Juan to Portland

Juan Dixon will now be playing for the Blazers. The deal is for three years, $8 million total. Not bad for a guy who was supposed to be too small to play in the NBA. So far I'd say he's doing OK. Go Terps!

Michael Douglas, outside the Mayflower. Sorry about the lack of zoom (and quality), I was using my office's camera, a 2MP with a 3x zoom. Plus this was about as close as we were allowed to get.

Hollywood in DC

I suspect that I won't be doing as much work today as usual, since I have a window office and they're filming scenes for a movie at the Mayflower Hotel next door. What movie, you may ask? Well after I got to the office, I went out and had a look around. Based on the personalized director-style chairs that are set up on the sidewalk in front of the Mayflower - and on the other end of the block, well out of view from my window - I deduced (with some help from the Internets) that they're working on The Sentinel. It's about a Secret Service Agent who has an affair with the First Lady, then is caught up in the murder of another agent. And yes, there are some big names in this film, like Michael Douglas, Kim Basinger, Kiefer Sutherland, and Eva Longoria. Those are the people that I've been instructed by by co-workers to keep an eye out for today. I'm not too optimistic though, I doubt that the stars be heading out to the catering tables to grab a bowl of Oreos cereal (that stuff is awful; it seems like a good idea but it isn't, trust me). I hope the film crew is grateful for the weather today - it's the first day in weeks, literally, where it hasn't felt over 100 (with heat index).

Podcasting Verdict: Groovy

It took me a little while (I've had my ipod mini for a few months now), but this past weekend I looked into podcasting and have subscribed to a handful of podcasts. I have to say that this technology has real promise, and I hope it sticks around and gets more popular. Ideally, podcasting could eventually kill the on-air doldrums that is commercial radio, if satellite radio doesn't kill it first. More on that later.

For those who didn't follow the Wikipedia link, podcasting refers to subscribing to a particular audio program, updated regularly. The software I use is itunes, since it came with my ipod, but there is other (and better) software out there that manages podcast subscriptions - itunes only recently added decent podcasting functionality with its latest software release, although I've heard that more features are on the way. So the software downloads the latest program in the form of an mp3 file, which one can then listen to on their computer or mp3 player. Programs range from music programs to political shows to international news to comedy - well, you get the picture, there's a lot out there. But the idea is that you can search out shows and topics that interest you, and essentially program/compile your own personal radio station.

How many podcasts that are out there now are good? That's an excellent question. Since I've only been at this for a few days, it's difficult to say - most of the worthwhile programs that I've heard so far are, not surprisingly, produced and distributed by existing 'big media' companies such as ABC, ESPN and MSNBC. I've also subscribed to several podcasts by Adam Curry, who is considered one of the pioneers (if not the pioneer) of podcasting and who does a lot to promote the technology. Some of you may remember him as the MTV VJ from the mid-80s to mid-90s; he later founded several internet start-ups during the dot-com boom and is now apparently all about podcasting. From his latest podcast: he met with Apple's itunes people over the weekend in the Bay area to discuss improvements that they could make to their software in the podcasting department. I've also found several smaller, independent podcasts that I enjoy so far: the 40+ minute movie review show Cinecast, the short Baltimore history segment Baltimore Stories from the local NPR station WYPR, and a media & culture show from local college/public station WTMD.

I've also already discovered some bizarre, poorly-produced, and just plain bad podcasts. I was hopeful that maybe NYC Beercasting would be about beer, but it's really just stupid conversations among a group of 3-4 friends that takes place in a bar. I don't know who would find that interesting, because I sure didn't. There must be real beer-analysis shows out there, and if there aren't, there should be. The Baltimore NPR station has a weekly wine discussion called Cellar Notes, and a beer equivalent is surely needed. Let's see, what else sucked...ah yes, the British-based political comedy sketch show Whack My Bush was neither funny nor clever, and I'm a guy who really appreciates humor at W's expense. There were a few more that were equally forgettable, unsurprisingly I can't remember the specifics.

So getting back to the technology, I can see it being adopted more as mp3 players make their way into more homes (as part of the regular entertainment system components of CD/DVD player, receiver, etc.) and cars. These types of players do exist, and some even include the necessary Wi-Fi functionality that enables one to listen to pc-based mp3 files from the living room. But from what I've read, these products are far from perfect, and not all that 'smart' yet. A car-based player should have built-in Wi-Fi and should be able to scan the pc hard drive for podcast updates and new songs while it's parked outside or in the garage. As far as portable players go, leading companies (read: Apple) need to incorporate wireless features into their players, that would enable users on the street/bus/subway/airplane/boat/highway to share their podcasts and music - the music that isn't under the RIAA umbrella, of course. Although the copyright holders of signed musicians should think about loosening the copyright laws to allow temporary sharing of content - a digital stamp that starts a timer, so that a shared song is available for listening for 4, 12, or 24 hours, and then available for purchase afterwards. If they can come up with secure technology that enables that type of sharing, it makes them money in the long run, right? Put it all together, and maybe more people can start to own, and share, their own personal radio stations.

