• The Oil Spill
• The Economy
• Baseball in 2010
• Lebron James

I don’t like complaining about stuff unless I can offer a solution, so I’ll try and offer some lame solution to anything that merits one.

The Oil Spill

I feel like this has taken a backseat to a lot of stuff and it probably shouldn’t. Those people in New Orleans get crapped on more times than anyone I’ve ever seen. I bet after this is all cleaned up, people will still be clamoring for more drilling… really? What’s it going to take to stop? An oil spill covering Wall Street?

I bet if all the executives for Goldman-Sachs (who now occupy many of the spots in the US Treasury) lost their homes to flooding or they couldn’t work because a ball of crude oil exploded in their office they’d have a different attitude. God forbid they lose that million dollar pay check right? But it’s alright for a fisherman to lose his home. Pretty messed up way to run things.

Solution: To the top 1% – Stop being jerks, how much money do you really need? “Throw more money at it” is not a solution to anything.

The Economy

What a miserable time to be starting out in the workforce. I feel fortunate that I have a stable job and we didn’t have any layoffs when the economy (especially in California) seemed to be dictating it. I think that’s pretty rare in a company now-a-days. To my knowledge, we didn’t lose any benefits either.

The homeless population in Los Angeles has noticeably increased in the last 2 years I’ve been here. I can’t even walk 2 miles to the movie theater without passing 5-10 homeless people. The state is of no help, they’re laying people off in record numbers and raising taxes. We have the highest population of movie stars and musicians in the country here, so how about you tax guys like Will Farrell (no idea if he actually lives in LA) more and leave the little guy alone? The taxation structure in this country is so out of whack and protected by big-business, I’m not sure if it’ll ever get back to a stable point; especially not under the current structure.

Solution: I didn’t realize this until recently, but apparently in the 50s the tax rate on the wealthy was upwards of 90%. And that money was used to build roads, better schools, and better lives for a lot of people. Everyone was happy until corporate America took over and drastically reduced the tax rate on themselves to where it currently is (not sure what the number is). So the economy started into a gradual free-fall to where we are today: The rich have and want more money than they could ever need and the poor are poorer than they have ever been. The top 1% in this country have more money than the bottom 95% combined. The gap between the rich and poor will continue to grow until something big changes. Maybe raise that tax rate again? I dunno.

Baseball in 2010

I love it, the pitchers are back. I’m just hoping that everything is on the level and they’re not using some designer drug to gain an edge. The good hitters are still hitting and the good pitchers are insane. I’ve never really seen anything like it, I bet this is what it was like before they lowered the mound.

Also, I think Bud Selig should do something positive for the game or step down. Honestly, the guy is basically spineless.

Solution: Stop molding the playoff around the Fox TV schedule, if they want to televise the games they should adhere to the schedule, not the other way around.

Stop making the all-star game mean something, these players may only work March to October but they still deserve a few days off. How do we reward the best of the best? We make them work really hard over their vacation. I’d be pissed if I was reward for my work by having to come in on my day off and it wasn’t laid-back/relaxing.

Baseball needs a salary cap, screw the union, let them go on strike. Salaries are out of control. Make the cost of everyone go down. Heck, put a cap on the cost of a soda and a novelty bat. It’s ridiculous what’s happening out there… and once again: how much money do these people really need? I think a cap of $100MIL a year for a team is more than reasonable. And it’ll only effect 8 teams (including my Red Sox).

Lebron James

This is exactly what the country has turned in to. Everyone taking their person goals as #1 and reaching them at all costs. That being said, Cleveland is miserable so I can’t fault him for leaving, I would have done the same thing, no one wants to live in the same place their whole lives. I think Miami was a lame, cop-out choice, but whatever.

If I was Lebron, I think I would have went to Orlando, a good team but not a guaranteed championship, I mean… you have to complete a little, right? There has to be some challenge or you get bored really fast.

It’s unfortunate that Cleveland is a borderline slum at this point, and without Lebron they’ll probably dip to the levels of Detroit. But we learn at a very young age: Don’t put all your eggs in one basket.

