hate to suggest it here

but what about Los Angeles?

Lakers in playoffs,
Dodgers and Angels (yes, I consider Anaheim part of the greater LA area) atop their respective divisions.

not so good for hockey (2 teams didnt' make playoffs), or football at all.

Chicago

I think the fact that the Cubs are doing well should be weighted greater than other MLB teams in other cities. Therefore, Chicago is decent sports town right now, even though the Bulls, Blackhawks, and Bears all suck. The White Sox are in first, too.

best sports town

if we were looking at the month of April, I'd have to say Detroit.

tigers are the surprise of the MLB (above .500, crushing the ball)
Pistons beat bucks (4-1) ready to face the Nets
Wings soon will skate by the Flames (2-2)
Lions have the best draft in the league (Roy williams and K. Jones)

No other town has it this good right now. But of course I'm biased.

Boston--Sox are up, Celtics embarrassing, Bruins downed, Pats with a good draft
SF--no way, SJ sharks are the only thing worth a damn right now, the A's are doing alright.
NYC--Yanks blow, Nets maybe, no Stanley for NYR or NYI, Giants waste picks on Eli????

I must be missing something
Seattle??? No. Chicago? No. Miami?? not really. Tampa? not really. Philly? not really

NEWS FLASH

RED SOX = BEST RECORD IN THE BIGS


is anybody going to Evolution this summer? Simey?

around the corner from Parham...

an officer pal occasionally sends reports from the cradle of civilization.
the subtle gallows humor slays me... here's one
__________________

Joe
Believe it or not, convoys from my Battalion that were just a few miles ahead of me were
ambushed. Some tires and seat cushions were KIA, but no people were injured. My guys and eye
had negative enemy contact. Back safe and sound in Germany now!
John
----- Original Message -----
From: Joe Spagna
Date: Tuesday, April 6, 2004 7:25 pm
Subject: Drive Safely

> on the way home. Joe
>

Simey just committed my pet linguistic peeve

He meant "complement." A hitter to compliment Bonds? What would he say? "Dude, you are always on base when I'm at bat. You or nobody! Because you hit a *lot* of homers! And they're afraid to pitch to you, so you walk a lot! And the rest of this team sucks. You look like you take steroids, but I don't think you'd do that, because you're my hero! Your dad was from Riverside, which is a kickass place-- Spagna is from there!"

I'm sure Bonds would just tell him to f*ck off anyway. It would be a waste of money to get someone to compliment him.

he's doing

better than most of the Giants and definitely Perez

Well

Aurilia ain't doing jackshit for the Mariners, that's for sure.

it's amazing

how shitty the Giants got in just one season.
They got rid of all their heart with Aurilia and Santiago and their pitching staff is average at best.

that is just like Parham

he claims he is off in the field collecting working hard etc., when in actuality he is watching baseball.

What weird hair? No hands or feet?

the picture

did you also notice that Jumbos has no hands or feet.
True true.

We CAN talk about Jumbos' hair:

look closely, it looks like a mirror-image of the classic "Bob's Big Boy" hairstyle. compare to:
www.edelmangallery.com/ graham.htm
2nd image.
Bob's f*cking Big Boy!

I liked the picture too

but can we talk about Jumbos HAIR in the picture? it looks like a punctuation mark, or a toad tadpole.

JUMBOS is right about the thread, the picture

was funny, though. I liked how JUMBOS made the ball's trajectory red, so I wouldn't think y'all played on a badly lined field, or maybe that the ball was, "hot."

If I know the EFFL

Then everybody except for Jumbos, Quilmes, and Chiefs is prob completely bored by this line of posts.

If I remember right

I was always playing sweeper, center-mid, and striker. I would hold the defense together, run the midfield, and set up and score the goals. Quilmes would just assist me in running the midfield, and let me do the rest by myself. I understand if Quilmes has a hard time remembering me in any one position on the field, because how does one describe the "everywhere, all the time" position?

You're right.

When you were playing I didn't have to get on Jumbos to play defense. When you left ol Jummy's glaring lack of D crippled us. That's really how I hurt my knee.

Tiges vs. A's

T May 18 10:05 pm
W May 19 10:05 pm
Th May 20 3:35 pm

I'm gonna go to one or two of these games, if anyone else is up for one or two let me know.

