Pickabar Blog

Have you ever looked at the Astor Place Cube and wondered “Hey, that would make a great Rubik’s Cube”? Okay, probably not. This not so little prank is cool anyway.

I may need to hang out with these guys…I’m feeling inspired. Oh wait, I still have to finish my review.

Wow, I was that close to feeling motivated.

Sloppy play resulted in Aaron Heilman taking an L in his debut, but he pitched pretty well. Let’s hope he becomes a quality major league starter and not just the lone member of generation 2K3.

That kid Dontrelle Willis is for real BTW, he pitched out of a jam in the seventh (or eigth) that might have had even veteran starters looking into the dugout for help.

I was actually planning to stay in tonight and watch Aaron Heilman’s debut. Well, it’s the bottom of the 5th, 4-0 Marlins, and the M-E-T-S Met’s have made 4/12 errors. Our pitching phenom has thrown 2 (well, 1 1/2) wild pitches.

I’m going to see Eek.

Ok, I admit it, I’m just using this “Quick Links” category to save links for after work. I could just save the shortcuts, but where’s the fun in that?

Tonight’s likely time waster? Chris Sells posts about The Baconizer, an app that uses Amazon’s Web Services to display the links between purchasers of any two items that Amazon sells.

Rant Warning: Turn Back!

So, after a month or so of London-like weather, it’s in the mid-nineties today in NYC. I’ll come right out and say it, I can’t stand the friggin summer. I hate sweating, and humidity makes me just plain nasty. I do, however, like the summer fashions wink, wink.

There’s no quicker way to get yelled at by the special lady in your life than getting caught admiring the female form too intently. I can understand to a point, but I really can’t imagine getting mad at my sweetie for innocent looks. If someone of the opposite sex is in good shape and wearing revealing clothes, how exactly is a warm-blooded post-pubescent not supposed to be interested in taking a gander? Let’s be realistic, a guy looking at a girl in a halter top walking down Broadway on a hot day has no thoughts what-so-ever that they are somehow going to wind up meeting or dating the person. They just find them attractive.

I have a beautiful girlfriend who is a wonderful, supporting person. I’m completely satisfied and not looking for anyone else. But I do look .

(I’ll let you know if I sleep on the couch tonight)

While I’m on the subject, Gothamist has a post today on street harrassment that I don’t agree with at all. As is all too common, they (and the militants they link to) lump anyone who says anything to a women on the street into the same bucket. I can totally understand that no one, female or male for that matter, should be verbally abused on the street or should have their personal space invaded. That said, I don’t think you can equate someone saying “Hey, Gorgeous” to someone they think is attractive with someone saying “Hey *((&(, damn you look hot”. Doing so tars decent guys who might actually hope to meet someone in what might be considered a naive or inelegant manner with the same brush as someone who is being brutishly aggressive because of their own issues.

Of course, some will counter that anyone trying to meet people by saying “Hey, Baby” on the street is wasting their time. I’d agree, if I hadn’t seen much cruder statements succeed many a time. In fact, I’ve seen the story enough times that I’m not even flabbergasted anymore:

1. Boy shouts something rude at a girl.
2. Girl stops to yell at boy for his rude statement.
3. Boy strikes up conversation with the Girl.
4. Boy walks away with Girl’s number.

I know what you’re thinking. Those girls must have been hood rats or something. To be honest, in most cases they were. However, I’ve seen even friends of mine who I consider intelligent thoughtful people become interested in guys who could charitably be described as neanderthals. Generally these guys were young guys in great shape (and often wearing wife beaters…hey, wait a minute). Again, I’m not nearly as surprised now-a-days.

Even Blossom (my one and only reader) likes the roughnecks!

Admittedly, I’m not the type of guy to yell at a passerby on the street. I can’t even imagine doing it. When I was single, I was the type of guy who introduced himself politely, asked a girl about her interests and tried to find common ground. To be honest, it worked a lot less often than the “Hey, Baby” method. Then again I wasn’t chiseled and wearing a wife beater.

One of my high school friends was notorious for saying rude sexual things to groups of girls he’d just met. I’ve seen him get slapped, get cursed at, and even almost get beaten up by another friend who didn’t appreciate the topics of conversation he chose. But I’ve also seen him meet beautiful, really cool girls. Several of them turned into long term relationships.

Often I’d spend a chunk of a night talking to a girl I’d just met only to have him stroll up, say something rude, and wind up taking the girl home. I don’t understand it, and I’m not going to do it, but it’s unrealistic to think he’d change the behavior that was so sucessful for him. It’s also unrealistic to categorize him as anti-women.

Definitely check out the Street Harassment Project(the aforementioned militants) site, for gems like:

Great inclusive statement, I’m thinking of making a donation. Or here’s another illuminating line from their belief statement:

We realize that some women do not consider to be harassment what we consider to be harassment. While we recognize every woman’s right to define for herself what she considers “harassment,” we are cognizant of the fact that all women are continually being intimidated into “playing along to get along,” as well as being constantly pressured to prove–even to ourselves–that we are “attractive.” We do not forget that this is a game in which men set the terms and women are punished if we do not comply.

Great, so only women are pressed into the pressure of the appearances game. A game in which men set the rules. Now, I’ve never been a woman, so I can’t understand their struggle. But the idea that men aren’t judged by appearances, or that men are the ones who are solely responsible for our society’s superficialness must have been written by someone who has never been a chubby guy with acne.