By the way, if any of you are subscribing to any podcasts that they really enjoy, don't keep them to yourself...

Sordid Tales: The Return of Pultoblog

A few of you (well at least one person) may have noticed that I removed the Pultoblog link from the sidebar last week. Greg is back online though with his first post since March, and it's an entertaining and scandalous one at that. But is he back for good, and will it be enough to restore the sidebar link? I think I need a few more posts to be totally convinced, but hey what else are blogs for than to link to friends' blogs and perpetuate the vicious ego-feeding cycle?

Public Grooming

On the MARC train this morning, a person sat down next to me and proceeded to clip his fingernails. Maybe it's just me, but is it too much to ask people to do that sort of thing in private? I guess I should be grateful that it wasn't the toenails?

Comedy Demerits, and a More Pleasant Shopping Experience

I was inspired to come up with not one, but TWO fabulous concepts this weekend! This is rare, usually I think of something fabulous once, maybe twice per year. Not sure what's going on here.

Comedy Demerits: I'm still filling in some of the details, but let me know what you think of what I have so far. This was inspired by dinner with some family members this weekend, actually pre-dinner drinks at the bar with my brother and my dad. Anyway, one of those guys tried to be funny and failed miserably, don't remember who it was, and I thought that it was so bad that it deserved some kind of punishment. And so the comedy demerit concept was born. It doesn't sound too bad, but the idea is that if you earn enough of them, you are barred from being (intentionally) funny in public for a certain amount of time. For a demerit to be earned, there has to be some kind of consensus reached by the offended parties - offended parties being anyone unfortunate enough to be in earshot of said 'joke'. That way, demerits cannot be arbitrarily assigned by one person. Earn enough and that's it, you're officially not funny, and must remain in comedy seclusion for a yet-to-be-determined period, to reflect on the harm that you've caused. Like I mentioned earlier, I'm still working on the finer points, suggestions are welcome.

Hassle-Free Shopping: This one was inspired when Jenny and I ran into a Best Buy yesterday to pick up a gift for her nephew's 10th birthday. First of all, there's a salesperson in the games section, trying to convince Jenny to buy some contraption for the Game Boy Advance. Yes, that's how it always seems to work at Best Buy, an 'associate' is always there to try to sell you something you don't want (like the extended warranty) but never there to answer any questions you might have, which is just as well because I've actually oeverheard them make stuff up when they don't know the answer. But I digress...so after fending off the salesguy, we pick out a game and go to the register to pay for it. The guy at the register hits Jenny with the triumvirate - "Do you have a Rewards Zone card?", "Will you be using your Best Buy card today?", "With every purchase you can choose a subscription to either Entertainment Weekly or Sports Illustrated, are you interested?". What happened to just picking out what you want and buying it? Thus my second brilliant idea of the weekend was born, a new line of stores coming to your neighborhood soon, Leave-Me-the-Fuck-Alone Mart! The store name is subject to change, I'll admit it doesn't sound too friendly. But here's how it would work. You would walk in to the store, there would be employees in every department waiting to assist you. They would not be in their friend's department, chatting it up and ignoring customers, because my store would only hire people who have no friends. Not that it would matter, because employees at Leave-Me-the-Fuck-Alone Mart would not be allowed to speak unless spoken to by a customer. OK, maybe the check-out people could thank you and hope that you have a nice day when you're done paying - that's an appropriate sentiment - but that's it. There would be no store credit card, and we would NOT offer extended warranties on anything, even if the customer asked for one. Extended warranties are practically a scam, so we'd be saving customers from themselves. When a customer needs to return merchandise, we will exchange or refund immediately, without the customer having to give us all of their personal information and sign 3 different receipts. And there would be nobody greeting customers at the door; customers can greet each other if they're really dying for affirmation while they're out shopping.

That's all I've got so far. Hopefully next weekend will bear even more fantastic ideas! The odds are against that happening, but you never know.

O's Close to Burnett Trade?