Scan it in?

What century you living in? That is pure Photoshop, nothing else.

haaaaaaahaaaaaa

Nice work on taking the time to draw that weak ass diagram and then scanning it in. I had a rebuttal but your extraordinary efforts on this mock discussion have left me speechless and left me feeling like you deserve to win this one.

The Ricochet Goal

Dude, I think there was actually a Ricochet Goal that you scored, but in my memory the ball hit off of Carrasco's face and went into the net, and Carrasco happened to be standing so far away from the goal that if the ball had missed his face it would have gone out for a throw in on the right sideline. In other words, hitting Carrasco's face saved your face, cause otherwise that would have been a terribly embarrassing shot. Especially since I was open in front of the net. See diagram below:

whatt??????

come on dude, just cause I have a bad memory doesn't mean you can just make shit up. I only remember one goal that you scored with your head and that was more like your face and it was more like one of my shots that ricochet off you. That's why your nose is so crooked now, remember?

Duuuuuude.

Remember that semifinal game in my last outdoor IM men's season when I scored two goals both with my head, and we lost 2-3? Did you score any goals that game? Oh. And it should have been 3 goals, but the referee was at midfield when I scored and ball went over the line but the keeper pulled it out and the referee had an obstructed view. Bullshit lazy IM refs. It should have been 3-3 with a Herbeck hat-trick.

I don't think you're taller

It doesn't make sense, if you're taller how come I always outrebound you and win all of those head ball challenges? Maybe you just look taller because of your delicate frame. Perplexing.

And FYI my hair looks really good today.

I'm going Beckham 2002.

Did you hear Maradona's dying.

One advantage

One advantage to being as short as Quilmes is, relative to Jumbos, is that Quilmes doesn't have to worry about the wind messing up his hair. Of course, with that hairdo, maybe a little windblown effect would probably help.

But if you

weigh under a buck fifty make sure you put soup cans in your pockets as a windy day precaution, right Jumbos.

40 times

These days anyone who is anyone can run a sub 4.5" 40. Even Quilmes can do it, and everyone knows what kind of molasses he's usually chugging through.

40 times

I think it has to do with training, equipment, and the one you didn't mention was the track surfaces

hitting

There hitting was horrendous last year.
With Pudge, Guillen, Rondell White hitting so well, everyone else has just managed to step up. How long it lasts, I'm not sure. There pitching has been decent to below average, so they need to keep the hitting up.
But Rondell hit a three run walk off dinger. That guy has really played clutch as well.

40-time-deflation???

A tangential-to-the-draft question I've wondered about for awhile:

what's with all the sub 4.4 40 times I read about w/respect to college & pro footballers?

When I was a lad playing ball (early '90s), I recall that 4.5 was NFL-quality speed for basically any skill position.
Now to run a 4.52 in the combine (even if you're a 230# back, eg Echemandu from Cal) drops you 2-3 rounds in the draft. I've read alot about 4.3's and the occasional 4.2. I also had a computer game for my Mac Plus that had the 40 time of every NFL player in 1989. A few 4.4's, lot's of 4.5's, nothing lower.

It is difficult to believe this-- for comparison, the 100m dash world record has not dropped 7% in the last 15 years-- from 1991 to 2002 (closest comparable changes) it's gone from 9.86 to 9.78 (less than 1%).

possible explanations:

A). I am imagining this, no such trend in reporting exists.
B). The trend reflects real improvement-- better training, better drugs, better athletes playing football, or NOT playing baseball/track/hockey and playing fb instead, etc.
C). 40-time inflation (deflation, really) , by coaches, trainers, reporters, or what-have-you. I know coaches do this stuff, it's not like stats, it's relatively easy to tell a reporter "my guy ran a 4.3 with helmet and pads on" whether any such thing happened or not. However, you'd think accuracy would be the goal at draft combine-type-situations.

I know lifting weights makes people run faster. But 7% faster in 10 years, while getting bigger? Essentially all college and pro football players were weight-training year-round in 1990, while I would not guess that was true in 1980. I would actually expect times to be flattening out, while athletes got larger.

