stuff from the weekend

I need to get back to the library for some new books but since my car has been in the body shop for a week now I haven't had the chance.  Went over to the girls' new apartment yesterday and setup their wireless network for them - finally got both of their computers hooked up and accessing the Intertubes from their wireless connection! Then I collapsed from exhaustion ... actually because I forgot to take my meds on time more than anything else ... but it worked out ok since their cable was up and running and I could watch the Giants.

I began working on an updated version of my old Flyboys on Film video this weekend using all new footage from movies that I didn't use in the first one. Once I started trying to edit the new stuff I realized how much work I had put into the first version. There was more of an attempted story line the first time through that I had completely forgotten about until I got into the editor.

Taking care of a request

My Scoresheet fantasy baseball team this year has a pretty good pitching staff including the bullpen for the first time I think in all of the years I have been playing fantasy ball. I may have just enough hitting to win a few more games this year than last. This is my rotation:

Tim Lincecum
John Danks
Derek Lowe
Jeremy Guthrie
Barry Zito

and my bullpen includes:
Mariano Rivera
Brian Wilson
Jose Valverde
Matt Lindstrom
(all of them are their team's closers)

My batting order is:
RF - Ichiro
2B - Mark Ellis
LF - Raul Ibanez
1B - Justin Morneau
DH - Brad Hawpe
3B - Pablo Sandoval
SS - Khalil Greene
CF - Aaron Rowand
C - Nick Hundley

There are 20 teams in the league which keeps the 'all star' factor out of the equation for the most part. My defense has a positive value for the first time I think since I have been playing.

Here are links to some of the pages showing stats and standings for our league - my team is the Boomstickers (team 11).

Hero Takes a Fall

I fall a lot around the house these days. It is one of the problems brought on by Parkinsons' that isn't covered under the DBS doesn't help. I don't get hurt when I fall because:

1. Years of falling during basketball and softball games have already prepared my body
2. Most of the time I am actually in a 'controlled' fall that I think is safer than trying to remain standing where I might hit something on the way down.

I am pointing this out only so that if you are around when I fall the best thing to do is just ignore it and keep on doing whatever you are doing. I promise to let everyone know if I am ever really hurt IMMEDIATELY! This is just another phase I have to deal with and there isn't much that anyone else can do about it.

One week left?

I haven't written anything about my upcoming leave of absence from work for a number of reasons - not the least being that until all of the paperwork is signed and in the insurance company's hands it won't begin next week at all (serenity now ... serenity now) and I am still waiting for the physician's form to be completed.

When everything does fall into place, which it all will eventually, I will begin a new phase of my life where I will have to find things I can do to keep myself occupied every day. This will be more difficult than it might appear at first - mainly because a lot of the things I like to do I can't do for very long anymore. That said, there are a lot of things that I can still accomplish that will just take a lot longer to do than before. Fortunately I was able to invest during the past year in a nice computer and suite of software that will enable me to continue making little videos now and then.

This coming week may be the last time I go to work at Applied - something I have been doing for the past 28 years. All of the things that I have had to do on a daily basis - good and bad - will be a memory. Mandatory training courses ... weekly reports ... bosses who don't have a clue what you do there ... project planning ... no project planning. Won't be missing any of these.

I've got a cat

This is our cat, Elvis.  He can be very annoying at times - kind of like this cat.  I think it is pretty funny that we have a cat at all.  I never thought of myself as a cat person but here we are after 14+ years with the King and he keeps going and going and going. Ask Lauri sometime about how we ended up with our first cat, Velcro.

Ah, good times ...

I've been busy

I have been catching up on everyone else's blogs recently so I haven't updated recently. Discovered "Shelfari" recently - that is the neat looking widget in the upper right column of this blog that displays books I am currently reading.

I also discovered a neat application on the Net last night called Playon which when run on my network at home will allow me to watch various internet videos on any of my televisions hooked up to an Xbox. The videos right now include anything on CBS, Hulu and most of YouTube. We watched an episode of 30 Rock and another of Father Knows Best last night. This is very similar to the Netflix - Xbox connection that we used to use when we could afford Netflix. The quality varies from site to site - You Tube is the worst and Hulu the best so far of the 7-8 channels available for free. The Playon software has a one time purchase price but I'll use the free trial for a couple of weeks to see if it is going to be worth the cost.

Giants took 2 of 3 from the D-Backs over the weekend. Great pitching from Timmy, the Big Unit and JSanchez. Still only 4-8 on the season though. Gotta get more hitting from Ishikawa and the Kung Fu Panda (Pablo Sandoval). Panda had three hits on Sunday so that's a start in the right direction.

I Love Baseball - even these guys!

What sports do I watch regularly these days? The question came up this past Sunday when my family was over celebrating my birthday. Lauri said that she considered herself a sports widow for the first 10 years or so we were married and I didn't think I had changed my viewing habits that much. However (upon further review) I know that I have changed quite a bit in three ways. I don't watch nearly any basketball these days since I don't play anymore.

I also don't watch much football since the 49ers went bad. I'm not the only one in this boat...

The third major change has been the fairly recent advent of DVR technology. The actual time spent watching games has been shortened considerably - I think I watch SJ Sharks hockey games in about 15 minutes now and some baseball games in 30 minutes.

The Giants are still my favorite sports team playing my favorite sport and I will watch every game I can. Bengie Molina just homered against LA to tie the score at 1-1. Life is good again.

PS-ugh, the Giants ended up losing that game to the hated Dodgers. Road trip was not kind to the boys in orange and black ... 0-6.

The library

Finally got back to the library on Monday and checked out some new stuff including:

The Living Dead - anthology of short stories about Zombies. Yeah, that's correct - zombies! You got a problem with that?
Highway to Hell - yet another memoir of life as a mercenary in Iraq.
Who Can Save Us Now - a collection of short stories about new superheroes.

