1.5-athon

So I participated in a triathlon on satuday. Mary and I drove down at 6:50 to Martindale and got prepped for the race. She started out doing the running. It was a 7 mile run, and I think she finished in 1:15 or something like that. While she was doing that, I was getting the boat ready and making sure Gertie was ready to go. When she came in from her run, I she tagged me, and I grabbed Gertie and we headed out on the road.

I have a speedometer on Gertie which tells me A) how fast I'm going, b) how far I've gone, and C) how many RPMs I'm averaging. I did my best to keep a pace of ~ 90 rpm, and for the first 8-10 miles, I was doing alright. Then, the hills started to take their tolls. It's not that they were extermely steep, but rather that they were extrememly long. I was kinda scared that I had started out at too quick a pace, and that halfway through, I'd hit the wall and all the people that I'd passed in the beginning would overtake me. Luckily, I didn't exactly hit "the wall"... it was more of a minor speed bump. I wasn't exactly able to keep my rpms up to 90 after about 12 miles. I settled for 80-85. All in all, I passed about 6-7 people, and finished 17 miles in ~56 minutes. I can't imagine doing this after running 7 miles though.

Anyway, I ran down to the boat after parking Gertie and Mary and I put in. All-in-all, we did pretty well. We navigated 95% of the river obstacles sucessfully. My driving has improved, as well as Mary's instinct as to when to use a post/draw stroke. However, we did get stuck sideways in the current about halfway through the race, and tumped over the canoe. We swam the swamped canoe to the nearest bank and tried to dump out all the water. In case you don't already know this, water is heavy. We had to empty Mary's water jug and use it to bail out enough water so we could turn it over.

At this point, we'd passed about 3-4 people. They all overtook us in the 15 minutes we lost while we were bailing. I'll have you know that once we got back on the river, we passed up all the people who we'd passed once before.

After it was all said and done, we finished 8th in our division. Had we not tumped the canoe, we probably could have finished as high as 6th. My bike time was good enough for 16th out of 40 men. I was happy with that.

When we signed in, we both got a commemerative jersey, which was pretty cool. It's made out of some pretty nice mesh, and drys off really quickly. We actually both ended up changing out of our normal clothes and raced in the jersey. After it was all over, to boot, both Mary and I won something out of the raffle. I got another jersey, and Mary got a paddle cover. She says she's either going to buy her own paddle or give it to Terry for letting us use his boat.

spherical aberations

What did I say last time? Never trust a pitcher. I'm not exactly sure my position on using pine tar to get a better grip on the ball, but I'm sorry, stealing signs is just part of the game.

instant gratification

I'm writing this in response to all the firings (and talk of firings) that have been happening around the Major Leagues since the season has ended.

Take, for example, the Oakland Athletics. They rolled over and died in the ALCS after doing quite a number on the Minnesota Twins in the division series. Now, they've been having some problems lately in the post-season. In the last 9 times they went to the postseason, they were unable to win a clinching game. 9 times! I remember when I was in elementary school (which was ~15 years ago), the A's WON the world series. So, in 15 years, the A's made it to the post-season 9 times! The rangers did it 3 times. And, of those three, they only one one (1) game.

I guess I can understand the frustration of the fans, never being able to advance past the first round. But hey, at least they GOT there. They've won world series in the past.

So, as a reward for managing a team which a) won the division, and b) won the first round of the playoffs, and c) had won 368 and lost 280 over 4 years, a 0.568 winning percentage, Ken Macha was summarily dismissed from his post not a week after being swept by the Tigers.

Now, I understand the owners wanting their teams to perform, especially since they put so much money into them, but in the postseason, I'm not so sure you can your expectations of a team by how much money you've thrown in their direction.

Case in point: The New York Yankees. Year after year, George Steinbrenner spends very pretty pennies ensuring that he has the best players in baseball. To their credit, they are awesome baseball players. They definitly deserve to be making the money they are. However, their talent seems to be concentrated on being consistently good in the regular season. For the past several years, the Yankees have always been atop the AL East division. They've made it to the post season with out fail for the past 12 seasons. They've gone to the World Series 6 times, and they've won it 4 times.

When they got knocked out in the first round against Detroit, there was a big media clammor over whether or not Joe Torre (the manager) would keep his job. Steinbrenner was livid, of course.

People like George Steinbrenner don't get baseball. To him, baseball is a simple formula. Money in = World Series Titles. He pays his players and expects them to perform like machines. He refuses to believe that players with inferior regular-season records could even compete with his players. Over the course of a season, he's probably right. However, this is not the case in the post-season.

George Steinbrenner doesn't realize that there's more to baseball than just statistics. Momentum is a very powerful thing in baseball. When a team's on a roll, it's hard to stop them, whichever way it's going. Chemistry and clubhouse leadership are rather intangible, but are very important in any team sport.