What do other people think? Besides that this is another too-long RTA-post.
RTA

nice call Quilmes

or was it Quilmes? anyway, interesting NFL draft. I watched some of it this morning, mostly to see what happened with Eli. he did manage to get what he wanted, thus bucking the pimp system.

but back to baseball, here is my question: what is the key to the Tigers total turn around from last season? acquisition of Pudge?

The Draft = pimping

since we've recently mentioned prostitution and the NFL draft, I will conflate the two issues:

The draft equals legalized pimping.
the teams "own the right" to deal with certain players, who may then not negotiate with potential buyers without their pimp (team that picks them) allowing them to do so. Only the very highest-value individuals (Elway, Brian Bosworth - remember him? Maybe Eli Manning) have enough leverage to buck the system, the rest have their choices are severely restricted, and their market-value thus decreased. Thus Eli Manning is a classy call-girl in this metaphor... ha ha!

At least pimps provide nominal protection to their "ladies."

effl?

No one has mentioned a thing about the draft that starts in less than 11 hrs.

Lions pick Sean Taylor, Roy Williams, Winslow, or Jackson????

Not sure, Quilmes. That's a good question. What's your gut feeling?

I'm glad you asked Quilmes, I think they will pick Roy Williams and address the RB sitch through other means. Artoise Pinner and Bryson will have better years with recoveries from injuries and a better OLine.

I agree Quilmes, but Taylor is a very tempting athlete if available at #6. Don't you think?

Yes, but with the Lions off season acquisitions they should be fine at DB and S.

Well, all I can say is that it's gonna be an interesting one.

You're right about that.

Tigers

are killing the Indians,

13 batters in the 6th inning and 11 runs, 7 batters walked. Incredible.
Pudge Rodriguez is a monster of a player. One of the most clutch batters I've seen.

that's a good way to put it

the guy could have put a non-sexist spin on it like RTA's points (which I did think were interesting and I'm not slamming him), but he chose not to.

also, he may be sexist, but he's a damn smart capitalist. how many guys read that article and thought "why didn't I think of that? charging money to provide choice women to wealthy men..." okay, now it just sounds like prostitution which did not occur to me at all until I was typing that. ugh.

Yeah

I just was surprised that the guy was so open with his objectivation of women that in an article in the NYT he was willing to admit proudly that he didn't marry his wife cause she was smart or nice, but because she keeps her butt tight for him. I know that the total package is great, and that wanting to marry a hot woman is fine and normal and something I want to do, too...but I know that I would never be bold enough to admit to the entire world that I like the fact that my wife keeps her butt tight for me. A friend of mine who also read the article said that the boldness of the guy quoted just is a sign that our society is just becoming more and more comfortable with our shallowness. I agree. It's not sexist to like hot women, but it is certainly shallow to admit as much in a national publication, as strange as that sounds.

interesting article

I did think the guy was sexist. treating woment like objects = sexism (in my book). but, clearly there are women who don't mind being treated that way. that's their choice.

Josh's article

that was interesting. I don't find it "sexist" at all, though the quoted guy's standards are more body-oriented than most of us would admit to in mixed company while sober. In simplest terms the guys are paying their 3-5 grand to have someone else filter out the socially/physically/racially/educationally undesirable for mating purposes, a process normally done via the inefficient, one-on-one method of dating, or simply socializing. Faulting them for spending money to do that more efficiently is just sour grapes, sort of a sad attempt at social/financial levelling of the playing field. But the field's not level to start with-- wealthy males have a huge advantage matingwise-- so, I say let 'em have their hot-wife-gettin' club, it's not hurting anybody.

john maynard smith

passed away

Funny Quote

"I didn't marry my wife because she was a kind, sensitive woman," he said. "I married her because she is a complete package. I married her because she takes her butt to the gym, and she keeps it tight for me. I want it all, and I got it all. There are men who want the same."

from this article.

Jukka is a guy? Oops.

He certainly looks feminine in that picture. I think he should change his name to Jukko, just to avoid confusion.

thanks

thanks for the congrats. That pic of Jukka is hilarious. He looks a little serious but he's actually a very funny guy.

I hope the glaciers in back of him are not what Helsinki looks like.

I'm gonna have to get NFL Pass over there.

