centerfield

the 2010 baseball season is upon us and it's time for my predictions. this is going to be easy because i don't see anything changing. the cardinals will win the NL Central, the phillies will win the NL East and the rockies will win the NL West. the wild card from the NL will be the dodgers. same as last year but with the rockies and dodgers flip-flopping.

in the AL, the yankees will win the AL East, the twins will win the AL Central and the rangers will win the AL west. the tampa bay rays will win the AL wild card. that is a little different than last year. i think the rangers will be the surprise team this year, but mostly everything will be the same as last year. not a lot has changed to make anything different. the tigers will be a little worse without curtis granderson, the angels will be a little worse witout john lackey, plus they're getting a little old. the mariners will be a little better with cliff lee. the reds should be a little better with some seasoning. the NL Central promises to be comedicly bad. the most excitement will probably come from the possibility of another phillies-yankees world series. the same two teams have never, ever met in the world series in back-to-back years in my lifetime. it's never happened. so that will the biggest storyline.

i can't wait. as for the home team, they're going to be a little better i think this year. the rotation is younger and should be stronger. the bullpen is a little tighter. our offense is still pretty pathetic, but our defense has improved enough that i think we'll win 80 games. that's my prediction: 80-82. another losing year, but we're moving in the right direction.

while you wait for the others

so....who's watching the watchers?

we have major accounting firms not doing their job (i'm looking right at you ernst and young!)

we have credit agencies giving bogus credit scores to garbage assets (i'm looking right at you moodys!)

these are the agencies we depend on for their adherence to rules and compliance. we cannot trust them. therefore, we cannot trust anyone. it's all made of fiction and gorilla dust. all of it. something doesn't look right, move it off the balance sheet. the audit firm won't mind, we pay them millions. they'll do what we say.

i hesitate to link this article, but i have to. some of you (actually the only guy who reads this agrees with me) don't want to believe what's really going on. that everything you know and rely on is made of crumbs and it won't take more than a collective sneeze to blow it away. really. the game is rigged. do your best as a person. have as much fun as you can. nothing is going with you in the next life. don't be greedy. let it go. but realize what you're up against and who you're playing with.

republicans=democrats=republicans=democrats and on and on and on and on.... no one has your best interest in mind except you.

someday i will treat you good

mark linkous killed himself the other day. he was basically sparklehorse. apparently he walked down a street, pulled out a shotgun and shot himself in the heart. must have been in a lot of pain.

i remember being young. i remember listening to "someday i will treat you good." that made me buy vivadixiesubmarinetransmissionplot. i bought it. i listened to it. to this day, i still am blown away by the feeling the album generates. it's beautiful. it's haunting. it's sad. it's hopeful. it's disjointed. i love it.

i'm sorry he was in such great pain. i hope he's feeling better now.

something

man, i had something hilarious to post about something. now i can't remember. it was going to be groundbreaking.

i'm almost 80% after my battle with whatever took me down this week. this was the worst i've felt since i had the flu, which i was certain i had the flu but didn't. still tons of coughing and lots of just tiredness, but trust me, it's way better than where i was monday/tuesday. i think i shaved my head too soon. i usually do it in march or april. this year i did it january, when it was still freakin' cold. that's my theory. i needed hair.

giving up the gun

every picture i see of jim bunning, the man looks insane. especially walking into his "senator's only elevator." that was so crazy, it was brilliant.

niall ferguson, who is obsessed with the current/potential long decline of america, likens it to thomas cole's paintings known as "the course of the empire."

neil degrasse tyson is everywhere. i saw him on the daily show last night. i saw him rachel maddow last night. he's the guy who took down pluto from planet to dwarf. pbs is actually airing a special tonight about that same thing. i suggest it.

the acts of man

the new midlake album is so bad. it pains me to say it, but it totally sucks. it sits on one feel the entire time and it never leaves it. every song sounds the same and each new one brings about new levels of crap. don't waste your time. move along people. nothing to see here.

going the distance

the test is over. this part, for now. i'm taking the weekend off from studying. i'm going to lay it all out there at the chili cookoff with my best friend and my wife. i honestly cannot wait. i'm literally sitting still, not waiting.

there was a sign on the desk where you check in before the test. it read: "you only fail when you stop trying." totally lame, but man, oh man, is it true. i could fail this thing and be upset and get bent out of shape, but that doesn't get me anywhere. i have to keep studying. keep trying. and finally, it will happen. i know it will.