Security guard in the mornings

This guy is great, I see him maybe once a week. I come into work around 7am and every morning he’s working he looks at me and proclaims “Hey man! What’s up?”. And I respond with a “Nothing man, how’s it goin’?”. This the extent of my interactions with this gentleman, and it’s a great way to start the day.

Cleaning lady at work

I see the cleaning lady every morning and every morning she says “good morning” with a smile and a broken-English accent. This lady is very nice and seems pretty genuine in her “good mornings”. Every once in a while she’ll kick me out of my cube to vacuum. I haven’t used the trash can or recycle bin in my cube in 2 years because I don’t want her to have an extra trash to worry about; I just use the main one near the break station.

I may get her a Christmas present.

Guy with the long arms

There’s a guy I pass at work on my way from (never to) the bathroom. He has really long arms. I’m talking like he can put his hands on his knees without bending over. Anyway, this guy’s pretty great.

Crazy wheelchair lady

This is a homeless lady who lives on my street. It’s a sad story, don’t get me wrong and I wish her the best. The wheelchair isn’t because she can’t walk or anything, it’s acting more like a shopping cart as it just carries her things and she pushes it around. Every once in a while when I’m out around 6am I see her getting a morning workout in by boxing the air. It’s hard not to smile.

Van guy

The van guy has been living in a van outside of my work on and off for 2 years now. I think he brings character to the area. Most people don’t like him because he goes to the bathroom in a bucket and leaves it on the sidewalk (but really, where else can he put it?). I’m pretty sure he’d knife me if I tried to talk to him.

Initially I was slated to speak for about 60mins to 50 or so people and I had the presentation all laid out (for the most part), it was going to be a fairly casual thing and I was hoping to engage in more of a conversation with the audience as it’s more of a classroom setting. And I felt pretty good about that until they moved the talk into a larger room to accomodate the popularity.

First off, I think that’s awesome, and I’m totally pumped to try and educate more people about HTML 5 and the direction of the Web. But it caused me to trash my entire presentation and rebuild it for a larger audience. Which is fine, I don’t have a problem with that at all; it just adds to the intensity a little now that it’s 18 days away and I’m still building what I hope will be a great talk.

I always get nervous before speaking, so it’s nothing new to get butterflies – especially speaking to a good size crowd at a conference. But I think it’s pretty awesome talking to someone who is taking notes about what you’re saying. It can be a little intimidating, but I like it. I’m usually nervous until about 30 seconds into a speech/talk and then I’m fine. I actually kinda like public speaking and that intense nervous feeling when you crack the first awkward joke wondering if anyone’s going to laugh. Let me tell you, if you get that laugh early, the rest of the talk will be easy as pie. If you don’t… you’re in for a wild ride.

Don’t get me wrong I love a late inning walk-off home run just as much as the next guy, but I’d rather see a perfect game or a 20 strike out performance. Maybe that’s because I was never a great hitter.

But I digress…

Every year I do my research and fill out my All-Star ballot. I don’t vote for the most popular player, I don’t vote 25 times online; I vote once and I vote well. The guys on my ballot may not be well known, but you’re damn sure they deserve the vote.

Without further delay… my 2010 All-Star ballot:

American League

• 1B – Miguel Cabrera (DET)
• 2B – Robinson Cano (NYY)
• SS – Alex Gonzalez (TOR)
• 3B – Adrian Beltre (BOS)
• C – John Buck (TOR)
• DH – Vladamir Guerrero (TEX)
• OF – Jose Bautista (TOR)
• OF – Alex Rios (CWS)
• OF – Josh Hamilton (TEX)

The AL was actually pretty easy other than OF. Brett Gardner and Ichiro were both right there in the mix, but in the end I think these 3 guys are pretty deserving.