Greg's New Advisor

She looks very, very serious. Greg better not fuck around while he is in Helsinki.
Little know fact: Helsinki is also known as "the Honolulu of Scandinavia."

congratulations Greg

that is great news.

postdoc

I got the same thing that Parham has now. An NSF Minority Postdoc Fellowship.
I'm gonna spend 2 yrs in Finland (Jukka Jernvall) and 1 yr in New York (John Hunter).

It's weird I was just talking to Parham about this postdoc last night.

blog is wierd

it presents my 2 previous posts in the reverse order that I posted them.

details!!

on greg's post doc (not a job)

I was appreciative of your joke

just pointing out a possible flaw in the logic

I think it's not considered feminist

to want to get pregnant, no matter if men are excluded from the process.

I found that article to be bizarrely non-scientific in some ways. for example, I have never seen parthenogenesis referred to as "virgin birth" in the scientific literature.

funny stuff, funny stuff

Sure

The depth of the rotation could explain it. I haven't looked into that far. Hmmmm...

corey dillon!

traded to New England

sox pitching

Lowe had an uncharacteristic bad day yesterday. Arroyo had what is apparently a characteristic bad day today (I watched some this morning before I had to work). so RTA may be 1/2 right. I think the yankers rethought their strategy at the plate. as a team they haven't been hitting much, or scoring.

Other explanations?

JH,
If the pattern you id'd is real (notwithstanding the latest series) don't you think there could be a better explanation than that the Sox got satisfied with a win or two, then cruised-- like maybe, the Yankees had a deeper starting rotation, but the Sox had Pedro?

I know that the top of the rotation doesn't always start a series, but it's easier to tweak the rotation at the beginning of a series (eg skip a fifth starter or something), since they often come after an off/travel day. You could look it up, statistically, but I'm not going to. Just a thought...
RTA

Spoke too soon

Red Sox beat Yanks 5-4 today! Yeah! Take the series 3-1. A-Rod went 1-17 in the series.

It seems to me

that, whenever the Red Sox play the Yankees during the regular season, the Sox take the first couple of games of the series by good margins, Boston gets all feeling good and satisfied, then they drop the next couple of games, and the series ends up tied or going to the Yanks. This happened all the time last year, and it seems to be happening this weekend. (As I write this the Yanks lead 4-1 in the 4th game and will likely tie the series at 2 apiece.) This sucks. I think the Sox come out hard in the first couple of games, win them, then think "Well, at least we got a couple of games off the Yankees!" and then sit back the rest of games. Ridiculous.

Red Sox - Yankees

are on tonight (5pm pacific time) on Fox. I'm outta here.

2nd smallest park

PNC Park home of the Pittsburgh Pirates. I was surprised by this since the park was only recently built (opened in 2001). I assumed it would be one of the older parks.

Trivia

"Fenway's capacity of 36,298 seats is smaller than Wrigley's 39,558 — Wrigley is the third-smallest park in the majors — and only Fenway is older."

Question: What is the 2nd smallest park?

probably

I hope so. as much as I dislike him being president, I wouldn't want him shot while throwing out the first pitch at a game. it might put me off baseball.

Is he wearing a flak jacket under that sweatshirt?

darko melo

If the pistons had melo I'd say they are a sure thing for the eastern conference and had a hell of a chance of beating the West. But no, the draft mistake named Darko will haunt them forever.

with melo playing the way he is, it's starting to look like Detroit's draft choice is nearly equivalent to Bowie instead of Jordan.

Argghh.

tidbit from Scott Ostler

on Bonds' Splash Hits: "Of the 38 home runs hit into the Cove, Bonds has hit 29. In four-plus seasons at this venue, only seven guys besides Bonds have hit a ball out of the ballpark."

Ostler's column

you can't get out of it that easily

I'm holding you personally responsible for the lack of a Bonds homer. I scoff at your silly 'facts'.

I'm in

As long as I get shortstop.

parham

you should have attended today's game too. the G's lost and Bonds hit no home run. clearly your presence at the first two games was important to the outcome of the game.

What's with That One Guy

who caught BOTH 660 and 661? He's a f*cking trip, I saw him on the news...
1.) He's evidently a really fast and accurate, and really lucky, paddler in McC Cove
2.) He wears an Ahnold mask/and fake-muscle tee on and off throughout the games/press conferences
3.) His act amuses me, pisses me off, and earns my admiration all at once.

