Avoiding Blog Spam

I've changed the blog settings and made it private, in the hopes of avoiding the comment spam that I've had a few problems with recently (last post - 8 spam comments). The private setting just means that it won't show up on any blogger.com searches, and it won't show up on Blogger's front page in the recently updated blogs section - I think that's where the real problem lies.

If It Was 10 Miles, Why Didn't You Just Drive?

I'm not sure if I preferred last year's weather, 93 and 50% humidity, or this year's, around 80 and 90% humidity. Anyway, I only got about six hours sleep because we got home from Frederick at about 11:30 and I had to be up at 5:30. But I'm used to that amount, so I don't think it affected me that much. I did improve on last year's time by a decent margin. I think that was more mental than physical though. I've been running more this year than last, but not a great deal more considering the solid 2 months of hot and humid weather we had. I think that my familiarity with the course this year made all the difference.

So without further ado, the numbers!

2004 total time - 1:36:32
2005 total time - 1:32:20

That's right, an improvement of over 4 minutes! Not too bad, I was hoping to get a bit closer to 90 minutes for a total time, but I'll take a 4-minute improvement. Now, I don't have splits from last year to compare with; I thought that I had started my timer at the beginning of the race, but I didn't press the button hard enough. Oh well.

2005 mile splits:
1 - 9:31
2 - 8:58
3 - 9:06
4 - 9:03
5 - 9:44
6 - 9:05
7 - 9:24
8 - 9:12
9 - 9:11
10 - 9:03
average mile - 9:14

So those were about as consistent as it gets (for me, at least), although looking at them I'm wondering if I could have pushed it a little more early on. But I knew that the second half of the course was especially brutal, so it was probably a good thing that I took it easy for that first mile, when the tendency is to start too quickly.

New Orleans No More?

As Katrina bears down, in all of its Cat-5 fury, on New Orleans, I'm reminded of something I heard on the news last hurricane season about the Big Easy. I can't remember if it was the mayor, or someone from FEMA, or somebody else entirely, but they basically said that if N.O. were ever hit directly by a huge storm, it doesn't make too much sense to rebuild it. The rationale being that a city that size in that location that's below sea level is lucky to still be around. Considering those factors, rebuilding might not make a lot of sense. Seems kind of strange that a city of almost half a million people could cease to exist, just because of the weather.

I know what you're thinking; If New Orleans is destroyed and isn't rebuilt, then Nature has won! Well, yeah. Nature wins pretty much whenever it wants to, and sometimes it decides to remind us of that.

Annapolis 10-Miler, Bandwagoneers

I'm running in my second Annapolis 10-Miler this Sunday morning. The weather should be much better than last year, about 10-12 degrees cooler and much less humid. So I should improve on last year's time, but of course I won't really know if any improvement is due to better weather or my being in better running shape. There's also Chris and Heather's wedding reception happening back in Frederick on the previous evening - I'll have to scale back the drinking :( and hope that the drive back home that night followed by the early drive to Annapolis doesn't tire me out too much.

I was out running on Wednesday night, and during the part of the run that went through the Canton neighborhood, I counted no less than 6 people outdoors with their Boston Red Sox caps on. Yes, Canton is a neighborhood in Baltimore - so what's going on? Is it just a strange coincidence? Did I see 6 New Englanders, who all happen to be baseball fans, during a 3-4 minute stretch of running?

Unlikely. I'm betting that these people have NYY hats in their closets or basements that they last wore 4-5 years ago. They wouldn't know Ted Williams if they opened their freezers and saw his frozen melon staring back at them. And they sure don't know much about baseball if they think they're rooting for a 'historically-great franchise'. The Red Sox are only historical in the manner that most antiques are historical; they're just old. Here's a list of all the current MLB teams - in their current locations and with current nicknames - with better championships-per-season percentages than the Red Sox (and yes this list was painful for me to compile due to item #1):

1. #$%&ing Yankees: 28.3%
   
2. Florida: 16.7%
3. Arizona: 14.3%
4. Oakland: 10.8%
5. Dodgers: 10.6%
6. St. Louis: 8.6%
7. Toronto: 7.1%
8. Baltimore: 5.9%
9. Boston: 5.1%
   

So as you can see, those Charm City-based Red Sox fans would be better off, statistically-speaking, rooting for...the hometown team!!! What a revolutionary concept! I wish that all those Sox fans who buy the gear and maybe even support the team, despite absolutely no connection to the city of Boston or the New England area, would realize this. What good is being a fan (i.e. fanatic) if your loyalties change with the wind? Anyway, I'm glad I don't personally know any of these people of obviously low moral fiber.

