. The ABC affiliate did no such thing. After that, the Sox story was more of an 'oh yeah, the sox won again.'

My point seemed clearer when I envisioned this post...but I think you get the gist of what I'm saying here. Good talk. See you out there.

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Outside

Outdoors on this ideal and longest of summer days:

- Walked two blocks before giving up and catching the bus to the station.

- Lunch in the yard, a short nap, and waking up to this song.

- Stumbled through the set of a Hollywood movie. Star-crossed gawkers were screaming in non-sensical directions. We just wanted to arrive at, and exit, a meeting.

- Walked back from the day job from said meeting.

- "Rode bikes" with Quinn to throw a baseball around, then sip a few beers at some bar while waxing nostalgic about how awesome we were in high school. Bro down.

- Joked with a middle-aged couple about how crossing a street in a car is as dangerous as crossing by foot. Followed by a man accusing his wife of almost running me over...or was it the other way around?

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Triangle Offense

Home - Madison - Brookfield...One more time.


(Home) - The highlight of an evening at Rivinia park featured a brass band. The rest of the production, but not the evening, turned out to be inconsistent and out of sync. I'd go back.


(Madison) - I made a quick visit to Madison, WI for a May or May Not Show. You could find me among the camera-happy friends of musicians (below).




(Brookfield) - On the father's day visit, my mother urged me to get a carwash. I guess she didn't enjoy the sight of dried berries and birdshit splotched all over my car. During what seemed like a really long car wash, I played with more digital macro.

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Random Factoids for your Weekend Enjoyment

- I have seen (2) people trip and fall on the lot that my workplace building sits on. I wonder if this doesn't happen at least once every day.

- A former roommate interviewed for a position that has an office located in the same building that houses my day job. If said job is offered and accepted, it would make it the fourth (4th) building in which we will send an e-mail to each other while being under the same collective roof.

- The above paragraph was the second (2nd) small-world occurrence today.

- I made forty dollars ($40) today selling a coat-tree that I had inherited from my office predecessor. She had inherited the tree from her predecessor. Using the precedent set in the case of 'Finders vs. Keepers,' I am not obligated to send money back up the tree.

- Buying Two (2) McSausage Biscuits and Two (2) McHashbrowns for two dollars ($2) is a better deal than utilizing the one dollar ($1) special plus a single McSausage biscuit (priced at $1.75). I can't spell biscuits for the life of me. Saving the 75 cents is a better deal than throwing away the second McHasbrown.

- You know you're comfortable with your friends and your respective dating situations when you publicly use the term 'constipation' at a restaurant table without caring what the ladies at the next table think.

Blogs are fun.

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The Cart

Walking home from work yesterday, I came across a shopping cart that appeared to have been taken for a seven block ride. I let out a little chuckle and examined to see if the shopping cart had one of them fancy locks. It did not. I walked away going over scenarios as to how it got there. Perhaps a homeless person found an even better shopping cart in the same spot a few hours beforehand. Perhaps a bunch of high school kids wanted to see how far they could take it. Perhaps it was just making a stop during a random and continual journey through the city. It's just a shopping cart.

The image of the shopping cart didn't' return to mind until about three in the morning. It took me a few tense moments to figure out what the horrible sound that snapped me from an otherwise peaceful sleep. Shopping carts aren't the most comforting of sounds when one is sound asleep.

I just stated the obvious. I do that a lot.

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Spontaneous Day



After learning about atrocities committed by imperialist Japan towards the 'Rebels' in the Philippines during World War II, I've always felt slightly guilty about eating this cuisine. I have my reasons. Today guilt tasted like shrimp tempura rolls and cucumber salad. That's what I get for aimlessly walking around to find lunch.



The visiting Arizona Diamondbacks scored seven runs in a span of four outs tonight. The game was over early. Enjoy my paper highlight. The visiting team batted around. That three run homer in the middle of was hit on the first pitch of the at-bat. Fun.

During batting practice, I took a picture of Tony Gwynn in the TV booth and he looked up in our direction. I think we were 200 feet away. I gave him a nod and a 'thumbs-up' sign. Miller did something like shrug his shoulders or wave his arms. I glanced back at Tony and he shot a wide smile in our direction. I'm not sure if he actually saw us...but it was still a classic rock star moment.

The supposed exchange reminded me of the time my college roommate and I semi-drunkenly heckled Barry Bonds in front of a large group of kids ages 10 to 12. Mr. Bonds turned his head and shot us a glare out of the corner of his eye. That was a pretty fun game to attend. We probably looked like champs that day (but not really).

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Heet


Blacklighting became novel for a few moments on Friday night. Then DPC went to Nashville.

Much time during the brutal heat of the weekend was spent in the air-conditioned apartment. Like millions of people around here, I probably used more energy than I needed. I'm using the windows and 75 degree temperature right now to keep things cool right...unlike millions of people around here.

We were watching the traffic roll by after yesterday's Red Sox/Cubs game when somebody caught in traffic asked us: "Where's the neeerest pahkage staah?" I pointed in the opposite direction and it wasn't a sufficient answer. After directing them to the package store in the direction they were going, we discussed their New England accents. We probably should have expected that.