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2004/04/14/sports1601EDT0290.DTL

lucky freak.

recommendation

Ray Ratto's column today

sorry mm

ahem

my initials are MM, not JH.

My Bad

apologies to JH. Did they rebuild that ridiculous "A" with the halo around it that you could see from the freeway, too?

I can look up the name of the Expos stadium in PR but I lack news on what's happening in my old back yard.

What's the name of Candlestick gonna be now that 3COM is no longer a going concern?

No, it is Angel Stadium again

look it up, dude.

Angel Stadium of Anaheim

Angel Stadium?

that hasn't been called that, or "the big A" since like 1996 when Disney remodeled it.

It's Edison Field, cuz.

Which sounds fairly respectable, as a name, but it's still corporate.

Man,

I guess it does no good to complain about it anymore.

It's either have the public pay for the whole thing or have a stupid ass name on all the stadiums. But I'd be damned surprised if Yankee Stadium or Fenway changed.

parks

Angel Stadium of Anaheim
The Ballpark in Arlington

surprising to me that neither of those has a corporate name

Camden is Yards, not Yard. so I suppose when someone hits a homer there, he goes yards, not merely yard.

No Quilmes

It is now US Cellular Park. Just flows off the tongue. Sounds marvelous.

Comiskey

white sox still play there right, the new Comiskey.

Nice work Spagna!

I knew I could count on some more stadium names.

Do the Expos count as Major League? For how long?

'cause they have 2 home fields without corporate names:
Olympic Stadium,
and Estadio Hiram Bithorn, named after the first Puertoriqueno MLB player (Hiram Bithorn).

Jacobs Field

Kauffman Stadium (Royals).

one more I remembered

The Skydome

Can anyone name the

parks that don't have corporate names?

Off the top of my head all I can think of are:

Fenway Park

Yankee Stadium

Wrigley Field (although I'm not sure that really counts...I think it was named in honor of Wrigley, but I guess it could have been named because Wrigley built it with his gum money, I don't know.)

The Metrodome (that is almost worse than a sponser name!)

Camden Yard (or is Camden Yards?)

Shea Stadium (Who was Shea?)

the place where the KC Royals play, I bet

Dodger Stadium (is that still Dodger Stadium?)

could be worse

the Padres play in Petco park. pet food & supplies.

sbc park

man I hate that.

Pac bell park was also corporate but it sounded better

if you're advisor is reading this, s/he is a loser.

I'm sure my advisor is cool enough to have his own blogger to talk shit about me.

if The Man were reading this board

I think the UC police would have already nabbed you for your St. Paddy's day exploits.

I agree with JH

more death and arrest with my coffee

Parham

I totally agree with you about the use of the word "job" in academic circles. I just ranted because I needed to rant.

I wish I could have seen Bonds hit 660. I love that park. And I think you should tell the EFFL MB more details about your risk of death and arrest.

A cool thing about Texas

is the beer is Midwest-cheap, at least it was in 1997, when I was there last... pitchers in the $5-$6 range. And when it's 95F and 95% humidity out, I find even Lone Star is a refreshing brew. I preferred Shiner Bock, another Texas specialty, myself. Looks brown, tastes yellow, costs almost nothing.

Another cool thing about Texas is all the clothes and signs that say "Don't Mess With Texas." Sounds menacing, but it really started as an anti-litter campaign in the '80s.

Oh yeah, and Robert Earl Keen, and the Bush Twins.
!Viva Tejas!
RTA

Freudian F*** up

I like how F***x got shortened to F*** in its 2nd iteration.
****'s work their magic, again.

My PI's are getting a pretty good deal out of this discussion. And you won't hear any different from me, not on this board, which is visible to anyone who can type the URL into a browser...

Fe**x

was the outside member on my qualifying exams (he left before I finished and Ros*e G*llesp*e stepped in and read my diss - I have nothing negative to say about her). anyway, F*** told me once that when he was struggling with all the responsibilites of a new faculty member while also trying to be productive in terms of research, his dept. chair told him that he should be an author on all his students' papers no matter the contribution he made (to build up that section of the ol' CV). we had other moderately depressing discussions about academia (he also told me that as a grad student my time wasn't worth anything). I can picture him being just the sort of nightmare "co-author"/reviewer you describe. I'm glad he wasn't around to read my thesis.