Now, will I still root for the Sox whenever they play the Yankees? Sure, don't be ridiculous. But I won't be enjoying myself. The choice between 98 years of mostly-average play and 92 years of pure evil is easy but uncomfortable - root against the evil, and hope for the best.

Another 2nd Place

Another poker 'tournament', another 2nd-place finish. A month after the 22-person affair in Western MD, I was down in DC on Saturday night for a smaller 12-person tourney hosted by a co-worker. I played a little tighter than I had during the last tournament, but still found opportunity to go all-in six times before losing on the seventh occurrence. It was heads-up at the end, and we traded the chip lead back and forth quite a few times over an hour or so. I definitely had some good luck on my side for most of the evening, but I also didn't make any mistakes and had a few very good plays that knocked some players out.

I'm getting better at recognizing players who I should be playing against versus those that I shouldn't. For example, not a great idea to play too many hands against the guy at the table who plays at least every other hand. Even if he has the chip lead and looks dangerous, let him knock himself out playing too many hands (that's exactly what happened). Personally, I need to work on winning more bad hands and playing a bit smarter in end-game situations (1-on-1, 3 players). Maybe then I can move up from 2nd to 1st sometime soon.

One thing I did like about this tournament were that the chips weren't real-money valued. It was a $@0 buy-in, but you received 1500 in chips. Not $1500 in chips, just 1500. If you're playing a friendly game where there isn't necessarily a winner, it's appropriate to tie chips to actual monetary value. But in a tournament I think it just adds to the fun, to be playing at the end up the game and being able to raise 5000. Again, the chips are just a way of keeping score in poker; I have more fun playing when I think that way - I can always concern myself with the money after the game is over.

Update: General Mills now makes Peanut Butter Cookie Crisp - check it out, it's super-tasty.

Freedom Is On The March!

Except for women - and young girls - in Afghanistan, not to mention Iraq (here comes Sharia law). Other than that...yay freedom!

Meanwhile, as Cindy Sheehan continues to give some much-needed publicity to the anti-war sentiment in this country, let's take comfort in a less-complicated worldview, as we hearken back to this Barbara Bush quote from her appearance on Good Morning America two years ago:

But why should we hear about body bags, and deaths, and how many, what day it's gonna happen, and how many this or what do you suppose? Or, I mean, it's, it's not relevant. So why should I waste my beautiful mind on something like that?

(This concludes this week's geopolitical post. Thanks for reading!)

Weekend in Rehoboth

It's been awhile since we spent time at any beach, last July 4th in SC actually. And it's been even longer since we visited the MD/DE beaches in-season; in the past we've usually waited until September or October, and for good reason. It's damn crowded there in August! Tons of families mostly, although plenty of high school kids as well. It's also pricier. The hotel we stayed in was nice, but $200 per night? Welcome to the beaches closest to the Washington-Baltimore megalopolis, I guess.

So we hung out on the beach, ate, drank, got ice cream each of the two nights we were there (24 different flavors of soft serve?!? Not fair). And did a good deal of shopping. Clothes mostly. Factory outlets, whatever than means anymore. I didn't bitch too much, and actually did my share of the purchasing.

Anyway, back at work. Already, I could use another vacation. Funny how that works.

Epigenetics

This is the first time I've ever encountered the term epigenome. Did I miss the boat on this? Is this news to anyone else?

Looks like this has a lot of potential, but then again most 'hot' scientific fields always seem to hold so much promise.

Do I Smell Bacon? Jump on the BlogWagon! Time Off.

Lots going on recently, and not much time to write about any of it. I guess it's not that surprising that in an office of 10 people, if one of them gets fired 1 or 2 people are going to have a lot more work to do. That's been my situation lately (more work; I didn't get fired), which is good in that I'm certainly not bored, but which leaves less time for everything else. I've gotten to the point where I'm going to bed at night thinking about work, something which I usually try to avoid at all costs because it just doesn't seem healthy.

Our esteemed president has lost his battle with pork. So much for being a man of principle, not wanting to waste taxpayer money. The linked article talks primarily about the new highway bill, although the new energy bill is also full of pig product. Not only is he giving up on fighting pork, but in a concession to Congress, George is expected to name Miss Piggy as his new Secretary of Transportation in the near future. Seriously, you'll see it in the news over the next week or so.

