The Poor Guy

It's World Series time...the Red Sox didn't make it and the Yankees did, so clearly, I'm pulling for the Phillies. In that sense, I don't have it too badly, my choices are clear.

And there's Tommy.

I work with Tommy.

Tommy and I talk baseball a lot.

Tommy is a really nice guy and a really big Mets fan.

Tommy has a problem.

Does he root for the hated crosstown rivals?

Or does he root for the hated National League rival?

Well, luckily, in addition to being a nice guy, Tommy is a smart guy, so let me say it for him:

GO PHILLIES!!

Soccer As It Should Be

I played "real" (outdoor) soccer today for the first time in, I'm guessing, 2-3 years thanks to randomly running into one of my indoor soccer acquaintances a few days ago.

I'd almost forgotten how much superior it is to indoor "soccer." And, since this is my blog and everything is "about me," I have to say that I did well. I am in no shape to running around like a crazy person, so the ball did most of the work, but I was happy to see that my touch, both in terms of close control and being able to pick out teammates with passes both short and long, was still there.

What a tease, though, it was the last outdoor pick-up game of the season due to the impending changing of the clocks that will cause it to be dark out at, oh, noon, here in the hinterlands of New England. For what it's worth, though, playing soccer in the dying afternoon light of a crisp fall day is one of those simple pleasures that cannot be overrated.

Oh well, indoor soccer starts back up in the first week of November, so I'll not only be able to work myself back into shape, but I'll also have something to do 1-3 nights a week.

An Accidental Discovery

By not watching what I was doing I just set my microwave for...3:80.

Needless to say, I was to scared to actually press the "start" button for fear of what might happen.

Explosion?

Time machine?

Miniaturization?

Gigantism?

Sterility?

Super power?

I think all that remains now is to trick somebody else into doing it first...

It went down to the final half of the final match...

but the New England Revolution are in the playoffs for the 8th straight year!

It's all "gravy" after this!

Suddenly, it all makes sense.

Do you ever wonder why you like the things that you do? I actually spend a lot of time mulling this over, as well as a related questions- If I like all of these things, surely they must have something in common? And, if that is the case, surely there must be a concrete connection between them? Well, as it turns out, there is at least one case where there is a tangible and specific relationship between some things I like.

If you've spent any amount of time reading this blog, or if you've even just read through my profile, you may have picked up on the following.

• When it comes to literature, I like "hard-boiled" crime fiction. The work of Dashiell Hammett, for example.
• When it comes to film, I like "spaghetti westerns" (especially those featuring Clint Eastwood) and samurai films (especially those by Akira Kurosawa and/or featuring Toshiro Mifune).

Well, check this out:

Hammet's novel Red Harvest is considered by some* to have been the inspiration for Kurosawa's film Yojimbo, which, in turn was the direct basis for Serigo Leone's A Fist Full of Dollars, starring Eastwood. This isn't just the speculation of critics and scholars either, both Kurosawa (privately) and Leone (publicly) acknowledged the connections.

So, the connection between these particular things that I like is concrete, but what do they have in common? They all deal with "moral certainty" of the kind discussed by Aristotle in Nichomachean Ethics, not in the legal sense. Why I'm so intrigued by moral certainty is a whole different question...

*Others contend it was based on the novel, The Glass Key, but that's by Hammett too, so my the argument remains valid.

Is this ironic?

The people I want most to leave me alone, won't.

The people I'd most like be in touch with me aren't/can't/don't or are to a lesser degree than I'd like them to be.

Huh.

Also, I need a haircut.

There are so many things I should be doing right now...

and watching back-to-back hours of "Classic AWA Wrestling" is not one of them.

Then again, how often do you get to see Michael Hayes of the Fabulous Freebirds wrestle these days?

Nails On A Chalkboard

Is there anything more cringe-worthy than somebody who clearly has no talent for it trying to rap?

I've come across this twice today and would have done just about anything to make it stop.

A Lesson in Retail Counter Measures

When a retailer has a product it wants to sell, especially a product that might be of lower quality, over abundance, or one that is not terribly desirable, they will take measures to make the item more appealing to the consumer by offsetting one or more of the "short-comings" I have just mentioned.

For example, the retailer might offer the item as part of a "buy one, get one free" promotion, which will increase the items value to the consumer, or simply appeal to the idea of "getting something for free," it doesn't really matter what consumer trait the retailer is playing to, because it works. A local grocer in my area often offers items "buy one, get two free" deals which I cannot resist.

What happens, however, when the consumer has only a mild interest in a product that is not offered as part of one of these promotions? For example, what if you want to see a movie, but you are not even interested enough to pay the matinee price- never mind the full price- to see it? Well, the solution is actually relatively simple- you create your own "promotion." Here is how you do it:

Step 1: You pay the matinee price to see The Informant!
Step 2: When The Informant! ends, you walk down the hall and see Whip It.
Step 3: When Whip It ends, you walk back down the hall and see 9.
Step 4: Profit.

And, of course, you bring your own food.

Quote of the Day

"When I get a little money I buy books; and if any is left I buy food and clothes." -- Erasmus of Rotterdam

This quote is far more accurate than it should be when applied to me.

So, I'm going to go order some books and tomorrow I'll buy some ramen noodles to make up for it.

Here's why choosing Rio was a mistake.

The Olympics get better ratings when the athletes are setting records.

Putting the Olympics in Rio and expecting things to go well athletically is kind of like taking your homework with you on Spring Break and expecting things to go well academically.

Another one of those eternal questions

Why must people make my life more complicated than it needs to be?

Here's an idea: how about handling your own business before getting into mine?

It seems to me that this would work better for everyone involved.

Come to think of it, if you handled your own business first you might not even have to bother me at all, and that would be swell.