To be precise

that post refers to:

my PI in Woods Hole, J*n Wernegr**n, and my first advisor, Fe***x Sperl**g, and NOT to my last advisor on paper, Ge**ge Roder**k, and my last advisor in reality, M***y Slat**n. Those last two guys were actually quite good draft reviewers and advisors.

my point? don't take my previous post to be overall damnation of process.

While we're at it

I would like to voice my displeasure at the process of writing a paper with an advisor or PI who insists on putting his/her name as last author. In my experience this is a complete bullshit process. I do all the work, all the analysis, and all the writing, and then I hand the draft over to the PI, who sits back and rips it apart in the most meaningless way. I can't even count how many times I've written a section one way, had the PI rearrange everything from sentence structure to paragraph placement, and then, after I've accepted the changes (which are entirely cosmetic and not substantial in any way), the PI, in editing the next draft, completely rearranges the section BACK to exactly how I had it in the first place (without acknowledging the fact that this has just happened). It is complete bullshit. The act of editing/reviewing a draft as last author is complete bullshit; in my experience it is just a complete ego thing that involves no real additon, creative or scientific, to the final process.

The distinction

between job and job job for a scientist appears to be just the tip of the iceberg as far as the insults we put up with in order to take a shot at a research career. Paltry pay leading to roommate troubles are another.

I suppose I can reject it on any grounds I want, but none of it is going away any time soon.

Congrats MM on your "appointment," it sounds pretty choice.

RTA

job money

JH -sorry about your roommate woes. the last couple of non-job jobs I've had, my main salary-related concern was whether I'd make enough so that I could live by myself. I've had bad (including nutso) roommates and good ones, and the good ones were not enough to overcome my general loathing of roommates caused by the bad ones.

just get out of there and get a cat.

Yeah, I understand. There is a difference.

job or no job

it's a beautiful day and I wish I was at the fricking Giants game.

difference between a job and a job

it's not meant to put down or otherwise belittle the hard work people (myself included) do in a variety of fairly thankless paying positions. it's just that when someone says "hey you got a job at UT!?" I feel compelled to qualify that it is a post doc, not a permanent position, whereas when I obtain a faculty position and someone says "hey you got a job at USomeplace?!" I would say "yeah!" (I predict). there is a difference.

I agree with Spagna

I have a job. Sure, it is "only" a postdoc, and it is "only" for two or three years, but it is a fucking job. I come in every day and work 9, 10+ hours, and I get a paycheck. I think that qualifies it as a job, despite the fact that my yearly paycheck is smaller than some of my college buddies' holiday bonus. Sure, some of my friends from college (not grad school) have jobs too, and their jobs allow them to buy real houses and accumulate retirement savings etc. etc., making my job seem paltry and embarrassing in comparison...but that is ONLY if one thinks job definition is predicated on salary size and (supposed) stability. If that's the case, then a lot of people don't have jobs. By that definition, only when Simey quits his postdoc and starts working for Lawton Associates will he have a job. That's not right. On a similar note, I read last week that Joe Torre signed a three year extension with the Evil Empire, at about $7 million a year. And THEN, after he "retires" from managing, the Evil Empire will pay him $500,000 to $600,000 a year to be a "consultant" for the Yankees. I almost puked when I read that. Not only is $500,000 a year absolutely impossible to even dream about as an academic, fucking Joe "I'm-only-a-good-manager-because-I-have-the-best-players-in-the-world-on-my-team-because-I-was-a-horrible-manager-for-20-years-prior-to-coming-to-the-Yankees" Torre will make $500,000 in retirement just to watch some ballgames on TV and say shit like, "Oh, I would have had him bunt right there." That is utter bullshit and makes me so fucking depressed to be sitting here staring at sequences right now. Maybe this whole diatribe is fueled by the fact that, because my current psycho roommate is so psycho he told me I have to ask his permission for me to have guests over to the house at any time for any reason, I have been looking at studios and 1 bedrooms all weekend and am really, really pissed that I'm already this old and have a PhD yet can't even fathom buying my own little shack-size house of my own so that I don't have to fucking deal with amazingly psycho roommates.

the "Job" thing

I understand it, but it still bothers me, as if all the g-d work i do is of lower value because it's done on grant or other soft money.

