My scale goes to 10,000

Vinotrip | The Search For A Wine Rating System That Makes Sense

No longer must two wines be tied at 90, leaving intrepid point chasers scratching their heads while they decide which wine will impress their friends more. The tie can be broken, with one wine receiving a 904.5 and the other falling short at 901.9. Finally, the question can be answered: which wine is better?

I like my wine to be scored. That way, I can make an entirely mathematical decision on my purchase.

  1. Calculate the Points Per Dollar value (PPD): If the score is 92 and the wine costs $12.99, the DPP is 7.08.
  2. Subtract the California Penalty: My first introduction to California wines was Beringer and the like, and I’ve never quite forgiven the state, even though it does produce some great wines
  3. Add the Australia Bonus and the lesser New Zealand bonus : We went to Australia and New Zealand on our honeymoon and took a wine tour in Australia’s Barossa Valley, so I’m always partial to their wine. As an aside, “Zealand” is not in Firefox’s default dictionary. Weird.
  4. Add the label adjustment: The label should be interesting, but not too cutesy. If you have a cool label, you get a bonus. If you made a label you want me to think is cool, or if you phoned it in, you get demerits.
  5. Multiply by Planck’s Constant.
  6. Realize the wife, who can’t drink the wine until the baby is born, is getting antsy.
  7. Buy the bottle of Rosemount Shiraz on sale for $8.99.
    Actually, I should probably just keep heading over to Vinotrip for scores.

Hooray for placenta migration!

Just got back from our final sonogram appointment. The wife’s placenta, which was too close to the cervix at the last appointment, has migrated into a perfectly normal spot. Had it not moved, we would have had to schedule a C-section, which we really didn’t want. I mean, sure, if it’s the choice between C-section and serious danger to mother or child, we’ll take the C-section. Anyway, we’re both quite pleased. Her more than me, I imagine, since she’s the one who would have had her stomach cut open.

Wow.

I thought the Celtics were going to win Game 6. I didn’t think the Lakers had any chance of sweeping two in Boston. But I have to admit that I did not anticipate watching the Celtics absolutely blow the Lakers off the floor. That was incredible. The second half was like watching a #1 seed crush the winner of the play-in game. I hope this settles the argument once and for all – Kobe Bryant is not Michael Jordan. Aside from the first four minutes of this game, when he was spectacular, he might as well have been on the bench. My two major complaints: 1) ABC didn’t manage to get the HD feed working until the second quarter. Nice job, ABC. 2) The NBA took their really great “Where [whatever] happens” ad campaign and turned it into a really cheesy championship merchandise ad. Way to blow it at the last minute, NBA. Other than that, what a friggin’ night.

Bring on Game 4

The Lakers won Game 3 at home last night, to the surprise of pretty much no one. However, if you’re a Lakers fan, you can’t possibly be happy with that game. Paul Pierce was in foul trouble the whole game, and wasn’t hitting his shots when he was in the game. Garnett didn’t shoot well. And it still took 20 points from Sasha Vujacic to beat Boston. I’m going to go ahead and go out on a limb and say that he doesn’t repeat that performance in this series. In any event, I feel good about the series. Pierce (2 for 14) and Garnett (6 for 21) will play better tomorrow. Kobe got to the line plenty of times and still didn’t dominate the game like the announcers keep saying he will. By the way, I am pretty tired of hearing about him the entire game. He is being contained. 36 points is nice, but nothing special for him, and he had one assist. If Odom and Gasol don’t step it up, this is going to be a tough run for the Lakers when Vujacic, Pierce, and Garnett go back to normal.

Back from Boston

imgp1119 So we’re back from Boston. The trip home sucked – I was tired and hungover after being out until 3, and our train was late, dumping us at Union Station just after midnight. Other than that, the trip was fantastic. The Game, if you didn’t watch it or read about it, was a good one for a Boston fan, so long as you ignore that little 31-9 run by the Lakers in the fourth. The company was fantastic as usual. I finally made it to Beer Works. And the experience of watching a Finals game at the Garden was incredible. The video I posted to Flickr doesn’t do it justice – my crappy little point-and-shoot didn’t pick up most of the crowd noise. But I think you get the idea. We left the game hoarse from yelling, and the wife has a little bruise on her wrist where her bracelet kept hitting when she clapped. There were some L.A. fans at the game, but not too many. It was funny listening to Celtics fans give them a hard time. It was mostly pretty good-natured. One kid walking behind us as we headed towards our seats was yelling at any Lakers fans he saw, until two big guys passed by. He shut up pretty quickly then. I turned around and laughed at him, and he sort of shrugged. I guess he hadn’t yet drank away his survival instinct. And now it’s almost time for Game 3.

Just let me do my job

LifeHacker | IM Can Reduce Workplace Interruptions, Study Shows It has always driven me crazy that so many workplace IT departments block various web pages deemed as harmful to productivity. My philosophy is:

  • If I’m using too much bandwidth, reprimand me
  • If I’m not doing my job, reprimand me
    Otherwise, trust me to be an adult and do my job. Who are you to say what web sites I might need to do my job? At my previous job, we used GTalk all the time for legitimate work purposes (In addition to non-work purposes) before they blocked it. Dozens of times I’ve been researching a work problem and come up against a blocked website. I spend A LOT of time on the computer. Too much, some might say. And some of it is time spent at work on non-work things. I freely admit this. But I get my job done. Sometimes, GTalk helps me do that. Sometimes some sketchy-looking forum helps me do that. Sometimes Google Documents helps me do that. And sometimes I just want to putz around on eBay for fifteen minutes to clear my head. I think if employers started worrying more about actual employee productivity than micromanaging internet access, we’d all be a lot better off.

More music from Nine Inch Nails

More free music from Nine Inch Nails. Well, sort of. Free download of DRM-free MP3s of one Nine Inch Nails song from the most recent album, The Slip, and four songs from bands touring with Nine Inch Nails. Just downloaded and haven’t listened yet because the Celtics are on, but I recommend that everyone download this stuff. If you like it, consider buying a cd or going to a show or something.

More and more annoyed

The more I think about it, the more I’m annoyed that I missed the Nationals game today. How often do you see a guy like Albert Pujols walk on to the field as a pinch hitter and hit his 297th career home run? This guy is twenty-eight. His career batting average is .333, OBP .423, SLG .621. If you aren’t a baseball fan, you may not understand those numbers. That’s okay. They’re absurd. If he plays at more or less this level for the next five to ten years, which is what’s going to happen unless he gets hurt, he is a first ballot Hall of Famer, the kind of guy you don’t even debate. It’s just a given. So I’m pretty disappointed that I didn’t get to see him. And the Cardinals aren’t coming back to DC this season. I’ll see him one of these days, though. Next year I get an earlier shot at the company season tickets, so I should be able to pick up a Cardinals game. Now back to the basketball game.