Personally, I subscribe to another credo:

1. Generalizations are only generally helpful.
2. People should be able to do anything they like, as long as they don’t interfere with other people’s right to do what they want
3. Inclusiveness is almost always better than exclusiveness.

I may have to start my own “.org”.

Jeez, the heat must be effecting me… no more rants, lists or run on sentences for today! Probably.

I just joined Friendster, a kind of networking community. No, not networking in the Cisco will eat your lunch sense, networking in the “here’s my business card” sense.

I could argue that I did it to try and learn more about social software, and the new behavior patterns that arise due to new technology. But this isn’t a Groove blog, so I won’t bother lying. I just want to see if I can once again use the internet to improve my sorry social life.

I actually met a previous girlfriend on AOL. It was really cool, she’d checked out my old band’s web site, and was interested the first time we bumped into each other in a chatroom. Yes, I used to chat on AOL. More than likely, you did too. If not, I’m sure you posted prodigiously to at least one newsgroup or Message Board. No? You must have used IRC then? Ok, maybe I’m just a dork.

Let’s not have a repeat of my High School years! Do me a favor and join my network of friends. Make me feel good. I have the feeling that I may be the only member of friendster who is really looking for friends and not dates, so I don’t want to wind up “playing the wall as it were”.

Ok, no more posts earlier than 10:00.

 

Lisa, Jane, this link is for you:

http://www.dogthebountyhunter.com/

I don’t even know what to say…we just gave the game away. At this point, you almost have to trade Benitez. Even if it means eating some of his contract. As long as we’re counting on him in the close games, you have to think that a one run lead is really a two run deficit. That’s not the way a championship team thinks.

I may have to get one of those Trade Benitez shirts.

At least we’ll finally get to see pitching phenom Aaron Heilman. I say finally as if I keep an eye on the farm, but I never have. Even when I read Baseball Weekly, I skip the minor league reports. I actually heard about Heilman from a Yankee fan.

Speaking (yet again) of Yankee fans, I’ve found a new hobby….YankeeFanBaiting! Next time you’re talking to a friend who is a Yankee fan, tell him or her “it’s all a conspiracy“. Note: This only works with actual baseball fans, you’ll have to find something else to do for the bandwagon jumpers on your Christmas card list.

 

I’m finally getting Sarah to read some comics. She took Neil Gaiman’s“Sandman: Season Of Mists” on the subway to the game yesterday. It’s a really thought provoking story and more than I think she expected from a graphic novel. To give you the cliff’s notes: Lucifer decides to quit his job as boss of hell. On his way out, he makes the observation that he’s never made anyone do anything. More than that, he tells Morpheus (Sandman) that we mortals torture ourselves out of our own sense of guilt. Definitely worth a read if your idea of comics is strictly limited to the last few Marvel inspiredactionflix.

Yesterday was our first game for a while, and we were excited from the moment we woke up. It just happened to be the second game of Subway Series 2k3 and the first day of summer. So of course it was nasty and rainy all day. The game was slated to start at 1:20, but they didn’t pull the tarp off until around an hour later. By that time, the decision had been made to start Jeremy Griffiths in place of Glavine, which led to some scattered boos when Griffiths was announced. It was Griffiths’ first major league start, but the Shea faithful seemed more interested in the weather forecast implied by the switch from #47 to #46…more rain was coming.

Griffiths got off to a bad start, surrendering two runs in the first. The seemingly Yankee leaning crowd (shiver) started several mind numbingly stupid bandwagon chants. The Shea faithful, quality human being and New Yorkers all, responded in kind…unfortunately, they spent their time chanting “Yankees Suck” rather than the more Metcentric “Let’s Go Met’s”. Their hearts were in the right place though.

A few Met’s fielding miscues followed (no need to dwell on them, since technically they never happened), including another throwing mistake by Jeremy Burnitz had the blue and orange portion of the crowd worrying. However, Burnitz made up for his mental mistake by physically popping a Mussina pitch over the center field wall. By the third inning, we’d pulled to within a run at 4-3 Yankees, and we had two on with nobody out as The One stepped to the plate. The game was then called on account of rain…and I would have joined the more conspiracy minded in questioning the timing if I hadn’t been freezing and soaked. Next time I’m just going to buy one of those ponchos…

They’re going to make it up with another split stadium double-header, which is kind of cool I guess. I’m still bummed out though…it was starting to look like a game for the ages. There has been a lot of grumbling about lost luster when it comes to the Interleague Rivalries, and maybe there’s some truth to the grumbles that six games a year is overkill. In NYC though, the rivalry is alive and well and will be for the foreseeable future. Even on a rainy day in June, with our team in last place and trying to begin rebuilding, every single pitch felt like it meant something.

By the way, I almost got into a fight waiting on the bathroom line. No surprise, drunk Yankee fans tried cutting the line, and then played dumb when I stopped them. Then again, perhaps they weren’t acting…I don’t hate all Yankee fans. There are tons of people who love the storied history of the premier sports franchise in the world. Then there are the other 99.999% who couldn’t care less about baseball, and who were no doubt Bulls fans, and Cowboys fans, and Celtic fans as the bandwagon moved from team to team. When I was a kid, almost no one in NY rooted for the Yankees…especially not in the NL strongholds of Queens and Brooklyn. Seven years of dominance and Yankees logos have spread like SARS…in the words of “You Can’t Do That On Television“, that’s disgusting!