Would someone working for an accounting or investment banking firm, with no intention of staying there for more than 2 or 3 years before quitting for B-school or to open his or her own business or something, admit to not having a "job job?"

I have 2 jobs, doing research and doing educational outreach. I reject the proposition, even linguistically, that I'm 4 years from having a "job" because I most likely won't be in a faculty/PI position until then.

Austin

yeah, Parham is totally right on the "job" semantics. a post doc is a job but not a job job. it is frog phylogenetics, and I'll be working with Dave Cannatella and Dave Hillis.

I am pretty excited about the new position and Austin should be a fun place. I also am pretty relieved since if this hadn't come through, I'd be shopping around for large cardboard boxes to live in down by the marina or something.

Oops

I forgot about 3) spagna@nature.berkeley.edu. Parham, you don't count anymore because you have that @jgi.someshit.gov address. If you still used your socrates account I would have counted you.

I heard Austin is cool.

Yeah Lefty!

That's awesome. Now that Phil has won a major, I think 1859 can win the IM Softball Championship. Wait, is 1859 still a team?

Congratulations, Meredith, on the UT job? I hear Austin is great. But this continues the Berkeley EFFL member diaspora. The sad thing is the dwindling number of @anything.berkeley.edu addresses in our member list. It used to be over 80%. Now there will only be 1) Simey (soon to be "simey@lawtonassociates.com", and 2) Greg (soon to be "quilmes@stockholmgigolos.swe"). Sad state of affairs.

other A.M. thoughts

the red wings better not choke.

Phil Mickelson has a hot wife

I hate starting a new chapter.

hmmmm

thanks for the heads up on your mailbox, but I haven't seen you in the building in months. so leaving my $20 didn't seem like the quickest way to get you your cold hard cash.

Congrats Meredith. What job?

Man, how long can the Tiges keep it up?

Blog back up and running

Was it down for awhile? I must have missed that downtime.

simey

post your address so I can send you your $20 check for the NCAA tourney.

busy Parham

I'm just trying to get this straight. when you say "...am currently bogged down in scientific activities" it means you are occupied with optimizing your free-baseball viewing opportunities?

Is that Comcast?

I think I have that. What channels are the games on?
I can't allow you to be the only one to piss your days and nights away watching out-of-market ballgames.

quiet

Yeah, been trying to crank.
I would definitely go to a game. I wanted to go to the opener but couldn't make it.

The tiges are the best team in baseball, so I better soak it up while it lasts. They're 3-0, have scored 20 runs and only given up 6. The only bad news is Dimitri Young broke his fibula. Detroit sports is looking up for a brief second. The Wings didn't choke in their first game and Rasheed Wallace is playing well for the pistons. I hope Billups' ankle is okay. So far so good.
And for the Lions, I'm curious what will happen in the draft.

Parham, what do you think of the draft pick trade b/w NE and Det. I don't think it will happen, it's too far of a drop for us.

Red Sox

Win again. Johnny Damon finally gets some hits: 5-5 with some RBIs. Lowe cruises. Looks good for the Sox. World Series, here we come!

Simey's Prize Check

Is in the mail. Wait, what's Simey's address?

it is time

for Johnny D. to cut off his Jesus-hair. clearly it isn't working.

Red Sox win

Curt Schilling:
1-0
ERA 1.50
7 K

Keith Foulke:
1 Save

Johnny Damon:
0-9 for the season. Yeah!

bringing

foldy 2-ass-size-camping chair, hotdogs & buns, beer.
anything else we should have?

grady little moment

that is awesome. laughing hard here. poor grady little.

A "Grady Little Moment"

is what the ESPN dude called it, when they left the tired starter in to pitch to Bonds.

Ouch.