More blogs in the house! (the house being the Internets) Wethotamericanmatt: he has 23 friends according to his site, which of course made me start counting my friends - no, I don't have that many, don't be ridiculous. Also he seems fond of penguins, and really who isn't? Colarama, I suspect, will be an artistic and far-ranging blog that puts most others to shame, kinda like Pixelfish's. Time will tell, I suppose. No audioblogs/podcasts or videoblogs yet, at least not by anyone I know personally. Maybe the next ipod, rumored to have video capabilities, will change that.

Taking tomorrow off and heading to the beach for the first time in over a year, so it's doubtful I'll post until next week. Unless I kill any sharks or dolphins with my bare hands, then I'll make sure to post the photos.

Good Luck to Sam Perlozzo

Things can't get too much worse for the hometown team these days, so here's hoping that Sam, a Cumberland native and lifetime O's fan, does well as manager. So far, so good.

Should Mazilli have been fired? I can only give my opinion, but this item from the Sun article about his firing qualifies as a fireable offense in my book:

"Players were irritated last season by Mazzilli's constant references to the Yankees"

Win or lose, at least they won't have to put up with that kind of talk around the clubhouse. Nobody deserves that (not even Palmeiro).

Raffy Saga, Day 2: Confidentiality?!?

I was thinking about this last night while I was doing some painting: why can't Raffy talk about the specifics about what he took? If MLB and its players are really concerned with protecting kids from harmful chemicals, wouldn't that be a good idea? Who exactly is this confidentiality agreement protecting anyway? The secret is out, we know it's Palmeiro! The public is always fond of full disclosure. I say he gives us all the details, and hopes that MLB or the union sues him - then he'll be a guy who comes clean AND a sympathetic figure for being dragged into legal procedings for telling the truth. That's win-win, baby!

Barring all that happening, we can only hope that one of the MLB executives is buddies with Karl Rove. Then we'd know that the truth will leak out eventually.

Raffy Suspended for Positive Steroids Test

Wow, I didn't really see this coming. Is it possible that Raffy's telling the truth, and he has never knowingly taken steroids? Sure, I guess. But that doesn't really matter. He knew that he was under the microscope thanks to Canseco's book and the testimony before Congress, especially with Mark McGwire's very evasive testimony. So there are five possibilities IMO, and two of them are real long-shots:

1. Canseco was right after all, and Raffy has used steroids for a long time. He looks like Mr. Universe under that baggy uniform, and not like a Dunkin' Donuts regular.
2. Raffy took a 'supplement' that he didn't know was on baseball's list, or something that contained small amounts of a banned substance, that he thought was OK.
3. A third party gave him something that was laced with steroids so that he would test positive. This kind of sabotaging has happened before on the Olympic level, but is unlikely.
   
4. Baseball's incompetence in most matters extend to its drug-testing program, and samples can become easily contaminated. Raffy's positive test sample was actually from teammate Brian Roberts, he of the 16-HR (and counting) season, quadruple his previous season high for HR!
5. MLB includes Viagra on its banned substance list.

OK, while #4 can't be ruled out by any means, let's assume that MLB runs their testing program reasonably well, and besides I have to believe that before any suspension there are multiple samples taken for verification purposes. Number 5? That would be a real downer.

That leaves items 1 through 3, and I'm not sure how much we need to differentiate between them - any of the three would prove one thing, that Palmeiro is really not very smart. He knows that some people are suspicious thanks to Canseco's book, and that he would be jeopardizing his HOF credentials (like McGwire already did) with a positive test. Even the carelessness that would allow numbers 2 and 3 to occur isn't an excuse, because that level of carelessness borders on brain-dead. When I remember to, I take a glucosamine chondroitin vitamin supplement for joint health (I've had knee problems in the past) - if I were Raffy I would have stayed away from that, because after all you can rearrange the letters to spell steroid nachogloucinmin, a well-known Cheez-Whiz-based steroid derivative.

Hopefully we'll get more details about this positive test, but I'm not holding my breath. Raffy will come back in 10 days, and if he finishes the year strong (and continues to hit like he has been) he'll quiet some of the talk. Should he come back strong this year, it certainly doesn't hurt that a (suspected) steroid user like Jason Giambi is having a nice comeback as well.