Tuesday, August 28, 2007

The Sickly Taste of Defeat

So... what do you do when you've bit, clawed and sratched your way out of a 3-run deficit once already, and are one run away from doing it for the second time in the game? Keep in mind that this is the division leader you're playing, and that you NEED this game in order to realistically stay in the division race (the wild card race having long since become an unattainable goal).

If you're Justin Morneau, you take 3 strikes with 2 outs and the tying runner on second...

...and thus giving Twins fans everywhere a chance to say for about the 5th time, "That loss killed our playoff chances".

Twins fans everywhere wept in despair...

We still love you, Justin, but that was harsh...

Sunday, August 26, 2007

Baseball, Underground Rap, and So Much More

Curse You, Twins...

Just when I'd succesfully written off the Twins for this season and started reaming of glorious 2008 - just think, a rotation of Santana, Liriano, Garza, Baker, and Silva/Bonser/Slowey/Perkins... *drool* - they start winning games and Cleveland and Detroit start playing like they were based out of Kansas City and Montreal Washington. I wasn't about to stop watching Twins' games (much to Lindsey's chagrin), but being a mere 5.5 games back has sparked a little more interest in each individual game than was present over the last few weeks. There's only one problem...

It's all pointless...

2006, the year that we improbably stormed back from being over 10 game sback at the all-star break to win the division on the last day of the season, actually proved that we don't have the team to do anything more than embarass ourselves even if we were to make the playoffs. We weren't necessarily a better team last year - our lineup, up until Castillo got traded, was very similar to its 2006 counter part - but we were a much luckier team. Nick Punto gets most of the heat; after all, it's only an occasional act of God that bumps his average above .200, but really, any team that features a DH tag team of Garrett Jones (5 for 39), Rondell White (.138), and Jason Tyner (1 career homerun... poor Jake Westbrook) is in for a tough time. No one can be too upset for at least starting the year hoping Punto would hit .290 again, but to have no one as a legitimate backup (along with having no DH to speak of) has doomed us to some of the most pathetic games I've seen (and, subsequently, pretty much doomed the 2007 season). Even if we were to get into the playoffs, we're not the type of team that could take on the Red Sox, Angels, or, as we recently saw, Mariners of the league.

I say, get all of this out of our system this season. Let the Watkins, Jones, and Buschers have their shot. After all, we may just find something interesting. When they show that they're not really major league material, though, we need to move on. The Timberwolves finally lost Garnett, having nearly completely wasted the talent of one of the best players in the NBA for over a decade, Morneau, Mauer, Santana, and Hunter (amongst a large number of others) deserve to be surrounded with players who can actually fight for a World Series, not just a weak stab at a playoff spot.






Things You Should Really Be Listening To

CDs I've picked up lately that merit at least a passing glance:

El-P - I'll Sleep When You're Dead
Being on somewhat of an underground rap kick lately, and having heard a lot of buzz about this guy, I picked up the CD. Great stuff. I love the production and the bleak, angry lyrics.

Download El-P - The league of Extraordinary Nobodies

mewithoutyou - Brother, Sister
This CD ended up on my Top 10 list from last year, but I hadn't listened to it in a while. It landed at number 10 at the time, but giving it several listens since, it would probly rank higher were the list compiled today. Nearly every song is engaging, and some of them are absolutely golden.

MF Doom - MM.. Food, Madvillian - Madilliany, Viktor Vaughn - Venomous Villian
Like I said... underground rap kick. Everything Daniel Dumile touches turns into awesome. Granted, it's a warped, weird, monster movie obsessed awesome, but it's still awesome. Any rapper that can toss in rhymes about King Koopa, Knishes, and still have time to drop a Bon Jovi reference is a winner in my book.





A Quick Note

If you're not a Blogspot member, and you want to post a comment, simply switch the radio button to 'other', at least that way you'll be able to supply a name other than 'Anonymous'. After all, I always love love knowing who's paying some manner of attention.




Then Again, "So Much More" Might Have Been Misleading...

fin

Friday, August 24, 2007

Slowly Moving In

Things to Notice

Using the combined power of blogspot and last.fm, I've added a couple of modules to the blog. On the left, you'll notice a short playlist. If you press play, you'll play songs that are currently in my 'hotlist' (a rotating list of 50 songs that I'm currently enjoying just a lilttle bit more than the rest). On the right, a list of the top 8 artists I've listened to over the past week. I used to go with songs, but I'm listening to more full albums now, so it makes more sense to do it by artists.

I've also added a short list of websites, which I'll obviously be adding to, deleting from, and pretty much changing and rearranging until I've got everything I really want on there.




The Jester Wins

For truth.




Back in the Real World...

Things are still hectic, what with everyone scambling to find new jobs while swearing up and down that they're not. The wedding is just over a month away, so things are pretty crazy with that. Moving in has sort of been put on hold in the meantime. In fact, I'm sitting here in my officem, which currently contains nothing but a dish chair, a desk, and a lot of packing boxes and styrofoam that didn't seem to fit anywhere else.

Ah well, such is life...




Last, but Never Least

Happy Birthday to my dad (as of yesterday).