Bonds

I was watching the Giants game last night. Giants down 4-1 in the top of the 8th. A couple of little hits and then Bonds comes up. First game of the season; all the steroid controversy, 2 HRs from tying Mays. Little discussion on the mound by the Astros and Jimy Williams. "Should we walk him? Nah, it's only the first game of the season. What are the odds that he'll hit one out?" First pitch to Bonds: line drive HR to rightfield. Tie game. The dude is pretty incredible, steroids or not.

For one night

all is right in the world. The A's are in first, the Rangers are in last, and Georgia Tech is not a national champion in a revenue sport.

PS
We decided to go for the sleeved/legged A's "jammies" instead of the "onesie" since the RTA clan has already taken serious shit (twice) from WBS for underdressing in the shade of Mount Davis.

Red Sox baseball

I spent most of the winter trying not to obsess about the whole "evil empire" thing, especially after they got A-Rod. It seems unhealthy to be so fixated on them.

that said, last nights game seemed like they were picking up right where they left off last season. I know it's only april and it's just one game, and when I came in they were already down 3-1 (so I'm not bashing on Pedro here), but ugh. I think they can do great things this season especially with their pitching but they (the lot of them) didn't seem very juiced up last night.

Deluxe, deluxe, deeeeeeeee-luxe.

Billie Jean Is Not My Lover
She's Just A Girl Who Claims That I Am The One
But The Kid Is Not My Son
She Says I Am The One, But The Kid Is Not My Son

Pedro

Dude, the guy went 14-4 with a 2.22 ERA and 206 Ks last year, including 5 blown saves. So basically he went 19-4. So he has a mediocre spring training. And then he has a 3.00 ERA after the first game. Give him a break!

Fuck

I want to go to the A's game.

Also, for Parham and Meredith. I am sooooooo sick of the Boston reporters continually, endlessly, tearing Pedro apart. Pedro goes 6 innings and gives up 2 earned runs and he is ripped apart as being unfit and "he lost his stuff" etc. etc. in all the papers. That is bullshit. Nobody even mentions the fact that he left behind 3-1, and Timlin came in and promptly coughed up 3 runs. 2 unearned runs over 6 innings, no matter how many hits he gave up (7 I think) is not bad, and certainly not worth crucifying him for.

Gullible Canadians believing in Wildboys?

I missed that one. Can you tell me what that was about?

Yeah

Well, it wasn't my funniest joke ever, I will admit.

Parham

Joke, dude. In response to you telling me that you knew about Lawton Associates for like 2 years or so. Just a joke. Sorry, dude.

I saw that real estate co. too

I didn't know simey worked for them either and was trying to figure out what sort of friendly, supportive message to send to simey. I assumed they offered him beaucoup bucks, so I wasn't feeling completely sorry for him.

Parham

Dude, I've known that news tidbit for like, over three hours, dude.

Public Confession

I can only assume that Simey means me. Yup, I bought it hook, line, and sinker. But then, on my own, I realized that it was a joke. It took me about an hour. Actually, what did it was when I looked up Lawton Associates on the web and thought, "Wait a fucking minute, Simey is gonna work for a Real Estate company? No fucking way."

nibbler post?

is that the one you are looking for? it is down the page, for some reason indicating it was "posted" yesterday afternoon.

refresh the page

it doesn't take hours to publish. I always have to refresh the blog page to see my new posts.

Also saved

by Parham's vigilance. I admit this because it was the best, if only, April Fools joke I heard all day.

April Fools

That has got to be an April Fools joke.

I was going to offer

to spark up a j for you, but the last time I tried that I nearly set my hair on fire.

Parham, do you want me to come over to your apt

and do anything else for you? maybe get you a drink from the fridge while I'm up? click the URL for you so you don't have to exert yourself? just let me know.

my apologies

I'm all over the hyperlinking...

breaking scientific news

with possibly the best first sentence of an article I've seen in some time...

Arm Bone Came From Push-Up Creature
WASHINGTON - A 365-million-year-old arm bone fossil found in Pennsylvania came from one of the first creatures able to do push-ups, an evolutionary step that was necessary for animals to move from the sea to dry land.

'Push-up Creature' story

Dude

I dont' know what you're doing wrong, because I can copy and paste with no problems. But from now I will "hyperlink" the webpage, just for you.

Looking for Simey's opinion on the following:

http://sandiego.padres.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/sd/fan_forum/new_look.jsp