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Blackberries are the devil

Sonda lik wrong file FRM svn Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

That’s an email I got from my boss this afternoon. I probably didn’t have to put that second line there – you knew it was from a Blackberry as soon as you read the first line. Now, I’m not bashing my boss. He’s a good guy, and I actually do know what he means by that. His spelling isn’t that great even when he’s got a full size keyboard. And it actually did answer the question I asked. I know everyone bashes the Blackberry. I do, too, although I also really want one. And they can be used for good – I borrowed a friend’s at a bar once to make sure I didn’t have a job interview the next day. That was before I got my current job. Anyway, the problem is that people are lazy. I’ve always found it, not amusing, but interesting that my mom uses complete sentences, proper capitalization, and proper punctuation in ALL instant messages. No one does that. Well, maybe your mom does, I don’t know. I don’t have her on my buddy list. But Blackberries are like the opposite of my mom. Because you’re “on the go”, you can’t spend thirty seconds actually typing out a sentence. It doesn’t take that long. So, next time you send an email, Blackberry or otherwise, take a moment to think. Are you responding to the email, or just making a written record of having received it? If you’re not responding, then don’t bother.

And then it rained

Originally uploaded by thetejon

Went to the DC United game last night. We didn’t stick around for the three hour rain delay. This was the third time they tried to play this game (Although the first time I had tickets). We had pretty awesome seats thanks to a friend, and access to free food and drinks thanks to VW (through the same friend through another friend), and I managed to get home without getting my foot wet, per doctor’s orders. I’ve been to a couple of DC United games this season, and it’s becoming increasingly clear that the team doesn’t much like to play defense. They just don’t seem to have their hearts in it. Which is too bad, because the team doesn’t seem half bad, and the defensive problems really look like they’re due to a lack of effort more than a lack of skill. I won’t claim to be a soccer expert – I played rec league and high school, but never higher than JV, so take my opinions here with a grain of salt. There were delays on the Green Line getting home, too. Everything seemed cool at first, since most of the stadium was still sticking around, waiting to see if they would resume the game, when we left. So the train from RFK wasn’t full, and usually once we transfer to Green it’s smooth sailing. But it took us a half hour to get from Shaw to Columbia Heights. If my foot wasn’t busted up, we could have walked it in that time. Anyway, more pictures here.

Comcast did something right

I complain a lot about Comcast Cable in DC. Any of you in the area waiting for Verizon Fios to come to DC and at least make Comcast pretend to compete know what I’m talking about. But they’re actually doing something cool right now – they’re doing a free preview of their MLB Extra Innings package. Unfortunately, it ends tomorrow, and I just found out about it today. And most of it isn’t in HD. But it means I get to watch the first game of the big Mets-Phillies series, and watch the big rivalry that no one (but my wife’s coworkers) cares about, David Wright vs Ryan Howard. So far Wright is winning. Both are one for three, but Wright has a double, run, and RBI, while Howard just has a single. Good thing I’m not making rash statements based on small sample sizes. I’m a little tempted to pay $129 for Extra Innings for the rest of the season. But I watch too much tv as it is, and I don’t REALLY need to watch out of market baseball games. Maybe when I retire.

Getting back to running

I just saw the doctor this morning about my foot. He says it’s healing nicely, and I got a less bulky bandage that makes it a little easier to walk. He also told me that I should be able to start running again in about six weeks. So, to celebrate my return, I’m going to do the Boo! Run for Life on October 12th, a 10K to benefit the Dean R. O’Neill Renal Cell Cancer Research Fund. It should be fun. West Potomac Park is a nice, easy 10K course. It’s flat and there’s plenty of room. And it will be good motivation to get me running again.

Damn it, Tor

Until Sunday, July 27, you can download all the novels and wallpapers that were given away in our recent “Watch the Skies” program–for free. Don’t delay!

Now they’re gleefully boasting that the carrot they held out to encourage people to sign up early is available to everyone. I know, I could have been reading all those stories I downloaded before everyone else, and it’s not Tor’s fault that there are no good ebook readers. But I really can’t figure out why they wanted people to sign up early. And now that all the free stuff is available to everyone, I can’t even gloat about how I got it first. What a bunch of jerks.

After all that, Scalzi had to tell me?

The new Tor.com beta has launched. Despite signing up with them months ago, when they promised free goodies for getting on the mailing list, they seem to have forgotten to notify me of the opening. They did come through with the free goodies – I have a few dozen free ebooks to read as soon as someone makes a stinkin’ ebook reader that doesn’t suck. And now they have new short stories from John Scalzi and Charles Stross, which is cool. But I didn’t hear about the launch from Tor, I heard about it from John Scalzi’s blog. What’s the point of signing up for the early mailing list if you aren’t informed when the new site goes live? And why did they do it on a Sunday when no one is paying attention? And why didn’t I already have a username and password? I don’t remember if I signed up for one when I got on the mailing list, but I should have, and they should remember it. I haven’t poked around on the site yet, so I can’t speak to what it’s like, but after all this buildup, the launch itself has been pretty disappointing. Hopefully they’ll iron out the wrinkles and end up with a nice site. I suspect that they will. So now I’m off to check out the site.