"gonna fly now, gonna fly now...." everything comes back to rocky.

wednesday morning

i take the audit section. wish me luck!!

i also had my ticket dismissed today. so it's the start of a good week. i plan on keeping it going.

benjamin in china

all of the people who read this blog know my cat. his name is benjamin and before he started to go crazy, he was the coolest cat ever. he's still cool, but the annoying level is growing. anyway, all of you know him and love him and recognize him from this picture. the only thing is, that's not him. i found this picture on a website i frequent and freaked out because this cat looks exactly like benjamin. i mean exactly. it has to be him. i guess it doesn't have to be him.

so either there is another cat who looks exactly like my cat or benjamin got out of the house one night, caught a flight to china and found someone to take this picture of him and got back in bed with me and my wife before we woke up in the morning. the latter does seem more likely when you spell it out. i just love the fact he was enjoying his trip enough to have someone take a picture of him while he was there. great thinking bear.

the courage of others

i pray i have the courage to face the evil that will come my way.

st. valentine's day

what a weekend people. friday night, saw avatar. it was the most visually stunning event i have ever participated in. the colors, the scenes, the action is all in your face and vivid and beautiful. i highly recommend it.

saturday we had dinner at reef and saw wonderful at the alley. dinner was great. the play was stupid and terrible and possibly the worst play ever. possibly and likely.

sunday i studied and then the wife and i put together this epic dinner that took like three and a half hours. the dinner was pretty good, but it was most fun making it together.

now i'm studying all week and night and all week again. all weekend. all the time. i'm passing that bastard this time. i'm doing it!!!

the horizon is a beltway

"the horizon is a beltway that we may never cross
the tops of buildings tremble like children lorn and lost
the stain runs deep it's deeper than the blood upon the cross
the horizon is a beltway that we may never cross."

- the low anthem

rain on

"are you quite certain love?"

over fire island

things are about to get interesting. if greece falls, there could some real fireworks out there. and i'm wondering how long before we start to smell the smoke?

the bailout of greece and the end of the euro

a greek crisis is coming to america

EU leaders promise to keep greece in check

greece: the PIGS fight back

after reading these articles, you start to get the same feeling: people are nervous. we all know what the ending of the story is for every one of us. that only leaves one question: when will the end come? we live our lives certain ways thinking the end is far or near. countries do the same thing. is the day of debt reckoning here? probably not yet. but the future/present never seemed so confusing.

girls, pts.1 & 2

harry rag

i have been sick for five days now. my ears are clogged and everything sounds like i'm underwater.

no matter.

this still does not change the fact that the kinks are severly underrated and underappreciated. kinks albums, i'm coming for you. all of you. actually all of you before lola, i think after that you kind of suck.

smoke detector

rilo kiley is so lame, but so hot and tight at the same time. i listen to it for two or three songs and love it. and then i hate it. and then i want to make love to it. and then i want get some space from it.

i love you jenny lewis.

no i don't.

love like a sunset, pt. 2

"come in number 51, your time is up."

the fed as a giant counterfeiter. great article that clearly spells out the inflation based fiat system of money we have.

the website that article comes from is http://www.mises.org/. i highly recommend checking into this website daily for great reads and articles on economic and political topics.

"tu ne cede malis."

apparently chris dodd is going go out on top, by killing the financial reform bill so he can go work with the very same financial institutions it tries to wrangle in.

paul krugman looks north to the boring canadiens as a great example of how to base our financial policies.

"i don't believe in beatles. i just believe in me. yoko and me. that's reality."

books of moses

yo la tengo was great. i can't shake the feeling though that i don't belong at concerts anymore. i'll still go, oh yeah, i'll still go and some i do feel like i belong. like when i went to blind pilot and the low anthem. but at yo la tengo we were standing around like 16 year old kids who all had the same haircut, all moved the same way and all attached amazing importance to every movement of sound. i know this because i used to be those kids. but now i'm older and i like going, but i don't like the standing, i don't like the crampness, i don't like the screaming. i need a personal performance in my garage. when i get a garage.

there was one girl there who overheard me talking to pete about how the first band sucked. and she started shaking her head, telling me i was wrong. i made a smart-ass comment in her direction and then she proceeded to ask me to name my top ten bands of all time because that's how she determines character in her book. that's how she said it. so i named hanson, foreigner, deep blue something. i couldn't name all ten because she was instantly dying on the inside because she actually believed these were my top ten bands of all time. but it was how she said it, "that's how i judge character in my book." and i thought, do i do that? i don't think i do. character is not something i attach to what kind of music you listen to. some of the best people in my life, the most honest people i've ever met listen to absolute shit. and some of the most untrustworthy, lying, deceptive people i've ever met listened to great music. so a judge on someone's character? no. a judge on their ability to artistically judge something worthwhile and meaningful? yes. so maybe that's what she was getting at, but used a different word that i didn't appreciate. who knows. she was wasted. and married. and hitting on me.

i will be going to another concert very soon. sunday i'm seeing girls at walters. that sounds promising.

autumn sweater

going to see yo la tengo tonight.

boo-yes.

boo-yesh.

boo. yes.

yesh.

too much caffeine.