More important, is the clutch player. Some players (most Yankees) are phenomenal regular season players. They can put up numbers like nobody's business, but when the chips are down, they choke. Some notable clutch players: Kirk Gibson, Rusty Greer, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Ortiz, and even Derek Jeter.

Alex Rodriguez is a perfect example of what is NOT a clutch player. His post-season performance has been abysmal. Yet, the Yankees are spending $25.2 million a year on him.

One thing which has made itself painfully obvious in most of the recent post-season games. Good pitching will beat good hitting every time. Hitting is more macho, but pitching is the essence of baseball.

On a related note, my dad always said: "Never trust a pitcher. They will tell you a lie when the truth would do."

---

So, enough bitching about the Yankees. It looks like we've got quite a World Serious on our hands. Caroline and I have a friendly wager on the outcome. I'm pulling for the Tigers, and she's rooting for the Cards. We have yet to decide the stakes of the bet, but I'm pretty confident, whatever it is, I'm going to win.

Skype

I've got Skype now. Don't worry, it's not a communicable disease. It's a VOIP client which uses your computer and your internet connection. If anyone else who reads this has it, my username is Acetylene5. Call me sometime

Yellow Snapdragons: Olbermann on Habeus Corpus

This is a ominous clip... Big Brother seems to be doing a good job keeping us scared.

Yellow Snapdragons: Olbermann on Habeus Corpus

It's been a sad week in the world of the bands/singers that I like...

Freddy Fender died today of Lung Cancer in Corpus Christi, TX. He played guitar and sang in the Texas Tornados.

They've got some great songs... Especially "Dinero", "Adios, Mexico", "(Hey Baby) Que Paso?", and "Soy de San Luis"...

Check 'em out, you'll be glad you did.

Bill Maher on Pluto

Bill Maher on Pluto and the republican attitude towards science...

It starts off talking about something else, but when he gets to it, it's glorious!

The Lancelet: Anti-science vs. anti-evolution

I agree with this blogger.

The Lancelet: Anti-science vs. anti-evolution

Right on. Keep on fighting the good fight.

adios, los skarnales....

I just found out that a band I like (Los Skarnales) is breaking up. I won't say they're my favorite band, because they're not, but they were the first band I saw live here in Austin. They are possibly the best live band I've ever seen. I bought a CD from them at their show at the Continential Club in Austin. They aren't the most polished studio band, but I've never seen a band with so much energy live.

I almost saw them again a few weeks ago. The only thing is, the tickets were $35 to get in the door, which was WAY more than we were expecting. So, instead, we went back to my house and got drunk. I would have rather seen Los Skarnales.

Oh well, I hope the break-up was amicable and maybe they'll do a reunion tour through Austin someday.

I've got a CD if anyone wants to borrow it. They're best described as Mexican Ska.

I feel a disturbance in the store....

What if Darth Vader had a brother named Chad who worked as a day shift manager at Empire Groceries?

Chad Vader...

Genius.

funny

I'm Going To Be A Star

Youtube rocks....

What ISN'T there a World Record for?

This one is awkward... almost painful...

Don't Buck the trend....

So, the Rangers fired Buck Showalter as their manager yesterday. I though that he was doing an alright job, and was willing to give him a few seasons more. But, I guess the Rangers' upper management disagreed.

I can't say I'm altogether broken up about it for a few reasons:

1) Joe Girardi was fired from the Marlins after pissing off the owner. He managed to turn a team full of rookies into serious playoff contenders. Maybe he can work some magic with the worst franchise in sports history...

2) The last two times Buck was fired, the team he left ended up winning the world series the very next year. Can lightening strike three times?

Of course, he got fired from the Yankees and the Diamondback, both of which had winning records during his final season.

I wish him well, I guess, but I hope the replacement can do better.

Dammit, we're due!

Inspired by Yellow Snapdragons....

While I don't exactly have a garden, I do have a vine/bush growing up the screen on one of the windows of my bedroom. As I was working on the lappy yesterday, I noticed this little guy sunning himself on the screen...

Gubenatorial Goodness

Stolen from some crazed astros fan's boyfriend:

We are less than a week away from the only televised debates of this gubernatorial election. That's right: the only chance you are going to get to see the people vying to lead Texas for the next four years going head-to-head will be this Friday night, before the UT-OU football game.

Democracy! The debate's going to be an hour long, without commercials, and will run from 7pm-8pm (central time). In addition to the statewide cable channel TXCN, the following stations will run the debate:

In Dallas WFAA
In Houston KHOU
In San Antonio KENS-TV
In Austin KVUE-TV

Here's my plug for Kinky: While he's not as polished as most of the candidates, he is the only candidate who comes right out and says exactly what he stands for: He's not going to run to the pollsters before deciding what bills to support. While I don't agree with everything he supports, at least I know what he stands for.

Everyone should at least watch the debates. With Kinky there, they should at least be entertaining.

Maybe I should go into trading stock...

I called it!

Boo-yah.