Nice night for a baseball game

I was thinking this afternoon that I might watch the Orioles game, since I’m still more or less stuck on the couch. The foot is better, but it’s tough to move around. Dinner intervened (The wife has been fantastic about taking care of me while I’m immobile), and we didn’t see the beginning of the game. I checked ESPN to find the Orioles down, 6-2, after only one inning. That wasn’t encouraging. Daniel Cabrera was walking batters and giving up bombs. It took a minute to find the game – at first I thought MASN was only showing the Nats game (Seriously, who’s watching that?), but then we found the Orioles. It was 7-2 by that time. And then the O’s came back. Let me take a quick break from writing – as I was typing that last sentence, Luke Scott hit a monstrous home run to win it in the bottom of the 10th after a bad call at the plate to end the Detroit half of the inning. Anyway, a big back and forth game, a huge home run from Ramon Hernandez to blow a save for Joel Zumaya, 17 hits for the Orioles. Crazy. But this post is tagged complaint. It was one thing when the Red Sox and Yankees were in Baltimore and the crowd was cheering the visiting team. Not that I think that’s okay, but it’s expected. But in the top of the tenth, the Tigers cheers were loud. The Tigers! That’s the team from Detroit. Who cares about the Tigers? Okay, so the wife likes the Tigers. She’s from Michigan, so it’s okay. But I don’t expect to hear Tigers chants at Camden Yards. Peter Angelos needs to go. Camden Yards is going to be the fastest stadium to 50,000,000 fans in the history of baseball (Although I have to think that the new Yankees stadium will eventually beat that). But if you look at the average attendance each year, you see a big dropoff. It was 45,000 a year for the first seven years, then it dropped under 40,000, and then under 30,000. The Orioles have not shown a commitment to winning in a decade. Their payroll isn’t the problem – they don’t spend Red Sox/Yankees money, but they aren’t the Marlins, either. But Angelos has been too busy complaining about the Nationals to bother putting a good team on the field. This year has been a surprise – the offseason looked like they were rebuilding, and then all of a sudden we have the best team we’ve had in Baltimore in a while. Anyway, it was a fun game to watch. I hope Angelos was busy doing something else and didn’t get to enjoy it, too.

Am I immune to codeine?

The busted foot is not feeling too great today. I’ve been icing it, and moving my ankle around to keep the blood flowing, but it’s still bothering me. So, I figured I’d try out the Tylenol 3 that they prescribed for me. I finished the work I really needed to get done this week, had some lunch, and took two of them. Well, that was disappointing. Friends had assured me that Tylenol 3 was pretty good stuff – it would definitely take care of my foot. Unfortunately, they were lying. I think it made me a little drowsy, but it sure didn’t help my foot much. The only thing that really seems to help is icing it, and that’s only for twenty minutes at a time. So, I’m left here to complain about it. Fortunately I have lots of practice.

What is Billy Beane doing?

Just after shipping Rich Harden to the Cubs, Billy Beane trades Joe Blanton to the Phillies? I mean, these seem like fine deals if your team sucks and you’re looking to rebuild for the future, but the Athletics are 51-44, only six games out of first. Seems like the time you want to be adding that one critical part, not dealing away the critical part to National League teams. I read Moneyball, and like anyone else who blogs about baseball, I think Billy Beane can leap tall buildings and travel through time and trade overpaid pitchers for prospects just before their arms go out, but a baseball team can’t compete without a starting rotation. Should be an interesting second half for anyone following the Athletics.

Fleecing the poor

Via ShysterBall – In the Fray – WSJ.com

Sports economists have long argued that publicly financed stadiums are a waste of taxpayer money. And they have the data to prove it.

Not only are the Nats not paying rent on their beautiful new (empty) stadium, it’s not giving much back to the DC residents who paid to build it. Sure, some new jobs were created. And sure, construction is happening around the stadium. But the new Department of Transportation building right next door probably has a lot more to do with that than the Nats’ stadium does. They got a huge taxpayer contribution to build the stadium. Taxpayers pay again for tickets, overpriced food and merchandise, maybe parking. But how many taxpayers are really benefitting? Never mind the state of the Nationals as a baseball team, which is pretty sad. We were lead to believe that paying for a stadium would pay us back in new growth and tax revenue, and I don’t think there’s much evidence of that. The stadium did hit at a bad time in the economy, and that’s certainly slowed the potential growth, but if the economy (and especially the real estate market) had stayed booming like it was a few years ago, we wouldn’t need the stadium promote growth in the area. Supply and demand would have taken care of it.