Also found Lauri's book on the science fiction shelf - as seen here (sorry about the poor quality - I used my cellphone):

And I checked out "Seven Samurai" as well as "Hidden Fortress" on DVD. What is really cool to me is to watch Samurai after watching "Magnificent Seven" and being able to match up the characters with the actors who played them in the different versions. There are scenes that are nearly word for word in both versions as well as some theme music segments that sound very similar.

This is turning into a looong season.

Already, the Giants are not playing well. I am sitting here waiting for the tv guy to come and install a new DVR/receiver box to replace the two TIVO boxes we now have and the Giants are playing the Dodgers and Randy Johnson just gave up a 2-run single to Furcal to boost LA's lead to 4 - 1. This after San Diego swept SF to drop their record to 2-3 on the young season.

Well that stinks

Went to the library today and surprise - they were closed on Saturday for Easter. Rats! I wanted to get a bunch of books for the next week as I will be at home all week long. Also want to check out a couple of DVDs to watch - specifically "Seven Samurai" and "The Hidden Fortress" - two old Japanese movies mentioned as references by George Lucas for "Star Wars".

More book stuff

Finished up the "Making of Star Wars" book today. Amazing backstory to the beginning of the phenomenon. Didn't realize that Lucas was also responsible for Apocalypse Now and at one point actually had to choose which movie to make. I'm glad he decided on SW personally. Reading about the work that went on to set up ILM reminded me a little bit of my humble forays into the study of filmmaking around that time frame such as at De Anza College under Todd Flinchbaugh (who passed away in 1994) where I worked on a student film called "If At First You Don't Succeed" that was animated cutouts similar to the way they make "South Park". We had to make it on 16mm film (before video) and I never saw it again after the initial showing at a student film festival. I still have some of the artwork somewhere. I also worked on some preliminary production designs for a movie that I don't think ever got made. It had a script and a crew and we met off and on for around a year before I lost track of them. I still have artwork and a script from that one as well. Also took an animation class at Mission College from a guy named Sam Comstock, who worked at ILM on various projects.

I also finished the "At War With The Wind" book this week. Got to take all of the library books back next week. Located Lauri's book on the Santa Clara city library online catalog - is that cool or what? They have two copies listed with one on the Young Adult shelf. Check it out here. 

Uh-oh, that's not good

Top of the 5th inning. Randy Johnson just gave up a 3 run homer to the opposing pitcher! 4-1 Milwaukee. Giants won yesterday 10-6 behind homers from Bengie, Rowand and Winn.

Received birthday cards today as well as emails from family. Thanks for all of the notes and words of encouragement from everyone.

Top of 6th: Sitting here watching the Giants game with Lauri and both of us are typing away on our laptops. Lloyd Braun's brother Ryan just doubled. Side now retired - sweet.

Bottom of 6th - Freddie Lewis leading off. Dribbled a 20-hopper into right field right after they showed a shot of another little kid wearing eye black. Bengie smokes one down the third base line and Hall makes a great stop - throws out the slowest runner in the league. Big deal - I could throw him out. Sandoval strikes out lookin on a good curve ball. Ishikawa grounds out to 'Saul' Weeks (thanks for that one, Lauri) at 2nd to retire the side.

Top of 7th - might go SJ Giants game tomorrow night since we have tix (great catch by Freddie Lew in left to retire the side). The SJ Giants have Buster Posey, Connor Gillespe and a bunch of the good young pitchers so we might see some of them.

Bottom of 7th - Rowand leading off - pounds his second double of the game to deep right field. Little Richie Aurilia pinch hitting now. Grounded out to third. Winn 2-out rbi single to right. 4-2 Brewers. Renteria batting ... count is 1-2 and Winn steals second. Ball 3 in the dirt. Walked and that will bring in a left hander to face Lewis. 2-1 count ... wild pitch ... ball four and they're loaded up for Bengie.

UPDATE: there is no joy in Mudville cause Mighty Bengie has grounded out. Nothing more happens to change the outcome so the Giants drop the second game of the season 4-2. 

PS - Nick Anderhart, a rookie pitcher with the LA Angels died in a car crash hours after throwing 6 shutout innings at the A's. 

The game has begun

Yes - the Giants have started their regular season. I sneaked a peek and Tim Lincecum didn't make it out of the 4th inning against the Brewers but Rowand has just hit a homer to pull ahead. Lot's of baseball left to play.

I promised the link to the new Zombie video - here it is:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gq7OufztLk

Birthdays and baseball

Sooooooo, I turned 50 today and I'm still alive! Baseball opened up yesterday with only one game but I have pitcher Derrick Lowe on my Scoresheet team and he pitched great. Giants don't play until tomorrow and I can hardly wait.

Finished up another video last night with Lauri's help on voice-over work. I may put a link up soon here so stay tuned. WARNING - it will be a little gruesome since it is about zombies...

Books I'm reading now

Here's the short list of books I am reading or have read recently. Library cards are cool again...

Nonfiction

Big Boy Rules - mercenaries in Iraq

Stephen King - biography

The Star Wars Story - behind the scenes of the making ...

Planet Simpson - the story of the Simpsons

100 Baseball Places to Visit

Fiction

Without Warning - John Birmingham

Everthing's Eventual - short stories by Stephen King

And now, two items for my birthday...

First, the good one - the man chair. Gift from Lauri and it's a beaut! Shorter than normal recliner cause it is a game chair - see pic:

Now the second thing - someone sideswiped my car while it was in front of my house last night. Took the driver's side mirror clean off. The police caught the guy after he had hit a number of cars on our street.