Tampa Bay Rays: 2008 ALCS Champs!!!!

What an ALCS series … Boston tried to come back from another 3 games to 1 deficit but couldn’t quite pull it off. They had the bases loaded in the 8th but David Price shut them down and then finished ’em off in the top of the 9th. Final score: 3-1. Fantastic! Congratulations also to Matt Garza, the MVP of the 2008 ALCS.

Anyone remember this Sports Illustrated cover from back in May? 😉

Bring on the Phillies!

WIJFR: Overclocked: Stories of the Future Present

In these quirky, brashly engaged “stories of the future present” Cory Doctorow shows us life from the point-of-view of the plugged-in generation and makes it feel like a totally alien world. — Claude Lalumiere, Montreal Gazette

“Overclocked: Stories of the Future Present” is a collection of short stories by Cory Doctorow. It consists of:

  • Printcrime
  • When Sysadmins Ruled the Earth (my personal favorite)
  • Anda’s Game
  • I, Robot
  • I, Row-Boat
  • After the Siege

Since Cory publishes all of his work under the Creative Commons license, you can download all the short stories for free, in various formats. I read all of them on my Treo 680 using iSilo.

If, after reading “Overclocked” you want more, I highly recommend “Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom.” You’ll never look at Disney World the same way again.

A night out at the ballpark … at home

Since I couldn’t get tickets to the first two ALCS games here in St. Pete and today’s Game 3 was early, we decided to do baseball night for dinner.

I fired up the grill and cooked some hamburgers (well, turkey burgers) and hot dogs, we baked some pretzels, served some drinks (I had a beer) and then turned on the surround sound and watched the game in HD in the family room. It was just like being there … except without annoying Boston fans, people constantly crawling over you to get out of the row, lines for the bathroom, and much comfier seats. 😀

What a game … total domination by the Rays in Fenway as they win 9-1 and take a 2-1 game lead in the series. Go Rays!!

Now I’m watching the Brows on Monday Night Football … the first time they’ve been on MNF in five years. They’ve taken an early 3-0 lead over the defending Super Bowl champion New York Giants, but as a realist (and lifelong Cleveland fan), I don’t expect that to last.

WIJFR: Mariel of Redwall

Heaved off her ship in a pirate raid, Mousemaid Mariel is washed up on the shores of Mossflower. With no idea where she is, or indeed who she is, the young warrior mouse embarks on an unforeseen adventure that will take her to the very heart of Redwall and into the arms of the people who live there.

So I’ve finally caught up with my daughter and finished the fourth book of Brian Jacques’ Redwall series, “Mariel of Redwall.”

Just like J.K. Rowling’s first few Harry Potter books, I’m beginning to see the pattern in Jacques’ novels:

  • new enemy/bad guy is introduced
  • all is peaceful at Redwall
  • an event occurs that requires some Redwallers to leave on a perilous quest, directed by the spirit of Martin the Warrior and mysterious Abbey writings/poems/riddles, joined by other friends along the way
  • while the questing party is gone, Redwall comes under attack and must be defended by the peace-loving Abbey dwellers
  • the Abbey is successfully defended, though some lives are lost
  • the questing party returns successfully to the Abbey
  • a final journal entry by an Abbey dweller sums up the final events and links to the other books in the series

The one difference in “Mariel” is that the main protagonist is a female mouse. Otherwise, the book falls into my outline above as follows:

  • Gabool the Wild, king of the sea rats, has captured a magnificent bell intended for the badger lord of Salamandastron.
  • Redwall is still being constructed, with the current project being the bell tower (hint hint) 😉
  • Mariel the mousemaid arrives, discovers an old poem that describes how to get to Terramorte Isle, and then leaves on a quest to kill Gabool and avenge her father Joseph the Bellmaker. Dandin (mouse), Durry (mole), and Tarquin (hare) accompany her northwards.
  • a gang of sea rats, led by Graypatch, decide to besiege the Abbey intending to be the new rules of Redwall and enslave its inhabitants.

I can’t really go into the final points without giving away major plot lines or spoilers, but suffice it to say it follows the pattern. 🙂

While these are primarily books for younger readers, I have enjoyed them. While I was reading “Mariel” I was giving my daughter daily updates on my progress. She was always excited to remember certain sequences or events and discuss them with me. She was also very good about not spoiling any upcoming surprises. She also loves the maps in the front of each book, which show a little bit more of Mossflower Woods and the surrounding lands in each story.

Next up is “Salamandastron,” which we’re going to read together like we did with the first two. It takes a little longer, but it’s our fun bedtime activity.

Take On Me, the literal version

a-Ha’s “Take On Me” was a groundbreaking music video. I still remember seeing it for the first time on MTV at my grandmother’s house back in the 80s (we didn’t have cable at home). Here’s a hilarious version of it that explains what’s really going on. Pipe wrench fight!

I won’t get to use my Game 5 tickets …

… but that’s because the Rays beat the White Sox in Game 4 to move on to the ALCS!!

I had the chance to purchase ALCS Games 1 & 2 tickets today but was so busy at work I didn’t get a jump on the purchase at 9am like I did for the ALDS. As a result, the games were sold out (online at least) by the time I tried to purchase my tickets. I’ll just have to hope I get chosen in the lottery for the later games.

Way to go Rays!

MLB Gameday … how do they do it?

mlb-mini-770037A friend pointed me to MLB’s Gameday application this afternoon during Game 1 of the ALDS between the Rays and White Sox (the Rays are up 4-3 as I write this). This thing is amazing … how do they do it?

The mini version is shown to the left. It gives you the pitch-by-pitch details, shows the location, trajectory, and speed of each pitch, and then the play-by-play details … for free and in near real-time.

The full-blown 3D version lets you use your mouse to change the camera angle and zoom in/out while viewing the graphic pitch overlay. I didn’t try this but apparently after a play you can click on a hyperlink and see the actual video footage of the play.

That’s some seriously cool technology … I would love to know how it works. They have a blog and it appears that they just launched this 3D version back in June.