The lady and I took a long walk to the lakefront last night and made it to the lake in about 40 minutes. At around 11:30 and police officer rolled up to a picnic area, sounded it's alarm, and started barking over the PA horn. Everybody but us scattered. On the way towards the street, we walked by a half-case of Corona and a bag of 40 oz. bottles of the same brand. We probably should have taken it back home with us.

My brother and his wife bore themselves a son on Friday. The boy's name is Jack. I like the sound of that. Congrats.

Either I get a haircut, or I grow it out. I'll think about that one....

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Coincidence

Last night I discovered that I had deleted half of my pictures from the field trip to Savannah, GA. I did it by mistake last week while in a rush to leave town. It turns out that among others, I had deleted pictures of Colonial Park Cemetery and Forsyth Park. I thought to myself that it was probably the ghosts of the cemetery who got me to delete images of their tombstones baking in the sun. The idea spooked me out for a few moments, but I managed to laugh it off.


So today, I found a free program that rescues deleted photographs from removable media such as the one above. Everybody at this particular square kept reminding me that portions of Forrest Gump were filed there. Here are some benches.

I ran the program on the card and was able to recover most of what I shot that day as well as pictures from April's field trip to Miller Park...but there was one glaring exception: the cemetery. Um...

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Boom goes the dynamite


I went to take out the trash a few minutes ago and noticed that the sunlight was coming from the southeast. Having recalled spending eight hours at a day job, I concluded that I didn't black-out on the couch during dinner for twelve hours. After further investigation, I saw the clouds.


This is the doppler version of the above picture. This proves that the clouds weren't my imagination.


Much like the time in 2000 when I came home from the library six weeks into a semester and said to my roomate: "It just hit me that school has started," I found this listing in this week's Onion and the same type of feeling hit me. At that moment, it hit me that we're a bunch of emcee's. People will pay ticketmaster surcharges to watch us perform. This is something kids all over the world dream about doing...and we half-treat it like a joke. I'm glad to see that the Double Door isn't closing afterall. Hi, my name is Eddie and I'm a rapper.

Pistons vs. Spurs - my pick....Either Pistons in six, or Spurs in four.

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Remember?

Remember when I would post, almost daily, self-absorbed observations about my day and how stupid I thought things were. Then I picked up a camera and let that do the talking. Now I find myself with less time to string paragraphs together to tell you what's going on in my world. Well...that's the way it is these days. If you read through 2003 and most of 2004, you'll notice that I sat on my ass alot...a lot. Well...that's my smart-ass observation of the day. Tune in tomorrow for more.

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Reverse Lunchblog

Welcome to summer. Before it showed up, I went out to lunch.


Lunchblog swept through the city and landed in a south side world of Mexican delights. Quinn usually takes a picture of whom he dines with. This is my tribute to lunchblog.

Scorecard


We showed up an inning into the game and the Sox had a 4-0 lead. Two innings later, the visiting team scored four runs. Then the Sox shut them down. Relive the third inning with me: Strikeout - Double - Walk - Hit Batter - RBI Groundout - Three Run Homer - Groundout to pitcher. I forgot to mark that Blake scored on Broussard's groundout to short....but believe me.

On the way home from the ballpark we sat behind and saw a child no older than six randomly chant out "Mike Jones!...who am I?...Mike Jones!" I started to laugh and the kid's family gave me a confused look.

Summer's Debut


The winds picked up and literally swept Spring out of the air. Gone are the dandelion seeds, spring pollen, and that fresh-spring smell. The weekend storms made quick work of the region. I drove through the first storm. Once we got to Wisconsin, the skies started to clear and everything looked different.


Two hours later, we're staring at the bridge by the Milwaukee Harbor. It was hot and sunny. This made a visit to the hometown very pleasant.

During the visit (a quick visit from the Austin residents), I randomly ran into a kid from my 5th grade basketball team and a former classmate. They live in the same city and have completely different lives...always fascinating to hear.

MayFest


We raised our beers, but I didn't' take a picture of that. I did catch us raising our pretzels.

Summer is here. Get the Mustard.

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Yawn


I fell asleep in the front yard today. Sometimes the reflection off the building will serve as a brutal alarm clock. I was lucky this time around. Taking a quick nap during the day will maintain my sanity and as long as I wake up with my wallet in the same place it was when I doze off, I'll can keep doing this.


On Tuesday morning, I woke up at 5:45 EDT to catch the sunrise off the Atlanic. As you can see it was an inspiring experience, well worth the trip. Before waking up, I had a dream that I missed taking a picture of the sunrise then proceeded to tell somebody the events of the prior night's dreams. It was the first time I had vivid dreams in a long time. Only on couches.


This was another interesting find on the spontaneous walking tour of Savannah, GA. It looks...old and southern...or just old.

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Four Days in South Carolina

It was a vacation from work, city-life, and you (the internet).


This landmark defines Hilton Head Island (along with the yachts and seemingly increasing number of palm trees). For only five dollars, you get a day pass to visit this semi-private resort to see the "lighthouse"...unless you stay there, of course. The island features nothing but luxury resorts, golf courses, tennis courts, and fake breasted women young and old carrying shopping bags.


I took pictures of plants and animals.


Fountain. I took an accidental trip to Savannah, GA. Squares and benches are a nice touch.

Regular programming to resume tomorrow.

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