National League

• 1B – Joey Votto (CIN)
• 2B – Martin Prado (ATL)
• SS – Hanley Ramirez (FLA)
• 3B – Scott Rolen (CIN)
• C – Miguel Olivo (COL)
• DH – Albert Pujols (STL)
• OF – Colby Rasmus (STL)
• OF – Andre Ethier (LAD)
• OF – Matt Holliday (STL)

1B in the NL was killing me. Pujols and Votto are honestly right there together and a guy who’s hanging around for me is Daniel Murphy of the Mets with 80 RBIs. Ultimately I went with Votto with basically a coin flip; Albert is equally deserving this year (and probably get it) – I put him at DH.

Anyway, I saw this version of Let it Be that Kris Allen did on American Idol not too long ago and I’ve been way into it ever since. I just think it’s very well done.

View it on YouTube

Posted on OkayTim

Alright, well… I just got 3 wisdom teeth removed. I apparently don’t have a 4th one, so that’s good.

I feel fine, not loopy, no pain (yet). Hoping to be back working tomorrow, but time will tell.

Let’s see… what else… the doctor was cool, funny guy. He said I wouldn’t remember the name of his friend at Virginia Tech, so if a Hokie named “Paul” is reading this, your boy thinks you’re a cool dude.

They made me take out my earring, I think it’s in my pocket, I’m kinda on the fence about putting it back in since I have no plans to be that 40 year old guy with an earring, I might just leave it out.

I guess this post isn’t as entertaining as I had hoped.

Oh, and I saved the teeth…

It makes it very difficult to eat, talk, and basically move my jaw much at all. Fortunately I know what the problem is, unfortunately I’m well aware that it’s my wisdom teeth.

I haven’t gotten them removed yet for a few reasons:

• Last time I was at the dentist, he said that they weren’t impacted so I didn’t really need to get them out unless they were bothering me. And to be fair, they really don’t bother me all that much, just for a week every 6 months or so
• I have since avoided the dentist as to not get a contradictory opinion on the matter
• There are very few things I hate more than missing work due to an illness. When I left my last job, I think I had around 180 hrs of unused sick time, and here at USC I’ve maxed out my sick days at 12. I just don’t like taking sick days, it’s not like I work construction, if I have a laptop and can sit up under my own power, there’s a good chance I can work through it.

Spending the last 3 or 4 days popping ibuprofen, barely talking, and icing the right side of my head (frozen water, not covering my head in cake frosting) has made me think that I might very well need to get, at least 1 or 2 of these teeth removed.

At least I’ll be a few ounces lighter afterwards.

If I do decide to get them out I plan to blog about it shortly after, depending on the medication they give me, I think it could be a pretty entertaining post. So look forward to that.

Also, I finally got a haircut yesterday, that’s the picture at the top.

posted at OkayTim

He was a great player while he was in Boston and on the fast track to the hall of fame, but got cut down by injuries and was never quite the same after leaving the Red Sox in 2004.

He was one of my all time favorite players and there’s been a gaping hole at shortstop in Boston ever since his departure. In the 6 years since then they’ve been through: Orlando Cabrera, Edgar Rentaria, Pokey Reese, Alex Gonzalez, Julio Lugo, Nick Green, Jed Lowrie and (currently) Marco Scutaro.

Since Scutaro is on a 2 year contract, we probably have at least 3 more years of watching the middle infield search for that mid-season chemistry.

Hall of Fame?

Is Nomar a Hall of Famer? My gut reaction is no because of all the injuries, but let’s look at the stats anyway…

Let’s compare that to a couple Hall of Fame Shortstops:

Phil Rizzuto

Robin Yount

Nomar Garciaparra was the unanimous 1997 American League Rookie of the Year, finished second in MVP voting in 1998, and won batting titles in 1999 and 2000. The finest all-around shortstop in the American League in the mid-1990s and early 2000s

The Baseball Page

Nomar also ranks in the top 20 all time for shortstops according to The Baseball Page.

I’m not saying whether he should be in the Hall of Fame 5 years from now or not, but looking at the stats, comparing them to the other SS who have been inducted, coupling that with 2 batting titles, a ROY and 6 all star selections, it’s easy to make the case for him as he was a dominant force in the middle infield while he was in his prime.