Lots happened over the weekend for the hometown ball club; Raffy's 3000th hit, and a somewhat disappointing 4-game split with Seattle. It looks like more big news may be around the corner, as Baltimore may be on the verge of trading reliever Jorge Julio, top pitching prospect Hayden Penn, and outfielder Larry Bigbie to Florida for starter A.J. Burnett and third-baseman Mike Lowell.

I think this is a trade the Orioles should make, for several reasons. Burnett is a solid pitcher who instantly becomes the ace of the staff (and hopefully moves Ponson out of the rotation? Probably not, but I can dream). Lowell has had a terrible year, but has been an All-Star in the past, has only 2 years left on his big contract, and they're already paying Sammy Sosa to do nothing this year so just replace one hole in the lineup with another. Sosa is hitting like he belongs on the bench, this trade could be a good excuse to put him there more often. On the O's side, Julio is nothing if not inconsistent, and Bigbie is in his late 20s and no longer a prospect - it's likely that he is the kind of player that he's been the past 2 seasons or so; over a full season, he'll hit .260 to .275, with 15-20 HR power and above average defense. A decent enough player, but not someone who you would hesitate to trade. Yes, a team always hates to part with a top pitching prospect such as Penn, but Baltimore is going to have to give up something other than Julio and Bigbie, and Penn is that player.

Shuffle Up and Deal

Still a bit tired this morning, or maybe the better word is weary - Jenny and I were in a small (22 people) poker tournament last night out in Washington County that lasted until 3 am. We came back to my parents' place and didn't get to bed until 4. Yes, I was in the game until the very end, and ended up tying for 2nd and winning $60. If one was inclined to look at it from a money perspective, we ended up breaking even collectively, when you consider both our entry fees of $20 each and the $19 in beer, girlie beer, and Doritos from the Jefferson Market that we brought to the game.

I played quite unlike I usually play, which is very conservatively. I won several big hands with absolute bluffs, and wasn't really caught bluffing all evening. There were plenty of tight players there who could be scared out of a pot relatively easily, and I just decided to take advantage - that strategy ended up working well. There was a guy there who was getting kind of annoying at the final table, who kept ridiculing people for not playing more hands, but in the end he ended up playing too many hands and finished in fourth. He was a good player and seemed like a nice enough guy otherwise, but definitely not good enough to be telling other people how they should be playing. It's very possible that he was doing it on purpose to try to take people out of their games, and to a certain extent it did work, for a little while at least. Anyway, by 3 am (after about 8 hours of poker), the last three players just wanted it to be over, so we started playing hands we wouldn't normally play. Eventually this led to me being down far enough where I had to go all-in to cover the big blind - $8 by the end of the night. The other guy, Terry, who was a very smart player and hell of a nice guy, went all in the same hand, so when we both lost to Mackey we split 2nd place.

Congrats to Mackey for winning the whole thing, he played very well and was appropriately rewarded for his efforts. Also, many thanks to the Corson family for the kind hospitality; Brian ran a good tournament, and I'm still amazed that he was able to come up with all those chairs. Certainly a fun evening, and somewhat of a turning point for me in terms of playing style. After that game, I don't think I'll ever go back to consistently playing tight; it's just not as much fun to play that way (and yes, poker is about fun for me - I don't view it as an investment vehicle). I need to adapt my play to who's sitting at the table, and I did a good job of doing that last night. IMO, there are lots of players who think about the money they could lose in a hand, but poker is still just a game and money is simply a way to keep score.

One last item - download Google Earth: it's super-cool.

Happy Birthday to Jenny! Stolen License Plates! When Muppets Attack!

On this day in 1977, Jenny was born in Kansas City, MO. And there is nobody more grateful for that event than me (well, maybe her parents). Happy birthday babe! I was thinking of putting a photo of her in this entry, but I did not receive prior authorization for that, so it's probably better for my general well-being if I refrain...

In other news, the front license plate was stolen off my car sometime yesterday. The front plate is the one without registration stickers, so that's somewhat bizarre. But it's also attached - was attached - with regular Phillips-head screws, while you would need a socket set and a bit more time to remove the back plates. The officer to whom I reported the plate stolen enlightened us about the O'Malley administration's creativity with crime statistics - the cop had to come out to the car and inspect the plate mount, to make sure it wasn't possible that the plate just fell off or wasn't attached properly. If an officer determines that the plate could have fallen off, then it's not a theft. How convenient for the mayor! Anyway, whatever happened, it's gone. This will cost me $20 and a trip to the MVA.

Finally, here's an amusing photo for the day - giant uni-browed muppet captures child! I'd be scared too.