As long as the “steroid era” stigma passes over Nomar’s stats, I wouldn’t be surprised to see him in Cooperstown some day.

I realize this is a strange message to get since this is just a normal blog post and there’s a very good chance you’re reading this in an RSS reader, but I’m trying something new here by having a comment form on my 404 error page.

If by some chance you’re actually on this page because you’re genuinely looking for a something that isn’t found, I applaud you for browsing my blog and apologize for the broken link

Possible solutions

• Start back at the home page
• Try searching (the search box, not aimlessly wandering, that’s how we got in this situation)
• Accept that you’ll never find what you’re looking for and move on

Feedback

I’d love to know what you think of having a comment form on a 404 page like this so please, by all means, leave a comment.

Sincerely,
Tim, OkayTim Tour Guide

Roll over comments for most of the AL teams for my2Cents.

This off season, the Red Sox made a lot pretty big moves including: Adrian Beltre, Mike Cameron, and John Lackey.

So, I want to take a look at some of the bigger moves they made.

Mike Cameron & Jacoby Ellsbury

Mike Cameron is a 37 year old center fielder who has a history of solid defense. He must be pretty great since they decided to move Jacoby to left in order to make room in the outfield.

There’s been a lot of talk about how great an outfielder he is but little talk of the actual numbers. It’s true, he’s a very good center fielder, only making 4 errors in 147 games last year and averaging about 5 per year. Very good stats. But Jacoby’s no shlub making only 2 errors in 153 games last year.

I’m not sure where the Jacoby-hating is coming from, but the guy’s a really good center fielder, and he’s only 26, they don’t need to “save his legs”, the guy stole 70 bases last year. How ’bout saving the legs of the 37 year old? Maybe he could focus on raising that .250 AVG / .340 OBP.

I’d like to see Jacoby patrolling center field at some point in 2010, chances are he’ll be moving back there in a couple years anyway unless Ryan Westmoreland rockets up through the minors and takes over CF. Remember, they still have Josh Reddick who can play both right and left field and looks like a really good prospect. With a little more development I can easily see him starting in 2012 after Cameron’s contract is up.

Final word on this: OK with the Cameron pick up, against moving Ellsbury

Adrian Beltre / Mike Lowell

I don’t like this move at all. I get what they were planning to do: trade Lowell to Texas for Max Ramirez and sign Beltre to fill the hole at third or move Youkils to third and sign Adrian Gonzalez. Disagreement with that move aside, when it doesn’t work out, why would you still go get Beltre? You have a good 3B in Mike Lowell.

Some are syaing that Lowell’s range is worse now because of his hip but how much range do you need at third anyway? It’s more about reaction time. If they hung onto Lowell as the starting third basement for a few month in the season they could have tried to pick up someone like Prince Fielder or Adrian Gonzalez (if Lowell / Ortiz were struggling), move Youklis to third and platoon Lowell / Ortiz at DH. I dunno, I think Mike Lowell has earn the benefit of the doubt. They weren’t hard up for a 3B and now they just created an awkward situation.

Final word on this: Could not be more against it. Mike Lowell has been an all around solid ball player in Boston he never causes any trouble and it’s a shame to see the front office push him out like this. I’ve never liked Beltre, and no one ever seems to bring up that year before he signed his huge contract and hit 48HRs, an obvious steroid season (yea, I said it).

Marco Scutaro / Jed Lowrie

I get this move. I’d rather see Jed out there, but he gets hurt too much and just doesn’t look like he’s working out. It’s a shame, because he has a lot of potential. I hope he gets healthy, strong and another shot to start, even if it’s not in Boston.

On to Marco. Solid SS, about 10 errors last year in 145 games (played 2 games at 2B). He had a good offensive year, but it’s more the exception than the rule. He hasn’t been a strong hitter in the past with a .262 AVG and around 7HRs a year. This is another 2 year deal, so even if it doesn’t work out it’ll give the guys in the minors (Jose Iglesias) some time to develop and hopefully close that revolving door that is SS in Boston come 2012.

Final word on this: I’m OK with this one, it’s a pretty small contract and we’ll hopefully get a full season out of a SS this year. But this is obviously a temporary fix; there are a few SS coming up through the system that look promising.

John Lackey

This was awful. Now they have a 6 man rotation and someone is going to get left out. It looks like they’re hoping to have 1 pitcher injured at all times so this problem “takes care of itself”. Why do I hate this move?

Young starting pitchers in the Red Sox system:

• Clay Buchhloz
• Michael Bowden
• Junichi Tazawa
• Casey Kelly
• Charlie Zink
• Stomly Pimentel

Maybe all those guys won’t make it up, but 3 have already pitched in Boston and have torn through AAA. Are we just going to trade them all away? I don’t know. I like the homegrown talent in Boston and I hope we stick with it and don’t just buy players to keep them away from the Yankees.

Final thoughts on this: It looks more and more like they signed Lackey so they don’t have to re-sign Beckett next year or in anticipation for a Tim Wakefield retirement (not sure why they signed him to a 2 year deal if that was the case). I’m not a big Lackey fan, he does eat innings (and pie) but what good is an innings-eater when he’s not winning games, and you have a killer bullpen?

Overall reaction

Overall I’m not completely thrilled with the moves that the Red Sox made this off season, I understand them, but don’t totally agree. I like Cameron and Scutaro and I strongly dislike Lackey and Beltre (not as people, I just don’t think they add much more than a higher payroll to the team). I like the Hermida pick up as well. I’d actually be fine with him and Reddick platooning in LF all year if the Sox never picked up Cameron.

I would have much rather see the 5 man rotation we had last year with Bowden / Tazawa filling where applicable and developing more as starters so if Beckett leaves, one of them could slide in as a #5 starter, then the other when Wakefield’s contract is up in 2012.

One last thing since this is getting long and I want to see what everyone else thinks. Why would anyone want Kevin Youkilis at any other position than first base? He’s a gold glove caliber player, leave him alone. He’s a great ballplayer and I look forward to many years of him in a Boston uniform.

Posted on OkayTim.

Here’s a short list of things that I think are worse than a punch in the face. In no particular order:

• Ice chips in milk because the fridge is too cold
• Lettuce on a day old sandwich
• Red light cameras
• Inaccurate DVR stopping during a fast forward
• People who stop in the middle of a busy sidewalk to look up
• Insurance of any kind

If someone told me I could get punched in the face and never have to deal with anything on the list again, I’d take it in a heartbeat.

I’m sure I’ll think of some more…

I have a lot of traveling in the coming months, lots of flying around and I just wanted to stop by and list out me stuff I’ll be doing so when I don’t reply to e-mail no one gets mad.

1. Nov. 26-Nov. 30 – Mrytle Beach, SC
2. Dec. 8 – Dec. 12 – New Orleans , LA
3. Dec. 24 – Dec. 30 – Myrtle Beach, SC
4. Dec. 30 – Jan. 4 – Boston, MA

I’ll leave you with a quote:

To me, it’s a good idea to always carry two sacks of something when you walk around. That way, if anybody says, Hey, can you give me a hand? You can say, Sorry, got these sacks. — Jack Handy

I was reading this article on Yahoo! today. I don’t know about everyone else but when I see an article title like “10 Most blah blah blah” I’m really just interested in seeing a list of 10 things, not a paragraph with the 10 things buried in there somewhere for me to search out. It seems to make sense to me…

It creates a much better using experience to be able to glance at an article and get the gist of it. Then having the ability to read further.

With all that said, Yahoo! failed on this one, so here’s the top 10 list of states in trouble:

1. California
2. Arizona
3. Rhode Island
4. Michigan
5. Nevada
6. Oregon
7. Florida
8. New Jersey
9. Illinois
10. Wisconsin

Easy to scan right? If you want to read more, you can check it out on Yahoo!.

view on youtube